- Been combing through my clothes and things and putting stuff in a "let go box".
- Getting more use from my standing desk at work and now it is cooler doing some lunchtime walks as well. I did a glute activation workshop at pilates which motivated me to sit less.'
- I bought a new computer which was a major pain I'm still not sure I've got it sorted, but one win is that all by myself I partitioned a 5 TB harddrive into a 2TB time machine and a 3TB drive for my photos.
- Set a goal to do hospitality in the holidays. Invited 3, as of today, 1 family came, the 2nd family had sick kids, and a woman from church is planning to come over next wednesday. So not bad.
- In line with this goal, I declined an invite to play piano at a womens conference. Always hard to know how much to do, and I usually find saying yes is a great experience, but I decided since I had my hospitality goal, and I'm taking on a cello student term 2-3, that's enough extra stuff for me to worry about right now. Maybe I need to come up with a theory about capacity baseline and how many extra things are sustainable, like maximum one worry at any one time.
- I had a Friday off at the start of April, because work was quiet and I had flex time to use, and I ended up shopping over in the homemaker area, Spotlight had a sale, I bought curtain fabric for my last 2 bedroom windows, and a mattress topper at another shop, and just wandered around with no time pressure and it was raining and I also didn't go wild on the spending runway. I just bought the things on my house wish list. I made the curtains over 3 days. It sort of finished off the house I think.
- Also did my Autumn garden turnover, removed zinnias and planted poppy seedlings.
- Did some outfit challenges where I tried to wear only 2 colours. Obsessed with capsule wardrobe theory atm.
The Thought Tree
Sunday, April 21, 2024
April 2024
Monday, April 1, 2024
March 2024
March was a top month! It was full but most of it was good. I took a lot of opportunities to cram in good things and helpful things!
The V project at work continued to strain, but we pulled a significant stage off, and when my colleague went to hospital sick, my team leader and I stepped in to fill his place the next day, and I had almost a regular nights sleep instead of laying awake being anxious about it! Maybe it was because it was the absolute worst case scenario there was nothing left to worry about. I felt like this was a big win. Overall the rest of work has settled down so I don't have to keep up as fast a pace which is good.
Grad day, me getting my 10 year service award.
I have had a pretty rough start to the year in terms of my body, my inflammation has increased with the stress of back to work life and probably doing the pilates challenge, and even once I took steps to manage my stress and cut out sugar, it hasn't relieved much, so I increased my medication. Also back is stiff.
However aside from that issue, March saw a lot of things improve! The humidity slowly decreasing and cooler nights making me less uncomfortable. Some quiet but productive weekends and then some busy and fun weekends.
My niece D and I had birthdays close together so one weekend was just packed with family and friends. I hosted Sydney friends for my 40th and had a lunch at heritage gardens tea room. I also enjoyed trivia on tuesday night with my home group ladies on my actual birthday, and a morning tea at work, which I requested because it was also my 10th year of working at Tocal. So the last week of March was just a lovely week on a high of love and birthday fun and general appreciation (while also worrying about work print jobs and music practices and the usual!). My house has several bunches of flowers.
My personal obsession was outfits. Watching youtube videos from hannah louise poston and testing her method of 1 or 2 colours in an outfit. I had some pleasing results. I broke my "make do challenge" and bought these giant navy linen pants, which I didn't need but will use a lot.
The lectio365 app was a wonderful thread of easter reflection through the month and the 3 special services this weekend - Praise and Passover, Good Friday and Easter - were helpful in painting a picture of the centre of the gospel so beautifully. I felt more immersed and affected by it this year than before. Even my gardening on Easter Sunday felt like a part of it. Cleaning out the dying summer flowers and planting seedlings to look forward to Spring.
This Easter weekend has been great. Monday is just the sunny peaceful day off I need EVERY WEEK!
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Feb 2024
Hello readers/friends, how have you been this February? I've struggled. Here is some AI stickers created in whatsapp that are uncanny in their accuracy. It wasn't all bad, the flowers were blooming and I was praying, but it had some hard moments!
