Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
27 Sep 2024
Reply rate
66.7 %
Usually responds within 16 days
Feedback
23
Facebook verified
Email verified
Badges (3)
Find your perfect host
Details
Description
***
VERY TEMPORARY and NOW (MAY 2022):
I am hoping that I can take a quick 6-day work trip to Reading, PA. To do that, I need someone to take care of the house in Bethesda while I am gone, doing the basics of day to day, plus some additional tasks. That is what is necessary!
After I find that person, I would like to look for a second person – which would be both quite optional but also quite wonderful, to have a second person/couple to come travel with me to Reading, PA to share in some of those tasks.
NEED #1 – HOUSESITTER, CLEANER, GARDENER in Bethesda, MD (suburb north of DC)
• Start date possibilities: anytime between now and Tuesday May 10th
• End date possibilities: either Monday night, or Tuesday, May 17th
• Daily care of Albus, my house rabbit.
• Tending to the needs of the garden – watering, adjusting vines on trellis, edging, etc
• Cleaning the house – both day-to-day normal cleaning up after yourselves, but also a few additional spring-cleaning tasks and other cleaning tasks.
• Other misc. tasks of “housesitting”.
NEED #2 – TRAVELER, ORGANIZER OF PAPERS, and CLEANER – Driving to and from Reading, PA, TOGETHER
• (Leaving Wednesday, May 11, about noon, and returning Monday night, May 16. The days are full travel days because of the stops along the way.)
• TRAVEL Adventure on the way (and back) – I can stop at any number of places that interest you:
o Batting cage (softball and baseball) and driving range (golf) – a quick 20-30 minute stop potential, if interested.
o Farms, actual farms that I stop at and buy meat and raw milk from,
o Discount grocery stores weirdly deeply discounted, a kind of homeopathic echo of the outlet centers which Reading used to be renowned for,
o Art Of Recycle,
o The Cloisters of Ephrata,
o an ice cream store in a building in the shape of a large boot,
o A Railroad Museum,
o A general exploration of Amish country!
o And so much more!!There are about 4 or 5 routes that I might take to get to Reading – all of the above are not on one elegant route – we need to pick and choose the most important highlights to hit and then decide on the route. “Record” the items on the adventure in some kind of list or marked map for future guests to the area.
• HELP - the help itself is a huge cultural exchange! I am gathering and organizing all of my Father’s writings which will be sent to the Stark Center at the University of Texas – he is considered the most important sportswriter in the field of Bodybuilding and I am aiming for about 23 boxes to be sent their way. And I am gathering artifacts from my Latvian Mother’s life – for both the local US Latvian Heritage organization as well as the University of Latvia. We found a diary from her time at a young teen in the German Displaced person’s camp – a rare historical first-person find – which the University of Latvia now has and is translating for their collection. And there is basic gardening and cleaning and maintenance of the house.
• The FUN part of that area could be a trip to
o The GoggleWorks – an art gallery and more
o A walk around Antietam lake
o An exploration of the quaint town of West Reading
o A yoga class, meditation, lesson, or massage at a foundation & Yoga Ashram, which is less than 5 miles from my house.
o Attending an Urban Mennonite Church on Sunday morning (or any other church in town). The urban Mennonite church, in easy walking distance, is led by my next door neighbor and is very welcoming!!
o And if really lucky, a show at the Santander Center in the heart of Reading!!
I hope to find some kindred souls and like spirits who also happen to have these specific days available!
Warm Regards,
***
I am NOT looking for "childcare".
I am NOT looking for "eldercare".
I AM LOOKING FOR "MIDDLE-AGE CARE".
With "childcare" and "eldercare" you are tending to the most basic of the human needs.
With "middle-age care" you are doing that, but the most basic human need at that age group is for help to actualize the ideas, plans and strategies, for again engaging in meaningful work again out into this world, which we have dreamed about for our lifetime. It is a dynamic exchange of ideas, and actions to manifest these ideas.
We, the middle-age, are the “sandwich generation” which are often tasked with the requirements of taking care of both our young children and our aging parents, and often at the same time. I did this for years. I was the caretaker for all others. Yes, I am extremely proud of how I was able to give to my children and to my parents. But I was, also at time, exhausted, pounded and crushed by the requirements of this which were sometimes nearly impossible to manage.
Zen. Zen. Zen.
Now, I have come to a new time of Zen.
My children have been launched – I am “empty nest”, as my youngest is a sophomore in college.
My Mother passed recently and the estate work was just recently completed.
So, now it is just me. Here, in my home, I am recreating myself. I have enriched my home with many resources and now I will have the time to partake in them!
