GRATITUDE AND FORTITUDE

Posted on October 24, 2022 by hafong

It’s day 24 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. 7 more days to go after today. Since I’ve started it I want to finish it as best as I can. It’s a cloudy damp day. I’m as sleepy as I can be. It would be easy to throw in the towel and say, Good enough! I like to think I’m made of sterner stuff though. So I’m saying, No way, José! I hope I can live up to my own expectations. I hate to disappoint myself.

The 21 tiny habits is still fresh in my mind. So let me go through them. I’m always stumped on doing the grateful things. What 3 things am I grateful for today? We-e-l-l …..

I’m grateful we had the furnace fixed, cleaned and tuned in the summer. It’s getting colder and it snowed yesterday.
I’m grateful for our greenhouse. It’s still warm enough to keep it going, hopefully for a few more weeks into November. I can go in and harvest a few things to make a stirfry or a salad and to cheer myself up. The dahlia is still in bloom. There’s still tomatoes and bitter melons on the vine. There’s still a few peppers, too, as well as celery and Swiss Chard.
I’m grateful that I went to my exercise class this morning. I felt least likely wanting to but I did. Movement and engagement with others is good for body and mind.

Writing this post is the last must-do on my list today. It helps to have a list and a challlenge. Somehow I feel more accountable. I’ve been keeping up with my piano practice. I had a small chunk of time this morning before heading out to the gym. 20 minutes gives me enought time to practice my scales. I’m not progressing very fast and it is hard to co-ordinate both hands at the same time. I had to break it up in small sections, play right hand, then left hand and then both together. I bet I drove somebody around the bend. I can play a few simple tunes. Here’s a short little clip of Down In The Valley. I’m better than I thought! My timing is not too terrible and I’m not sounding that mechanical. Ok, enough now. I am done!

NOTES TO MYSELF

Posted on October 23, 2022 by hafong

Once again I am feeling overwhelmed by all my clutter even though I have sworn to do better. Habits are hard to change, especially bad ones. I’ve been scrolling through the world wide web for help and inspirations. Remembering the phrase A place for everything and everything in its place, I found a book by that name. It has some good reviews, too. The good thing is, it is in our library. I don’t have to buy it. Still, I couldn’t stop looking for more help. I started feeling bad about myself. I was procrastinating. I should at least sort and rid a few things instead of wasting time.

And so I did. I didn’t feel good doing it. At first I just shuffle bits and pieces of paper around. My head certainly is not in a space to handle financial papers. So I gathered those together for later dealings. Some items were definitely marked for trash. Then I found an index card named 21 Tiny Habits. They are quite helpful reminders to do but somehow I lost sight of them under all my clutter. Here they are if I haven’t posted about them already. I think they are meant to be done daily

List 3 things you are grateful for.
Yes no once.
Exercise for one minute upon waking.
Invest in experiences.
Organize your home.
Throw things away.
Manage your anxiety.
Stand up every hour.
Follow this proverb. When we don’t have head, we have legs. What does it mean? Check it out here.
Ask open-ended questions. It keeps the communications open.
Turn off notifications.
Prepare your clothes.
Watch the news less.
Drink more water.
Discover one thing a month.
Make your bed.
Spend a minute/day with yourself.
Ask yourself whether what you’re doing is worth it.
If a task takes 2 minutes, do it right away.
Take care of your posture.
Read for 15 minutes a day.

I have many of these habits already but if I do them all daily, I would be that much ahead. I should keep the list where I can see it every day so I’m reminded to do them.

THE FIRST TIME

Posted on October 22, 2022 by hafong

It’s morning again at 8:14. The sun has risen but it is cloudy and -3℃ out and 7.3℃ in the greenhouse. I see from the graph on the LaCrosse View app, the heater must have kicked in at 4 am. Thank goodness for modern technology that we can monitor the temperature in the greenhouse from the house. Before that in the spring of our first year, I was running in and out, back and forth. I had to cross my fingers and hope for the best after covering everything for the night. Now I can rest easy. It’s our second year. We are doing fabulous. I am pleased. The sun is beaming just now, too.

