Tag Archives: the Ultimate Blog Challenge

I CAN’T DO EVERYTHING/REMEMBERING SUCCESSES

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It is the 9th day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’ve missed a few days. The thing is I can’t make up or catch up. I recognized that I can’t do everything. Some things have to go. I will have to show up when I can. I can’t make up or catch up with the Daisy Yellow Index Card Challenge either. It is way over and I am short some 21 cards. I am rethinking and revamping my idea of success and commitment. It is not a do or die. It is about prioritizing and choosing what is more important and doing the best that I can. And this is my best. Instead of throwing in the towel, I will do a post when I am able.

There was a time when I did show up and completed both of these 2 challenges. It is good to remember my successes. I’m show casing some of my better index card paintings. The index cards are 6 inches by 4 inches. The guy made frames for them. Geishas are a favourite theme for me. Perhaps I was Japanese and a geisha in a previous life.

These three painting are still staying with the Japanese theme. The first one is of peasants hurrying home from work at the end of the day across the Meguro Drum Bridge, a copy of HIROSHIGE‘s famous painting. The next one is of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. The 3rd is of the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima. I was fortunate to have visited two famous landmarks in Japan many years ago.

The last collection of framed index card paintings are abstract studies. It is not my favourite form of art because I am not familiar and comfortable with uncertainty. It is something I have to work on.

THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOUR

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It’s August 6 but day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m running a day behind. I hope I can catch up and not fall further behind. It’s another hot day. Still no rain. I’m trying to work smarter and make life a little easier. It was tempting to skip my exercise class this morning. It wouldn’t be a smart thing to do so I tossed that idea. I need to keep healthy, fit and strong. I had a good workout and stopped at the community garden to water my brother’s and our plots. We share watering duties on alternate days. Our plots are side by side. It saves time and energy for both of us.

The day is hazy. The sun hidden by smoke from forest fires. The temperature is 31℃. The world looks uncertain and scary. Welcome to our new reality. Despite this, I am optimistic, putting my hope in my garden basket. Thanks to the river that runs through our city, we are able to water, water and water. We have such an abundance from all our gardening efforts in our greenhouse, outside garden at home, the community garden and the city allotments. Here are some of our harvest.

I can see I have my work cut out for me preserving and not letting things go to waste. My bowlful of Roma tomatoes are stewing on the stove. I’m doing the easy peasy. They will be jarred and frozen for spiced up tomato sauce when the need arises.

WHERE I LIVE

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It’s day 4 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It’s a good day for another show and tell. These summer days are so busy with our prolonged heat wave and drought. My days are filled with watering, watering and more watering. Now the crops are maturing and we are overflowing with harvest. There’s little time to sit, be thoughtful and write something intelligent. So let me show you a little of where I live.

The herb spiral is in the immediate area as I step down from the deck. It’s made out of urbanite – broken up concrete from our front walk two summers ago. It was an immediate success. The herbs took to it like they’ve been growing there for years. I found the little monk statue at a garden center. He was meant for it and he reminds me of my Sheba every time I see him. Sheba was with me for almost 14 years and went to doggy heaven last May. The herb spiral sits in the space where a cherry bush sat. Sheba liked to pick the cherries when they came in season. It was also a cool place for her to lay under in summer.

Beyond the spiral is our bicycle shed. On top of the shed is a living roof. It’s the first year for it so it has mostly Bachelor’s Buttons growing with some chives and sedum. It’s a very dry summer with no rain so not many native wild flower seeds germinated. Underneath there’s an old wood burning stove, all cleaned and polished up. Will be nice to cuddle up to for cool autumn days and evenings. Beyond the shed is a solar passive greenhouse which is not shown. It’s for another time.

These are my guardian protective angels in the corners of the garden. They are the spirits and eyes to watch over and guard where I live.

A SLOW BAKE TUESDAY

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It’s day 3 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m feeling challenged to get the words onto the page. It has been overcast most of the day. It is cooler, but the house is still fairly warm from yesterday’s heat. The low during the night was 22℃. Still any temperature under 30℃ is a good day to bake bread.

It’s good that I’m an early bird since retirement. I’ve learned to get moving in the mornings during these hot, hot summer days. Seems like we are living under a heat dome. And there hasn’t been a break. This could be our NEW NORMAL. I better adjust and adapt. I can still live my best life. No need to cry Woe is me! That isn’t going to change anything. What is here is here. Does anyone hear any alarm bells besides me? No matter. I will proceed as best as I can.

This is turning out to be a laborious task. I’m toiling over my keyboard, pecking a letter at a time. The words, sentences and thoughts are difficult to organize. And dang! when I got a whole paragraph, I hit a wrong key and the whole thing disappeared. Pardon me while I cry ‘Woe is me!’ Baking bread is much easier. I know all the steps and measurements. I only messed up once and killed the yeast because the water was too hot. I ended up with unleavened dough for 6 loaves of bread. It wasn’t really a disaster. It made delicious flat bread and pizza dough. Most of the time I am overflowing with success.

