This entry is going to be quick and dirty. As you can see, it's late, very late. Since the second week of February, I have been working 6 days a week, and the only day available for downtime usually finds me catching up on undone housework so we can have clean clothes and our home can look moderately presentable if anyone comes through the door.
To February's recap:
Financial/Savings:
Going to call this a win. Instead of specifying which weeks from the 52 Weeks Money Challenge I wanted to save during February (a tactic that did not work in January), my goal was simply to save from each paycheque. I was able to mark off weeks 50-52, and week 9.
The flip side of this goal was to keep up the "No Spending" challenge, again for at least 90% of the days in the month. I completed 27 of 29 for 93%, I splurged on a calling card to keep in touch with my Mom (I could have gotten the minimum value, but I didn't, so, splurge), and bought a 50/50 ticket at work on the two missed days.
Mental/Emotional:
Definite win. I completed Levels 2-4 and started Level 5 of Headspace Pro, and was seriously reminded of why I shouldn't expect new meditation packs all the time when there are so many that I need to keep repeating because I haven't got the hang of them yet. Sitting in silence forces me to sit with myself and the thoughts that run around in my head and shine a light into the dusty corners of my psyche. It's quite challenging, and sometimes I came out of the sessions feeling wrung out from all the bringing myself back that I had to do, but it is so worth it. 29 days of 29 done, my running total stood at 427 days straight at the end of February.
Physical:
The biggest change I made for the month of February was switching my workouts back to mornings, and moving my wake up time back from 6:30 to 5:30 a.m. Last year it was a real challenge to get my workouts done after dragging myself home from 9, 10, sometimes 11 hour work days, so I decided to get back to waking up at a time I have been used to since I was about 16 years old. This move made all the difference, and I was able to workout every week day in the month, which I haven't done since...forever. I have a hard time getting up in the dark, but knowing that when I come home there's nothing major left to do that day feels really good and keeps me on track.
And, that's it. The long and short of February. Long and short. Haha.
Friday, March 25, 2016
Monday, February 15, 2016
"January! You start the year off fine..."
Yes, that's a line from "Calendar Girl" by Neil Sedaka. Yes, I know some music from the 1960's. Although I favour country music, my taste can sometimes be labeled eclectic (if you want to be nice).
So, wow, it's 2016. It's already the middle of February, or rather, given this month's abbreviated existence (even in a Leap Year), it's already the second half of February. Time to review January and see what happened there.
I do believe I have found "planner peace", so far as the organisation and set-up of my Bullet Journal is concerned. I toyed with the idea of "One Journal to Rule Them All", but decided that I enjoy compartmentalization entirely too much to want to combine into a single book everything I do so far as planning and organising my life. Well, it was either that or admit that I do so much planning and organising that the one book would have to be hardbound and at least the size of one of those massive quire books I used to buy for a forgotten purpose at a job many moons ago.
So, for 2016, I will continue to use a multi-book set-up: an actual pre-printed weekly/monthly planner from Mead (yes, I went cheap this year) for my daily to-dos and work hours, alongside my spiral notebook from 2014 which is still going strong (I am too cheap to start a new book for the new year) for my daily log notes, and an interactive journal I bought from Chapters-Indigo (the store in Canada where I could cheerfully go bankrupt) with daily prompts to encourage a year of self-exploration.
I set myself some fairly simple goals for January, and today I took a look back through my various books and calendars and my Habit Tracker (located in my Bullet Journal) and decided maybe they were loftier than I thought (ha!). To recap:
Financial - Start saving again using the 52 Week Money Challenge. For the last couple of years I have managed to make it to the middle of this challenge, only to quit once the weeks/amounts started really adding up. This year, I decided to start from the other end, working my way down the amounts, to align my goal with my income, which is higher in the winter and early spring because of my seasonal employment. Well, I was a little slow out of the gate in January, and saved just enough to cover weeks 1-8 ($36), instead of weeks 52 and 51 ($103) as was my goal. I have to call this one a miss.
On the win side for Financial, though, was my goal to not spend any money for at least 90% of the month, or 28 days out of 31. I managed exactly the 28 days. By "spending" I refer to anything no related to our needs for food, shelter and automobile expenses. I am not even counting clothing, because I have enough in my closet to suit my various seasonal needs, and more besides, so clothing went on the chopped side of the list when I made this goal. Similarly, although the tin of Tazo tea (Awake English Breakfast, seriously good tea) would count as food, I have more than a few varieties of tea in the kitchen, I could have kept my money in my pocket, but I didn't, so that day went on the "spending" side of the equation.
Mental/Emotional - Definitely a win here, as I continue to meditate daily with Headspace. January saw me through to day 398, as I completed a repeat of the Self-Esteem pack, worked through the new Generosity pack, and started repeating the Pro packs (less guidance from Andy, more silence, extremely challenging for a mind that needs no encouragement to get caught up and lost in thought).
Physical - This may be a win? The goal here was to complete a minimum of 3 workouts per week, and I actually did my 5 scheduled workouts for 3 weeks out of 4. The off week I managed 2 workouts, but am seriously bummed that I couldn't motivate myself enough to even get on my yoga mat for 20 minutes for the one day needed to make this a certain win. I've made some changes to my schedule for February that should hopefully make this easier this month. You'll just have to read more rambling next month to find out how I did.
The definite miss on the physical goals was to establish a habit of going to bed by 9:30. Read strictly, my Fitbit sleep logs tell me I managed that exactly 3 nights out of 31. Yep, 3. If I read more into the spirit of the goal instead of the letter, and interpret it loosely to mean "get to bed before 10:00 p.m.", I still only managed that for 16 out of 31 nights (and some of those days are rather iffy, because really, not a few of them were like 9:57 p.m.). Again, I decided a schedule change had to happen in February, so look for that goal to come around again.
