Fresh start - pleasant!
It’s a new year, and new beginnings:
(Actually, every moment of every day is a chance to start afresh, but it is traditional to begin “with a clean slate” on New Years Day - kinda defeats the purpose when whatever resolution made is broken or failed before the end of the first week, but why mess with something that works?)
In lue of resolution that will not come true, (past experiences says so, as does the widly held viewpoint that “everyone breaks their New Year Resolution”), I have chosen to do something slightly different.
Instead of relying on only self to A) lose weight, B) stop wasting time on the computer, C) approve sitting/standing posture, - which can be healthy goals (and make oneself look/feel taller and slimmer), - I am doing something different.
Heard on the radio earlier this week a tip to improve (or brighten) one’s outlook.
Step one: once a week, take two minutes or so and write a sentence (or list) the positive things that happened that week.
Step two: when feeling down, go back and read/remind yourself of the good things that happened in your life.
Step three: stick with it - it’s okay if the list (or paragraph) isn’t done the same day of the week, every week.
Okay, so they didn’t say it in those words, but when one deliberately makes note of good things and sticks the list somewhere to view later, it should bring a more positive/brighter feeling to oneself.
So, to start off with: my “I am glad this happened”!
1. I can breathe again! And talk! Last week of December, had such a bad head/sinus cold, that it hurt to talk in anything louder than a whisper! (And waking up in the middle of the night coughing does not help one get a restful night’s sleep).
2. It’s raining - nearby foothills have had a flash-flood warning earlier.
(I like hearing the rain tapping the windows, the water drops land on the roof, seeing the falling precipitation - makes for a cleaner atmosphere and brings much-needed water to yards that need moisture after a too-long summer, hot and dry drought-like conditions). Now, while the flashflood warning is not necessarily a GOOD thing, because with it comes mudslides, rockslides, and too much early snow-melt, but it does cleanse the ground of surface debris (usually), and brings fresh elements to the surface (you know, those minerals and elements that were buried under that hill of dirt that just caved way and buried the road?). It’s just too bad that some mountain roads and National Parks might be closed - temporarily - due to floods, but the last time Yellowstone had visitors stuck on whichever side of the valley they were when the massive storm system came through was twenty years ago, back in 1997. About time!
3. Another week and the three musketeers (Sister’s blue healer, mom’s lap dog, dad’s no-longer-a-puppy), will be fully up to date on their shots and immunizations so they can go out on long walks around the block!
Wait, that hasn’t happened yet, so this should, technically, be part of next week’s list, not this week’s note of interest.
4. Got to make a few batches of cookies - may have found a new favorite Chocolate chip recipe. (Note to self: Crisco Baking sticks seem to create a more rounder cookie than regular butter - and if the cookies come out too flat, add a little more baking soda; if too dark brown/burnt, reduce oven temp by 5 degrees, or cut baking time by a minute or two).
5. Youngest brother got engaged! ~ According to his girlfriend/fiancé, it wasn’t a romantic proposal, but they are going steadily and are wanting it to be serious. IF they don’t break up (God willing), my youngest brother will be the second one to marry.
Okay, so he got engaged before New Years - but it happened RECENTLY, so it still counts!
6. Went out with a friend, on a “date”. It was just the two of us (B.A and myself), going to dinner a few days after his birthday, but it was a DATE! (mainly, due to the fact no one else from my family went with us, and He asked Me out!) I can’t remember the last time I went out alone … the first time I was asked, was for the High School winter dance, but that failed to pan out. Poor kid moved halfway across the state a month before the dance.
7. Found the chipmunk CD.
Dad said that if I found the Compact-Disk with the Chipmunks (1963 original Chipmunks, not the remake), I could play the songs.
Heh.
Tore the house apart looking for that beloved music disk because I WANTED to hear the crazy Chipmunks and their adaptation to beloved classic Christmas tales, so bad. They were a favorite of mine growing up - and one of the few bands/groups I could listen to nonstop. (Plus, it’s not Santa or Frosty or Rudolf, so even now I don’t get tired of them after a few repeated lyrics).
Yes, I did put the house back together again … least, most of the mess I created was taken care of.
8. Finished crocheting a lap-throw. Only took five days. Instructions said it was supposed to be a 5 ½ hour project.
Maybe if I had actually used the RIGHT SIZED HOOK! (Honestly, the biggest hook I could find in the house was a “K” and the project suggested a “Q” or size necessary to obtain proper gauge. I need to figure out how not to be so tight in my stitching.
Perhaps I could have used my fingers for a larger spacing? That might have worked out fairly well - but four skeins of yarn later, not interested in tearing the thing apart and starting over.
Why stop here? There's lots more I can (and should) be glad for. And they all happened within the last eight days or thereabouts.
