A Slow Start

I'm still convalescing but each day gets better.

I didn't have the energy to do much this week but a little bit here and there helps.

I haven't even been cooking and don't much feel like eating. There is a Chinese noodle house very near me so when I feel hungry I've been eating congee (rice soup) and the most wonderful fried rice with shrimp and BBQ pork. 

On Friday I went to the post office to pick up a parcel and ran into a friend who had come to check her mail. She lives rather far but retains a mail box in my neighbourhood from the days she used to live nearby. She took me out to dinner as she too wanted soup. So we had an unexpected and very nice catch up.  Another friend called with distressing news. He lost 3 toes to gangrene over the past several years and was calling to let me know his leg will now have to be amputated. He'd been hoping to avoid this but the doctor gave him a stern warning, that it was either his leg or his life.  We didn't get to chat very long because another friend of his happened to drop by to visit him but I encouraged him as best I could for what he is about to go through.

I've set a modest reading goal this year of only 25 books because I want to do other things.  This number will likely go up but I'll keep it low for awhile as it will help temper my reading habit a bit.  This autobiography by Barbra Streisand came available as an online loan so I checked it out.  The book is over 2300 pages long and I think it might be the longest book I've ever read.  At this point, I've only completed 20% of it.  If you are a fan of Barbra Streisand's movies or her music, I recommend this book because she tells her life story in great detail.

I found a series on Netflix called Wild Wild Country which was very interesting. It's about the Rajneeshpuram, a international religious community headed by it's guru, Rajneesh from India who later changed his name to Osho.  I recommend it if you are at all curious. The other film I watched was a documentary on Warren Buffet called Becoming Warren Buffet.  I really enjoyed learning more about him and his family. 

I've been trying to use up bathroom products now for some time as I've got far too much. We've managed to empty 8 containers of various sizes. Some of it can go into recycling and some will have to go in trash. 

I also decluttered some music books and song sheets (4 items). I'll be donating these.

In December, I did a major purge of Christmas decorations and managed to give away a bag of items (36 items in all) to two different friends.  I'm glad to have cut down on the decorations in storage.

I took down the Christmas tree and decorations on December 28th but was only able to retrieve the storage boxes from downstairs on January 5th. I've packed everything away and will take it back to storage in a day or two.

I wrote about my new air fryer/oven combo which was my gift to myself.

I haven't made too much in it yet but did put together this blueberry loaf on Saturday. I was going to make muffins but the muffin tin is too large for the small oven. It's okay because slices are just as nice.

Last but not least, I've thoroughly cleaned the master bathroom and washed all the towels stored there as well as the shower curtain and liner.  I usually put my efforts into the master bathroom. but it always feels good when I can get both bathrooms nice and sparkly clean.

It seems like I've done a lot but really I have been taking everything very slow and easy. I'm just glad to have gotten a few things done so the week doesn't seem like nothing got accomplished at the start of the new year.   It helps when you don't have to cook every day and have all the dishes to wash because those two chores take a lot of time in one's day.  I hope you all had a good start to your week and wish you a wonderful week ahead.

Scenes from the Month

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I thought I'd catch you up to my month of August in photo collages (click on a collage to enlarge it).

The weather has continued to be very hot during the month so I go out for errands and a walk just before dinner when it's cooler.

This first collage shows some street scenes a little farther east of where I usually go to shop. I wanted to stop for Vietnamese food nearby, then make my way to the local library.

These sky photos were taken on my way to check the postal box a few days ago. You can see the sky is cloudy which makes it more interesting than a clear, blue sky. Also, the clouds portended rain which we desperately need. The rains did at last arrive overnight Monday and continued into Tuesday.

I like to keep some kind of record of my decluttering project so I can look back on the progress I've made . This next collage shows a small selection of the items I've decluttered in August.

I meant to include this photo of the Fiddle Leaf Fig in my last post but got busy. The plant only had 2 half dead leaves on it (one of them is pictured in the photo on the left). I finally put it outside in the hot sun and watered it sparingly.  You can see how much it grew in the span of about 5 weeks. If we get any more hot, sunny days before the rainy season arrives, I'll put it outside again. I want to get it as healthy as possible before I bring it indoors for the dark and cold months.  This plant really needs sunshine or good light to survive and thrive.