Interests/Hobbies - Anyone who knows me, and quite a few who don't, knows I read for pleasure. To that end, it might seem strange that I decided to track my reading days in my Habit Tracker, but I decided it might be worth tracking because lately I haven't done as much as I would like. In December, I managed 14 of 31 days, in January I brought it up to 21. That still leaves 10 days in the month when I didn't do the one thing I enjoy more than anything else. That's 10 days I didn't make time for what I love to do. What was I so busy doing I didn't make time for me that way?
I also set a goal to use the calligraphy supplies I received for Christmas every day to practice my lettering, with a goal to learning the Italics alphabet to at least a competent standard by the end of the year. I managed 15 days out of the 31 in January, this even after realising that it only takes me 15 minutes to write the entire alphabet in miniscule (common, or small letters) and majuscule (capitals). There's another pleasurable activity that I couldn't spare 1% of the day for. So, some work is called for here to make sure I balance the increased work hours with downtime to rejuvenate.
Well, it's been snowing all day this Family Day, the rest of my family is reposed in front of the television, so I think it's time to go and hang with them again.
So, wow, it's 2016. It's already the middle of February, or rather, given this month's abbreviated existence (even in a Leap Year), it's already the second half of February. Time to review January and see what happened there.
I do believe I have found "planner peace", so far as the organisation and set-up of my Bullet Journal is concerned. I toyed with the idea of "One Journal to Rule Them All", but decided that I enjoy compartmentalization entirely too much to want to combine into a single book everything I do so far as planning and organising my life. Well, it was either that or admit that I do so much planning and organising that the one book would have to be hardbound and at least the size of one of those massive quire books I used to buy for a forgotten purpose at a job many moons ago.
So, for 2016, I will continue to use a multi-book set-up: an actual pre-printed weekly/monthly planner from Mead (yes, I went cheap this year) for my daily to-dos and work hours, alongside my spiral notebook from 2014 which is still going strong (I am too cheap to start a new book for the new year) for my daily log notes, and an interactive journal I bought from Chapters-Indigo (the store in Canada where I could cheerfully go bankrupt) with daily prompts to encourage a year of self-exploration.
I set myself some fairly simple goals for January, and today I took a look back through my various books and calendars and my Habit Tracker (located in my Bullet Journal) and decided maybe they were loftier than I thought (ha!). To recap:
Financial - Start saving again using the 52 Week Money Challenge. For the last couple of years I have managed to make it to the middle of this challenge, only to quit once the weeks/amounts started really adding up. This year, I decided to start from the other end, working my way down the amounts, to align my goal with my income, which is higher in the winter and early spring because of my seasonal employment. Well, I was a little slow out of the gate in January, and saved just enough to cover weeks 1-8 ($36), instead of weeks 52 and 51 ($103) as was my goal. I have to call this one a miss.
On the win side for Financial, though, was my goal to not spend any money for at least 90% of the month, or 28 days out of 31. I managed exactly the 28 days. By "spending" I refer to anything no related to our needs for food, shelter and automobile expenses. I am not even counting clothing, because I have enough in my closet to suit my various seasonal needs, and more besides, so clothing went on the chopped side of the list when I made this goal. Similarly, although the tin of Tazo tea (Awake English Breakfast, seriously good tea) would count as food, I have more than a few varieties of tea in the kitchen, I could have kept my money in my pocket, but I didn't, so that day went on the "spending" side of the equation.
Mental/Emotional - Definitely a win here, as I continue to meditate daily with Headspace. January saw me through to day 398, as I completed a repeat of the Self-Esteem pack, worked through the new Generosity pack, and started repeating the Pro packs (less guidance from Andy, more silence, extremely challenging for a mind that needs no encouragement to get caught up and lost in thought).
Physical - This may be a win? The goal here was to complete a minimum of 3 workouts per week, and I actually did my 5 scheduled workouts for 3 weeks out of 4. The off week I managed 2 workouts, but am seriously bummed that I couldn't motivate myself enough to even get on my yoga mat for 20 minutes for the one day needed to make this a certain win. I've made some changes to my schedule for February that should hopefully make this easier this month. You'll just have to read more rambling next month to find out how I did.
The definite miss on the physical goals was to establish a habit of going to bed by 9:30. Read strictly, my Fitbit sleep logs tell me I managed that exactly 3 nights out of 31. Yep, 3. If I read more into the spirit of the goal instead of the letter, and interpret it loosely to mean "get to bed before 10:00 p.m.", I still only managed that for 16 out of 31 nights (and some of those days are rather iffy, because really, not a few of them were like 9:57 p.m.). Again, I decided a schedule change had to happen in February, so look for that goal to come around again.
Interests/Hobbies - Anyone who knows me, and quite a few who don't, knows I read for pleasure. To that end, it might seem strange that I decided to track my reading days in my Habit Tracker, but I decided it might be worth tracking because lately I haven't done as much as I would like. In December, I managed 14 of 31 days, in January I brought it up to 21. That still leaves 10 days in the month when I didn't do the one thing I enjoy more than anything else. That's 10 days I didn't make time for what I love to do. What was I so busy doing I didn't make time for me that way?
I also set a goal to use the calligraphy supplies I received for Christmas every day to practice my lettering, with a goal to learning the Italics alphabet to at least a competent standard by the end of the year. I managed 15 days out of the 31 in January, this even after realising that it only takes me 15 minutes to write the entire alphabet in miniscule (common, or small letters) and majuscule (capitals). There's another pleasurable activity that I couldn't spare 1% of the day for. So, some work is called for here to make sure I balance the increased work hours with downtime to rejuvenate.
Well, it's been snowing all day this Family Day, the rest of my family is reposed in front of the television, so I think it's time to go and hang with them again.
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| My Journal System for 2016 |
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| Encouraging myself to practice |
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| Calligraphy supplies, courtesy of G |
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| Downtime |
Sunday, January 10, 2016
2015, Farewell
And just like that, another year is gone.
