A Busy Last Week in October

Hi friends,

I've been busy since I last shared in this space.

The weather has turned cool and the sunshine went away. We are now getting liquid sunshine. Sadly I didn't have an opportunity to get to my much desired walk in the park.  I'm still hoping to go soon and will share any photos I'm able to take.

In the meantime the weather has me doing domestic things.

First up, I made some delicious Butternut Squash Soup. It included carrots and potatoes and was even better than I anticipated. I also just love the autumnal colour. If you haven't made this soup yet you can find some good recipes at allrecipes.com

I'm currently making two different afghans. One is in the photo below. The other one (not pictured) is done in two colours: berry and magenta. I ran into some issues being able to get enough yarn for the latter. I started making it with my stash and when I returned to Michael's to purchase more yarn I discovered this yarn is now out of stock. I managed to find a very close match in a different brand of yarn as I don't have time to go searching for the same yarn or to try and find it on line.

A week or so ago I ordered  100 flocked hangers in violet colour just to get away from boring black.

The above hangers replace the large garbage bag of plastic hangers which I've advertised for giveaway. If no one wants them I'll see if I can donate them to a thrift store or other.

The hangers arrived late last week and on Thursday night I finally managed to start changing out the hangers in my bedroom closet. I ran out of hangers and am expecting another 100 in a few days. That will be more than enough. 

I like the look of uniformity that the new hangers give. 

It is kind of hard to tell due to all the patterned clothing but they are organized by colour and type (not by season). 

I still have plastic hangers to change out which you can see to the left. I'm saving the very large and sturdy plastic hangers to use in the coat closet.

The following photos are from my archives.

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The Rush Toward the Reading Challenge

One of my goals for 2011 is to read 24 books and I track my books on Goodreads along with others who participate in self-defined goals for the reading year.  While this may not seem like a lot of books to read, one can quickly fall behind in the goal unless plans are made and time is set aside to read throughout the week.  I've actually done a fair bit of reading since the Fall but some of them were rather lengthy.  A few of them were about 1000 pages (Pillars of the Earth and Anna Karenina) each and that also impacted on my goal of reading two books per month.

I've decided I must make real progress on the number of books read before the summer is out.  The sooner I do that, the sooner I can also give my books to someone else to enjoy.  That will help me in another goal for 2011; to fully declutter the condo.

This week, I'd like to share some of my recently read books with you. I don't go in for writing extensive reviews of the content of books and highlighting especially interesting or meaningful passages. I prefer to enjoy reading my books and give short summaries or impressions of what I've read. 

French Fried
Written by an American in Paris. It is charmingly written with anecdotes about the author's life in Paris and her forays into learning how to cook as well as learning the art and beauty of the French approach to eating and living. I've always been fascinated by France and French living. I enjoyed the book because of insights into the culture as contrasted with American culture.

Teacher Man
Written by Irish American author Frank McCourt of Angele's Ashes fame. I found this book very interesting because I too have a background in teaching.  I enjoyed Mr. McCourt's recounting of his early teaching days and what he had to say about his fears, hopes and experiences during his teaching career in New York.

Joshua's Bible
Written by  Shelly Leanne this thrift store find turned out to be a very pleasant and interesting read. Set in the mid-1930s, it is a book about a Black American preacher sent to South Africa by his "white" missions group to "civilize and christianize" the Africans. Movingly written it takes us through the joys and sorrows of the young preacher, Reverend Clay, and his experiences with the tribal peoples of South Africa. Over his period of two years he opens his eyes to the truth of the African experience and history and their hopes for emancipation and equality.  Despite what sounds like a heavy book, I found this to be a pleasant read with a nice rhythm to it.

Leaning Into God, When Life is Pushing You Away
I won this book through a giveaway and I will need to write a proper review of it as my "payment" for receiving the book for free.  Written by Reverend Robert Anthony Schuller, this book explores the various ways in which individuals lose or experience interference with their connection to God.  The author explains how emotions such as shame, regret, fear, and disappointment can stand in the way of our intimacy with God.  Reverend Schuller leads the reader through ways to reconnect with God and after each chapter asks incisive questions for us to consider and to help draw out our understanding of what causes our disconnect/connections with God.