In this time of so many “re’s” – reevaluation, reformulation, reexamination, redefinition, reestablishing, refashioning, and RECREATING MYSELF – I would love some outside perspectives as I walk this new path, in this new phase of life, step-by-step. It is strange that this is strange to me: asking what I, myself, want. I am in the stage of life, when the main question is - what do I want for me. I have one last big hurrah – from 59 to 99 is just 40 more years of life for me – I want to make these years vibrant, connected and I want to be involved in some significant giving, and meaningful outreach to others as well. But this time, I get to be the one to select how and to whom I extend my outreach and services - I get to be the one to select the nature of my “meaningful work” that I will be doing in my next 40 years on this planet.
Step 1: DEEP CLEAN – AND CREATE CLEANING SYSTEMS
i. I have cleaned my house a million times – fast and furious at times – fast and incomplete other times – just a gesture to get rid of the worst when I have been stretched the most with other things.
ii. I have paid others to clean my house.
In both cases, the house has been cleaned with toxic cleaning solutions and toxic cleaning methods.
Certainly, I want someone to clean my house. But I also want to co-create a SYSTEM so that cleaning the house in the best way, while being the very LEAST TOXIC, is far easier to do. This entails, at least:
• Shopping list for the green ingredients and where to get each. E.g. baking soda, white vinegar, etc.
• Containers to mix, use and store. E.g. spray bottles, storage bottles.
• Strategies for Green cleaning. E.g. RECIPES for all cleaning tasks. What can be mixed ahead of time. What has to be mixed at the time that the task is done.
• Cleaning equipment (large and/or electric) and where to store. E.g. bucket, mop, electric vacuum (small and large)
• Cleaning equipment (small and/or non-electric) and where to store. E.g. sponges, rags, etc
• Time Schedule. Determine daily, bi-weekly, seasonal, and yearly tasks.
• Create a checklist for tasks. E.g. Map the house and put the various needs on calendar
• Then, obviously, ACTUALLY CLEAN THE HOUSE. Maybe we start with this!
All of these steps occur somewhat simultaneously. E.g. There is playing around with the recipes, figuring out that we need a new material, putting that material on the list, getting that material, seeing the results of its use on one part of the house…. Etc. Gradually the whole house gets clean and there are a few instructional sheets created to guide and record the future cleaning.
At one point, cleaning the house is easy and done with all clean and green materials!
And when I forget the details, or when a new person comes in to clean, I will have my “manual” to get me back to speed.
Step 2: DOWNSIZE – AND SORT FROM 3 GENERATIONS OF ACCUMULATION
First, step 1 and step 2 happen, together, like a dance, at the same time!
Downsize and clean.
Clean and downsize.
Go through three generations of stuff, putting in one of the 5 categories.
– save and use in current living spaces
– save in storage room
– give directly (family/friend/neighbor)
– donate to organization
– throw away.
Arrange and organize what remains in a beautiful and functional way.
Step 3: Organize Contacts
I have not sent Christmas cards since 1993, from before my first daughter was born. I have been running far too fast to settle in and organize for such a task! Now is the time for me to connect more with others. I would like help with making it easier for me to connect with others.
• Beyond the contact list on my phone – E.g. how do I easily have everyone’s contact information so that I can easily print their mailing address on envelopes – for Christmas cards and other letter writing. An acquaintance of mine said that she used an excel database. I would love someone who even knows what she is talking about – and can do that for me, too! : )
• Organize my social media. I use FB, but don’t use twitter or the other ones and don’t know how to start. I want to organize this, too. So I can use it, then take long breaks from it, and then have the details all written out, so that I can come back to it and can do it without having to remember anything – the step-by-step instructions are there in addition to passwords, etc.
• Help me to brainstorm how to organize the “important” numbers – like the insurance guy, the plumber, Apple care, etc, in a better way than the thousand sticky notes that I have right now. And then DO that organization!
Step 4: House Parties – MAKE THEM REGULAR AND EASY!! AND THEN HELP WITH DOING THEM!
Brainstorm the logistics of house parties!! I want to plan and organize enough so that regular house parties are easy and turnkey. E.g.
• “Friendsgiving” once a year 3 weeks before the real Thanksgiving, in early November.
• “Boxing Day and beyond” – a party not the day after Christmas, which is the traditional “Boxing Day”, but a couple of days after, OR as an alcohol-free New Year’s Eve party which might be called “Boxing Day into the Next Year!”
• Two art “painting parties” a year – one in the spring and one in the fall.
• Movie nights once a month.
• A variety of gatherings at the house for the variety of groups that I am currently in, such as WhitWorld, Huntington Village, etc.
Misc: Violin Lessons. I am interested in learning the violin. I am a rank beginner, I have not yet started, so I don't need someone with extraordinary skill - just someone who has played the violin before - perhaps even just in HS is fine!
Misc: Piano Lessons. I also do not play the piano. I am a 0.001 out of 10 on the piano. I have touched the piano before - I have not "touched" a violin before.