Something about December always makes me homesick. I don't think it's all the winter weather, although that may be part of it, more for the lack of sunshine than anything else. This December past, I had little time for the usual homesickness, as there was much to do at the beginning of the month.
My biggest challenge of the year came with the first weekend in December: G's sister was getting married, and I would have to drive us down to Toronto and beyond, to Brandtford and the town of Simcoe where we would stay, and beyond to Delhi (see Google Maps here) where the wedding would take place. I was, quite frankly, terrified. I fretted over the distance, I fretted over the route, I fretted over my inexperience driving on highways, I fretted over the weather, basically, by the time December rolled around, I was a welter of anxiety. I think I hid it well, no-one had me committed to medical care for my own good! (Although, some Valium would have helped.)
Looking back now on the experience, I am still in awe of the fact that not only did we get there and find our way about and do all the things we wanted to do, we also did it economically, which pleases that cheap/mean part of me my mother never fails to attribute to our Scottish roots. I call it frugal. G calls it not having a heavy foot, as our budget for fuel came in way under my calculations, which had been based on his usage some years earlier. Whatever it was, between my driving and his navigating, we went there, and back again, safely, and in good time.
Aside from my terror of being in charge of the vehicle whenever we had to move from Point A to Point B, a terror which stayed with me from Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m. when we left E.L. until we returned home around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The wedding was beautiful, the couple was splendid and put on quite a party, and the venues were inspired.
In between activities, I had a chance to walk about Brantford and Simcoe a little, and see some of the rural areas of southern Ontario during our travels between venues. In both Brantford and Simcoe, I fed my stationery addiction, there was a Staples at each location, and we hit them both. Well, G was at the one in Brantford with me, I found the one in Simcoe on my own and "went to town" in that one on my own. Suffice it to say, I will not run out of pens any time soon.
December 2015 was not without its excitements once we returned from down south. It kept raining, and raining, and raining some more, and everyone started to wonder when winter would show. Environment Canada had predicted a "milder" winter, and it seemed they were quite right. We had a solid week of rain, followed by a mild dusting of snow on Dec 16 that then melted almost right away, and again on the 19th. The winter solstice happened over a quite "green" landscape, but was followed by atypically heavy winds before Christmas Eve that actually downed power lines, blew away unsecured sheds, and messed up roofs. Parts of town were out of power until Christmas Day!
We were fortunate enough not to lose power, and spent a quiet Christmas at home together with just the dogs for company, exactly as I hoped for. The hectic busyness of December was finally winding down now that the holidays were here, and I took full advantage to have some much-needed downtime. As the new year approached, I began looking back, so I could do my looking forward on New Year's Day, as I like to do. There were goals to be planned, and achievements to be acknowledged, and a way forward to be forged.
I have often been able to summarise many of the standout years of my life by one word or phrase. If 2015 will be remembered as anything, it will be as "the year of the drive". Originally, it was meant to be the year of mindfulness, and I did make my goal of meditating for 365 days straight, but I found myself having to polish a skill I expected not to use very often but saw the wisdom of having at least the basic level of instruction, never expecting to put it to quite so rigourous a test quite so soon. All in all, I think the year of the drive went well.
Something about December always makes me homesick. I don't think it's all the winter weather, although that may be part of it, more for the lack of sunshine than anything else. This December past, I had little time for the usual homesickness, as there was much to do at the beginning of the month.
My biggest challenge of the year came with the first weekend in December: G's sister was getting married, and I would have to drive us down to Toronto and beyond, to Brandtford and the town of Simcoe where we would stay, and beyond to Delhi (see Google Maps here) where the wedding would take place. I was, quite frankly, terrified. I fretted over the distance, I fretted over the route, I fretted over my inexperience driving on highways, I fretted over the weather, basically, by the time December rolled around, I was a welter of anxiety. I think I hid it well, no-one had me committed to medical care for my own good! (Although, some Valium would have helped.)
Looking back now on the experience, I am still in awe of the fact that not only did we get there and find our way about and do all the things we wanted to do, we also did it economically, which pleases that cheap/mean part of me my mother never fails to attribute to our Scottish roots. I call it frugal. G calls it not having a heavy foot, as our budget for fuel came in way under my calculations, which had been based on his usage some years earlier. Whatever it was, between my driving and his navigating, we went there, and back again, safely, and in good time.
Aside from my terror of being in charge of the vehicle whenever we had to move from Point A to Point B, a terror which stayed with me from Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m. when we left E.L. until we returned home around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The wedding was beautiful, the couple was splendid and put on quite a party, and the venues were inspired.
In between activities, I had a chance to walk about Brantford and Simcoe a little, and see some of the rural areas of southern Ontario during our travels between venues. In both Brantford and Simcoe, I fed my stationery addiction, there was a Staples at each location, and we hit them both. Well, G was at the one in Brantford with me, I found the one in Simcoe on my own and "went to town" in that one on my own. Suffice it to say, I will not run out of pens any time soon.
December 2015 was not without its excitements once we returned from down south. It kept raining, and raining, and raining some more, and everyone started to wonder when winter would show. Environment Canada had predicted a "milder" winter, and it seemed they were quite right. We had a solid week of rain, followed by a mild dusting of snow on Dec 16 that then melted almost right away, and again on the 19th. The winter solstice happened over a quite "green" landscape, but was followed by atypically heavy winds before Christmas Eve that actually downed power lines, blew away unsecured sheds, and messed up roofs. Parts of town were out of power until Christmas Day!
We were fortunate enough not to lose power, and spent a quiet Christmas at home together with just the dogs for company, exactly as I hoped for. The hectic busyness of December was finally winding down now that the holidays were here, and I took full advantage to have some much-needed downtime. As the new year approached, I began looking back, so I could do my looking forward on New Year's Day, as I like to do. There were goals to be planned, and achievements to be acknowledged, and a way forward to be forged.
