Category : Blog

1693 posts

2021 WOTY

In years past I have struggled over my word choice. This year Strength came to me and I never second guessed it. It was perfect.

Strength of character, of body, of resolve.

If this past year has taught me anything, it’s that strength is so important.  Life isn’t always easy, it’s messy and sometimes really hard. But having inner strength can take you a long way.

Physical strength is a good thing as well. This will be important for my gardening goals this summer.

As I go through the coming year, strength will play a big part in a variety of ways.

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WOTY 2020 year in review

As we all are fully aware of…this year has been been a crazy one. I can only imagine the chapters in the history books devoted to this time. I had no idea what was in store when I decided on my 2020 Word of the Year: Mindful.

Practicing being mindful has been at the forefront for me lately. Taking time to reflect on the day, the little things is so important. Especially when the days all begin to drift together. Same place, same people, same tasks, same conversations…same, same, same. It’s easy to get discouraged, disheartened or depressed. I know…I have struggled with this as well.

I keep circling back to my WOTY. Mindful can mean different things to different people at different times. Often times for me being mindful means having gratitude. Not in the writing a thank you note type of gratitude but being appreciative of the things we so often take for granted. Food security, shelter, a job, your health, a working vehicle just to name a few.

This crazy year has made me and so many others very mindful of all the old timey skills that had almost been forgotten. I’ve written a couple posts on this in the past. The skills of our ancestors are essential, and must not be forgotten.

With the whole country dealing with some form of food insecurity this year, it had me baking bread, expanding my garden, pickling, canning, fermenting and drying herbs just off the top of my head. Fermenting was a new skill I learned over the summer, I made kimchi and sauerkraut.  I also learned that I could get a second crop of a few items in my garden…something I’d never thought about trying in zone 4. Now that I know this, I will continue to be mindful when planning new my crops.

Being mindful of how my actions or lack of action affect others was also on my heart. Sewing masks for my family and friends was a no brainer for me but also making a bunch of extras to donate to the elder community only made sense as well. Taking care of our fellow man is important to me. Sometimes financial help isn’t exactly what is needed. It can be as simple as a smile, a kind word, help with yard work…you get the picture. Be kind, do good things.

During the beginning of the lockdown and subsequent at home all-the-time period, I found myself like so many others, sitting more, eating more and generally lacking in healthy choices. After a while I realized that this was going in a very bad direction. I decided to make a change and began being mindful of my choices. I started walking a couple miles most days, adding more fresh fruits & veggies to diet and cutting back on empty calories such as drinks and junk food. It’s simple in theory…harder in application. I am happy with the results of my choices though…to date, I have lost over 20 lbs. I am ever mindful this is not a diet, this is a lifestyle change. I have been down this road before. Making big changes with big impact then falling back to the old easy habits. Thankfully having been through this before I am acutely aware of the importance of remaining mindful of my choices.

As I choose a new WOTY for 2021, I will not forget the lessons that my previous words of the year have taught me and continue to be mindful in my daily life.

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Problem solved…I hope

First of all I must say thank you to Elizabeth for cluing me in to the issue with my blog. I had no idea something had changed, when it changed or what caused it to change.  Yesterday, I was ready to rip my hair out, cry or throw my computer out in the snow. None of these would have been solutions to my problem.

After an entire day of tinkering, failing, coding, failing, researching, coding, failing… I finally found a plug-in for WordPress that worked to fix my comments issue. The blog is not exactly the way it was before but I can live with that. I’m hoping that this is the last of my troubles for a while. *fingers crossed*

Please let me know if something is behaving badly. Although it was the comments that were the main issue. If you’ve commented in the past you’ll see that the form looks different now.

 

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Blog reset…

update: we still have a problem….

Well folks…thank goodness I actually backed up my blog in November. I had royally messed something up. Thankfully with restoring my backup I only lost a post or two.

While desperately searching through files on my computer I found this image that was created by a website generator years ago. It kind of fit the feeling I’m having about this process…The ghost-like image feels like the ghost image of my blog that was kept in a deep dark corner…nearly a perfect image of itself…but not quite all there.

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T Tuesday: turtle shell edition

I can’t even begin to tell you how long it has been since I have even considered posting or even visiting other blogs. I have been “turtled up” so to speak in my shell. Sometimes I feel the need to do that. When things are out of my control or I feel I have nothing positive to share. At times like that I often turn to my art to walk me through. Other times, it’s all too much.

I finally felt the drive to create. Maybe because things are starting to look better. We still have a long way to go but I’m trying to see the silver lining. I think COVID is really starting to weigh me down. My emotions are raw. 

Regardless…I made art!  It felt amazing. I wish I could get that into my head when I’m feeling down. Art this good therapy. It’s just like exercise…I feel so much better after I do it…it’s just the getting out there and doing it that is the challenge.

So what else have I been up to? I made a few more masks for both my family and commissioned orders for kid sizes.

I’ve also been making pretty envelopes in hopes of sending out purchased items from my Etsy store inside. Of course I’d have to get a few more things listed for that to actually happen. Baby steps…

I had a health scare almost a month ago now which I believe sent me into my proverbial turtle shell. All is well on that front though. I went back for further tests and got the clean bill of health.

Mini-me has committed to her college of choice for next fall. We will be empty nesters with kids almost 3 hours away in different parts of the state. So crazy. The thought has given me very mixed emotions. Can you tell I’m extremely emotional right now? It’s not my usual state of being. I am usually quite stoic. I’m Norwegian…it’s the way we are made. But I feel as if I’ve been running on adrenaline and now I’m crashing.

As usual. I dressed up for Halloween at school.

What else made sense in a pandemic but to be a doctor?!

School continues in-person for me so far. I can’t imagine it will be much longer before we go to distance learning though…at least for a time. Exponentially more positive cases and self-quarantines every day. 

