Recent Days

Hello friends and fellow bloggers, 

How are you doing?

Life is very hectic right now so I thought I would just show you my current life in pictures.

First up is the patio. It's being completely renovated but the work has been on hold for awhile. Once new pavers arrive for other patios in the building, the work will restart. The pavers will be laid, the cladding and railing on the exterior wall replaced and the garden wall built and filled with soil.  The new estimated completion time is the end of June.  I have no idea what I'm going to plant since I want something that can withstand all seasons with a bit of space left over for annuals. I'd also like something large enough to provide shade but I'll have to wait and see what the new garden guidelines will state.  We've never had garden guidelines before.
 

I made a lot of progress this week on decluttering.

After shredding, these papers go into the big bag in the above photo.

I bought these from SA but never did use them. Sad.

A TV to give away or take to electronics recycling.

 

The bags went to charity, the bike went to a friend

Sunday dinner of baked salmon and roasted vegetables.

Hair tool went to charity

A tasty dinner out, courtesy of a brother

Decluttering.  These went to the trash

Whew! It's a lot of decluttering but it feels good. I just wish I could make quicker progress with the papers. 

I'll be finding out in a day or two whether we have to move out.  I've been working hard to downsize on the assumption that we'll be moved out by the end of May.  At this point I'd rather remain at home because I don't think the work required is as bad as initially thought. But I'll know more soon.

Keep well and thanks for dropping by!

More

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I made some good progress earlier in the week with the decluttering. I got rid of several bags of books, clothing, kitchen items and miscellaneous items (see the items in front of the bookshelves). I also tried to get rid of two quite large items: a stationary bike and a 55 inch flat screen television.  

I had my nephew transport everything except the bike and television to the charity shop. A friend and her husband and children arrived today to pick up the bike.  She also wanted some cookbooks so I was able to give her 5 books.  I didn't think to take a photo of them though I am trying to keep track of everything I offload (except papers) so I can look back on it later.  

I have 2 people interested in the television but they have no way to transport it.  Actually one of the people is in hospital and the other one has just been evicted from her apartment so she has bigger issues to deal with.  I know I can easily get rid of it if I post it on line.  But I don't want strangers coming over and I can't easily pack it downstairs to meet anyone at the building's entrance.  I've asked friends to check around if anyone they know is interested in it.  Otherwise I may just have to take to the electronics recycling depot. That would be a shame since it works but once I started getting things out the door, I want to move quickly to get other things out the door.
 

I've already gone through the bookshelves once or twice and gotten rid of alot of them. Once I've taken care of a lot of smaller items, I intend to return to the bookshelves as there is much more I need to whittle down.

How about you dear reader? Have you ever done a major purge of your things. Did you just get rid of whatever was in your way or did you, like me, take so much time to carefully go through every item first?  There is no right or wrong answer. Just different approaches to the same issue.

Thank you for stopping by. Please visit again soon. xx

Wednesday is Anti-Procrastination Day

Hey friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope the week is going well for you.  It's been a bit busy for me but not with anything major. I just have a lot of little things to do and small things to catch up on. Don't you find that little things seem to take more time somehow?

I completed the murder-mystery by Canadian author Shari Lapena. I enjoyed it but the ending left me a bit disappointed though I think someone else may find it suits them fine. I don't want to say more because I know many of you are fans of murder-mystery novels so I don't want to give anything away.  Currently I'm reading, The Lemon Tree Hotel and Arctic Man both of which are good for different reasons. However I  wouldn't say they are totally engrossing.  Just satisfying and satisfying is good enough.

I'm still working to try and keep the meals tasty and interesting.

These are a few of the meals we had in the past few days.

Stir fried beef and onions and stir fried noodles with chili and vegetables.

BBQ Ribs and Kraft dinner with side of coleslaw (coleslaw not in photo)

Curried cauliflower & split peas served with rice and homemade chapati

Penne-pasta-lox-n-spinach with caesar salad.

BBQ-salmon-pilaf-salad

 

I think I mentioned that I try to follow the Fly Lady household routines. One of the big principles is to clean and shine your sink at least once a day. I try but often it seems like I don't get to it until very late at night.  It takes me so long just to wash the dinner dishes after I've finished eating dinner. Now and then I get ahead of the game and it always feels good to have a nice, clean sink.