I have often been able to summarise many of the standout years of my life by one word or phrase. If 2015 will be remembered as anything, it will be as "the year of the drive". Originally, it was meant to be the year of mindfulness, and I did make my goal of meditating for 365 days straight, but I found myself having to polish a skill I expected not to use very often but saw the wisdom of having at least the basic level of instruction, never expecting to put it to quite so rigourous a test quite so soon. All in all, I think the year of the drive went well.
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| Hanging out with Mr Bell in Brantford |
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| A very dapper G at the wedding |
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| Yep, that was the beginning of winter |
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| Not much happening just before Christmas |
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| Christmas evening |
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| Dec 28! |
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| Hello, winter! Dec 29 |
Saturday, December 12, 2015
November!
Dear November,
It's a good thing I kept those "Daily Download" notes in my Bullet Journal, otherwise, I would have a really hard time right now remembering what even happened in a month that seemed to speed by before I was ready for it to be here, let alone done!
So, what happened in November?
November marks the birth dates of some very important people in my life. First up was G, in the first week of the month. I girded up my loins for the idea, and booked us dinner at a restaurant in the town of Blind River, knowing I would have to drive at night for the occasion, something I have assiduously avoided whenever possible. I am pleased to say, both the dinner and driving went smoothly, and we greatly enjoyed the experience. I chose the experience to be my gift, instead of an item, as he's never eaten at that restaurant before.
In the second week of November, it was my younger brother's birthday, and Remembrance/Veterans' Day. I was able to spend a half hour or so with him on Skype, in video messaging, and got the ten cent tour of his home and yard, to boot. I loved every minute of it, moments like that call are what take the edge off how far away I live from my family.
In the fourth week of November, my youngest brother celebrated his birthday. 2015 has been a significant year for him, he has made great personal and professional strides, and he celebrated the day with thanksgiving in a way that touched my heart. I love nothing more than seeing my loved ones succeed, and he is going for his success with a determination and focus I admire.
November also marked several changes. First up, there was the end of Daylight Saving Time. Hallelujah. We all know how I feel about it, so I won't belabour how happy I am to be given the reprieve I wait all year for. It was also time to get the tires on our vehicle switched from summer to winter tyres, and a semi-annual checkup, done with its usual speed and care.
November was a good month for my physical fitness goals: of 21 week days I missed a total of 4. I began tracking my water intake in my BuJo, as I have noticed that I am struggling to drink even nominal amounts of water on a daily basis, even though we are at the time of year when the presence of heat indoors means one loses even more water through the skin. I also decided to start getting up early again, and for November and December set myself the goal of making it out of bed before 6 a.m. at least 3 weekday mornings per week, and succeeded for November.
November brought some fun as well, in the form of a pen pal group forming out of the Bullet Journal Junkies Facebook group. I received my first letter from a "pal" in southern Ontario, and mailed off a letter to a chosen pal in Australia. I had great fun writing the letters: in this day and age of constant contact on social network platforms such as Facebook, it is surprising to realise that we really still don't know a person, and that methods such as letter writing can help us to learn about others. I know, I know...I rail against DST as a relic of a bygone age, but I write letters on paper and send them via snail mail? Yes.
There was light snow a couple of times in November, but the weather remained mild. I did some serious praying to the weather gods as the end of the month loomed and our trip to southern Ontario hastened up my to-do list. All I asked for was the mild weather to continue into the first weekend of December, so that my first long driving trip would not be complicated further by poor road conditions. Obviously, we made it safely, as it's now past, but I'll share details in the post for December!
It's a good thing I kept those "Daily Download" notes in my Bullet Journal, otherwise, I would have a really hard time right now remembering what even happened in a month that seemed to speed by before I was ready for it to be here, let alone done!
So, what happened in November?
November marks the birth dates of some very important people in my life. First up was G, in the first week of the month. I girded up my loins for the idea, and booked us dinner at a restaurant in the town of Blind River, knowing I would have to drive at night for the occasion, something I have assiduously avoided whenever possible. I am pleased to say, both the dinner and driving went smoothly, and we greatly enjoyed the experience. I chose the experience to be my gift, instead of an item, as he's never eaten at that restaurant before.
In the second week of November, it was my younger brother's birthday, and Remembrance/Veterans' Day. I was able to spend a half hour or so with him on Skype, in video messaging, and got the ten cent tour of his home and yard, to boot. I loved every minute of it, moments like that call are what take the edge off how far away I live from my family.
In the fourth week of November, my youngest brother celebrated his birthday. 2015 has been a significant year for him, he has made great personal and professional strides, and he celebrated the day with thanksgiving in a way that touched my heart. I love nothing more than seeing my loved ones succeed, and he is going for his success with a determination and focus I admire.
November also marked several changes. First up, there was the end of Daylight Saving Time. Hallelujah. We all know how I feel about it, so I won't belabour how happy I am to be given the reprieve I wait all year for. It was also time to get the tires on our vehicle switched from summer to winter tyres, and a semi-annual checkup, done with its usual speed and care.
November was a good month for my physical fitness goals: of 21 week days I missed a total of 4. I began tracking my water intake in my BuJo, as I have noticed that I am struggling to drink even nominal amounts of water on a daily basis, even though we are at the time of year when the presence of heat indoors means one loses even more water through the skin. I also decided to start getting up early again, and for November and December set myself the goal of making it out of bed before 6 a.m. at least 3 weekday mornings per week, and succeeded for November.
November brought some fun as well, in the form of a pen pal group forming out of the Bullet Journal Junkies Facebook group. I received my first letter from a "pal" in southern Ontario, and mailed off a letter to a chosen pal in Australia. I had great fun writing the letters: in this day and age of constant contact on social network platforms such as Facebook, it is surprising to realise that we really still don't know a person, and that methods such as letter writing can help us to learn about others. I know, I know...I rail against DST as a relic of a bygone age, but I write letters on paper and send them via snail mail? Yes.
