Pumpkin Sunrise

  Hello! How are you doing?  This past week I've been pondering about a mindfulness prompt in a book I'm reading throughout the year, A Year of Living Mindfully by Anna Black. It's a really nice book and I've enjoyed the prompts throughout this year. Anyways the prompt this week was to consider what you believe to be nourishing or draining. I've thought about this all week long. My obvious nourishing events are knitting and reading. But over the course of the week I've added some surprising concepts to the nourishing list and challenged my draining list. I had the opportunity to help my cousin at her house with her preparing for company this past week. I found helping her nourishing to me, an added bonus was making her very happy. I also initially considered walking 150 minutes draining because of the amount of time it takes to get that done and I'm not doing other 'things' but then I changed my mind because I am nourishing my physical health which i

  Finally, it is October! Are you celebrating? Are you excited? All through end of July, all of August and half way through September I've been pining for October. This is the secret sauce month of Autumn and we are finally finally here. In my planner I have set up some monthly pages, one of which is 'October Ideas'. This page will be the catchall brain dump of what I'd like to do, or investigate during the month. Usually I write each week what I want to do but I have to carry it over to another week (sometimes repeatedly). Maybe a monthly catchall place will work for me. Near where I live there are plenty of farmer's markets and there is one in particular that is a compound of buildings. They have a few animals for children to say 'hi' to and chat with, you can feed them some food as well. I snapped the photo of this sweet pig (hog??). I'll be missing the big fair that was close to my old home. I find it weird that the last time at the big fair I didn&#

  I've been reading a lot this week. I started 10% Happier by Dan Harris and it is really good. He writes about his personal journal into mindfulness and meditation, I've been captivated and squeezing in reading here and there during my day to gobble up the book. I highly recommend! I've been also reading a chapter a day/or every other day of Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn (revised edition), also a good book but jammed packed with lots of science and data so the reading is slow going - almost like a textbook but worth the read. The Madness of the Crowds by Louise Penny became available on my e-library loan request so I've set aside all the other novels to read this one in 21 days. Nothing like a deadline to make you rejigger your reading priorities. I love her writing and have read all of her books. I convinced myself that I did NOT need a Hobonichi Weeks planner until March 2022, then broke down and ordered the January start Hobonichi Weeks planner for 2022.

  Our daughter and son in law came for a weekend visit and we had a great time. Boy was it busy! We drove to the south of Pittsburgh to go to an art store and a book/greeting card store on Saturday afternoon. Then we drove all the way back up north to another town to toodle about - that's were they grabbed some coffee and croissants (I had iced green tea). In the evening we had my sister, brother in law and aunt over for a family dinner. I keep forgetting how much work is involved with hosting - and navigating the small kitchen, but I was successful at both. The key is to keep cleaning as you go. Yesterday was saying goodbye to them and putting the house back together again. I was thrilled to finish all the laundry by dinner time and the best part is we have tons of leftovers so I did not have to cook. Thanks for all the comments about how you drink your tea/coffee and your morning habits. I have done the 'tea in the morning' for about four days and I'm going back to co

  Hello! How are you on this fine Friday morning? Can you believe that fall is around the corner (finally.). I'm excited about that. I know and you know that there will be hot days but they are just not sustainable this time of the year. I'm sitting in my kitchen watching my bird feeders and currently a chickadee is visiting. I do love having the bird feeders. The above photo is my new coffee/tea station set up. As you know, I've been improving my lifestyle for that past month. I have been a serious morning coffee drinker for 40 years. I drink it black with sugar. I have tried to cut down the sugar and can only go so far. I do not like the taste of artificial sweeteners. Added to that I'm probably caffeine sensitive and feel edgy with 1/2 decaf coffee. With green tea I do not use any sugar and it has way less caffeine unless I drink the decaf version. So I cleaned the coffee maker and put it away. I brought out my beloved electric tea kettle and bought some green teas t