^^^
I am looking for one woman, or two women together, or a couple together - who is/are interested in anything from short term (a lot of cleaning can happen in just one week) to, potentially, a long-term room and board situation. I could be for more than a month - which is the longest time noted on Workaway - but potentially longer.
I have a nutrition consulting business (and two other PT jobs in the field of nutrition). And I want to develop some new ideas for new frameworks and paradigms for how people can age in place through intergenerational learning/helping/cooperation - how to share skills, resources and spare bedrooms. By prepping meals together and sharing meals together you will learn a lot about how to create healing foods for yourself and your family!
All of this points to a variety of different kinds of tasks which would be helpful! Creative brainstorming, writing/editing, internet/computer task, absolute tidy/cleaning/readying, creating websites/blogs/videos, and brainstorming super-healthful diets for all situations/diseases and how to communicate new versions of this through the websites, blogs, videos, presentations, handouts, etc.
I am looking for the following characteristics in the workawayer:
1. A deep, intense, and flexible interest in all versions of healing diets and healing lifestyles. A curiosity to learn more, organize what is learned and share it with others. I do NOT want someone who has already made up their minds that there is just ONE way to eat to build health. Strict vegetarians, vegans or anyone with an adherence to any other rigid dietary regimen will NOT work for this work situation. I am interested in the seekers, explorers, experimenters and the curious.
2. Extremely tidy!! I have to work very hard myself to create this, as this is not in my inherent nature, but I bring clients into my home office and it is crucial to maintain a professional appearance. Must be nearly compulsively tidy - or willing to make that a priority and move in that direction. Willing to both adhere to the house-rules-of-tidy-and-cleaning, and to contribute to forwarding and creating new and better house-rules-of-tidy-and-cleaning with me.
3. Great computer skills. I am 60 - so I have used computers for a long time AND they are NOT native to me. I do OK, but I also struggle. I am interested in someone who I can BOTH work side by side with to do some computer tasks, and to whom I can hand other things off to. I am interested in someone who can either initiate or work with me to create a new website in WIX. I am currently writing a blog about being “Empty Nest” and it would be nice to be able to put it out in the world in an actual blog! It would be OK to learn WIX together.
Ideally, I would also like someone who can use the various software in Adobe, such as InDesign. (I don't have these software skills at all, and I won't be learning them - too much for me.)
4. Home organization – both organization of material objects, and of information (with paper and computers) . I need to brainstorm with someone how to best arrange all aspects of my new unfolding life.
5. Tasks in the kitchen and shopping and gardening. It takes time to create - food for daily consumption, food to experiment with for optimizing diets for various diseases (such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, depression, anxiety, etc.), using leftover foods, using foods from the garden (both deliberately planted and weeds). And there is organizing and cleaning and labeling and writing about our developing kitchen/shopping/gardening task strategies, etc.
6. An interest in and love of people! "Connecting" is the essential of my new unfolding life – my new time of middle-age movements towards that which is life-affirming and self-actualizing. I want to brainstorm various things that we can do in life which are connecting. Such as new paradigms for how to age in place in a cooperative way between the generations, in addition to the movements towards connection which are inherent in all of the formalized 4 steps, above.
NOTES ON THE TASK:
I would like to just go through the clothes, things and paperwork, of three generations, together. I need to have a second set of eyes and a second set of ideas about how to organize things as I go through and cull.
Ideally you should be able to create graphical handouts (with charts and graphs) and compellingly formatted documents. I am hoping to be able to build on bettering and optimizing how people live together in this house. Creating visuals, and relying less on words, I am better able to open my home to people of other cultures – which is very enlarging – whose first language is something other than English.
This can occupy flexible hours so that you can be a tourist and so that I can also take care of my job requirements outside of the house.
___
My profession is that of a licensed nutritionist with a specialty in nutrition for cancer, and nutrition for metabolic issues such as diabetes, but I work with a wide variety of other diseases as well. Given that cancer runs in my family, I eat, at home, in a way to lower my cancer risk as much as possible. I have never had cancer. Someone who comes into my house needs to be comfortable with the unusual in the kitchen and be excited about making new kitchen discoveries! – both new cooking combinations and techniques, as well as new taste experiences! My main idiosyncrasy is that I don’t want to the worst of the packaged foods in the house. Please no donuts and coke. I am eager to learn from you, too! What cooking are you good at? I love learning about various ethnic cooking techniques.
My three daughters are grown, and now live out of the house.
I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC. I am a long walk or a quick bus ride to the metro.
I am a curious, excited, woman of many interests and passions. Professionally, I have been an actuarial analyst, a HS math teacher, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa, a certified massage therapist, the first female on a NJ beach patrol, a professional portrait photographer, a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown (Red show, 1981), a clerk in a clothing store, and a factory worker. I have been called a chameleon. I love new experiences, new people and new ideas.