There was light snow a couple of times in November, but the weather remained mild. I did some serious praying to the weather gods as the end of the month loomed and our trip to southern Ontario hastened up my to-do list. All I asked for was the mild weather to continue into the first weekend of December, so that my first long driving trip would not be complicated further by poor road conditions. Obviously, we made it safely, as it's now past, but I'll share details in the post for December!
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| BuJo hack: I use the flags to stamp on, so no bleed through of the ink to the other side! |
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| Studying. Yes, our tree went up in November! |
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| Supposedly, that's a people-only couch he's so relaxed on. |
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Better late than never...
Yes, I know it's a hoary old cliche, but it's all I've got for why I decided to write this post so late in the month. I promised myself to write here at least once per month this year, and I still have 9 days to stay on track.
So, what happened in October?
Weather: October was, incredibly enough, tolerably "warm" for most of the month. I managed not to need my sweaters until close to the end of the month when the week of Halloween brought days and days of buckets of rain.
Travel: I got the chance in early October to go to Sault Ste Marie for a meeting, and quite enjoyed the trip. The fall colours were peaking, so the drive was quite colourful. This was my second visit to "The Soo" as it's called, and I finally got a chance to actually see the city as my first visit was at night in November, about three years ago at this time. I quite liked what of it I got to see, and especially enjoyed glimpses of the St Mary's River, which separates Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, from Sault St Marie, Michigan. A bridge spanning the river is one of the busiest border crossings between Canada and the United States.
Yoga/meditation practice: For some reason, I began to find the yoga flow I favoured for my morning routine quite stressful. It is described as "invigorating", and throughout the spring and summer as I worked at doing it daily each morning, I enjoyed the way the practice challenged me. It's only ten minutes long, and eventually I knew the sequence by heart, but by early October I would find myself gasping for air by the time I was done, instead of the usual feeling of being awake and engaged, ready to being my meditation. I decided to try a different routine, one consisting of more calming, grounding poses, and discovered that this new flow was more suited to the much darker mornings.
DST rant: Of course, the more we got into October, the more impatient I became for Daylight Saving Time to end. After three years in Canada, I have decided I am never going to like or enjoy this practice of shortening one day so that we can change the way the clock runs in the subsequent months. Insofar as I am concerned, perhaps this practice made sense two or three hundred years ago when it was conceived, when electric lights were either still a thing of the future or so rarely found that making use of all possible daylight by shifting the clock forward was a good idea.
In a world where electrification is the norm and non-electrification the exception, where industry and business function twenty-four hours a day worldwide, and where everything and everyone is connected across multiple technological platforms, DST is an anachronism, and a case should be made for getting rid of it. In more localised terms, I am not "saving energy" (the current reason advanced for the continued existence of DST) when I have to have the lights on for two hours prior to leaving for work because it's dark as pitch when I wake up and sunrise is artificially timed to just before I get into my vehicle.
Bullet Journal Junkie addiction: October also saw me borrowing an idea I saw cropping up often in the Bullet Journal Junkies group: habit tracking. I've worked on a number of habits in 2015, the main one being to spend some time meditating every day, but I had been neglecting others I could do well to get back into, such as drinking enough water, consistently working out, and waking up earlier in the morning. After trying a few suggestions, I decided to make tracking water intake, my wake up times and the days I work out as part of my set-up for November (so I'll be writing about how that's going in a couple of weeks, ha).
I also decided to institute a "15 Minute Clean" into my routine twice a week, which would see me doing whatever needed most doing around the house for 15 minutes, in an effort to reduce the need for me to spend all day Sunday getting the house back into shape, or (worse) starting my cleaning on Saturday because I was unable to relax due to the state of the house.
Driving!: October saw me making my first long drive, tackling the 170 KM (one way) drive to Sudbury, to take G to an appointment. There is construction on Highway 108 South leading down to the Trans-Canada/Highway 17, so there were some delays. The funniest moment of the drive came when I saw a spider on a tissue near the gear shift, and almost jumped from the vehicle (not fond of creatures with more appendages than I have!). Fortunately, we were sitting in a construction delayed line of traffic, so I controlled myself and G carefully removed the creature and the tissue to outside the vehicle.
In all, I think it was a successful drive. If there's one thing I have learned from all the traveling I did across Jamaica via public transit, it is that wherever I am going to is not moving away from me, I am moving toward it, so I will eventually get there, and I do not need to do so before anyone else. Going anywhere for me is very much about the journey, and now that I drive it is about the process, as well, and I am going to tackle it the way I do everything else: knowing my limitations, cautiously aware of how what I do affects those around me, and abiding by the established rules/guidelines governing my actions.
Finally: It won't be long before I have to write an entry for December, and will therefore be able to check off one of the things I was working on for 2015: Write a blog entry each month summarising the month before. I'm also more than 320 days into my year of meditating, closing in on the 365. December will see me spending a lot of what spare time I have looking back on how I came through 2015, and looking forward so I can get a handle on what I want 2016 to look like.
So, what happened in October?
Weather: October was, incredibly enough, tolerably "warm" for most of the month. I managed not to need my sweaters until close to the end of the month when the week of Halloween brought days and days of buckets of rain.
Travel: I got the chance in early October to go to Sault Ste Marie for a meeting, and quite enjoyed the trip. The fall colours were peaking, so the drive was quite colourful. This was my second visit to "The Soo" as it's called, and I finally got a chance to actually see the city as my first visit was at night in November, about three years ago at this time. I quite liked what of it I got to see, and especially enjoyed glimpses of the St Mary's River, which separates Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, from Sault St Marie, Michigan. A bridge spanning the river is one of the busiest border crossings between Canada and the United States.
Yoga/meditation practice: For some reason, I began to find the yoga flow I favoured for my morning routine quite stressful. It is described as "invigorating", and throughout the spring and summer as I worked at doing it daily each morning, I enjoyed the way the practice challenged me. It's only ten minutes long, and eventually I knew the sequence by heart, but by early October I would find myself gasping for air by the time I was done, instead of the usual feeling of being awake and engaged, ready to being my meditation. I decided to try a different routine, one consisting of more calming, grounding poses, and discovered that this new flow was more suited to the much darker mornings.