Autism's Hidden Blessings: Discovering god's Promises for autistic Children & Their Families
This is another book I received in a giveaway and for which I need to draft a proper review. The book was written by Kelly Langston, a mother of an autistic son. This book was somewhat different than I anticipated. I had thought it would be more of memoir of a mother dealing with an autistic son. Instead it turned out to be a good bible study on turning to God as a source of help in dealing with an autistic child.  The book is also sprinkled with good discussion points, summary points and anecdotes about the Langston family experiences in raising an autistic child.  I was highly interested in reading this book because my family raised an autistic child in the days before there was little available as helps for families and next to nothing known about autism.

I'm currently reading, The Shackled Continent:  African's Past, Present and Future by Robert Guest and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

I purchased this book at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. It's a great read so far in terms of helping my understanding of Africa.

After this week, I will still be 3 books shy of my goal of 14 books for the first 7 months of this year. But  I am feeling well on my way to reaching my goal if I can keep up the momentum.

What about you? Are you reading a lot this year? Do you have any reading goals for yourself or any great books to recommend?

Click here to leave your thoughts about reading biographies.

The Last Major Hurdles

I do realize that the kind of blog post you are about to read may not be too exciting or thrilling to a lot of people.  But writing about it helps me to stay on track and accountable for the big decluttering project I am working on.  It is a tedious job with few immediate rewards so I need all the help I can get. Thanks for reading and giving me a platform to share my goals, challenges, successes....all of which are leading me to a simpler life and more time and resources for the Missions of Hope.
 
I have had a busy start to the New Year in an effort to get started on the right foot.  This past week I decided to take a little break from the decluttering project and have been busy doing other things like: catching up with friends, going to the movie, exercising, going to Sunday services and making notes of all the upcoming activities there that I would like to participate in during January/February, listening to past sermons on line, reading, organizing my medical appointments and paperwork, scheduling my upcoming commitments (including those that help me reach my goals in 2011) and following up on a number of things I've promised to do.

Then also this past week my mom had a major fall which you can read about here.  Last night she was admitted to hospital due to cellulitis infection.  Cellulitis is the bane of many senior citizens, especially those that are less mobile. She was heavily sedated all day due to pain but her nurse says she is doing much better now. We are not yet sure how long she will be in hospital but my brother and nephew will be attending to visit her and help her with her various needs while I attend to my own medical needs.

Now I'm back to the next big step in the decluttering process, the subject of this blog post which I've called,  "The Last Major Hurdles".  The hurdles are the table top, the dresser top in the bedroom and the big boxes in the bedroom, some of which are pictured below. Once I clean these surfaces and fully unpack the boxes I will have the hardest parts of my decluttering project behind me. I still will have a lot to do but the worst of it will have been done. Yippee!!!

The dining room table in the photo below is covered with clutter and tablecloths so you can't see but it is an antique table from Spain. I love it and it is special because my mom gave me the money to buy it as a birthday present many years ago.  Though my mother paid for it she never liked my choice of table and I am now going to get rid of it.  When I told her that some months ago, she said "Oh good!"  I would probably keep it were it not for the fact that the chairs need reinforcing every year due to their age and often they are not reinforced so they pose a possible danger to someone.  Otherwise, I love the table. Partly because of it's heavy and ornately carved legs.  I also love it because the table top has leaves inserted under it and you can pull them out when you have a sewing project or you have a dinner party.  This adds about 5 more surface feet which really helps when you want to cut fabrics or set out food and dinnerware which I do for buffet style dinners when entertaining.

Clutter on the tabletop. empty coin wrappers in the bag and important papers in a  wooden box on the floor. The table area is nice and clean from time to time but I'm afraid it acts as an expensive catch all most of the time.  Once I clean the the table I will find a new home for it. In fact, I've already ordered a new, small round table for the dining table.  I think it will work much better in this space.

Don't you agree that these are beautiful and solid looking table legs?

Two big unpacked boxes remain from the move in we did just over a year ago post-fire. I've had a quick peek inside and put a lot of the items to sort on the top of the dresser which is adjacent to the boxes. Things look rather messy in the master bedroom at the moment but it is surface mess until everything is dealt with.

Update:  I stayed up late and cleared the table.  A small bag of garbage was thrown out and bills and paperwork added to other like documents which are to be sorted and dealt with later. First pass through the paper is getting rid of anything no longer needed.  It feels good to see the table again.  Next it will need to be polished before I see who might want to give it a good home.

Clutter free once again!