I made jelly the first time ever yesterday. It is another one of those things that I didn’t think I could do. In the past, reading the instructions discouraged me. First you have to prepare the fruit, cook it and do all that stuff with cheese cloth to get the juice. Doesn’t that sound formidable? Well, for some reason or other, this summer I got enticed by Lee Valley’s ad about the Mehu-Liisa Steamer/Juicer. It was a little pricey but I shrugged and thought: Why not? I deserve it. It’s not as if I need to justify it to anyone. It sure made things much easier. I made the first batch of juice with apples from my brother’s tree. Though they were the end of the season ones, the juice was sweet and delicious. No added sugar needed. I had a few bottles stored and waiting for me in cooler.

Yesterday I discovered that I can make jelly after all. It was fairly easy when I had already made the juice. But being the first time, it was more complicated, messier and took longer than needed. Isn’t that true of all first times? I’m happy to say it was a success. The jelly jelled. I will try making grape jelly next in a few days. Making food is very satisfying to an old soul.

boiling apple juice + lemon juice + calcium water

WISH LIST

Posted on October 20, 2022 by hafong

October 20th and day 20 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I did not write yesterday. It’ll be 4 days that I have missed so far but who’s counting, eh? I’ve been juicing our Concorde grapes. We had a big harvest. Last year I got only 2 glasses. This year 5 one-liter bottles so far. I’m a tuckered little homemaker. I wanted to rest yesterday but the grapes were getting ripe and riper, falling out of their skins. I had to finish processing them. I juiced 2 bottles and froze the rest. My fingertips are still bluish and achy from all the squishing and washing.

I had no spare energy at the end of the day but I did practice my piano. Knowing how to play one was one of my top wants on my wish when I was growing up in Maidstone, Saskatchewan. We were poor and couldn’t afford such luxuries. When we did get an old rinky dinky one, we couldn’t afford lessons. It made a nice piece of furniture and we played it however we could. It was a big deal when I finally fulfilled this wish in my late 40s. I can read music enough to play very basic piano even though I’ve taken lessons on classical piano up to Grade 3. I even enjoyed practicing scales. However, I did drop the lessons and playing. It happened. Now I’m getting back to it. I will never be a good pianist but I enjoy the exercise. It’s what counts – joy in playing.

I’ve talked about the other items on wishlist before – learning to ride a bike and learning to swim. I never had the opportunity to do either when I was young for the same reason. We were poor. I can do both now but I am not skilled in either. It’s harder to master those skills when you are an adult. As an adult, I am full with fear of failing, falling and drowning. I worked long and hard at both to overcome my fears. I am proficient enough to enjoy both activities. Now I am hampered by the closing of the pool where I have been swimming. I will have to find another where I will be comfortable. My neighbourhood is high in traffic so I didn’t even get my bike out this summer. I will do better next year.

I still have fears. Though we’ve had exceptional sunny warm October days, they are shorter. The mornings are dark until 7 before it starts to light up. I feel twinges of my seasonal affectiveness then and in late afternoon, especially when I am tired. I close my eyes and try to picture all the gold and oranges of autumn. Somehow they help to dispel some of the cold goose bumpy feelings. And a cuppa and adding to my wish list always help.

WHY I’M NEVER BORED

Posted on October 18, 2022 by hafong

It’s true that I’m seldom bored. I don’t think I’m an exciting person or that my life is exciting. But I find life very exciting. Our universe is a wondrous thing. To wake up each morning to a new day is magical. I look forward to it before I go to bed each night. What will the day hold? What new things will I learn? I try not to think about how much I can accomplish. Being somewhat type A, I do – want to squeeze in as much as I can. I have learned to ease off and relax when I start feeling a bit squeezed.

So I am in my Ease Spot in this moment with my fingers on my keyboard. My morning was busy tackling my grapes. I had one pail separated from the stems last evening while watching a movie. They are now washed. I made a start of squeezing them out of their skins first before I steam juice them. It was a difficult task of separating them and the pulp through the food mill other day. I got distracted from that task. We’re down to our last loaf of bread, so I got the dough started. It is now proofing in the oven. The yeast is very active as we have another warm October day. I will do the loafing and baking after lunch. The dough is very resilient. I will punch it down and stick it in the fridge till I’m ready. It is hitting the roof of the oven.

