Giving thanks - for each new day. Faith. Family. Changing seasons. A warm home, and hope for Spring.
Outside my window - It’s a January deep freeze. -1 that feels like -16 There’s just a dusting of snow - we were lucky. Further north got so much snow. So much snow. Yesterday it was even colder. We chose to stay home from church due 100% to the cold. I don’t even feel guilty.
My mood started to tank a couple days ago, and then I sort of forced myself to remember that this won’t last forever. I looked out at our beautiful deck and reminded myself that soon it will be Spring and I’ll be enjoying my coffee in the mornings and after dinner rest in full view of our beautiful backyard. There are probably a lot of things that would be made better if I will just remember to keep in mind that it won’t always be this way. :-)
Clothing myself in - Black and white plaid flannels, black long sleep Walmart t-shirt, and my favorite lightweight black cardigan. This cardigan and I have a history together. Oh, and my Crocks. Because it’s too early to have my tennis shoes on LOL.
In the kitchen - It’s relatively clean at least. The instant pot is still out on the counter from the yogurt I made overnight. There is angel food cake that Rachel baked, and the collection of typical items left from the night before. The bananas are turning ripe quicker than we are eating them - as usual, and iced tea is brewing in the ½ gallon jar.
I have plans to prepare extra meals this week for folks who need a little help. I’ll be working on that plan right after I hit publish on this post. I really need to get into the deep freeze, process the tomatoes from our garden harvest, and make room so I can see what’s actually in there. Then I need to stock up on a few staples.
Writing - Well, this daybook post primarily. I have been doing morning pages, but nothing more really. I spent some time this past weekend trying to resume working on the cookbook section of the blog, but there are days when sitting in front of the computer makes me physically ill. These were some of those days. I have to relearn the tools from the platform that were working so well. I forget so much when I step away from it for a long period. Christmas held other draws on my time and energy, and now there is much to revisit and relearn.
On a side note: mastermind resumes tonight. I am leaving it up to my mood to decide whether or not I’m going. I suppose it’s not really a good idea to allow a mood to determine such things, but in this season, my mood has altogether too much say in my choices. It is what it is.
Reading - I finished reading the rough draft of my daughter’s WOP. It is fantastic and I will be cheering her on to continue and complete the work. I miss our long conversations about writing and reading and all good things.
Watching - too much television. As usual. Some things never change. The Marvel marathon has commenced. I promised our daughter we would do our annual marathon after the first of the year. I prefer to enjoy re-watching our favorites in the downtime of the cold months when not much else is happening.
Listening - I have discovered a few more podcasts that I intend to check out. I still favor That Sounds Fun. I think the ladies of Out of the Ordinary took a long break because they both have books due this month.
The Next Right Thing was right on target for where I am at this moment. I hadn’t listened for a while because I felt like the tone was changing, but it turns out it was just right! Here are bullet points that I jotted down during the brief episode. I'll be revisiting them asap.
Name my January posture
Create space
What needs my attention
Choose my absence (so my presence will have more impact)
What would be inner life-giving to me
I have more thoughts about this episode and I'll try to get back here at some point this week and process them.
Making - When I started feeling nauseous at the computer, and seeing my mood tank, I decided to pull some sewing/quilting supplies out to see how it felt to work with fabric again. Initially, it felt right. But then the distractions and interruptions started and I just gave up and put it all back. I wasn’t ready apparently. I’m wondering - will I ever be ready to resume ‘making’?
Camp - I created a ‘Save-the-Date’ for our 40th wedding anniversary celebration. It will be at camp. It’s our new happy place, and we can gather more of our loved ones there than anywhere else. It’s the best chance I have at creating a celebration that reflects who we are and what we love.
The week ahead - Back-to-the-basics. Cooking, cleaning, all things homemaking. This simplicity actually brings me peace.
Loving God and loving people - I’m still learning what this looks like in the midst of figuring out my “purpose”. I really want to write words that help me process this, but they don’t come easily. They resist being nailed down, declared out loud. I crave a conversation that helps me refine my purpose and own it - without apology for not having a ‘bigger purpose’.
Until next time - stay warm and content!