My World Tuesday~ November 2, 2010

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
Wernher von Braun

The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love. What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.
Pearl Bailey

I hate paperwork.  I know my blog is supposed to be about things that give me joy but I am sorry to say this is one task I take no pleasure in.  It is only after the paperwork is sorted and discarded, or put away in an easily accessible place, that I feel joyful. 

Over the years I've purchased many books and tools for dealing with out of control paperwork and I've also tried many systems. In honesty, I've never found one that really works for me. When I was working I simply had not enough time to deal with paperwork as my hours were horrendous.  Now that I am disabled and dealing with chronic illness, I prefer to avoid dealing with paperwork.  I do try to make sure I am more or less on top of deadlines and bills but I admit that sometimes the deadlines do pass by. Some organizational buffs might well ask why I don't automate bill payments. I guess I am old fashioned. Additionally, I like knowing exactly what I have to pay and exactly what I have in the account when I do pay the bills. If any of you have faced this problem yourselves and you've found a way to ensure you are never late with bill payments, please do let me know some of your tips.

On the top of my desk right now I have this pile of back logged paperwork. I've been collecting bills and sorting them into their various categories and so there are many months worth of bills in the pile. Once I have my financial plans set for 2011, I will be discarding as much of this paper as possible.  All the bills in the pile have been paid but I need more time to determine what I need to keep and how to file it, what to shred and what to action. At the top of the pile are the receipts I have to submit for reimbursement to my extended health care plan. There is a deadline of one year within which to file and it is getting close to that for some of them so I have prepared the package for the post.  I have oodles of paper in suitcases, boxes and bags that are more or less sorted but need a good going over before decluttering takes effect also.

My desk only has two drawers. The top drawer is for all my office supplies, including the stapler which is invaluable for my paperwork. I have a larger shelf/drawer below it which is where I keep my printer/scanner both of which are invaluable.

After the fire well we had over a year ago now, I resolved to get rid of clutter, including needless paperwork. I have a long way to go on this as I have been dealing with mom's health and long term care needs for most of each month in addition to my own health needs. When she is safely settled, I can resume my own paperwork actions. In the meantime though I make sure the bills are paid and the medical receipts are submitted.

My goals for 2010 included paying down debts and getting my financial house in order. I have made substantial progress on this as the year draws to a close and I feel much more in control of things. Part of my financial action plan now will be to ensure that I have systems set up for dealing with all future bills and paying down any smaller debts. In addition, I need a cash flow statement and a portion set aside for my monthly savings and monthly giving.

Did you set any financial goals for 2010?

Did you have success in meeting them? 

   Even small steps toward achieving your goals are better than no progress at all.  

If you persevere you will eventually meet your goals. 

Blessings.

Join others here for My World Tuesday.

Book Swap Opportunity

Since September I have been having a struggle with my health more so than usual. I haven't been able to do much of anything so when I am up to it I've been catching up on some long overdue reading. The books I'm reading are those I've had on my shelves for awhile.

The three books in the photo below are some of my more recent reads:
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton, and
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

Each of these books is well written. I'll try not to give too much away in my brief review of the books.

The Prodigal Summer is a surprisingly satisfactory book all around. I unexpectedly found myself laughing out loud at various points in the book. A welcome relief in a book filled with serious subject matter.

A Map of the World was a tad depressing and had I known of the subject matter, alleged child abuse against a school nurse, I might have saved the book to read another day. As it was, I found the book well written. This carried me through to the end though I really wish there had been more levity in the book to compensate for the grief and anguish felt by several of the book's characters.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter deals with a heavy subject matter. A doctor ends up having to oversee delivery of his wife's twin babies. One of them turns out to be a Down's Syndrome baby. What ensues is a complicated but compelling story. The book is very well written though I do have a minor beef concerning the overuse of one cliche where two people's eyes meet across a room and volumes of unspoken communication and intimacy results between the parties.Use of this cliche may have been forgiveable if only used once, but the writer uses it at least 3 times in the book. Other than that, I did find the book quite satisfying. I was grateful that the author did not write a book with complex characters and plot line and give it a nice, pat, happy ending. In leaving things somewhat unresolved, the author chose instead to reflect what might have happened in reality.

I hope I don't put you off by indicating that all of these books deal with heavy subject matter since they are all well written books that bring some insight into the human character and psyche. I'm interested in a book swap for one or all of these books.

If you are interested in a book swap, let me know what books you have available for a swap! I've added links to each of the book titles (above) so you can read more about the books. You can also click on the photo to enlarge it. I hope to hear from you soon.