Now it is after lunch. The bread is in the oven. Dishes, pots and pans washed. No further progress with the grapes. I’m a little tired. Time for a rest and a stretch after the bread comes out of the oven. The thing with getting older is, my mind is still willing but my body says no. It needs some TLC. I will now do my daily C.A.R.S. No, I’m not talking about driving a car but doing exercises to improve/keep my mobility. It stands for Controlled Articular Rotations. I was introduced to it by our exercise instructor at the YWCA. I always felt so relaxed after each class- as if I’ve had a massage. This video is excellent showing how each exercise is done.

MAKING MY OWN MUSIC

Posted on October 17, 2022 by hafong

October can be such a beautiful month. I remember we had some fine sunny warm days into Halloween. Today it is such. It is sunny at 11℃ with a promise of going up to 16℃. Sun and warmth is the forecast for the next 2-3 days. Hellelujah! It warms the cockles of my heart.

The day has sped away on me. That was this morning after coming home from my exercise class. I love that time of day when I can savour a cuppa tea and some reflections before making lunch. I harvested small lettuce from the raised bed toward our salads. This summer hasn’t been too good for lettuce. It was good in spring but they got old quickly in the summer heat. Then the birds devoured the new plantings. I can’t complain though. We had enough other greens to make up for the lettuce.

The greenhouse is still thriving in this October weather. I harvested some Swiss Chard, green peppers and a cucumber to add to the salad. My bitter melons are going crazy producing lots of little baby melons. I pollinated them all with my little brush. It’s as if they could sense their end is near and they’re producing like mad. They did that last fall, too. I wonder if they will have enough time to grow big enough to eat. It’s interesting watching how things are growing. They’re teaching/showing me their life/time line.

It’s almost 6 pm again. I’m falling short on my do-list. I will not be able to do any grape juicing today. However, I did raked up some leaves in the front yard. It wasn’t on my list but I saw the need. I put in 20 minutes of practice on the piano this morning. I started piano lessons at a very adult age and had abandoned them almost 20 years ago after 4 years. Now I want to pick it up again. I have all those music books and I can take my time. If I had kept it up all those years, I might be a fair musician by now. I still have time. It’s never too late to make my own music.

MY WHOLE PICTURE

Posted on October 16, 2022 by hafong

Day’s end. I am again struggling to write today’s post for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Funny how some days the words just flow. Then I have these days. I am stuck at START with no forward movement. I guess I will have to work for each word and sentence until I have a paragraph, then another and another. So rather than being stuck, bored and restless I scroll through social media. I have just scrolled through Esme Weijun Wang’s Intagram. I’ve been following her for a few years. I find Esme very interesting and inspiring as she is Asian, a writer, has a schizoaffective disorder and suffers from chronic lyme disease. She has so many physical and mental challenges and yet she is very successful. It makes me try a little harder to push through my own little trials.

I have recently said that it’s not good for me to look at the big picture when I’m tackling a big job. It overwhelms me before I can get started. There are always exceptions to the rule. If I want to have a successful day/life, I have to look at the whole picture. What is it that I want for the day/life? After I have identified my goal, I then break down the steps to get there. I guess it’s called planning. It’s something I haven’t consciously done or thought to do – until now. So what was my whole picture for the day?

Writing this post.
Juicing one ice cream pail of grapes.
Finish reading Explain Pain.

How did I do? I’ve juiced two ice cream pails of grapes for 3 bottles of juice. I’ve cleaned up after myself, too. I have 20 pages in Explain Pain to read. I still have time tonight. I want to return it to our exercise guru at our gym tomorrow. And my post is finished. How about that, eh?

I CAN’T DO IT ALL

Posted on October 15, 2022 by hafong

Egads, it is 6 pm already! I’m as tired as can be. I’ve been busy being Martha Stewart all day long. I made yogurt in the morning. Then soup with all the leftovers from Thanksgiving for lunch. Seems like not much if it was just the makings and no cleaning up after. I had alot of mashed sweet potatoes left from Thanksgiving. I made muffins with them after lunch which resulted in more washing up. I bet Martha never did any stuff around the kitchen. She just writes about it and somebody else do the cooking and cleaning up. Well, it’s all done, the cooking, baking and cleaning up. I’m finally here for another Ultimate Blog Challenge post.