DST rant: Of course, the more we got into October, the more impatient I became for Daylight Saving Time to end. After three years in Canada, I have decided I am never going to like or enjoy this practice of shortening one day so that we can change the way the clock runs in the subsequent months. Insofar as I am concerned, perhaps this practice made sense two or three hundred years ago when it was conceived, when electric lights were either still a thing of the future or so rarely found that making use of all possible daylight by shifting the clock forward was a good idea.
In a world where electrification is the norm and non-electrification the exception, where industry and business function twenty-four hours a day worldwide, and where everything and everyone is connected across multiple technological platforms, DST is an anachronism, and a case should be made for getting rid of it. In more localised terms, I am not "saving energy" (the current reason advanced for the continued existence of DST) when I have to have the lights on for two hours prior to leaving for work because it's dark as pitch when I wake up and sunrise is artificially timed to just before I get into my vehicle.
Bullet Journal Junkie addiction: October also saw me borrowing an idea I saw cropping up often in the Bullet Journal Junkies group: habit tracking. I've worked on a number of habits in 2015, the main one being to spend some time meditating every day, but I had been neglecting others I could do well to get back into, such as drinking enough water, consistently working out, and waking up earlier in the morning. After trying a few suggestions, I decided to make tracking water intake, my wake up times and the days I work out as part of my set-up for November (so I'll be writing about how that's going in a couple of weeks, ha).
I also decided to institute a "15 Minute Clean" into my routine twice a week, which would see me doing whatever needed most doing around the house for 15 minutes, in an effort to reduce the need for me to spend all day Sunday getting the house back into shape, or (worse) starting my cleaning on Saturday because I was unable to relax due to the state of the house.
Driving!: October saw me making my first long drive, tackling the 170 KM (one way) drive to Sudbury, to take G to an appointment. There is construction on Highway 108 South leading down to the Trans-Canada/Highway 17, so there were some delays. The funniest moment of the drive came when I saw a spider on a tissue near the gear shift, and almost jumped from the vehicle (not fond of creatures with more appendages than I have!). Fortunately, we were sitting in a construction delayed line of traffic, so I controlled myself and G carefully removed the creature and the tissue to outside the vehicle.
In all, I think it was a successful drive. If there's one thing I have learned from all the traveling I did across Jamaica via public transit, it is that wherever I am going to is not moving away from me, I am moving toward it, so I will eventually get there, and I do not need to do so before anyone else. Going anywhere for me is very much about the journey, and now that I drive it is about the process, as well, and I am going to tackle it the way I do everything else: knowing my limitations, cautiously aware of how what I do affects those around me, and abiding by the established rules/guidelines governing my actions.
Finally: It won't be long before I have to write an entry for December, and will therefore be able to check off one of the things I was working on for 2015: Write a blog entry each month summarising the month before. I'm also more than 320 days into my year of meditating, closing in on the 365. December will see me spending a lot of what spare time I have looking back on how I came through 2015, and looking forward so I can get a handle on what I want 2016 to look like.
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| On the way to Sault Ste Marie |
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| Halloween candy treat bags, all gone! |
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| I tried making Jamaican coco-bread |
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Fall is here
September slipped away nearly as quickly as August did. I barely got myself re-organised, before it was all over and the month of October was looking me in the face.
This month: I discover Bullet Journaling
Back in August, I began trying out the Bullet Journal system of planning and noting in what I call my "Day Book", which I have been using since 2014 to keep myself organised alongside the Evernote and Trello apps. I came across the Bullet Journal system thanks to a blog entry from Evernote, actually.
Not everyone finds a digital application suitable to their purposes, and there are still (many!) people in the world who prefer pen and paper for the inherent flexibility and customization that comes with a blank sheet of paper, as opposed to the structured architecture of the app. There are also people, like myself, who use digital applications for one purpose, but otherwise turn to pen and paper (or, in my case, pencil and paper, I prefer pencil) for another.
While I will plan a day of doing the bookkeeping for G's business in an Evernote notebook, or list the three things I must get done so I can feel accomplished on a specific day on a Trello board, I have always had an agenda/daily diary type book since I was 13 years old, if not every year, then most of those years, and rely on them for keeping appointments and scheduling work and personal occasions.
Previously, my Day Book just consisted of my goals for the month and any other tasks I wanted to especially accomplish (in 2014 I just did a list of my Resolutions under various subheadings). If you checked out the Bullet Journal (Bu-Jo to its fans) site, you will see it starts with calendar spreads for the month and the week, and then daily logging (rapid logging) in the form of tasks, events and notes with signifiers (symbols) that quickly identify what an item is.
So far, I am still tweaking the system to suit myself. I use a monthly calendar listing to see any events at a glance, a Tasks page for an ongoing list of anything that needs doing, a Due page for my bill payment schedule, and follow these pages with what I call my Daily Download, which is just a summary of each day's main events, completed tasks, activities and even random thoughts. I do not think I will add "Collections" in the form of say, books to read, not this year anyways. I also do not log daily activities such as meals or workouts in my Day Book, I use apps (LoseIt, Fitocracy, Fitbit) for all that already and am not minded to change that.
One thing that is quickly apparent about Bu-Jo users is how creative they are. I can't decorate anything to save my life, I have zero talent in the area of drawing, or art, or crafting. I feel like quite the impostor looking at the posts of the group on Facebook I joined to get ideas about tweaking the Bullet Journal system, my Day Book is relentlessly plain, just words on a page. To add just a touch of creativity, a friend sent me a box of rubber stamps designed for planners, with symbols you are likely to need in a planner. I spent a little time stamping each one into the last pages of my Day Book (I don't call it a Bu-Jo, even though I use the Bu-Jo system to organise it now) and labeling them so I know what each will be used for. Who knows, I might even spend some money and buy some washi tape, a very decorative tape originating in Japan, and give my Day Book some colour.
