Every year the crocuses push up from the ground. It is always a source of delight. 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Song of Solomon 2: 10-13 Join in with Skywatch Friday here. Thanks to Alan of Yogi's Den for agreeing to take over hosting duties for this wonderful meme! |
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Spring is Coming
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Solutions
Hi dear friends,
I hope you are all doing great! It is still cloudy and raining where I live but in a few days we are expecting sunshine for a few days. Last weekend the weather report was also for sunshine for two days and though it did stop raining it didn't really shine all that much. I hope they are right this time!
I continue to nurse my leg. It is really up and down with the pain levels. On my good days I get outside for some errands. Those days aren't as often as I'd like but today the leg is feeling better and I can walk straighter than usual without a side to side gait. I am trying out this new-to-me infrared heating pad.These pads are very pricey but I got it on a significant discount. I still had to think twice before buying it but the free shipping was the clincher. This one is on a trial basis for a few weeks. It had many good testimonials from arthritic pain sufferers but for my knee it didn't seem to do much. Last night I also had an aching back and sciatic pain from sitting so much. I decided to use the heating pad on my back and neck before I went to sleep. Boy did it work like a charm. Today I have far less pain in my back and muscles than I did yesterday. I will try it again tonight.
While I've been doing all this sitting I have managed to get a lot of knitting done. I take a break here and there for laundry, tidying, cooking, etc. I'm knitting the same pattern over and over and I'm not tired of it yet. I expect that I will be ready to move on from this in a few days when I expect my cotton yarn will be used up as well. Knitting for so many hours leads to some issues with the balls of yarn which can roll all over the place. I made myself a yarn holder which saved me a good deal of money. The cost of yarn holders varies as does what they are made of, but I saw one medium sized plastic model which cost approximately $15.00 Canadian.
My yarn holder cost me nothing and saved the container from the garbage pile. I saved about $15.00 and it holds several small, rolled cotton balls. I keep 2 or 3 in the plastic jar. Just the ones I'm using for the project I'm knitting.
I have a question for any of you avid crafters out there. I have a lot of negatives from the old days before digital cameras. I was going to throw them out but lately have been thinking it would be good to use them in a creative project if I can find the right project. These are negatives of a lot of photos I no longer want to keep so I don't want to highlight them in something like a lamp, nor do I want to make a tote bag out of them. If any of you have some ideas as to what I can use them for please let me know.
I hope you are all doing great! It is still cloudy and raining where I live but in a few days we are expecting sunshine for a few days. Last weekend the weather report was also for sunshine for two days and though it did stop raining it didn't really shine all that much. I hope they are right this time!
I continue to nurse my leg. It is really up and down with the pain levels. On my good days I get outside for some errands. Those days aren't as often as I'd like but today the leg is feeling better and I can walk straighter than usual without a side to side gait. I am trying out this new-to-me infrared heating pad.These pads are very pricey but I got it on a significant discount. I still had to think twice before buying it but the free shipping was the clincher. This one is on a trial basis for a few weeks. It had many good testimonials from arthritic pain sufferers but for my knee it didn't seem to do much. Last night I also had an aching back and sciatic pain from sitting so much. I decided to use the heating pad on my back and neck before I went to sleep. Boy did it work like a charm. Today I have far less pain in my back and muscles than I did yesterday. I will try it again tonight.
It's a little hard to see the heating pad as it is black against my brown footstool. |
While I've been doing all this sitting I have managed to get a lot of knitting done. I take a break here and there for laundry, tidying, cooking, etc. I'm knitting the same pattern over and over and I'm not tired of it yet. I expect that I will be ready to move on from this in a few days when I expect my cotton yarn will be used up as well. Knitting for so many hours leads to some issues with the balls of yarn which can roll all over the place. I made myself a yarn holder which saved me a good deal of money. The cost of yarn holders varies as does what they are made of, but I saw one medium sized plastic model which cost approximately $15.00 Canadian.
My yarn holder cost me nothing and saved the container from the garbage pile. I saved about $15.00 and it holds several small, rolled cotton balls. I keep 2 or 3 in the plastic jar. Just the ones I'm using for the project I'm knitting.