A theme this month was becoming too busy, realising I was stressed (mainly by unrealistic workload), and trying to unwind it. When I am stressed, I have an inflammation flare up and get achy and tired, sleep worse (not helped by the heat or the achyness) and eat worse (sugar making the inflammation worse). It's a vicious cycle. Thankfully I am always able to unwind it once I start feeling it, it's never relentless and inescapable. Why can't I just stop it happening? Because at first, it feels good. Things get busy, I pick up my pace, I feel like I'm on top of everything. And then I start noticing signs having no patience for people or wasted time. And I'm snacking more. And I'm getting achy. So the start of the curve is OK, it deceives me, and I don't realise until it is too late.
I had a day off during peak work stress which I am very proud of. It was so helpful. I released feelings, had a nice lunch at the art gallery and looked at the art, did yoga with Ros, just had a very slow gentle day. It did not fix all the physical and mental stuff instantly but it was an important step back which gave me the perspective to start unwinding, and about a week later I did a diet reset (cut the snacks and rich food out), to give my guts and inflammation less fuel for drama.
I completed the pilates challenge this month, I did 17 classes in Feb. I don't know if that helps with stress, or makes me busier and tireder. I know one week I did 5 no problem, the next week I only did 3 classes but 2 of them were way too intense and that really set off some inflammation, so I think it's about intensity not frequency. I should go frequently but probably not push as hard.
The big thing that this month marked is the finishing of the furnishing! My couch and armchair were delivered last Tuesday, and I was also given some bookshelves which I painted last weekend. The house now doesn't have empty gaps, or random makeshift situations, it has intentional furnishing and styling, blending new and old in a way I really like. Still haven't finished the styling, the bookshelves are empty. Also, the birdcage is on wheels so it's always rolling around from room to room and window to window, there has to be some flux. But I now have a couch for reading that is not in a dark room with a TV! And enough couch space for a cosy little movie night.
My Make Do (low spend year) challenge is enjoyable. I basically don't go buying things just because I like them. I start from my life, and what do I need. If I see something I like, I have to ask, can I make do without it. It's simple. I've got a list in my phone of things I want or need, or wants that might be needs in future but for the short term I can make do. This month, I bought new joggers - my feet have grown, so I looked at my current shoe model, found it on ozsale and bought a half size up, saving $100. I also bought paint for the bookshelves. Technically i could have made do with them not being repainted, but they looked pretty worn and second hand, and since I got them for free, $60 on paint was a pretty small investment for 2 large bookcases in fresh clean white. And, I totally forgot this, but I bought a bottle of dye and dyed some faded jeans to dark grey! They didn't turn out how I hoped but they did turn out how the bottle said so I think my hopes were delulu. However, I have been wearing them, they are much more wearable, and doing things like that make it better to make do.
While this summer has been way too humid, my garden has loved it! It is such a pleasure to look out the window and see green in every corner, and swing in my hammock.
It being a busy month, there were a lot of fun things too! I picked a pub for dinner with some colleagues and it was PERFECTION. The food, the music, the fun drinks, highly recommend the Family Hotel. 4 gal pals from church did Mt Tomaree and we also swam even though the weather and water didn't look great, but it was so refreshing after the humid walk. There was a surprise farewell party for a girl leaving Maitland and I made lots of chicken wings from recipe tin. I had some fun fridays with JK. Me and my colleague picked some sunflowers from the field at the homestead.
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Jan 2024
2024 goals: a "make do" challenge (minimise discretionary spending); and guard my tongue better.
I’ve been thinking a lot about interior design, decluttering and all things Home. I saw a short video ages ago from the school of life, which was about the sense of Home being something like when our space reflects our soul, when our surroundings are things that we like and have meaning to us it feels right.
