I just had to share this one last time this year. It’s been such an amazing song for me. It dovetailed perfectly with Self-Care, which has been so important to me this year.
Self-care. I will be continuing to practice it :-)
Volume is very low on this for some reason, so turn your sound up and embrace every part of yourself. :-)
It’s Christmas! I hope you are enjoying this day :-)
I was getting a hair cut a couple of weeks ago and this sign was outside the salon.
Made me laugh right out loud :-D 2023 was not a horrible year for me. I learned a lot and have much to be thankful for. I have been thinking back on my “year of self-care,” and am well-pleased. I cared well for myself. I took care of myself. I did the best I could.
I already have my word of the year and my new song for 2024 and will share them with you soon. At the moment, though, I’m reflecting on self-care and what it actually means. For me, it’s about taking the time needed. About treating myself with respect. About changing the negative and shaming self-talk on the tapes that play in my head. It’s about not letting the monsters drive the bus, as author, Josh Hillis, says. It’s about knowing that I am worthy of love and connection. That I am enough just as I am right this very minute.
Ho Ho Ho(ly Shit)! It’s been a good year and I am grateful.
Merry Christmas, my friends :-)
Christmas is not always a happy time for everyone. If it’s not a happy time for you, I hope this tune might give you some hope . . .
2023 is nearly finished. Baby New Year is on his way! As I look back over the months from September to now, here is my final Field Report of the year. :-)
Life in General
I’m happy to tell you that I found a replacement for my very favorite coffee mug on eBay. It was brand new!!! I’m thrilled to have it, and I’m being very careful with it :-)
I got to catch up with one of my dear friends for a lunch a couple of weeks ago. It had been WAY too long since we’d been able to see each other.
Life in the Time of COVID
Yeah. I tested positive for COVID on September 10th and was really, really sick. Down for the count for two full weeks, and had a lingering cough and lack of stamina for more like two months. Ugh. Getting sick when I did meant that I missed the new COVID vax by five days. I was able to get my flu shot and an RSV shot in September, but I had to wait 90 days to get the new COVID vax. I took care of that last week
Health
I “graduated” from seeing the oncology surgeon at the end of November. This is pretty wonderful. I am reminded all the time how lucky I was – and am. I’ve managed to drop about 20 pounds this quarter. I’ve been middling around the same five pounds for a bit. It’s my plan that the scale will continue downward in the new year. December is a crazy month for fat loss, so I’m grateful to stay in this 5-pound range at the moment.
I continue with Balance365 Coaching. It’s some of the best money I have spent on my self and my own self-care.
No real changes in strength, and the grief work that I started was interrupted by being so ill with COVID. That will get picked back up and finished early in the new year.
Creativity
I’ve been going crazy with my Tru-Knit sock machine! I just love it. It was a good expenditure, and not horrifyingly expensive since I sold my previous machine to be able to get it. I’ve cranked a lot of socks for various family members, and everyone seems to love the arm warmers I’ve been cranking, too.
I’m currently knitting on an Advent Mystery Knit-Along, however, I’m about 10 days behind :-D I’m using up scraps of Socks That Rock yarn that were leftover from the arm warmers I cranked. The Wickershanks leg warmers are not quite finished – I will be working on them over the coming holidays to get them finished and off my needles. Same with my DunBroch socks. I’m part way through the second sock. Cross Stitch has taken a back seat to everything else since summer.
And not my creativity, but my friend, Michelle’s, creativity. This awesome tam arrived in the mail. It was actually a little big on my melon head, but I washed it and fulled it in the dryer for a bit and it’s pretty perfect now.
Here’s a look at Michelle’s beautiful colorwork:
Hope and Self-Care
I did a lot of personal work this year, and a lot of self-care. Self-Care was my word of the year for 2023, and I really worked it. I played Self-Care Bingo for 11 months. I’m beginning to build Morning Pages back into my routine – and in fact am beginning the structure/framework for myself of a different morning routine as I head into the new year.
I told a story in May at Homewood Stories, and I will be telling another there tomorrow night. It’s a story of hope :-)
I feel like I learned a lot this year in many areas. I just keep moving forward. I hope you do, too :-)
This just seems like the perfect time in Advent to share this one again. I hope you enjoy it.