Today was no exception. 6 beautiful golden loaves came out of the oven. The work doesn’t end there. It starts there with the clean up of endless washing of this, that and many other things. But apparently it is all worth the effort. I continue to do it as I continue to do the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Oh boy! what a struggle.

CHANGE ONE SMALL THING A DAY

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I am so happy that the dishes are done and I’m finally sitting down. Happy, too, that the weather is warming up and the sun is out. It is almost 4 pm and I am pooped on this 22nd day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I realize now that I’ve just gave out a very noisy sigh. Somehow that always makes me feel better. I’m alone at the moment. Sometimes I forget and do it in public. I would get a few chuckles. So no problem, eh?

Now that I have an opening, how shall I proceed? I always thought I was an active person. People seem to think I do alot because I garden and have lots of other hobbies. I also used to go to an aerobic class 3 times a week and swim every Saturday morning before Covid. That only took an hour or two counting travelling time. Then there’s the rest of the day in which I’m sedentary. Now I don’t even have that hour Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I’m trying to rectify it by keeping in motion and not being such a couch potato.

I used to hate having going downstairs so I would try to line up jobs so that I would go down just once or twice. Now I think of it as an opportunity to move and work off some fat. Change my thoughts, change my life. Wayne Dyer would be so proud of me. I have the book on my bookshelf but I haven’t read it. It’s been there for a number of years. I have so many bad habits but I’m working on changing them. It’s not easy but I’m not sweating it. I’ll work on one small thing a day.

Today I worked on being in motion more. I did my 20 minute sitting meditation with my morning tea. Then I got up and put away last night’s supper dishes drying on the rack. I fed Oscar, my sourdough starter. The guy likes to linger over his morning coffee before breakfast, so I did my qigong routine. After breakfast, I tended to the garden beds, taking some of the covers over the plants. Then they would have to be folded and put away. In my other life, I would just drop them somewhere, wherever. I’m trying to correct my sloppiness also.

All this correcting takes more time, of course. I try not to feel resentful about it. It is actually helping me in having more time in the long run. You see, I’m thinking differently. It didn’t happen overnight. It’s taken me a long, long time to get here. And I’m really, really tired. I did some harvesting of my veggies this morning, cleaned and chopped, stir fried, made soup and did the dishes. I think I’ve earned the couch now. No, wait! I better do my hula hoop and other exercises. It’s a short routine. Doing something different can get rid of fatigue.

HOPE FOR MY SOUL

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There’s no point in lamenting over the state of our planet/world. We are as dry as can be. What has happened to our April/May showers? I should rejoice at the warm temperatures but 32℃ and 30℃ forecast for the beginning of next week. Then it’s back down to 17℃ a few days later. I hope the forecast of rain pans out but somehow they have the habit of dissipating. Meanwhile our and U.S. news toots much hope of Covid under control and we can resume life as normal. But listening to news from other parts of the world, I think it is false hope. We are all connected. What affects one, affects all.

Let me not dwell on these things that I cannot control. I have to give myself a shake and ask, What can I do. How can I find hope? This morning I read an article of hope and resilience in the Guardian on the growth of American food forests. It’s what we are attempting to do. Our passion and goal is to grow as much of our own food as we can organically – in our own space and in the community garden.

It does take alot of time, energy and work but it is very rewarding for the soul. I see results for my effort. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours visiting my parents and planting mom’s front flower bed. It’s one of the things I can do for her. I’ve stopped with the gifts for Christmas and other holiday seasons. There’s not much material gifts that my parents need now. So it is Chinese takeout for the holidays and snow shovel in the winter. I start a few flowers and vegetables for them in the spring. My mother still likes to do everything herself. We compromised and split 50/50.

It’s Sunday morning, the 15th day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m showing up as best as I can.

MAKING DECISIONS

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I hate making decisions. It is perhaps one of my biggest time wasters. I fret over the smallest things like choosing from the menu. It takes away some of the pleasure of the dining occasion. Then there’s the decision of when and where and phoning people. Is it a good time? Would they like to hear from me? I guess it’s the fear of rejection. Even though I hate all of this deciding, I do reach the end point. I feel the obligation of doing my duty and also my best. Okay, this is what I’ve decided and I will do it. It does cost me alot of time and energy.

It’s a little shameful that I’m still struggling with this but at least I’ve said it out loud and in print. I should have done it sooner but it is the hardest, admitting this to myself. However, not voicing the problem prolongs it. It’s like the elephant in the room. It lurks in my being all the time, robbing me time, energy and ease. It is silly to agonize over every decision, wanting to make the best, perfect choice. I know now that there is no such thing as THE ONE right choice, decision, answer. I feel so much better. I’m not so weighed down with questions of:

  • Have I done the right thing?
  • Did I do enough?
  • Could I have done better?
  • Should I have chosen another restaurant/person/etc?