I have a question for any of you avid crafters out there. I have a lot of negatives from the old days before digital cameras. I was going to throw them out but lately have been thinking it would be good to use them in a creative project if I can find the right project. These are negatives of a lot of photos I no longer want to keep so I don't want to highlight them in something like a lamp, nor do I want to make a tote bag out of them. If any of you have some ideas as to what I can use them for please let me know.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Joy
From the Meriam Webster Dictionary
I am feeling joy today. I had my Hemoglobin A1C test done last week to determine my average blood sugar level over the previous 3 months. I am so happy to report that my average blood sugar was 6.6 % and less than 7 % which is the target. Normal level is 4.5-6.0 so I still have a little ways to go in getting it back to normal.
I've been working very hard since October and taking not only my pharmaceuticals and newly prescribed pharmaceuticals, but alternative medicines as well. I've also cut my food intake in about half. I eat half at one meal and the other half at the next meal or the next day. Exercise is key also. But due to the pain levels in the knee(s), I simply haven't been up to it. It is hard exercise just getting around the house and going out of the house for the odd errand or appointment. I do intend to get back to exercise of the official kind as soon as I am able. Another thing I am doing is making sure I consistently take my medication and at more or less the same time every day. I admit I had become quite lax in that regard. I pray I can sustain my renewed efforts and get back to normal sugar levels soon.
I'm also feeling some joy over completing a simple household chore. I cleaned and re-organized a cupboard and a drawer Saturday and managed to get my bags of flour off of the floor and into the cupboard. I decided that for now I do not need an airtight container taking up my limited floor space. I don't have any pests so this should work out fine.
I've put the flour into one of the very few of my cupboards that is deep enough. I'll just have to be careful when I want to take flour out of the bag so I don't spill it all over the place. I could purchase glass or plastic containers and fill them with flour before putting them into the cupboard. But I've already got so many containers in use and I really don't want to add any more. I will try this new approach for awhile and see how it works out. I see that I also need to re-arrange my other cupboards soon for greater efficiency. I know there are things in there that I no longer need and can give away. It seems there is always something that needs cleaning. I'm sure it is like that at your house too.
I posted my giveaways on Freecycle on Saturday and within an hour or two my toiletries and books were spoken for but not the kitchen items. Perhaps when I wake there will be some expressions of interest for those items too. By today (Sunday) I hope to have most of my giveaways out the door. Not bad since I only put them together the day before yesterday. I have more purging to do. I think one more good round of purging (maybe two) ought to do me for quite awhile. Then I need to finish the paperwork on which I made a good start a few months ago.
Lessons Learned:
For those that have followed my blog for awhile, you will know I've been doing giveaways on Freecycle and to the local charity shops for awhile now. I would say that I've been at this major decluttering project for at least a two and a half year period of fairly steady going. It started after the fire two floors above me and after having to move out of my home and into a hotel for four months. (While in the hotel I started my blog as a way of trying to keep positive through illness, fires and family sickness). Living in the hotel with only the barest of essentials, I began to realize just how llittle of what we own is actually used, needed or missed when you don't see it. I was also struck by the overabundance of my "stuff" as compared to many in Africa where I had travelled not so long before the fire. I also had to move my mother into a nursing home and had to deal with disposing of all her stuff. Years and years of accumulated stuff which she never wanted to get rid of for various reasons, many of them sentimental (I've inherited some of her ways, ha!). It was ironic that someone who wouldn't let anyone go through and organize or help her sort, had to completely rely on someone else to sort it all and make decisions when the time came.
I decided that I needed to offload a lot of my stuff and start to live more simply. There were multiple reasons for making this decision including: to have a greater sense of freedom when I no longer had to maintain or look after so much"stuff", to live gratefully for what I have and more mindfully about what God has given me and how he wants me to use it, to live more frugally so that I could be of greater help to my family, charities that I value, and the missions in Kenya through my friends and contacts there.
It has taken me a lot longer to go through my things than I originally thought. due to a variety of reasons. In the meantime I've also inherited quite a lot of "stuff" from my mother and previous to that I have "stuff" from my sister and all of that needs to be sorted as well. Much of what remains is photos and paperwork which requires more of my time to carefully scrutinize and decide what to keep and how to organize it. From my mother I also have a lot of crafting items which I don't want to get rid of though I have gotten rid of her yarns, patterns and a lot of fabric. I've kept more fabric than I reasonably have room for which explains part of my feeling so "crowded. I do want to use as much of the fabric as I can and I have several projects in mind. I just need time.