Another Thursday :-) These are the things on my mind today – and WP isn’t playing nice with me, so I’m going with a slightly different format:
FIRST: Sweet Baby Jesus, PLEASE let this horrendous smoke/air quality move along. All week Chicagoland has had the worst air on the planet (I’m not kidding), due to the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Here’s a look yesterday to today. We’ve been in the purple since Tuesday, which is bad enough, but 285 is perilously close to to the brown Hazardous category. Thankfully the number has started to come down (we’re actually now down to 163 (!) at least we’re in the red today . . . ) and I just got a severe thunderstorm warning on my phone, so I’m crossing my fingers that that will help.
I know that wind is what will really move the smoke out, but rain has to help, at least a little, anyway. The scale index is on the bottom right of the photo. This is the AirNow app, from the EPA. If you or someone you love has asthma or other respiratory issues, this app is a godsend. It’s available for both iOS and Android and it’s free.
SECOND: As part of my year of Self-Care, I’m going to get my colors done. Well, done again :-) Anyone else have theirs done back in the 80s when it was the thing to do? I was a Winter. There’s a new system, and I’m really looking forward to my appointment as part of helping myself move forward and feeling better about myself in the process :-) Self-Care for the win!!
THIRD: I have my next cross stitch project picked out for July Summer Cross Stitch Camp! I’m going with Sheep Heap, from Plum Creek Samplers. I’ll have a photo soon :-)
This air quality has been really awful and I can only imagine how much worse it has to be up in Canada, where my local news tells me that 29,000 acres have burned . . . . I’ve been indoors for the past few days and still I find myself coughing in the house. Have to leave you with this funk gem from the 70s. I spent a lot of time on the dance floor getting down to this tune.
I’ve got some photos to share today! This charming shot is of the four bags of yew clippings that I managed last week. The village doesn’t start to pick up yard waste until April, so they’ve been hanging out in the garage. They’ll go down to the curb on Thursday.
I was reminded last month that I have a Hamama tray and plenty of seed quilts, and that I could be growing my own microgreens. So I got cracking. I first tried this system back in October 2021. That means that my seed quilts have been sitting for a very long time. I wasn’t sure how they’d do, but the first one was pretty successful :-) I harvested this lot yesterday and started a new seed quilt at the same time. I already had some today on a vegetable sandwich and they were very good.
The first square I pulled for April Self-Care Bingo was Declutter Something. I decided that this basket was my target. I started last night and managed to get it all sorted out into piles of To Keep, To File, To Recycle, To Toss,,, and To Read.
This morning, I tossed and/or recycled what I could, put at least one thing in the current bag for the Second Chance Shop, read what I could (and then put that paper in the recycle), and added stuff to the To File pile in my office (that will be for another day). This empty basket is really making me all happy. :-)
Self-Care Bingo Update
Well, I didn’t have any Bingos in March. I pulled plenty of squares, but my focus was pretty much entirely on skin cancer. That’s OK – this exercise is not about punishing myself, it’s about finding little ways of caring for myself throughout the month.
Pretty sure I’ll get at least one Bingo in April, and I’ve changed up a few squares again for good measure. Some new items include Listen to a Podcast, Get Your Skincare Routine On, and Eat Dinner at the Dining Room Table, as well as Find Something for Your Box. My bestie suggested I make a new box for myself to replace the one I lost so many years ago. I love that idea and I’m working on it now.
I feel like April will be an interesting month :-)
Today just seems to be a B.B. King day. He’s one of my favorite artists – in fact, I saw him in concert more times than any other musician – I think three times. So, some B.B. King is never a bad choice. I love this album – it was released in 1991. It’s one of my favorites. And I love the gospel feel of this particular tune. Seems appropriate for this Sunday evening. I hope you will enjoy it.
I managed two Bingos for February!! Yay Me!! I would have had three because Buy Yourself Flowers was one of the squares I pulled, but the timing was never right for that. Still, I’m happy that I got two, and I’m glad that I did these things in the interest of my own self-care.