And I have suddenly noticed after my own efforts that there is a real joy in “decorating” your house and making it less generic and more personal. And also in making it more functional, more private, not just aesthetic changes. Making it a space that is an extension of you in a way, bc you feel more comfortable in it both physically and emotionally. Putting thought and effort in and even spending money. I’ve always liked rearranging furniture and not having ugly stuff, and but that was about it. I tended to think that it’s a superficial material thing but it’s not. Feelings are important and how you feel at home is suuuuper important. Even removing annoyances and repairing and maintenance is a part of it.
I was blessed to share my home with friends over the new year, including one who hasn't visited in years and has been through a lot. It was precious to give her a place to have a holiday that she could afford, and reconnect with each other. At the end of her stay I realised however that I was in introvert burnout after 10 days of hospitality, so I will have to factor that in, in the future, especially as I still had more to go!
I ran music at church for one of our combined summer 5pm services which was amazing, and then got up at 5am on Monday to go to Summer school, where I stayed with my sister and her family. It was really lovely, and a good time of bonding especially with her kids. It was, however, to intense for me, the house had no bedroom doors so I was around them all the time, or around 2000 other people at the sessions, so it was hard. It was also hard for them as a family! And there was added logistics from the wet oval so no car parking. A few meltdowns but we made it through and grew closer.
I was so glad to be home and alone for a weekend before returning to work. My soul needed it and I decided to move furniture around in preparation for my new couch and also to just freshen things up and update the vibes. I got my old couch down this narrow hall with only minor wall damage. The TV unit and everything from the back room is now in the front room.
Returning to work was hard, I've been back 2 weeks now. The first week was a blur, it was so hard to focus and it seems that the year started at high speed not a slow build up. The second week was better, I did some immersive work which helped me feel focused and calmer. Thankful to not have home group or church music for a few weeks and build my weekly routine up slowly.
Me forcing myself out of the house on Australia Day, it was so hot even the beach was hot.
On decluttering. I received 2 boxes of nostalgia from my parents, and I also had a cupboard fall apart so I have been shifting storage and shelves around to try and make do without buying another cupboard or shelves for a while, because the long term goal is built in shelving in my wardrobes, not a whole bunch of random bookshelves and such.
Back to the nostalgia boxes and the things IN the storage. I cried while I threw out some toys, ended up keeping a couple I don't really want but it will be a multi stage process. I realised that they brought back memories of my childhood, especially my cosy safe bed and cute kiddy pyjamas. It was a whole thing remembering that time is gone, I'm an adult on my own in the big world now. It is however important to get rid of things anyway. "It's hard to let go of things but it is easy to live without them" (Caroline Winkler). I've taken some things to the op shop, I've photographed things and thrown them away, and I'm going to give some things to Elsie and my nieces at appropriate times. Due to the aformentioned storage situation, I decided to unpack my "glory box" full of random toys, fancy work and sewing supplies, and turn it into a toy box, so everything is in one child-accessible place now. I did a bit of a sort and cull of the sewing stuff but I'll do it properly later.
https://catieloveless.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/hear-me-quickly-lord/
Big note to finish on. This is my brother and G's baby, my new niece, Elsie Mae. Thanks be to God for her safe birth!
Saturday, January 13, 2024
December funs
Last post for 2023! And next year I'm going to do a different sort of post. I didn't have time at the end of December or start of Jan, so this will probably be short due to 2 weeks extra memory fade.
Some pretty zinnias from my garden.
Well I had Covid at the end of November and I can't remember if that continued into December as well, but I think so, so I enjoyed this show:
I think I used my recovery days in iso to do some culling, here is what I reduced my jar collection to. I did a similar magic on my container collection.
I binned this very worn out pillow. I now regret this because I found covers this size at HnM. But I have no shortage of cushions. This one came from the op shop with my green velvet couches many years ago.
I sold some shares! Selling shares is a harder decision than buying them, this decision took ages. But I just wanted to move a chunk back into my mortgge offset account, while they were ahead, and I heard December was usually an "up" time of year. I achieved my aim of making a profit while interest rates were low, and now rates are high there is less gain to be made in shares. Plus it has been so volatile, it's a bit more in safety. Still got some in the market though.