I’m glad I was reminded about choosing my battles yesterday. I can’t fight/do them all. I did pause and thought about the more important ones. It’s prioritizing. I can have my cake and eat it but I can’t do it all. It’s a good thing we have the walk-in cooler in the garage. I’ve harvested 4-5 ice cream pails of grapes couple of days ago. I got my bottles for bottling juice from Amazon yesterday. They are washed and dried. They are ready but I’m not. There’ll be alot of sorting and washing grape before they can be juiced. They can keep in cooler till I can muster up more energy. I will aim to juice one pail tomorrow. It’s not about all or nothing. Just one thing will suffice.

It’s another day when I can only write my post for the challenge. I will pass the daily thread again today. I’m choosing what is the wiser thing to do today. I am tired and need to wind down for the evening. Tomorrow is another day.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EARNEST

Posted on October 14, 2022 by hafong

Oh dear, the day got away on me! It is already 7pm on this 14th day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I had intentions of being here earlier but I got distracted and delayed. It was for a good reason so I shan’t complain. I was out in the yard, taking some buckets of water for the greenhouse. My neighbour across the back alley saw me and came across for a visit. She was having some trouble with her neighbour and just needed a shoulder to cry on. I know what that feels like. We had a nice and very long visit. When I came into the house, it was 5 pm. Time to have a sit down and have a cuppa to warm and relax a bit before supper.

Earlier in the day, I read someone’s post on consistency. She shared Marie Forleo YouTube video on How To Be Consistent: 5 Steps To Get Things Done, All The Time. I thought it was pretty good and jotted down the 5 steps for myself. You can watch the video for a full explanation but here are the main points.

Keep an eye on why. I tend to forget my goal after awhile.
Pick your battle.
Schedule it.
Ignore your feelings. Quite often I don’t feel like doing anything but I try hard do it anyways.
Catch that wagon. I fell off my writing for 3 days over Thanksgiving. I’m back on now.

Seeing these steps and writing about them keeps me motivated. My eye is on the why I want to complete the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It is important for me to do the best I can but to enjoy and have fun also. Though I’m short of time and it is late, I can still put in an earnest if not long effort. As it is getting late, I will not put it in the daily thread. I don’t have time to read 2 posts and comment on them. I am picking my battle – writing my piece and posting it. Tomorrow I will do the second part. I like following the rules. I am an earnest person. I’ll have fun later.

I AM READY

Posted on October 13, 2022 by hafong

Sometimes magic happens when you just start – anything. And contrary to popular belief, don’t look at the whole picture. When I do, I’m often overwhelmed with the impossibility of it and I don’t start. I was pushed forward by the fact that every time I look out my sunroom, my view was obscured by dusty windows. I felt disgusted and shameful. I thought I could wash some if not all of them. I ended washing all but 3. Motivated I did the bedroom and bathroom windows the next day. The following day after that, I did the kitchen ones. Each time I marvelled that I can see and smell clean and it felt wonderful.

Now I have just the livingroom left and all the windows in the basement. There’s LOTS of windows down there. That’s why it’s best not to think of the big picture. But it did lead me to think about my mother and her house. My 90 year old parents are still living on their own. We help with the grocery shopping, the lawn and snow shovelling in winter. She didn’t want help with the house. Seeing how much hard it was for myself, I asked her if she needed help with washing the windows and the dusting. Oh, I washed all the windows already, she told me. I do one a day. It takes me a couple of months but they’re done. I use a stick with a cloth to dust those hard to reach things so I’m good.

I’ve always admired my mother but now even more. She has always been my source of inspiration. While I’m still on this motivation high, I tackled putting all the garden stuff away in the garage today. I tried to do it properly by finding a place for everything. It’s a bit of a job but I made a start. It’s been a long time since I worked in the garage. 9 years exactly, the number of years since I’ve retired. I cleared a few shelves of dust, dirt and cobwebs for my plant trays. A few pots were broken that got accidentally knocked down. I pulled out totes to see what they held. I found 2 of Sheba’s beds in one. Even though they had been washed before being stored, they stank. I was ready to let them go now. She has been gone for 2½ years. It is time.

I’m feeling surprised by my get up and go. I have been so languid for so long. I felt as if I have just woke from a deep slumber. I think it is my 90 year old mother jolting me awake. If she can still keep her house spic and span, I could at least try for just spic to start. Being able to still keep her house clean gives her so much pleasure along with walking in her garden and seeing her flowers. I can learn alot from her. I have a long way to go and lots to do. I am ready.

onethousandandtwo

Looking at Infinity

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