My March card is all ready to go. Like last month, there are some things the same, some that haven’t gotten pulled yet, and some new choices in the mix, as well. I added Morning Pages back in because I haven’t been writing them in February, and I know that they always help me in my daily life. It also sets me up for an easy win, and we all need some things that are easy :-)
I finished my second Winter Cross Stitch Camp piece. It, like the Self-Care piece, will be a small pillow – about 5″ x 5″. It is my Word of the Year for last year, Joy. I probably should have put 2022 for the year, but usually the year is when the piece was stitched, so I left it 2023. This is a mix of things that bring me joy, and experiences and times where I find joy. The runes at the bottom right were from my December 21, 2021 reading, which was for moving into the new year of 2022. The fabric is unknown linen, about 32-33 count. The design is my own – using other things I have found along the way. The Celtic pieces in this one are the spirals that are doing double duty as some of the fireworks, and the Celtic Water Jewels in the triangle. All the floss is DMC – 310, 371, 402, 762, 791, 825, 869, 975, 3031, 3033, 3328, 3774, 3777, 3808, 3816, 3829, 3852, 3853, and Ecru.
I was in the city last week on the one crappy weather day that week. This was taken from a conference room on the 34th floor of the Franklin building. What you see through the raindrops, is a statue – the silhouette of which is immediately recognizable to any Chicagoan.
It’s Ceres, the Roman Goddess of agriculture. She’s a 30-foot-tall, faceless, Art Deco/cubist-style John H. Storrs sculpture, and she lives atop the Chicago Board of Trade, generally referred to here as the CBOT. If you click on the link at the beginning of this paragraph, you’ll be able to see how beautiful she really is, and the article is very interesting, particularly if you are not local.
Closer to home, I was out later in the day a few days ago for a walk around the pond in our unseasonably warm weather, and caught these three guys just getting ready to glide out for a float.
I’m glad that February is over. It’s a short month, but even with the warmer weather this year, there’s just something about it . . . I’m happy to move forward :-)
And just as I was typing that previous paragraph, this tune popped right into my mind. So, let’s blast back to the mid-80s. Get your shoulder pads on. Maybe skip that school bus yellow MacLeod tartan suit, though. ;-D
Lots of fun and different stuff to share with you today! Hard to know where to start, so I’ll start with a Bingo update!
Bingo Update – February
It’s hard to believe that next week will be the last week in this shortest month of the year. It’s been unseasonably warm in Chicagoland and I’ve been able to get out more. Here is my most recent card.
No Bingo yet, but I have pulled more squares than I have accomplished. I’m bummed about “Listen to Music,” because I did pull it, but my CD changer definitely seems to be on the fritz. I tried a cleaning disk, but that didn’t work. At this point – it’s probably 25 years old – I’m wondering if it’s worth fixing. It’s an old Pioneer that I got because I still have what used to be called a “rack” of stereo components. I got all the pieces overseas, and I switched out the old cassette for a CD changer forever ago. I think CD components are being phased out, so I’m going to have to see about getting a replacement, because I really do still listen to CDs. I just pulled up a playlist on my iTunes while I’m working on this post and it’s going to count for that square. This morning I pulled “Give Yourself a Facial,” so it’s looking like I will have at least one Bingo for February :-)
Not only did I try a new recipe, I tried two! First was Vegan Lentil Soup, from Eating Well. I really loved the Eating Well magazine and was very disappointed when they stopped publishing it. It continues with an online presence, however, and I often find some of my best recipes from there. Of course there were a few changes made – foremost being that mine was not vegan because I used some chicken stock that I had made from roasting a whole chicken. I also lessened the salt. I forgot to add 1 cup of water, and I used a Rainbow Lentil mix that contained both barley and orange lentils. It was what I had on hand, and I’m doing my best to eat stuff up rather than letting things expire in their boxes and bags. Anyway, the orange lentils sort of disintegrate, which made the soup very thick – almost like a chili.