These flowers are in public planters on the side of the street. They are 2 different varieties of Rose of Sharon, a type of Hibiscus. They always bring a smile to my face whenever I pass by them.

I've done a bit of reading but not a lot. One novel I enjoyed was Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly.

Dear hubby has gone for a short visit to Kenya with very little advance preparation. He has just a small window of time before he gets busy again so I suggested he go without me.  There is a lot to do here before winter and someone has to be here to deal with the remediation of the patio.

The special assessment for patio remediation was finally dealt with late last week. Work should begin soon but because of the late start, the scope of the work and also the fact that rainy season will arrive soon the work won't be completed by December's end.  I'm not exactly sure when the work will be completed ir how this will affect the patio garden in 2024, but I'm hopeful work will be done in time to plant something next spring.

Things continue to keep me busy but I've also been taking things more slowly than usual.  Since my discharge from hospital I want to be sure to heal well before pushing myself too hard. I think I'm now fully recovered but have been feeling tired these past few days.

My thoughts and prayers are focused on all those dealing with natural disasters and whose lives have been upended in Canada (due to wildfires), in USA (due to wildfires and hurricanes), and all around the world with so many different issues. May you and your loved ones stay safe and May God hold you in the palm of His mighty hand.

It Snowed, Again!

 Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are doing well.  It snowed again and has been quite cold since Thursday or so. We had a big dump of snow on Saturday night so I've kept indoors and worked away on decluttering.

I made excellent progress over the past few days and got to sort out a lot of smaller nooks and crannies.

All month long I've been participating in something called a daily declutter challenge.  The challenge is to let go of at least one item each day so the decluttering habit is formed and it doesn't take hours to accomplish.  I have a lot of small items to get rid of because I'm down to the fine-tuning of the major decluttering project I've been working on for awhile. In the fine-tuning stage, it takes me a lot longer to go through every area of clutter and make the decisions as to what to do with things. I tend to collect a lot of paper items and a lot of little things that don't seem to 'fit' into any category of items, a hodge podge, if you will.

I've been surprised to find so much junk in all the places that I decluttered. I suppose it's understandable since some of these small areas haven't seen the light of day for decades.  Literally.  Anyway the month will end in a few days and I'm trying to get as much done as possible. The below items are much of what I've offloaded since Friday.

I've been decluttering something every day this month but I've also been crocheting so I can have a break from the task.  Thursday night I ran out of yarn for the blanket I'm making and I'll need time to go to the craft store to buy at least one more ball to finish the project.

I haven't had time to delve into the books I picked up recently at the library or to finish listening to the audible Spare.

In March, I look forward to getting into these books and planning the community garden for this year.

What plans do you have for the coming month?

How I'm Dealing with Digital Clutter

I meant to post this last Friday but got busy.  It was another dry and beautiful, sunny day last Friday and I got busy with catching up to housework and I got carried away making this post more full some than I first meant to, all of which delayed the publishing.

I've been fearful for a few years now that my computer was going to give up the ghost.  Believe it or not my desktop is more than 12 years old!  My laptop (very slow to do anything) is a little bit newer but not much. Sometimes the desktop shuts itself down and other times it turns itself on. I've been told that it's because I usually only put the computer to sleep and don't shut it down completely each night.  I got into the habit of only putting the desktop to sleep because I started experiencing difficulties with starting it up again once it was turned off.  I was afraid that one day it just wouldn't turn on so I began putting it to sleep instead.  Anyway the computer issues have been going on for at least 5-6 years already.  Every now and then I'd copy files onto flash drives to save what I might really need in case the desktop died. I have countless photo and document files on the hard drive and a lot of unorganized files too. I was holding on to everything 'as is' until the visa process for my DH was completed. As of June 2022, that is all finished now when he received his PR card.  Since then I've also finally purchased a new computer. I decided to purchase a mini Mac computer at the suggestion of my brother who also has one and highly recommends it. I know they will be coming out with a new mini Mac 2 soon but I didn't want to wait until then to make the switch.