I'll be so glad when it's all finished though I realize that keeping on top the clutter is a never ending cycle. I don't think I will ever again be undertaking such a huge purge as I've just done, especially after I finish the paperwork. From this entire process I've learned about my weak spots (books, toiletries, clothing and paperwork) and where I need to keep a watchful eye in future (spending and accumulating). I've also learned that I do not need to keep years and years of paperwork or every single photo or keepsake that was ever in my hands or in the family hands. I've learned that I need to keep those things most meaningful and let go of the rest though that process takes lots of time and organization. I've also learned that some things can be turned into memories (example, some of my sister's clothing will be incorporated into a quilt or two for her children) and some of mom's fabrics can be turned into quilts for her use and for other members of the family. I can also make some photo albums with select photos for key family members and get rid of the rest. I've learned a lot through this process. I've probably missed out a few lessons learned but these are the ones that come to mind at this moment. Within the next year I hope to have made more gains and gradually get rid of things currently being stored (photos, books, fabrics, craft supplies, papers).
In conclusion, this whole process has been a very long and sometimes challenging journey. But there is "joy" in the journey also. It is a simple joy borne of overcoming challenges. Clutter. Who knew it held so many lessons for me?
1joy
noun \ˈjȯi\Definition of JOY
1
2
: a state of happiness or felicity : bliss
3
: a source or cause of delight
— joy·less adjective
— joy·less·ly adverb
— joy·less·ness noun
I am feeling joy today. I had my Hemoglobin A1C test done last week to determine my average blood sugar level over the previous 3 months. I am so happy to report that my average blood sugar was 6.6 % and less than 7 % which is the target. Normal level is 4.5-6.0 so I still have a little ways to go in getting it back to normal.
I've been working very hard since October and taking not only my pharmaceuticals and newly prescribed pharmaceuticals, but alternative medicines as well. I've also cut my food intake in about half. I eat half at one meal and the other half at the next meal or the next day. Exercise is key also. But due to the pain levels in the knee(s), I simply haven't been up to it. It is hard exercise just getting around the house and going out of the house for the odd errand or appointment. I do intend to get back to exercise of the official kind as soon as I am able. Another thing I am doing is making sure I consistently take my medication and at more or less the same time every day. I admit I had become quite lax in that regard. I pray I can sustain my renewed efforts and get back to normal sugar levels soon.
I'm also feeling some joy over completing a simple household chore. I cleaned and re-organized a cupboard and a drawer Saturday and managed to get my bags of flour off of the floor and into the cupboard. I decided that for now I do not need an airtight container taking up my limited floor space. I don't have any pests so this should work out fine.
I've put the flour into one of the very few of my cupboards that is deep enough. I'll just have to be careful when I want to take flour out of the bag so I don't spill it all over the place. I could purchase glass or plastic containers and fill them with flour before putting them into the cupboard. But I've already got so many containers in use and I really don't want to add any more. I will try this new approach for awhile and see how it works out. I see that I also need to re-arrange my other cupboards soon for greater efficiency. I know there are things in there that I no longer need and can give away. It seems there is always something that needs cleaning. I'm sure it is like that at your house too.
I posted my giveaways on Freecycle on Saturday and within an hour or two my toiletries and books were spoken for but not the kitchen items. Perhaps when I wake there will be some expressions of interest for those items too. By today (Sunday) I hope to have most of my giveaways out the door. Not bad since I only put them together the day before yesterday. I have more purging to do. I think one more good round of purging (maybe two) ought to do me for quite awhile. Then I need to finish the paperwork on which I made a good start a few months ago.
Lessons Learned:
For those that have followed my blog for awhile, you will know I've been doing giveaways on Freecycle and to the local charity shops for awhile now. I would say that I've been at this major decluttering project for at least a two and a half year period of fairly steady going. It started after the fire two floors above me and after having to move out of my home and into a hotel for four months. (While in the hotel I started my blog as a way of trying to keep positive through illness, fires and family sickness). Living in the hotel with only the barest of essentials, I began to realize just how llittle of what we own is actually used, needed or missed when you don't see it. I was also struck by the overabundance of my "stuff" as compared to many in Africa where I had travelled not so long before the fire. I also had to move my mother into a nursing home and had to deal with disposing of all her stuff. Years and years of accumulated stuff which she never wanted to get rid of for various reasons, many of them sentimental (I've inherited some of her ways, ha!). It was ironic that someone who wouldn't let anyone go through and organize or help her sort, had to completely rely on someone else to sort it all and make decisions when the time came.