I’ve had that Dutch oven for some time, and this gave me a chance to use it. It was really good soup, you guys! It makes 6 servings, but I did four large ones so that it would be a meal. Next time I might cut up some sausage to include. And next time I will also be freezing some servings. I was very tired of eating it four days in a row, and beans/lentils after four days bring some unwanted tooting at inopportune moments, if you get my drift. ;-D But it was very, very good.
The other recipe I tried was called 4-Ingredient Whole Wheat Artisan Bread, from my friend, D. This was an adventure. It’s not like I don’t know how to bake bread – when I was in Jr. High, girls still had to take Home Ec, and it was one of the things I learned. So I know how, I just haven’t done it in a very long time . . . And I had all the ingredients. How hard could it be?
Famous (and prophetic) last words . . .
All things being considered, it could have been much worse. I’ll just say that up front. My yeast was expired but never opened. It was from the beginning of the pandemic . . . . But I decided to chance it. I also did straight whole wheat flour. Those of you who are experienced bread makers are already shaking your heads. It was supposed to rise for 12-18 hours. And you can see by the photo above that it did rise. But not all that much. I let it go for 15 hours, I think, and then my Dutch oven, which I mentioned had never been used before, got used for the second time in a week. The dough bore a startling resemblance to a brain, but I pressed on and managed to get it into the hot Dutch oven.
It looked pretty good to me when it was time to get it onto the rack to cool. Getting it out of the Dutch oven was quite the trick. That thing is heavy. I’m really strong, but it was a challenge. I managed to do it, however, without burning myself, thankfully. It was really quite pretty, don’t you think?
The bottom was a little well done, but not horrible, and the crust was VERY crusty. Unfortunately, though, while it was done, it just hadn’t risen enough. The bottom half was practically solid. A very hard crust, and a very dense crumb – almost no crumb at all, really, but I had some with my soup, and it was edible. I didn’t keep it, though.
I will be trying again. Next time, I’m going to replace 1 C of whole wheat flour with 1 C of white flour, and I got some brand new yeast, AND, I’m going to let it rise in my oven with the light on. I keep my house relatively cool at this time of year. I had set it on the cutting board on my counter (rather than on the stone), and it was right under a puck light, but 65 degrees is cool for bread to rise. So, I’m not going to turn the oven on, but I’m going to turn the oven light on, and leave the next loaf in there overnight to see if that helps at all. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
One of the squares I got was “Call or Text a Friend.” This turned out to be sort of sad for me. I rang a friend of mine who has lung cancer that has metastasized to her brain. She knew it was me, but our conversation was stilted as she is not totally herself any longer. Her personality has been affected and she’s angry and unhappy. Even while I was very happy to have had a chance to chat with her, I was sad after our call because the woman I knew for so many years wasn’t really there any longer . . .
In happier – and very fun – news, I got to catch up with my stepson this week. He is a sound guy and tours with various bands and artists, all of whom hit somewhere in the Chicagoland area when they are on tour. This time it was a 2-hour drive in seriously crappy weather, but we don’t get to see each other that often, so whenever he’s relatively close, I do my best to make it happen for us to spend some time together. Usually a meal – lunch or dinner – before he has to get back for the show.
We usually go to a restaurant, but the weather was bad enough that he suggested that we stay in the theatre and have dinner with the crew. I said that was fine with me if it was OK for me to join him there. He had already OK’d it with the tour manager and we had a very nice dinner together before going back downstairs to watch first the opening act, and then the artist he’s currently doing sound for.
He always always asks if I want to see whatever show he’s working on, and I’ve always declined, but this time, I said yes, and we had a great time! I was side-stage with him for the entire show! It was very fun, and very exciting to watch him work. He set me up with a “pack,” which is an in-ear monitor. It’s what all the musicians wear so they can hear themselves.
Here we are backstage. Even though he is not “mine,” he is absolutely the child of my heart. We both treasure any time spent with each other, and I’m so proud of him. He’s really good at what he does.