What else I got up to:
In September, I didn't save anything. I temporarily discontinued my RRSP contributions in July to allow for some additional income, because G's business slowed right down to very little. I re-started my contributions with my first pay in October.
I served as a volunteer at the local running of the Terry Fox Run on September 20. Terry Fox is very much a Canadian national hero, he ran on a prosthetic leg across Canada to raise awareness about cancer. 35 years later and counting, his inspirational spirit is still honoured with runs organised in communities large and small. It was my first year volunteering with this particular effort, but likely will not be my last.
For 29 of the 30 days in September, I wrote a short affirmation each morning after completing my Headspace meditation practice. I wrote for 3 minutes, as that was the most time I could add to my morning schedule without going completely off-track. The point of this was to both start the day with a positive frame of mind, and to use my handwriting, something I don't do much of anymore with all the digital tools I use.
Finally, I decided to not pull out the sweaters and scarves until it was at least mid- to late October. Summer ended on a beautiful note, but fall swept right in, with high temperatures going from an average of 21 *C to no more than 15 *C in less than a week. It's not winter yet, and I am not going to dress for it until I have to. After 3 years, I am interested to see just how adjusted I am.
This month: I discover Bullet Journaling
Back in August, I began trying out the Bullet Journal system of planning and noting in what I call my "Day Book", which I have been using since 2014 to keep myself organised alongside the Evernote and Trello apps. I came across the Bullet Journal system thanks to a blog entry from Evernote, actually.
Not everyone finds a digital application suitable to their purposes, and there are still (many!) people in the world who prefer pen and paper for the inherent flexibility and customization that comes with a blank sheet of paper, as opposed to the structured architecture of the app. There are also people, like myself, who use digital applications for one purpose, but otherwise turn to pen and paper (or, in my case, pencil and paper, I prefer pencil) for another.
While I will plan a day of doing the bookkeeping for G's business in an Evernote notebook, or list the three things I must get done so I can feel accomplished on a specific day on a Trello board, I have always had an agenda/daily diary type book since I was 13 years old, if not every year, then most of those years, and rely on them for keeping appointments and scheduling work and personal occasions.
Previously, my Day Book just consisted of my goals for the month and any other tasks I wanted to especially accomplish (in 2014 I just did a list of my Resolutions under various subheadings). If you checked out the Bullet Journal (Bu-Jo to its fans) site, you will see it starts with calendar spreads for the month and the week, and then daily logging (rapid logging) in the form of tasks, events and notes with signifiers (symbols) that quickly identify what an item is.
So far, I am still tweaking the system to suit myself. I use a monthly calendar listing to see any events at a glance, a Tasks page for an ongoing list of anything that needs doing, a Due page for my bill payment schedule, and follow these pages with what I call my Daily Download, which is just a summary of each day's main events, completed tasks, activities and even random thoughts. I do not think I will add "Collections" in the form of say, books to read, not this year anyways. I also do not log daily activities such as meals or workouts in my Day Book, I use apps (LoseIt, Fitocracy, Fitbit) for all that already and am not minded to change that.
One thing that is quickly apparent about Bu-Jo users is how creative they are. I can't decorate anything to save my life, I have zero talent in the area of drawing, or art, or crafting. I feel like quite the impostor looking at the posts of the group on Facebook I joined to get ideas about tweaking the Bullet Journal system, my Day Book is relentlessly plain, just words on a page. To add just a touch of creativity, a friend sent me a box of rubber stamps designed for planners, with symbols you are likely to need in a planner. I spent a little time stamping each one into the last pages of my Day Book (I don't call it a Bu-Jo, even though I use the Bu-Jo system to organise it now) and labeling them so I know what each will be used for. Who knows, I might even spend some money and buy some washi tape, a very decorative tape originating in Japan, and give my Day Book some colour.
What else I got up to:
In September, I didn't save anything. I temporarily discontinued my RRSP contributions in July to allow for some additional income, because G's business slowed right down to very little. I re-started my contributions with my first pay in October.
I served as a volunteer at the local running of the Terry Fox Run on September 20. Terry Fox is very much a Canadian national hero, he ran on a prosthetic leg across Canada to raise awareness about cancer. 35 years later and counting, his inspirational spirit is still honoured with runs organised in communities large and small. It was my first year volunteering with this particular effort, but likely will not be my last.
For 29 of the 30 days in September, I wrote a short affirmation each morning after completing my Headspace meditation practice. I wrote for 3 minutes, as that was the most time I could add to my morning schedule without going completely off-track. The point of this was to both start the day with a positive frame of mind, and to use my handwriting, something I don't do much of anymore with all the digital tools I use.
Finally, I decided to not pull out the sweaters and scarves until it was at least mid- to late October. Summer ended on a beautiful note, but fall swept right in, with high temperatures going from an average of 21 *C to no more than 15 *C in less than a week. It's not winter yet, and I am not going to dress for it until I have to. After 3 years, I am interested to see just how adjusted I am.
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| Some of the stamps, labeled |
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| The rest of the stamps, labeled |
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| The stamps |
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| A single fall rose |
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| This month's cute pup picture |
Monday, September 7, 2015
September...already!
Happy Labour Day!
Oddly enough, whether in Canada or Jamaica, this day has always been about doing the very least I can do and still make it through the day. Maybe because I always work so hard every other day, on a day declared a holiday in honour of workers, I just want to sit on my backside and do nothing.
Today, so far I have managed to fold and put away laundry, and tidy our bedroom and living room, because I didn't get around to it yesterday during my regular housework day. I didn't try very hard, I will admit, I haven't felt like doing much this weekend, even moreso than my usual "It's the weekend, leave me alone, I just want to vegetate" way.
