“Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6 NLT
Giving thanks:
Faith that continues to grow deeper, wider, and stronger
Good health for my mama
Fabric
Our favorite local coffee shop - The Abbey
A husband that sacrifices for the good of his family
Mild temperatures in the middle of January (and all the people said, "Yeah, but I'm sure we're gonna pay for it later in the Spring") :-)
Our mastermind group and the friendship and encouragement that we share
Vehicles that run
This list could go on and on and on...
Outside my window - Gloomy days bring gloomy moods, and I think today is going to be one of those days. I hope we can all find a little sunshine of our own to brighten our attitudes. Rain. Squirrel. Styrofoam remnants from a storm that blew it out of trash cans and distributed throughout the neighborhood.
Clothing myself in - favorite jeans (just like those two of my daughters are probably going to wear today. Green sleeveless that I just changed into because I always forget that layers are going to be my best bet - every. single. day. White Crocs, hair up in a clip - for the same reason I had to change shirts - hot flashes are real folks. I'm hot, then I'm cold, then I'm hot again. Sometimes I feel like I could spontaneously combust. And what in the world is with the static electricity that only I seem to be producing!? The last few years I have been a walking lightning bolt. I don't understand. Anyone know why I'm the only one?
In the kitchen - Sourdough starter. This is the big thing going on in my kitchen right now. I started it about 12 days ago but it's still not "ripe". I believe the problem is that I keep our house too cold for it to ferment properly - 82 degrees. Whatever. That's never going to happen unless the grid goes down and there is no electricity because the AC will always be on when it's above 82 degrees, and the heat will never be on higher than 68 at the highest. I prefer a comfortable 62 degrees, thank you very much. It's a really good thing we had solar installed...
Anyway, I looked up some ways to help keep it warm and happy. The yogurt setting on the Instant Pot was one, a heating pad on low, a proofing box - all of which I have. I started with these two and ordered a seed-starting heated mat that I think will be the best option. If it turns out not to be, I'll use it to start seeds in the garden I'm not sure we'll have this year LOL.
I've found lots of great sites to help educate myself on this journey - I'll come back and add those asap!
Writing - morning pages every day this year, so far. My goal is continue to do so, along with consistent content for this blog in several categories. I'm also writing occasionally for some prompts our mastermind is sharing. The primary project I chose to work on at this time is the cookbook section of the blog. I hope I'll be making a lot of progress with posting recipes complete with photos and tags, menus, and more.
Reading - I resumed reading the last of the books of a trilogy I'd been working on, but my daughters insist that I need to jump ship and go back to the next book in a series I started while waiting on the last book of a trilogy to release. I now have a book light and a (somewhat) noise cancelling headset to help me read while in the presence of the most-of-the-time-very-loud-television. I just can't isolate myself from my people in the evenings but if I want to read I had to take some drastic measures. If you call a book light and headsets drastic :-) *Disclaimer - I enjoy reading a variety of books, a good portion of what some would call twaddle. Be informed (forewarned) and carry on. Take my recommendations or leave them.
Watching - The Chosen. We finished the first two seasons, and now watch the episodes as they are released for season three. They announced that two episodes will be released for special viewing in some local theaters. We have tickets. I'm not sure how I feel about viewing it in theater or about the fact that they are doing it this way. I'm sure the episodes will be available for streaming at home after the release, but we opted to get the tickets rather than wait. We'll see. My kindred spirit and I chatted briefly about how much we both appreciate the way the writers and directors are approaching this project. To this point, I cannot recommend it highly enough, truly.
Listening - silence. Ambient house noises actually. I have listened to a few podcast episodes the past week or two. I'm trying to resume that good habit. As always, Rachel is introducing me to new music and most of it I really like.
Making - The most adorable Minnie Mouse quilts. This is a "rough draft" - a first attempt with a lot of work still to make it just right. If we can get it right, we have plans for a Disney Collection of sorts.
Learning lessons - The sourdough journey is genuinely a learning experience. I have had sourdough starter in the past - way, way back past - and I don't recall having issues with it growing. I don't remember much about the experience, so it's really all new. Once I get the starter up and growing, I'll be learning about using it :-) Those are the lessons I ultimately want!!
Celebrating - We took our son-in-love to dinner for his birthday at the beginning of the month. We have a couple more birthdays in January and I plan to touch base with the mamas of the birthday kiddos to see if we have a plan and what, if anything, I can do to help.
In conversation - John and I are leaning in toward each other more often throughout the days now to talk about what we hope to accomplish on his days off. There are so many things we want and need to do, but we both have accepted that although we can make the plans - we are definitely not in charge. Everything we plan, we add an addendum - God willing. It's that simple. The hardest part of that has been remembering that His plans are always best. If we can remember that, we are able to keep our hands open to let go so much easier than when we forget and insist that our plans are the best.
Camp - Still working out all the details to get the new RV moved to camp and situated on our lots. There is a slim chance that we will be able to go to camp to help receive and get it set up. It would be a quick trip, and the weather in that area can be unpredictable.
Caregiving - This is a new category, and I'm not sure why I haven't included it before now. Being a caregiver to my sweet mama is now my primary responsibility, so it makes sense that much of what my days consists of now involves her. We're fortunate to be in a position to have her here with us, and we wouldn't have it any other way. That doesn't mean it's always easy. But's it's always worth it.
We enjoyed a brief but wonderful visit from my brother, his wife and my niece last week!
In the garden - Will there or won't there be a garden this year? I have decided that this will basically be up to my dear husband to decide. If he takes the initiative to start one, then I'll step up and work beside him. If not, I think we'll just skip this year and get our rhythm with home and camp established before we try doing a garden while being gone a good part of the summer.
The week ahead - there is margin in my days now. I hope to keep it that way. There is a list of projects that have been on hold for way too long. My Google storage is full, so full I can't even access my documents to edit them. Photos. It's always the photos. So that moved up on the list of things to do.
Quilts, sourdough, still finishing the rooms that were abandoned when de-cluttering came to an abrupt halt last week, painting, cleaning, writing - you know, all the things. :-) Planning (loosely) the projects we'll tackle in the next month while John has two-day-work-weeks (I won't go into the very aggravating reasons he'll have them). We both are lock-step with things we want to get done, it's just in what order they need to be done, God willing.
Have a happy week!!!