And here’s my pack! He asked me to bring my own corded earbuds, which I did, so I had in-ear monitors just like the people on stage! Being set up like this allowed me to hear everything that the musicians were hearing. It was very cool! I’ve been body-miked onstage before (in another life), but this was different because music was involved and everyone has to actually hear the mix to be able to play and deliver a good show. Can’t even tell you how touched I was to see this on mine. :-)
And here I am, in my perch next to him, all hooked up. I put the pack on my backpack purse strap. The green at the bottom of the photo is my VIP sticker, which allowed me backstage :-)
This was a pretty big deal for me. Not only did I get to spend time with my stepson, I was actually out doing something fun. The house was not large that night, mainly due to the crappy weather we were having, but this was the first large event (what I consider large) for me since before the pandemic. I find that a smaller house makes for a much more intimate musical experience. I was the only person in the theatre in a mask, but it’s still what I do to do my best to stay safe.
They will be back this way in August, and I can hardly wait!! :-)
I finished my Winter Cross-Stitch Camp project. I am very happy with how it turned out. I made this design, taking motifs and letters from other patterns and books, putting them together to bring my vision to life. Everything is somehow related to self-care for me. It’s much more colorful than any of the other projects I’ve done so far and I really like that about it.
I kitted up my next project, which is for my word of the year for 2022, which, as you probably know, was Joy. Lots and lots of color again :-) I’ve made good progress and will share it with you soon.
I’ve watched a few movies recently. On the “don’t bother” hand was Stardust, which is about David Bowie. It was so awful I stopped after about 20 minutes. And if you knew how much I love anything Bowie, you would know it had to be dreadful for me to stop watching after so short a time. On the other hand, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, is absolutely lovely and I highly recommend it. Lesley Manville is delightful, and it’s beautifully filmed. The cinematography is beautiful, and I felt it was very well edited. It is based on Paul Gallico’s 1958 book, Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris, which I read forever ago. I loved Paul Gallico’s books when I was younger, particularly The Man Who was Magic, so it’s not surprising that I read more of his work as I got older. I also watched Echo in the Canyon, which I liked because I love the music that came out of Laurel Canyon. It’s also worth watching just to look at (and hear) Jakob Dylan, who bears a striking resemblance to his father.
I’m going to leave you with an old tune that Jakob Dylan and Beck sing in Echo in the Canyon. It’s from a poem from the 1930s by a Welsh man named Idris Davies. Folksinger, Pete Seeger, put it to music. I first heard it when Cher (yes, that Cher!) recorded it when she was probably still a teenager. The Byrds also recorded it.
This is Jakob Dylan and Beck – The Bells of Rhymney
Been a little blue off and on for the past couple of weeks, and then yesterday I learned that one of my Canadian cousins is in hospice. So, a little blue and now a little sad. I’ve been sorta thinking that the weather has a lot to do with my blueness. This week it’s FINALLY sunny. I heard on the news that this January was the cloudiest January on record here. Of course, it’s been like 1 degree out, so I’m not out in it much. Today is a little warmer – it was 17 when I headed to the club this morning.
I got the results of my latest 24-hour urine collection back, and yesterday I met with my nephrologist. It was a great appointment. The long and short of it, is that I’m finally on the right dose of potassium citrate, and – at this time – I have no stone risk. This is really great news. It’s up to me to keep it this way. I’m very cognizant of my fluid intake, and I do my best to keep a handle on my sodium. I’ll see my urologist later this month as he wants to review the findings, too.
Bingo Update
I finished up January with two Bingos for the month. Yay Me! I haven’t yet decided what I will “win” for these, but will let you know when I do.
My February Bingo card is ready. Here it is! Some things the same, some not.
I’ll keep you informed, but maybe not quite as often as I did in January :-)
This song called to me today. It’s from a Pakistani now naturalized Indian musician and singer, Adnan Sami. He has often been what they call a playback singer in Bollywood. I love Bollywood, particularly the films and music from the mid- to late-aughts. This one is from 2009. (And yeah, that’s Jermaine Jackson in the picture – they sang together on another song from this album.)
That’s a phrase that my friend, D, uses, and in the past couple of days it has certainly applied to me. :-D You’re just not going to believe this . . .