I am sure I will have days of indecision again but I will remember this working out of things. It will cut short the fretting and worrying and I can move on. I am pleased with my progress on this day 8 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

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Day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m happy for these early sunny mornings. I’m on alert not to let my thoughts wander and meander into weedy patches. Sometimes it is hard to stay focus and stay on track. My main goal for this month is to find more time and ease for myself. That doesn’t mean lolling around but time better spent. That means being more mindful in the moment, not letting mindless scrolling through the Internet and not mindless fretting over things that I have no control over.

Some days are more successful than others. I need not to fret over the not so successful days and be grateful when I do feel the flow. I just have to let go of the moment as it passes and move and groove with it. How am doing so far today? Better, I say. I’m here already, tapping out the words. I’ve been interrupted by the guy looking for boxes to put seed potatoes in to chit. Chitting potatoes is a new term we’ve learned this year. As usual when you don’t need a thing, there’s plenty around and when you need it, there’s none.

I took the time to go downstairs to look for some. I found two with stuff we no longer need. In the process of moving and freeing them, I discovered a whole pile of dust. It was staring right at me. I decided the right thing to do was to deal with things needing doing in the moment. It’s dealt with. More clean space. It’s what I need to do with my head, too – clear what is not needed and clean the space, filling it with things that nourish. It is that simple. It will create more time and ease.

INSPIRATION FROM A JESUIT IN RUSSIA

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It’s almost 4 in the afternoon. I’ve just sat down with my instant coffee. What I would like to do is have a little snack and watch an episode of Miss Marple. The trouble is I’ve signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I have a blog post to write. This is only day 3. Too early to skip out. I can keep it simple though. AND this is the start of the 3rd week of cutting back on food. A little snack here and there adds up. I like to make a serious effort for a month and make an assessment of how to proceed.

I didn’t forget my online class this morning like I did last week. It was the last one on the rise and fall of Mussolini. History is very interesting and Mussolini is a fascinating man. I am sure that there is so much more to learn than what can be covered in 8 2-hour classes. I’m learning about another fascinating though not as widely known man in history. He is Fr. Walter Cisek. He was an American Jesuit priest who spent 23 years in the Soviet Union. 18 of those years were as a prisoner and 15 of those years in the labour camps of Siberia.

I’m not quite halfway through his book, With God in Russia. It was a recommendation from Caroline Myss. She talks about it on many of her lectures. I knew it was a must read for me. I had reserved it from our library. It took almost a year for me to finally get it. And I would say that it came at a most apporpriate time. Talk about faith, challenges and strength. I think it would be a good read for those anti-maskers and covid deniers. I like to hear them talk about how the government is trying to take away their freedom after they have read the book.

Now I have to have a little snack. I feel a sugar low coming. I would not fare well in a labour camp. Who knows though until I find myself in that situation. Fr. Cisek himself admitted that he was a hoodlum and a bully when he was young. Then he got the call and he answered it and never wavered, not even for a second. Not even as a prisoner in Russia. I have heard a similar call a few years back. I answered, too and have kept faith in my own way. But I do have a lot to learn from Fr. Cisek.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF…

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February 26th, day 26 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Our administrator suggests the topic of a day in the life of..YOU! He makes it sound exciting and since it is what I do anyways, I will carry on. It is my genre. My life does not seem exciting to me. I am bored though I am interested in many things. Can this be possible. This last stretch of February is for the birds. I’ve said this of other months also.

Today is March 1, 2021. As you can see I have bombed out of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I could not stretch myself to the finish line. I gave in to binging on Netflix. It was on a good series, Shetland. I fell in love with the characters, the Shetland Islands, Scotland and the stories of Ann Cleeve. I was hooked and could not help myself. Every day, after lunch and after my afternoon cross country ski, I would plop myself in front of my iMac with a cup of tea and a slice of Swedish thin bread. It was my matinee hour. It was ALL very addicting.

All that binging has made me feel very terrible because there was no possible end to it. That is until I came to the end of Season 3. That’s it. No more seasons of Shetland on Netflix Canada anyways. Now I’m in front of my keyboard with just a cup of tea, trying to tap away the angst of my withdrawal. I’ve still kept up with the100dayproject. I’m still sewing a logcabin quilt square a day. I have 30 squares now. I have also finished my cross stitch of Jesus I started many years ago. My fingers weren’t idle while watching Shetland. They were busy weaving in and out of those little squares. I can feel good about that.

I am happy, too, that I’ve kept up with the daily cross country skiing. Exercise and the great outdoors are good addictions. Otherwise, I don’t know what shape my head would be in. We went out to the Wildwood Golf Course this afternoon. I set my timer for a 20 minute ski out and then 20 minutes to get back. Having a set time gave me a sense of security that I can make it back to the parking lot.

I’m glad that I can wrap up the end of February and the Ultimate Blog Challenge with a final post, even if I’m a day late. I hate leaving things unfinished. It’s as if I don’t care and have given up. It is always good to care and give a damn. Things can get better. They can’t if we don’t care.