However, I did manage to go out yesterday and mow the heck out of the lawn. Most of it, anyways. Just when I started to feel like I couldn't do much more, G came out and took over and finished up by doing the part of the lawn that is the hardest, the slope leading down to the street level. Honestly, the state of the lawn was beginning to annoy me, and I am pretty sure the neighbour was giving us the evil eye every time he looked at our lawn and compared it to the pristine verdant carpet he calls his lawn. We can't afford the lawn guy, but that's no reason to let ours grow over as much as we sometimes do, I am sure. I like to do things on a regular schedule, but G is not that organised. He notices things need to be done when they are far gone, generally, rather than relying on a programme of regular maintenance to keep things in check.
I am not sure what happened to August. That general feeling of running behind that I mentioned in August's post continued right throughout the rest of the month, and it ended as it had begun, with me feeling like I had lost the plot and needed to do something radical to get back on track. Whatever that radical thing was, though, I didn't quite figure out, so September started the same way.
I did manage to achieve a few things, for one, I hit 8 push-ups and 8 pull/chin-ups in a set. That, I consider pretty awesome, and can't say enough good things about +Tim Berzins, the coach who got me there. After an entire month of plugging along at assisted chin-ups and incline push-ups, I felt like quitting and bawling because I wasn't progressing, but he said to just keep working on the assisted movement, and what do you know, the full movement came after. I've gone back to lifting weights three times per week, and doing yoga two days per week as of August 31, but I am still adding in push-ups and pull-ups to keep that goal in play.
Also in August, I started keeping my Day Book as a Bullet Journal, an analogue organisation system I came across on the Evernote blog. So far, I think I haven't written as much in it as it is meant to record, but as it's my first month using the system, I am thinking that as I make the system my own, I will record more and more in it. I am trying to move more towards my Day Book being a log of my day's events, activities, and thoughts, even inspiring quotes, instead of just a planner for work hours and bill payments with a monthly goal/to-do list.
The calendar is sliding towards the coming fall, due on September 23rd. It is still quite warm, and very summery today (I am typing this wearing tank top and shorts!), after a scary couple of weeks when it looked as though summer was over and cooler temperatures were coming in early. Thanks to a "Colorado Low", we had a few wet, foggy, cool days when the high temperature hovered in the low 20's and refused to budge much past 21 *C. However, the summer weather is back, although leaves are changing here and there. I will "allow" this, it is September, after all. Personally, though, I am not pulling out any fall clothing before September 23rd.
I am working hard to make sure I don't try to lump the last few months of the year together in my mind, I want to keep looking no further than the current month. I need to re-set goals for September, add them to my Day Book, and get this month sorted before it also gets away from me.
Oddly enough, whether in Canada or Jamaica, this day has always been about doing the very least I can do and still make it through the day. Maybe because I always work so hard every other day, on a day declared a holiday in honour of workers, I just want to sit on my backside and do nothing.
Today, so far I have managed to fold and put away laundry, and tidy our bedroom and living room, because I didn't get around to it yesterday during my regular housework day. I didn't try very hard, I will admit, I haven't felt like doing much this weekend, even moreso than my usual "It's the weekend, leave me alone, I just want to vegetate" way.
However, I did manage to go out yesterday and mow the heck out of the lawn. Most of it, anyways. Just when I started to feel like I couldn't do much more, G came out and took over and finished up by doing the part of the lawn that is the hardest, the slope leading down to the street level. Honestly, the state of the lawn was beginning to annoy me, and I am pretty sure the neighbour was giving us the evil eye every time he looked at our lawn and compared it to the pristine verdant carpet he calls his lawn. We can't afford the lawn guy, but that's no reason to let ours grow over as much as we sometimes do, I am sure. I like to do things on a regular schedule, but G is not that organised. He notices things need to be done when they are far gone, generally, rather than relying on a programme of regular maintenance to keep things in check.
I am not sure what happened to August. That general feeling of running behind that I mentioned in August's post continued right throughout the rest of the month, and it ended as it had begun, with me feeling like I had lost the plot and needed to do something radical to get back on track. Whatever that radical thing was, though, I didn't quite figure out, so September started the same way.
I did manage to achieve a few things, for one, I hit 8 push-ups and 8 pull/chin-ups in a set. That, I consider pretty awesome, and can't say enough good things about +Tim Berzins, the coach who got me there. After an entire month of plugging along at assisted chin-ups and incline push-ups, I felt like quitting and bawling because I wasn't progressing, but he said to just keep working on the assisted movement, and what do you know, the full movement came after. I've gone back to lifting weights three times per week, and doing yoga two days per week as of August 31, but I am still adding in push-ups and pull-ups to keep that goal in play.
Also in August, I started keeping my Day Book as a Bullet Journal, an analogue organisation system I came across on the Evernote blog. So far, I think I haven't written as much in it as it is meant to record, but as it's my first month using the system, I am thinking that as I make the system my own, I will record more and more in it. I am trying to move more towards my Day Book being a log of my day's events, activities, and thoughts, even inspiring quotes, instead of just a planner for work hours and bill payments with a monthly goal/to-do list.
The calendar is sliding towards the coming fall, due on September 23rd. It is still quite warm, and very summery today (I am typing this wearing tank top and shorts!), after a scary couple of weeks when it looked as though summer was over and cooler temperatures were coming in early. Thanks to a "Colorado Low", we had a few wet, foggy, cool days when the high temperature hovered in the low 20's and refused to budge much past 21 *C. However, the summer weather is back, although leaves are changing here and there. I will "allow" this, it is September, after all. Personally, though, I am not pulling out any fall clothing before September 23rd.
I am working hard to make sure I don't try to lump the last few months of the year together in my mind, I want to keep looking no further than the current month. I need to re-set goals for September, add them to my Day Book, and get this month sorted before it also gets away from me.
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| Yes, the inukshuk wears a toque. |
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| Nipper and Ariea like to join me for meditation sometimes |
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| Nipper thinks my meditation pillow is his. |
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