So. Friday. I go to the club for a great workout, and then I got on a kidney stone accountability group call where I was talking about eggs and how challenging it is that I cannot have them very often. My body has developed a sensitivity to them that causes severe intestinal distress (in case you don’t know, that’s A-speak for The Poops). I can usually get away with an egg salad sandwich one day, as long as I don’t have anymore the next day. So, I came home from the club and, later that afternoon, I decided I would hard boil the six eggs I had that were older and use a couple of them to have egg salad for dinner. I boil my eggs for about 30 minutes. I know, that sounds bizarre, but I cannot stand even a hint of softness in the yolk. In fact, I’m happiest when there’s a green ring of sulfur around it, which means that the eggs have been boiled too hard for too long. It’s how I like them.
Anyway, I put the kettle on for some tea, and when it whistled, I made my tea and sat down with the last of the floss colors I was trying to put together for my next cross stitch project. I successfully finished that, put the eggs on, with the plan to check them as soon as they boiled and set the timer, and then I headed back into my office for just a moment to work on the chart for my next cross stitch project.
Three hours later, I looked up from my computer screen, realized it was six o’clock and I really needed to drink the rest of my tea because I usually don’t drink it after three o’clock. I walked out to the kitchen to get it, and something smelled off – a little burny. I looked toward the cooktop and panicked. I immediately shut the gas off, but here is what I saw.
I KNOW better than to leave the kitchen when I have something on the stove. My creative brain just got so caught up in what I was doing with the stitching chart that I completely forgot about the eggs.
JesusMaryAndJoseph.
AndAllOfHisCarpenterFriends.
I know I was lucky they hadn’t exploded and even luckier that I didn’t burn the house down. While they were cooling, I went back to my office and then heard a noise suspiciously sounding like a big pop. My heart sank, and I headed back to the kitchen where I carefully poked my head around the refrigerator to look at the cooktop. Thank. God. Nothing had exploded and I never did find out what the “pop” was. I had to spray Lysol throughout the entire house, but the smell was not horrible because the shells had remained intact. Once the eggs were cooled off all the way, I put them in a ziplock bag and then put them in another ziploc bag and put them in the bin (so far, not smelly at all). Even I think boiling for three hours is too long to safely have eaten them. :-D I heaved another sigh of relief that I had escaped what would sure have been a very expensive homeowners’ insurance claim. All I was left with was a burnt pan.
I thought for sure it was ruined and I was heartbroken, because I have really great (read: old) Revere Ware copper bottom saucepans. They don’t make them anymore. I actually have two of the larger sizes because my mom had them, as well. I did a little research online (I made my living for close to twenty years researching things online, so I’m pretty good at it) and found what I thought would be a good process to try. It entailed a small amout of boiling water, some vinegar, and some baking soda. So, this morning, I crossed my fingers and figured I’d better try sooner rather than later.
HOT DOG!!!! Success!!!
And because the inside looked like new, I decided to pull out the copper cleaner and do the bottom as well! You have no idea how happy I am that I did not ruin this pan. I just made some rice in it, and there’s no burnt residue. So grateful!
So then, Saturday. I have been having trouble getting out of bed lately. I’ll wake up around 6 or 7, but play on my phone, and before I realize it, it’s 9 o’clock. This is not a good habit and it’s one I will be working on very soon. It’s not like I have somewhere I have to be most days, but lazing around in bed is not best for me. Anyway, I read a Facebook post from my church minister that he was doing a funeral that day and I realized it was one that I wanted to go to and had put on the calendar. So I got up, got cleaned up, got my eyebrows on, and finally opened a box containing black Sanitas clogs that I wanted to wear with the black outfit I had on. I originally ordered these in May of last year and had mistakenly ordered the wrong size (Euro size 42). So I returned them for some 40s. The exchange package arrived in June, and sat on a chair in my living room until yesterday when I wanted to wear them with my black outfit. I know, I could have opened them sooner than seven months after they arrived . . . but I hadn’t. I opened up the box to put some neutral cream on them – SOP for any new shoes before wearing – and discovered that Zappos had sent me the wrong size. They were 39s. Crap. So I got on the phone and got an exchange figured out. Then I put my regular really dark navy clogs on and hoped no one would notice. I got in the car, and was halfway to church before I realized I had completely forgotten to brush my teeth.