Yesterday I paid the fee for the community garden and asked my nephew and his girlfriend to take over the plot once again this year.  After that I'll decide whether I want to continue renting the plot going forward. My nephew and his girlfriend gained some valuable gardening experience and I was able to focus on my patio garden and also catch up with a lot of projects and tasks at home.

One of my favourite days is Wednesday which is called anti-procrastination day in the land of Fly Lady. I usually am able to get one niggling item out of the way on that day, sometimes two.  I think it helps me to stop thinking about my long list of items during the week if I have a dedicated day to work on them. Of course, if I'm up to it I can also work on such tasks on any other day.

Errand day is on Thursday and I usually run to the post office, grocery stores and the library. Actually grocery shopping usually takes me about 3 separate errands on different days but Thursday is the main shopping day and some weeks I don't have so much to buy. Tomorrow I am expecting a package and I'm looking forward to it.  If it turns out to be helpful I will write about it in a future post.

Friday I'm also expecting a long awaited delivery of grass fed beef from an area where the ranchers were flooded out in November. You might remember me writing about the floods and the destruction of a major highway from Vancouver to the Interior of BC and beyond. I'm surprised the rancher has anything to deliver but I'm anticipating they won't be able to fulfill all their orders, possibly even mine so we shall see what happens.

We had some sunny days last week and fog earlier in the week. The weather forecast was for possible snow today. In fact it is did snow but barely and it quickly melted before the rain started.

As you can see, the sky is very gray and not very interesting unless there are some distant lights to look at.

Other things keeping me busy are liaising with long distance friends and relatives, watching a lot of Netflix, daily devotions and prayer and the daily things that keep the household going.

What about you dear reader? What things kept you busy this week?

Whatever it is you are doing, I hope you are keeping healthy and happy.

Daily Life

Hi friends and fellow bloggers, How are you all doing?

I've been keeping busy with the daily things of life. Things planned and things unplanned.

You know like what happens when your washer/dryer suddenly stops working and you have to quickly find a replacement.  I'm afraid I can't go too long without a washer and these days there are fewer and fewer laundrymats.  since I've been living in my neighbourhood we've had at least 3 laundrymats close down and no new ones take their place.  What do you do where you live when your washer goes dead? Do you have a back up plan?

This is the replacement washer & dryer. Much quieter than my previous washer/dryer combo and more energy efficient too.

It is also that time again when I have to get the toenails groomed. I go out and have it done.  Though I know this is a luxury for many, I do it because I have diabetes and because I've been suffering for long now with ingrown toenails.  The pedicure helps to get the feet and toenails nice and clean. The polish also makes everything more presentable and who doesn't mind sitting in an automated massage chair while getting the feet washed and cleaned?  I can't do the pedicure myself these days.   I'm going to one new girl since i discovered that I had needle like shards of nails imbedded into my skin. Trust me, it hurt a lot to get it all out.  I'm going to have to keep the toenails very short to prevent the ingrown nails and make sure I don't miss my appointments.

It was also past time to get the hair done. I have been thinking for awhile now that I don't want to have my hair chemically processed any more.  I started highlighting my hair rather late in life and so  I've minimised the hair dye in that way but going every month to the  hair salon adds up to a lot of chemicals. I know I still have chemicals to contend with (like in the nail polish above) but I want to minimize it all as much as possible.

I did some research on henna and thought I'd give it a try. I had to wait an extra long time before getting the henna done since you can't put henna onto chemically processed hair unless you wait 8-12 weeks.  Initially I intended to do the henna myself but my hair dresser said she'd help. I thought for the first time that might be wiser. However it turned out she hasn't done it for ages and ages and was rather nervous about it all. I reminded her that it was her idea to help me and to more or less to stop complaining about the two step process and time that was required.

Here is the end result.

I like it.

Next time we will add some lemon juice for golden colour and some yogurt or eggs for conditioning. I'm experimenting with using henna and will also be experimenting with using different brands.