I need to put the computer files in better order before I plug in the new Mac and transfer files.  I'm terrible at keeping digital files organized as I create or use them but I hope to do better going forward.  I've gone through about 4 rounds of digital clutter clean up over the past year (computer drives, email, cell phones, deleting many online subscriptions, reducing the photos I take and the blogs I post until I get things the way I like).  Things are looking much better than they have in years.  In the latest digital declutter session I eliminated close to 5000 files and reorganized many more, most of which were photo files.  As I mentioned, I blog far less than the early years of blogging. It's because I've been trying to slow down the rate at which I create more digital clutter. Once I'm better organized I hope to take a more disciplined approach to dealing with photo files for blogging and/or other purposes and be more selective with other digital files.

So to answer the question implied in the title heading, I am deleting excess digital files and keeping only what is essential. This is a multi-step process and has to be done with a view to what is needed for blogging purposes and family purposes.  I guess I also need to plan for how these things should be deal with at End of Life (EOL). Most of us have digital footprints all over the world wide web and need to think about what we have and what we would like done with it when we go.  I try to keep my personal output (photos and other ID) to the minimum. Not just for EOL reasons but also for security reasons. (Click on infographics to enlarge. Please note I did not create these graphics myself but found them on the internet).

Decluttering is such a long and more complicated process than one thinks of at first blush. I never realized how many issues it would bring up as I started on the journey of serious decluttering. These few thoughts are specific to digital declutter but they could be extrapolated to clutter in general.

Some examples of significant issues that might arise for you include:

1) what do you get rid of and why? There are some things that obviously need to be saved: important documents, family papers, tax information, etc. but there are other items that perhaps are not so obvious. For example, patterns for various hobbies.  These days so many patterns you buy are only available in digital files and a lot of new things one wants to learn are also in digital files.

2) what do you keep and why? Some things we keep for legal reasons, work reasons, family and so on. It's good to consider what you no longer need to keep. In my case I can get rid of a lot of duplicates of  digital historical family documents and photos. I have so many bad photos or photos I will never use or even ever look at again so the 'delete' button has been and will continue to be, in regular use.

3) is there a way to declutter but still keep sentimental items? For example instead of keeping the item/s your loved ones have could you keep a photo of the item?  You may want to print it as a hard copy rather than have a simple digital photo. It really depends how best you would enjoy it.I first learned of this tip from one of the decluttering gurus. I think it was Peter Walsh, organizing guru from Australia. He is one organizer who really resonates with me and makes so much sense. He gets right to the heart of issues and simplifies things that seem difficult.

4) how much clutter should you leave at EOL for someone else to deal with? Have you identified someone who is also agreeable to deal with your belongings, including your digital footprint (Facebook, Google photos, blogs, Instagram, LinkedIn, websites, etc.) after you're gone?  Is there anything you need or want to get rid of before that time comes or is it okay for someone else to see everything? Do you have a place where your assigned person can access all your passwords and given thought to specific instructions you might have? For example, you may want to have your various profiles deleted or you may want them kept for your loved ones to look back on. The problem is that others may not know you have passed on if you leave everything 'as is'.

5) have you thought about why you may have so much stuff to deal with in the first place? For example, some of us were responsible for disposing of items belonging to loved ones.  It takes a lot of time to deal with it all and in the meantime you need to store it somewhere.  How much can you deal with if you yourself develop health issues or if you are elderly and no longer have energy and physical ability to deal with the 'stuff '. Even digital clutter takes energy to deal with though it has the benefit of not being physical heavy for you to go through and action.

6) do the things you own add to your joy as Marie Kondo, organizing expert would ask? do the things you own make your life more enjoyable or less enjoyable? In my case, without keeping on top of filing in a way I can go back and find things later, I find it takes away my enjoyment of digital files and is also time consuming, frustrating and anxiety producing. When I delete excess files and focus more on the things I want and can organize, I enjoy going through and looking at digital files much more.

A few resources you might like

These resource links  might be helpful to you both for general clutter and digital clutter.

Colleen Hammond, Business Consultant gives tips for learning to let go of things that have sentimental value. Is it clutter?   

Joshua Becker, minimalist guru offers some ideas about how to minimize sentimental things

Peter Walsh, organizing guru, has this to say about what your clutter says about you.

