Our basement…

Our home was built in 1832, moved across the street, and placed where our house is today.

Do we have a scary basement? Every old home has one. Ours is a post-and-beam home built with rocks as the foundation, posts & beams, and actual trees!

Only half of our basement is dug out to standing height. It has a cement floor necessary for an oil tank and furnace.

The other half of the basement is a crawl space with a dirt floor. There is a section to literally crawl through.

We put down tarps years ago and use the space for storage, mostly for the boys’ old Lego, Brio trains, Play Mobile, Lincoln logs, my preserved wedding dress, and other holiday decorations.

I’ve been saving the toys for when I have grandchildren someday.

Why am I talking about the basement? I was excited to go into the crawl space last week and dig out my fall and Halloween decorations, which have been packed up there since 2014.

I was there to organize it about four years ago and struggled to hoist my 40-pound heavier body up to the crawl space.

Then I had to inch myself in slowly since it was a tight fit. I had a more challenging time getting out after being hunched over and whacking my head numerous times.

It was not a fun project and I vowed that I would never try that trick again. Never came last week.

I got into the space easily and moved around the crawl space without hitting my head. Getting out was even easier.

When I was done I stared at the opening to the crawl space. I couldn’t believe I had so much trouble the last time I went in there.

I didn’t realize how much 40 pounds was on my tiny frame and why I felt like shit for 10 years. Wow!

Anyway, I got out all the decorations and smiled as I went through the tote boxes which kept the items clean and safe.

I was grateful that when I put them in there in 2013, I did it correctly. I did the same thing with the Christmas decorations, too! Yay me.

I displayed the fall decorations and am waiting until mid-September to put out the Halloween decorations.

I rarely go down to the basement since we moved our laundry to the main floor, which I love, by the way.

I went down there yesterday to get something and I looked again at the opening to crawl space. I still cannot believe how fucking big I was! Ugh.

After having strep throat at the end of April, I lost weight quickly by quitting drinking and clean eating not to be skinny; I did it to live an everyday life again with lung disease.

In August, I did better on my pulmonary function tests, and my pulmonologist said that I was stable and had improved. Oh yeah!

I feel like I’m in my 30s again, not that tired, old, hard to move around miserable person I was at the beginning of April.

I thank God numerous times a day and live in total gratitude that I got a second lease on life and I’m using every second of it. ☺️

Happy Friday!