Great.
There was no way to get home, do that, and get back to church in time for the service, so yet another reason that I’m happy I still mask in public indoor spaces. How did I manage to do this? Well, I was actually going to eat breakfast before I went to the service and I wanted to brush my teeth after I ate. With not getting up until 9, the clog mess-up, phone call, and the service being at 10:30, I ran out of time to eat and completely forgot to brush my teeth. Then, I’m sitting in the pew with a friend of mine – the son of one of my late mom’s closest church friends, and I look down and think there’s a hole in my pants. Dammit. Well, it wasn’t a hole – I had spilled something on them the last time I wore them and didn’t realize it.
Great.
It’s never a good thing for me to not have breakfast. After the service I ended up at the McDonald’s drive thru, which I almost never do, but I was really hungry. Then, back at home, while actually enjoying my quarter pounder with cheese, a huge blob of ketchup squirts out the bottom of the burger on to my best black top.
Great.
So, as my friend, D, says, I’m a mess! :-D I also have a sense of humor about it, and it’s more and more clear to me that the human brain is NOT made to multi-task. The older I get the more I need to focus on one thing at a time. Today has been a better day – particularly since I managed to rescue my Revere Ware saucepan. :-)
Self-Care Bingo Update . . . BINGO!!!
I did it!!!
Last time I checked in, I needed to go outside – which I did. I needed to stretch, which I did on Friday at the club – I did an extra long post-workout stretch that felt really great. I finished a book on my Kindle app that I can recommend: The Storyteller of Casablanca, by Fiona Valpy. Here’s the blurb about it:
In this evocative tale from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker’s Gift, a strange new city offers a young girl hope. Can it also offer a lost soul a second chance? Morocco, 1941. With France having fallen to Nazi occupation, twelve-year-old Josie has fled with her family to Casablanca, where they await safe passage to America. Life here is as intense as the sun, every sight, smell and sound overwhelming to the senses in a city filled with extraordinary characters. It’s a world away from the trouble back home—and Josie loves it. Seventy years later, another new arrival in the intoxicating port city, Zoe, is struggling—with her marriage, her baby daughter and her new life as an expat in an unfamiliar place. But when she discovers a small wooden box and a diary from the 1940s beneath the floorboards of her daughter’s bedroom, Zoe enters the inner world of young Josie, who once looked out on the same view of the Atlantic Ocean, but who knew a very different Casablanca. It’s not long before Zoe begins to see her adopted city through Josie’s eyes. But can a new perspective help her turn tragedy into hope, and find the comfort she needs to heal her broken heart?
Morocco is one of my favorite places, and WWII is one of my favorite subjects, so when this came up for free on Kindle Unlimited, I grabbed it. It’s a very good story.
I still have Yoga, and I had Dance Break – so I put a bra on (less chance of bludgeoning myself to death with my boobs), and took a dance break here in my office. Yeah, baby! BINGO!!!
I have to say that my dance break was just shy of five minutes long, and my knees were not all that happy about it, but I danced one entire song. I think this is something that might be really strengthening for my knees, so I’m going to see about doing it again in February, and when I think back to having danced for hours on end in my twenties, I’m inspired to see if I can get my legs and knees stronger. I mean, what would I do if I got asked to go dancing? Dance one song and have to sit down?! Hell no!
I picked some more squares from my tin throughout the week. First, I got:
Not a hard one for me to do, but I need to focus to do a good reading, so I will do this in the next day to have a reading going into February. Then, this morning, I got:
Perfect timing, and I will do it tomorrow and get a second Bingo for the month!! Yay Me!! I’ve actually meditated a few times this month, and yesterday I watched two movies (Downton Abbey: A New Era, and The Lost City – I liked them both, but Downton Abbey was better), but I haven’t picked either of those squares this month so I didn’t count them.
I’m working now on my February Bingo card.