Lest you think my free time is spent on primping and preening, I am also keeping up with the reading in between other work and errands. I still have my goal of reading 24 books this year. For me that is challenging as I have to remember to read a little a few times a week.  I used to think I read a lot when I completed 6 or 7 novels a year and then I discovered that some people say they read a hundred books or more a year. Well based on the kind of books I tend to read (dense books, rather than read in 2 hour books), I will likely never reach 100 books a year. I will be content to read 24. 

I will have to update my completed reads soon but these are the books I'm reading right now. I finished the top one; an interesting and quicker read about a young woman growing up in Iran and how her family escaped to Canada. I am about two thirds of the way through "A Suitable Boy" and about  half way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue".

I have more respect for Sarah Palin after reading her book about her political life in Alaska. It is always good to try and learn as much as you can outside of what the media feeds you during political campaigns.

This was the vapour trail above my head today. Whenever I see these, I think of the song "I"m Leaving On a Jet Plane".   I wish I really was!

I leave you with a verse for today.It came to me as I was contemplating on the many tragedies and horrors I find on the internet news and through social networks. 

If we could only have brotherly love toward one another, these horrors would be fewer.

Let brotherly love continue. 

Hebrews 12:1

I wish each of you peace, and brotherly love.

To find more fabulous skies around the world please visit

Skywatch Friday.

Taking Stock

If you are like me I'm sure you often wonder where the day goes.  More often than not, I ask myself, "what did I accomplish today?"  I sometimes need to reflect on this question so that I can feel I didn't waste my day. This is a little hold over from my working days. Though I am now retired, I still like to make progress on tasks, especially since I'd like to get organized for my bright future, and I have a list of goals for 2010.

Today was a day for taking stock and assessing what I did. I started my day with coffee and a sandwich on healthy ancient grain bread (no breakfast today). I also had several glasses of water and a few cookies from yesterday's baking batch. I spent some time responding to blog comments and visiting other blogs. This was great since I haven't had enough time for visiting blogs and leaving comments for several weeks.

I then filled and started the dishwasher and put in a load of whites for the laundry while I watched some television and turned the hose on to water the garden. I also filled some buckets of water to water where the hose doesn't always reach and to water the containers.  Later, I had a shower and collected my mail box keys and cloth shopping bags and headed to the grocery store and post office. I also took in my recyclable bottles to the bottle depot where I made $1.15 for the Snowflake Jar (see the column to the right).

My container garden.

After returning home I began making dinner (grilled pork kebabs and mushrooms, a vegetable salad and home made dressing as well as some boiled red potatoes). I took my medicine and cleaned the refrigerator of rotting produce (this is food that was wasted when I went out of town) after eating. I washed the vegetable crispers and lined them with clean paper towels before putting in all my fresh fruits and vegetables.

Next, I vacuumed the kitchen and the master bathroom. White ceramic tiles show everything! I then folded my load of laundry though the towels and night clothes are sitting in the front room waiting to be put away.

I am making my second crochet doily right now. I wanted to make it in navy blue for a friend but the thread is too thick so I am making it in aqua instead. It looks lovely so far.

I spent some time on-line researching the differences in crochet thread and looking for free crochet patterns. My research confirmed what I've learned from the experience of using a particular brand of cotton thread. I'm thinking of ordering cotton thread on line in future and perhaps that way I can get more selection in colours and quality.  I also learned there are so many free patterns on line so I quickly downloaded some patterns I may want to make in future.  I hope I an find them when I need them.

Late in the evening I gently hand washed my first Pineapple Blossom doily and laid it to dry overnight on a towel and gently stretching it into shape. The instruction book said this was blocking but other crochet booklets I've read call for blocking with commercial starch (and even a sugar and water solution) and pinning the doily into shape using rust proof pins. If I find the doily needs more body I will get some starch and re-do the blocking.

After reflecting on my day, my only issue is not enough hours in the day to do so many projects as I'd like in crochet, knitting, quilting, photography, web design, etc. I like this problem though. It is a much better problem to have than not having enough  enjoyable things to do. I'm thankful I have a long list of things to do.  More than that, I'm thankful that I am making progress on the things on my list.

How did your day go?

(Graphic credit: Mike Paul's blog )