One of the things I do when I’m stressed is starting purging things. This weekend I tackled my clothes. I’ve lost 20 lbs and it was time to get rid of the old, the ugly, the ill-fitting, the “why did I ever buy this” and the vastly out of style. Amazingly, I still have a ton of clothes. Nothing super cute but we aren’t going anywhere now anyway. The time will come and I will buy myself something cute. I may do a bit of thrift shopping between now and then to fill in some gaps but the thought of going into stores to browse doesn’t thrill me. I’m shopping out of necessity only these days to stay safe.

In keeping with the rules…here is the obligatory beverage alongside a yummy open faced bagel with cream cheese and lox. 

Another day of school is in front of me followed by my at-home teaching day.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: preserving the harvest edition

Despite the lingering snow, late season canning and preserving is still happening around here.

In addition to our garden, we purchased a farm share or CSA again this season. However, it was through a different farm than we had used in the past. Unfortunately the CSA we used wasn’t the best. Even though it was disappointing, I was able to do quite a bit of canning. One of the main reasons was lack of variety. The standard family cannot eat a dozen jalapeno peppers in a week. But a large amount is good for canning as well as jams and sauces.  So thankfully it wasn’t a complete waste of money.

I’m also drying some herbs right in the kitchen. In the past I hung them in the storage room but that area is honestly a little chaotic right now. I just used some bread twist ties to attached to the hanging fruit basket…ta-da. Once the herbs are good and dry, I’ll remove them from the stems and store in jars.

I thought I’d share this book I finally purchased from my Amazon wish list. It’s been on the list for a couple years. I’m thrilled with all the recipes and ideas its gives me for items I had never even thought about. 

My mom had always canned quarts of whole tomatoes when I was a kid…so of course when I started gardening I did the same. Turns out my family doesn’t care for the recipes in which she used those canned tomatoes. So for years I’d mainly used our garden for fresh, eat it now veggies and hadn’t given much thought to preservation.  Over the past 5 or so years my thoughts and interest has changed on gardening. It’s not just a fresh veggie patch, its food and seasonings for the coming year. Back to those “old-timey” skills. 

My school life continues to consume most of my energy. The weekends are spent catching up on household chores. Perhaps as winter settles in and the outdoor chores are at a minimum, I will regain some creative momentum.

I keep making lists of things I want to try, ideas for projects, etc. I just need the time and energy to align.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: so many photos edition

I’d like to apologize in advance for this long post and the excessive number of photos. Thankful most people these days are on high speed internet…if not…you may want to return at a later date. You have been warned.

Where to begin… Well let’s start with a journal page I had slated to post last week and never got around to it.

It’s a page in my wonky junky journal.

It started its life as this…two different sizes and textures to work with. A challenge really.

The images I used are from an elementary music book. these two reminded me of a Romeo/Juliet thing…only with a happy ending…it is elementary school after all.

It’s not my favorite page but at this point, I’m just happy to be creative.

Another page I finished was this one…which I believe I posted a WIP shot the last time.

 

Making time to craft and create is a priority for me but as you know, life sometimes gets in the way.

Enter exhibit A:

Do you see what I see…? This image was texted to me simultaneously with a frantic phone call from Mini-me.

Lets back up a little for context shall we…

We had inadvertently left the garage door open a few inches overnight which was an obvious invitation for a mouse to waltz on in looking for a snuggly place to overwinter. Marvin clued me in to this on Friday morning by laying in front of the washing machine, diligently peering underneath. Since there was nothing I could do to help him with his task, I went back upstairs and proceeded with my morning. Made lunches, brewed coffee and had just sat down on the couch to enjoy my cuppa before moving on with the day.

As I sit taking my first glorious sip of coffee, I hear Marvin make a sound somewhat like it would be if you were trying to say “mouse” with a sock in your mouth then proceeds to bang around on the stairs with his giant paws. In an instant, I realized that he had caught the mouse and was bringing it to me…but decided to “tell” me about it…therefore releasing his jaws and the mouse. Marvin is cute but does not have a big brain. He lost track of it and I determined that it had gotten behind the baseboard and into the wall. Crud. Off to work I went with Marvin staring at the fireplace.

Now lets get back to this photo above…the mouse was on the mantle…he can climb bricks.

♫ spider mouse. spider mouse ♫

*shall we now collectively shudder*

My kids have now discovered the mouse on the mantle…send me a photo…call me… Yeah…I’m working…good luck kids. In turn I messaged Mr. G telling him the tale. I got this image back from him with what I can imagine was peals of laughter.

Image credit: Great Outdoors

Long story short…they did not get the mouse. I did late Friday evening with their help in corralling said mouse. Saturday was spent cleaning…everything… *shudder*. Gross.

Marvin was thoroughly exhausted from staying up for almost an entire day. Didn’t get his 18 hours of beauty sleep.

We did have some fun too…movie night at the neighbors.  Chicken Run was on the projector.

I got my vote in at our county election office.

I also made a knitters wreath that I have had rattling around my brain for a while. Finally made it happen after all the cleaning and purging of things. Funny what you uncover like a wreath base.

Time to settle back with a lovely glass of red wine by the glow of my salt lamp. I don’t drink much red wine or any wine these days. It tends to make my joints hurt…I think it’s the sulfites.

I had to snap a photo of this sign at Goodwill…it made me laugh.

My kids have dubbed my cocktail of choice, gin and club soda, “spicy water” after inadvertently taking a big gulp of it when they were younger.

That about sums it up for me… my life is chaotic. But its good.

One more thing! Mini-me got accepted into both the universities that she applied to. We now need to make one more visit to cement her plan. Her college of choice is even giving her a yearly scholarship. Not full ride mind you but hey, every penny counts.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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