However, I am WAY past the two minutes, so signing off.
(Actually, every moment of every day is a chance to start afresh, but it is traditional to begin “with a clean slate” on New Years Day - kinda defeats the purpose when whatever resolution made is broken or failed before the end of the first week, but why mess with something that works?)
In lue of resolution that will not come true, (past experiences says so, as does the widly held viewpoint that “everyone breaks their New Year Resolution”), I have chosen to do something slightly different.
Instead of relying on only self to A) lose weight, B) stop wasting time on the computer, C) approve sitting/standing posture, - which can be healthy goals (and make oneself look/feel taller and slimmer), - I am doing something different.
Heard on the radio earlier this week a tip to improve (or brighten) one’s outlook.
Step one: once a week, take two minutes or so and write a sentence (or list) the positive things that happened that week.
Step two: when feeling down, go back and read/remind yourself of the good things that happened in your life.
Step three: stick with it - it’s okay if the list (or paragraph) isn’t done the same day of the week, every week.
Okay, so they didn’t say it in those words, but when one deliberately makes note of good things and sticks the list somewhere to view later, it should bring a more positive/brighter feeling to oneself.
So, to start off with: my “I am glad this happened”!
1. I can breathe again! And talk! Last week of December, had such a bad head/sinus cold, that it hurt to talk in anything louder than a whisper! (And waking up in the middle of the night coughing does not help one get a restful night’s sleep).
2. It’s raining - nearby foothills have had a flash-flood warning earlier.
(I like hearing the rain tapping the windows, the water drops land on the roof, seeing the falling precipitation - makes for a cleaner atmosphere and brings much-needed water to yards that need moisture after a too-long summer, hot and dry drought-like conditions). Now, while the flashflood warning is not necessarily a GOOD thing, because with it comes mudslides, rockslides, and too much early snow-melt, but it does cleanse the ground of surface debris (usually), and brings fresh elements to the surface (you know, those minerals and elements that were buried under that hill of dirt that just caved way and buried the road?). It’s just too bad that some mountain roads and National Parks might be closed - temporarily - due to floods, but the last time Yellowstone had visitors stuck on whichever side of the valley they were when the massive storm system came through was twenty years ago, back in 1997. About time!
3. Another week and the three musketeers (Sister’s blue healer, mom’s lap dog, dad’s no-longer-a-puppy), will be fully up to date on their shots and immunizations so they can go out on long walks around the block!
Wait, that hasn’t happened yet, so this should, technically, be part of next week’s list, not this week’s note of interest.
4. Got to make a few batches of cookies - may have found a new favorite Chocolate chip recipe. (Note to self: Crisco Baking sticks seem to create a more rounder cookie than regular butter - and if the cookies come out too flat, add a little more baking soda; if too dark brown/burnt, reduce oven temp by 5 degrees, or cut baking time by a minute or two).
5. Youngest brother got engaged! ~ According to his girlfriend/fiancé, it wasn’t a romantic proposal, but they are going steadily and are wanting it to be serious. IF they don’t break up (God willing), my youngest brother will be the second one to marry.
Okay, so he got engaged before New Years - but it happened RECENTLY, so it still counts!
6. Went out with a friend, on a “date”. It was just the two of us (B.A and myself), going to dinner a few days after his birthday, but it was a DATE! (mainly, due to the fact no one else from my family went with us, and He asked Me out!) I can’t remember the last time I went out alone … the first time I was asked, was for the High School winter dance, but that failed to pan out. Poor kid moved halfway across the state a month before the dance.
7. Found the chipmunk CD.
Dad said that if I found the Compact-Disk with the Chipmunks (1963 original Chipmunks, not the remake), I could play the songs.
Heh.
Tore the house apart looking for that beloved music disk because I WANTED to hear the crazy Chipmunks and their adaptation to beloved classic Christmas tales, so bad. They were a favorite of mine growing up - and one of the few bands/groups I could listen to nonstop. (Plus, it’s not Santa or Frosty or Rudolf, so even now I don’t get tired of them after a few repeated lyrics).
Yes, I did put the house back together again … least, most of the mess I created was taken care of.
8. Finished crocheting a lap-throw. Only took five days. Instructions said it was supposed to be a 5 ½ hour project.
Maybe if I had actually used the RIGHT SIZED HOOK! (Honestly, the biggest hook I could find in the house was a “K” and the project suggested a “Q” or size necessary to obtain proper gauge. I need to figure out how not to be so tight in my stitching.
Perhaps I could have used my fingers for a larger spacing? That might have worked out fairly well - but four skeins of yarn later, not interested in tearing the thing apart and starting over.
Why stop here? There's lots more I can (and should) be glad for. And they all happened within the last eight days or thereabouts.
However, I am WAY past the two minutes, so signing off.