And finally, here’s my set up for my next cross stitch project. I made my own design again. It will be a smaller pin cushion for my word of the year, Self-Care. There is a bottom border from a Celtic book and then motifs from other books and patterns of things I like that are forms of self-care for me. I like all the floss colors I have picked out and I’m using a sandy color of 34 count linen (it’s some of the fabric from my friend who gave me all her cross stitch stuff). I hope it will be beautiful (and colorful!) when it is stitched.
I know you want to know what tune I did my dance break, to. Don’t you? Well, it’s a tune I’ve shared here before, but I never tire of it, and if you bend your knees and attempt to do the dance they do, which is called The Rock (not to be confused with Dwayne Johnson), you will likely soon see why my wonky knee was complaining a bit. Rock on, my friends ;-)
Here’s my latest cross stitch project. These words of St. Julian of Norwich have always been important to me. She was the first woman published in the English language – back in the 1300s!! (And yes the photo is a bit blurred – this seems to be the common practice for stitchers to keep their patterns from being copied). I grabbed some of the alphabet from another pattern that I had that I liked, and then I made the other letters that weren’t included in it. The other motifs are Quaker motifs, again from another pattern. I just put things together that I liked. This will eventually be a rectangular pillow. It looks a little crooked in the photo. It’s not.
This came in the mail today. I could find plenty of soapstone hearts, but it was not easy to find one that had my word of the year. This one came from a fair-trade shop in Canada called Kasandy. It’s the perfect shape and size to hold in my hand. I like it a lot :-)
I managed to get out this week and do something social. There’s a spoken word/performance art monthly gathering called Homewood Stories – an Evening of Storytelling. There are five storytellers each month and each one shares a story that’s about 10 minutes long. Three, an intermission, and then the final two. I really enjoyed it, and the woman who produces it also does story workshops, so I’m looking into that because I’ve done this before – but it was a very long time ago. Here we are at the venue! I put my mask back on as soon as we took our selfie. My eyebrows are reasonably even. :-D
Bingo Update!
I’m making progress with my bingo card, and I’m very happy to report that I finally managed a nap! Yay Me!! It was on Wednesday. I had been out late at Homewood Stories on Tuesday night and got up early on Wednesday to go to the club to workout – I was very ready for a nap. I had some lunch, and curled up on the sofa under the wonderful quilt my friend, C, made me. I got comfy with the hope that I might conk out.
And I did! For an hour and forty-five minutes!! Wow!!! It was great (and just what I needed)! I’m still hopeful to get at least one Bingo by month-end.
I got on a B365 coaching call yesterday where I just listened, and then I got on one tonight to actually be coached, which I needed. Today, the square I picked was:
I am hopeful that weather will allow this this weekend.
I had a good walk on Tuesday – here are some photos from it. First is me :-D
It was another dreary and damp day here in Chicagoland and there’s no sun in the forecast anytime soon. Of course there’s also no snow and I’m NOT complaining about that! These are branches of one of the weeping willows at the pond – leaf buds waiting for spring.
This little muskrat was the only wildlife I saw other than some small birds. No geese, no ducks, which is unusual. As soon as he saw me, he took a deep breath, turned toward the center of the pond and launched himself under water. I never saw him come back up, so he must have been headed to the other side of the pond, where I know there is at least one muskrat burrow.
And then, on my way back home, near the train station, these hydrangeas called out to me. They are beautiful even now. I encourage you to click to biggify.
It was a good walk. :-)
Yesterday brought the news that David Crosby has died. He was an amazing singer and harmonizer. I chose this first tune – even though it’s not one that you might associate with Crosby Stills and Nash – because you need to hear the harmonies. He was an amazing musician – and you can hear the magical melding of these three voices. These are singers, you guys. No autotune. No lip-syncing. Just brilliant musicians listening to and hearing each other – knowing how and where their voices fit, and harmonizing in a way that no else ever has. And damn but David Crosby just makes it just look so easy. When it’s not.
I’m leaving you with two today (something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before). If you’re not a musician, you have no idea how hard it is to sing the way these guys are singing in both these tunes. You’ll see see them visibly relax as the end of this as the band joins them, and you can see how happy they all are at the end – they knew they nailed it. Live. This is about 11 years ago. I saw them on their final tour in 2015. They were fricking amazing.