This goal might be contradictory to my goal of loosing weight?!
Preferably either attached to live, growing plants or fresh cut from my very own garden. But hey, I’ll go for store-bought, too! This is particularly true during winter. At least where I live now it is sunny (although below freezing) all winter, but when I lived where it was cloudy and gloomy several months a year, Fresh Flowers definitely perked me up and made me happy.
This is different than having a project. A project is a “one time deal” that you work on for a while and then it’s done. A Plan to me means a life direction. Like right now DH and I are without a plan. It drives me crazy. He wants to move, he doesn’t want to move, he wants to build a house – or maybe he wants to just add to the one we have; he wants to re-enlist (this time in the Army as he’s too old for the USMC), or maybe not; he wants to go back to Iraq as a civilian contractor, or maybe not. Maybe he wants to quit his far-away-from-home job or maybe he wants to stay there until he figures out what he wants to do. He is totally driving me nuts. Figure it out, guy. MY Plan was to hang out here in this house for another 20 years, learn to cook, grow an orchard, plant a few hundred trees and become one with the land. Not sure how his confusion and my desire to execute a plan, any plan, are going to pan out, but I know I was much happier when we HAD a plan.
Ok, not even every day – but several times a week this week I spent a whopping 15 minutes cleaning/picking up my room. Put a stack of old catalogs in the burn bucket, did some laundry, put dirty laundry in the hamper, put a few more magazines in the filing cabinet, took some more binders off of the floor and put them on the shelf in my closet.
It really IS pleasant to wake up and not stumble all over piles of magazines and books and laundry!
Still miles more to go, but the impact of just 15 minutes several times a day is astounding!
I sent Valentine’s to two of my soldiers and to my daughter in college and to DH’s aunt (who raised him). Not really letters, but at least it counts as correspondence.
I didn’t make it, but I did do the shopping for it. My daughter cooked it in my big cast iron pan. I inhaled the wonderous aromas as she diced and sliced garlic, onions, red peppers, tomatoes… I’ve never tried making it, not even vicariously, before. It was wonderful. From thinking about it while making the grocery list, to eating the last bite that I knew I didn’t have room for, but ate any way.
She’s 4 years old and we still don’t have a name for her. But she’s red and matches my pickup truck and my husband’s pickup truck, too. I used to want a sail boat until I realized how much work it is to sail one. I’m wimpy. I want a big V8 and horse power. We purposely chose a place less than 15 minutes from driveway to boat launch. I love everything about her. Washing her, putting armor all on her seats, the smell of the exhaust (although I don’t purposely try to inhale it!). Every spring when the lake thaws out, I can’t wait to jump in the boat and just go… or just float on the water and drift, as the mood and the sun and stars dictate.
Who would have guessed that I had any maternal instincts? I have two “rescue” dogs, various “rescue” plants, a daughter and her daughter who left a bad relationship. I have also “adopted” 6 soldiers over the course of the war. Not to mention my very own Marine that I ended up adopting permanently as my husband. It’s so great to be at a point in my life where I am both financially able to do these things, but also have time and energy to do them. I love to see my “adoptees” bloom and grow and find their way into the sun.
Either at work or in my personal life.
- Things that have IMPACT. Like buying or selling a house or setting up the disaster recovery data center. Or supporting my husband when he was in Iraq.
- Things that require LOTS of RESEARCH. Like building a house. Or moving out of state. Or redesigning the tape backup solution for the whole company.
- Things that are ALL CONSUMING. Like being married to my hard-headed, obstinate, pain-in-the-neck, but very cute husband.
I just like being obsessive about something for weeks or months at a time. And then finish it and move on to the next thing to obsess over.
If you live in middle class America, you can aford to do this. It isn’t difficult. If you want to send one to some of our Troops, go to http://www.OperationMilitaryPride.org A flat rate priority box is $8.10. You can print out your custom’s form at the US Post Office web site. Go for it. Just DO it.
Makes me feel great to be able to send a little love from the states for them. All together I think I spent nearly $100 if you count postage – if I get ONE smile out of it all from some soldier far from home, then it will have been totally worth it.
While the wonderful aromas of garlic and seafood waffed through the air as my Daughter created the paella, my Granddaughter and I set up the grow lights and moved most of my house plants from my chilly bathroom to a warm, brightly lit place. Some of the begonias looked pretty much dead, but I have revived worse. No herbs yet (Ok, hops are considered herbs, I believe), but some of the infrastructure went up this evening. - wait, wait - sprouted garlic cloves are sitting there under the light. Been using garlic leaves in stir fies for at least a month. Garlic is definitely considered an herb. So there, the first start of the indoor herb garden!
Humidity is usually in the single digits here. My skin on my arms and legs will really tell me when I’m not drinking enough water if I care to pay attention. Drink, drink, drink! Water is the stuff of life.
Got an extention cord, another power strip, a 5 gal bucket for mixing potting soil with sand and some containers to pot out irises in. Today we’re going to cook paella, but maybe we’ll have time to start some jiffy peat pots of basil on the heating mat.
Equipment:
- Metal Shelving
- 4 foot florescent lights
- Peat Pots
- Seed starter tray with heat mat
- 10 ft medium duty extention cord
- timer
- pots of various sizes
- 5 gal plastic bucket
- plastic containers for overwintering irises
- mister bottle
- thick plastic (covers shelves)
- saran wrap (for lining pots)
- seeds, seeds, seeds
I’m so excited!
Also to benefit from the herb garden – humulus lupulus – my tiny hops vine. And various house plants will take some spa time under the bright lights and warmth of the living room.
Like I was really doing anything with them! And the girl at work is moving and could really used them. I’ve probably given away about $20 worth! Karma, karma, karma. Keep doing the right thing and good things will come back at you.
It’s so much better to be grateful for the joys you have than to be bitter about the things you don’t.
Got the main batch of 50 out on the 24th. Sets to 2 other military people going out tomorrow (working on them now).
Bless our troops and those who wait for them, for they also serve.
It’s my gateway to the world! Voice over IP. XBox live. 43 Things. Work. Email. Staying connected to family and friends so far away. Endless opportunities for research and exploration.
Went to the Ranch Supply place on the way to WalMart the other day. Priced out waterers and feed dispensers for babies – looks like it’ll only cost about $15 to get started – for when the chicks are still small. Then, of course, there will be the cost of a coop and such… food… the chicks themselves… got my master list posted at http://kmom246.icfsc.com/chickens.htm
I’ve been saying for months that I would find an alternative to satellite Internet, and I finally got off my duff and did it. They came out for a site survey today and will be out later this week for the install. It’ll take a few months to recoup the install charge, but after about 4 months, we will start to save a cool $40/month! That is $480 a year! Ok, this “follow through” thing is hard, but it is definitely reaping monitary rewards!