 The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning:  How to Free Yourself and Your Family From a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson 

Decluttering Memorabilia - How a Professional Organizer Guides a Client Through the Process

Dealing with digital clutter: What it is and 6 places to practise digital minimalism

Declutter Your Digital Life 

How to Execute  Digital Declutter Like a Boss: 8 Steps 

 

 

Conclusion

It feels good to get rid of clutter in general and that includes digital clutter. It frees up space and more space gives us a feeling of freedom from having disorganized possessions and freedom from the anxiety of not dealing with things in a better way. I'm on a journey and although the journey of decluttering never really ends, the tasks do shift and the amount of stuff we go through in any season of life also changes.  It just depends on how much we have to begin with, how much we accumulate along the way and how much we want to, or are able to declutter. For each of us it will be a  unique journey.

I'd love to hear where you are with your decluttering journey and whether you have included digital decluttering in the plan.

Thank you for stopping by and extra thanks to those who take time to comment and share their thoughts.

A Gentle Start to the Week

This was the view on Sunday evening as I headed out to do some late night grocery shopping and make a stop at a pharmacy a bit further afield. I was a bit tired since I have a cold so I got a late start.  I'm glad I did get out because I needed the air and the walk. It was a bit chilly and the first time I've needed to wrap a scarf around my neck.  It's been especially cold here over the past several days, especially at night.  The temperature is down to 3 or 4 degrees Celsius at night and around 7 during the day. By the end of the week it should go back up to around 12 Celsius.

 

 

When I'm tired, I certainly don't feel like making dinner so I'm always proud of myself when I manage to get dinner ready.  I usually try to keep my menu very simple.  On Sunday night I sliced up some potatoes, onions, yellow bell peppers and sirloin tip steak, seasoned with a bit of pepper and a few splashes of soy sauce,  put it all in the dutch oven and roasted it for about 45 minutes. I ate mine with a scoop of my favourite chili oil. Delicious.

 

 

 

 

On Sunday I was also able to declutter and recycle several large metal coffee cans and lots of plastic containers that fresh berries come in. I really wish they would package berries in paper containers like they used to. I guess because most of the berries are imported the juices would soak through the paper.  Sunday afternoon a woman came by to pick up a couple pair of shoes I gave away.

 

I also washed this small star quilt I gifted to my mom many years ago and which now belongs to me.  The dowel holding the quilt and the wall also needed a good cleaning from all the dust that accumulates.  All the walls need a good washing but that is a large job so I just do some cleaning here and there.  It's better to do a little at a time than to do nothing at all.  Another of the many jobs I have to do around my home is to remove the one wall sconce (I gave the other one to a friend) and put up two new ones that I purchased some time ago. The sconces I bought are black as that was the only colour available.  I'd prefer to have 2 white ones so I've been holding out until I can find them.  If I can find white ones, the black ones will be put up in my living room area and I will then get rid of the floor lamps.

 

 

When I went shopping last night I picked up some wild salmon on a really good sale. I marinated it overnight in honey garlic sauce and baked it for Monday's dinner along with roasted, caramelized cauliflower and steamed brown rice. 

 

I can see in my photos that the last two dinners look quite bland and colourless.  Usually I try to make them more colourful because one eats with the eyes first.  But they were delicious anyway and nothing was wasted. If I can get to the grocery store again before Thursday's sale ends, I will buy 2 more heads of cauliflower.  At $3.00 a head, it is a bargain.

 

In January 2019 I travelled to Paris with my nephew.  We had a great time and both of us would like to return some day, maybe during the Fall or Spring seasons.  This year I've read a number of books set in Paris.  The most recent one was written by Kate Betts, an American fashion journalist who began her career at Fairfield Publications European office in Paris.  I found the book very interesting because she met the top fashion designers of the day: Karl Lagerfeld, Yves St. Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Christian Louboutin, Thierry Mugler and others.  I am not a fashionista and I do not follow the fashion trends but I found it interesting to have a peek into the world of Parisian fashion through the eyes of an American expat.

Unfortunately, Canada's Covid numbers have been escalating since our Thanksgiving weekend a few weeks ago.  New and various restrictions are being brought in in various provinces including British Columbia where I live in an effort to contain the virus. I continue to keep as isolated as possible and wear my mask whenever I have to go out and do business.  Otherwise there is not a lot of excitement around here in day to day life. That is fine by me because it allows me to get the tedious jobs done.

If all goes well, I'm hoping to have different scenery and photos for you over the coming weeks and months. Just bare with me for a while longer. 

What about your dear reader? What is keeping you busy and occupied during these Covid times?

Until I read from you, please stay safe and take care.