I decided that I needed to offload a lot of my stuff and start to live more simply. There were multiple reasons for making this decision including: to have a greater sense of freedom when I no longer had to maintain or look after so much"stuff", to live gratefully for what I have and more mindfully about what God has given me and how he wants me to use it, to live more frugally so that I could be of greater help to my family, charities that I value, and the missions in Kenya through my friends and contacts there.
It has taken me a lot longer to go through my things than I originally thought. due to a variety of reasons. In the meantime I've also inherited quite a lot of "stuff" from my mother and previous to that I have "stuff" from my sister and all of that needs to be sorted as well. Much of what remains is photos and paperwork which requires more of my time to carefully scrutinize and decide what to keep and how to organize it. From my mother I also have a lot of crafting items which I don't want to get rid of though I have gotten rid of her yarns, patterns and a lot of fabric. I've kept more fabric than I reasonably have room for which explains part of my feeling so "crowded. I do want to use as much of the fabric as I can and I have several projects in mind. I just need time.
I'll be so glad when it's all finished though I realize that keeping on top the clutter is a never ending cycle. I don't think I will ever again be undertaking such a huge purge as I've just done, especially after I finish the paperwork. From this entire process I've learned about my weak spots (books, toiletries, clothing and paperwork) and where I need to keep a watchful eye in future (spending and accumulating). I've also learned that I do not need to keep years and years of paperwork or every single photo or keepsake that was ever in my hands or in the family hands. I've learned that I need to keep those things most meaningful and let go of the rest though that process takes lots of time and organization. I've also learned that some things can be turned into memories (example, some of my sister's clothing will be incorporated into a quilt or two for her children) and some of mom's fabrics can be turned into quilts for her use and for other members of the family. I can also make some photo albums with select photos for key family members and get rid of the rest. I've learned a lot through this process. I've probably missed out a few lessons learned but these are the ones that come to mind at this moment. Within the next year I hope to have made more gains and gradually get rid of things currently being stored (photos, books, fabrics, craft supplies, papers).
In conclusion, this whole process has been a very long and sometimes challenging journey. But there is "joy" in the journey also. It is a simple joy borne of overcoming challenges. Clutter. Who knew it held so many lessons for me?
Saturday, February 2, 2013
A Busy Week at Home
What I'm working on....
What I'm reading.....
What I'm decluttering...
As you can see, I've been busy and making progress despite limited mobility. I've still got too much of a lot of things. I will get rid of more as I see what needs to go. I have found success in giving things away through my local chapter of Freecycle.
I hope you've all had a busy and productive, or fun week too.
Using up my cotton yarn stash. Lots more to go. These always make great gifts and I go through a lot of them myself. |
Winner of the Booker Prize, this book is an easy read. Something I call "fluff" reading after the lengthy books I've recently finished and all the dates and details they included, this book is easy on the brain. |
I picked this book up last year at a second hand shop. I am decluttering again and that means going through my books to get rid of what I won't read. this was going to go in the pile to give away but I started reading it instead and I'm enjoying it. When I read I try to keep track of new vocabulary in the open book with page marker. I learned to do this from Linda. Visit her blog by clicking the link to "Grandma's Letters" in the African Blog Love widget (sidebar). |
What I'm decluttering...
Kitchen stuff in a big wicker basket. |
Books! I've still got a lot of books so I have plenty of reading material. |
Bathroom products. These seem to accumulate so easily. It also seems they are a popular item for freecycling. |
As you can see, I've been busy and making progress despite limited mobility. I've still got too much of a lot of things. I will get rid of more as I see what needs to go. I have found success in giving things away through my local chapter of Freecycle.
I hope you've all had a busy and productive, or fun week too.
Friday, February 1, 2013
One Sunny Day
A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition. ~
William Arthur Ward
The weather report was for SUNNY skies today and tomorrow.
As you can see from the photos it wasn't exactly sunny but I'll take it over the rain!
See the weather in the skies all around the world by joining Sky Watch Friday here. Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for visiting.
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