I am now a Maryland licensed nutritionist with a nutritional consultation business, and a part time professor of nutrition, and I work in store which is a combination of a compounding pharmacy and a nutritional supplement store.
Personally, I swam competitively (from several state records as an age-grouper, to many open water swims as an adult), was a varsity fencer in college, and now noodle around with other athletic things to keep myself in shape a bit - Mostly just occasional jogging and yoga.
YOUR ACCOMODATIONS:
There are three bedrooms which use the hall bathroom. You will be in one bedroom. If there are two of you (if you come with a girlfriend or boyfriend), you can use one or two bedrooms, as you wish! And the two of you will share the hall bathroom.Types of help and learning opportunities
GardeningHelp around the houseGeneral MaintenanceHelp with Computers/ InternetCultural exchange and learning opportunities
Washington, DC has some of the richest cultural offerings. FREE world class museums! Beautiful trails for biking, running and walking. Etc!
Many meet-up connections and event offerings!
Every family is a new culture and connecting with other people always has value.Help
(See details above.)
Step 1: DEEP CLEAN – and create cleaning systems
Step 2: DOWNSIZE – and sort from 3 generations of accumulation, with me.
Step 3: ORGANIZE CONTACTS
Step 4: HOUSE PARTIES – make them regular and easy!! and then help with doing them!Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Accommodation
A pretty residential neighborhood, which is a short bus ride or a long walk to a Washington, DC metro stop.
There are three bedrooms which use the hall bathroom. You will be in one bedroom, and the other bedrooms will be empty, so you will have the hall bathroom to yourself. If there are two of you (if you come with a girlfriend or boyfriend), you can use one or two bedrooms, as you wish!
I work hard to have super healthy food in the house. I experiment all the time with my smoothies and cooking concoctions. My diet is a combination of Paleo, Weston A Price, Plant-based, gluten-free, GMO-free, and, dare I say, etc. Actually - mostly "Etc." I eat a lot of that.
My main idiosyncrasy is that I don't want the worst of processed foods brought into the house - sodas, pastries, most things from a box. I have lots of fun small kitchen appliances to play with such as a Vitamix, a stand mixer, a champion juicer, a food processor, dehydrator, crock pot, etc. I make my own kefir, kombucha and sauerkraut.
NO drugs, and alcohol responsibly (NO drinking parties in the house).
No single men. I can only consider a male Workawayer when part of a couple.What else ...
Ever since I have moved here, I have felt that Washington, DC is "the center of the universe" - my simple little universe, anyway! It has a huge number of attractions for tourists including free world-class museums and the metro is just a quick, bus ride or a long walk away. And depending on how long you are staying, even New York City is just a (long) bus ride away. There are also beautiful places to hike and bike.
By the way, our pet is a little rabbit, Albus, who hangs out in the family room. Very gentle. A bit skittish, so not a cuddly pet - more something to look at like a pretty little jewel. I am extremely allergic to cats and have had NO problems with Albus in the house, so I believe that it would be unlikely for most people to be allergic to him.A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
20 hours/week. Flexible time frame.
Feedback (14)
Photos
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.4)
Communication:
(5.0)
And, the basics were all there as well… Super clean! Super thoughtful!
We signed up to assist set up her birthday party she was celebrating the week we arrived. We were… read more
They enhanced my life in far more ways and to a much greater extent than I could have imagined. I always enjoyed their fascinating and open/intimate conversation. They were always… read more
Sharon has enriched and enhanced my home, the logistics of my life and me! And she did this with cheer and what quickly developed into a really nice friendship as well. She talks openly, with confidence and connection and we became friends.
I am extremely grateful that I got to know her, and I am extremely grateful for all of… read more
The time was a perfect balance to not only help around the house but ensure my own personal well-being. It was great to share my skills and… read more
First, they are friendly, at ease, flexible, and comfortable to be with. They have a delight with the world and a happiness to share it. There is a sweetness within their relationship which created a great deal of happiness when interacting… read more
I did some jobs like cooking and making a smudge stick, and made some forms on Microsoft… read more
I've spent with her almost 3 weeks and the time ran very fast...=( Mostly i worked on the web-site, we worked with her together, so i was never bored and it made lot of fun and useful experience! I learned a lot about nutrition, healthy food,… read more
We also enjoyed talking about nutrition and having the opportunity to discuss on different aspects of life, from children education, to political debates and philosophy.
Unfortunately, the time we had in DC during our… read more
Our work schedule was flexible allowing us time to see Bethesda and she had lots of good advice on how and where to visit in DC.
We had a lovely day out at an Artfair in Baltimore and got to know Amanda well - I hope I can say I now count… read more
Jana was hardworking and careful and thoughtful with excellent initiative and… read more