  Good morning! I'm sitting at my kitchen table early in the morning with a window opened and it's a bit brisk. I am in heaven. I know that next week the weather forecast is back into the 80's but I'll take these low 70's in a heart beat. How has your week been?  We drove to a local park twice this past week to walk a loop. The first time was without Frodo and the second time it was with Frodo. Each time was wonderful, I think Frodo liked the walk. We do walk in our neighborhood but there are more cars here than where we used to live, it's manageable but different to what we are used to doing. I've been trying to increase my exercise for all that heart healthy 'stuff'.  Besides walking, I'm either strength training or doing yoga in the mornings. It's felt really good getting back into the groove and I'm sure my body appreciates it. Around here, there's been lots of journalling, sketching, haiku writing and reading. The knitting, well

  Good morning to you all, how are you? Right now it's early morning and I'm sitting at my kitchen table listening to the birds outside. At this house we can feed the birds without bear activity. What a delight! I've heard there are foxes but so far we haven't seen one yet. There are also deer that come right up to the house, so bold.  When I do my morning routine that consists of journaling, praying and meditating,  I ask myself two key questions. I never write down my answers, I just mull them over in my head. Sometimes the mulling over gives me some insight on myself. Question #1: What would make today a Great Day? Question #2: How will I make today a Great Day? A great day for me is usually some knitting time and reading time. I'm finding that these questions I ask myself are more about how I want the tone of my day to be and how I want to feel and not necessarily a litany of tasks to check off from a list. I want to feel relaxed, calm and content. Going down a

  This weekend was kind of relaxing overall. I spent the better part of Sunday cleaning the house and doing the laundry. While sitting and resting I prepared some pages in my art journal notebook. I like to batch produce then free write when I am in the mood.  Lucky for us my husband's colleague from the past lives near our new house and invited us over for 'drinks' on Saturday but the 'drinks' turned out to be a dinner - lovely! We met his wife and family and had a great time sitting and chatting outside. How was your weekend?

Good morning! I hope you all of you have had a fine week. This is the first week where we are not unpacking boxes. Believe me there are still boxes here and there but we have lost some motivation. I started up with my exercise program after a few months off and it felt good to get back into the groove. I'm surprised at how little muscle was lost, not that I have a lot of muscle. Sadly the morning walks will be ending due to hot humid weather creeping back in. I'm ready for fall but I cannot let myself go there! I compiled all documenting into the above Hobonichi Weeks planner and I've been happy with the simplification so far. Besides keeping track of appointments, I'm marking down the menu plan and exercising sessions. I have a whole page for a sentence a day gratitude list (I love doing that).  I do have an art journal that I write in a few times a week. The knitting is coming along - I try to sit and rest in the afternoons and put in some much needed rows. I've b

  I have a morning routine that starts the day the best way possible for me. After pouring a cup of coffee in a favorite mug (there are many) I sit down and journal for one page, this might be about the day before or it might be about what's on my mind, it doesn't matter - I just write. Before I end my journal entry, I write what I am grateful for, usually it's the coffee in the favorite mug, the morning silence (my husband is a music listener during the day) and then always family and good health and new opportunities. Next up comes the praying. There are lots of prayers and I have a running list of who I'm praying for on a sticky note. I continue to read Magnificat and this year I read a Saint a Day.  I write a list of what I want to accomplish or what needs to be done in the next day or so in my weekly planner. I also try my best to squeeze in a meditation from the insight timer app (I highly recommend), I do meditate daily but morning time is best. Neither of the

  Good morning! How was your week? Can you tell I'm in a major teal color-loving mood based on that lovely photo above? It's been going strong for over a year now.  The weather has been kind of dreary and blah for a few days, so that makes being stuck inside boxing up belongings and decluttering that much easier. Dare I say we are done with decluttering? Maybe? I'm not sure, but the bulk of the madness is over. This week we dropped off the 8th and 9th carload of donations. I've been working on my studio room this week and am so close to be done. Rooms with closets take me four days on average. We started this process super early because I didn't want a mad dash near the moving date. My husband and I tend to work 3-5 hours a day sharing a pleasant lunch break. We are both exhausted by dinner time. Because I'm 'working', my creative pursuits have taken a back seat. I'm showing up for my art journaling pages whenever I get a chance (below photo). But th

  Technically since today is Memorial day it is part of a three day weekend but I wanted to get this post written and published. We are knee deep in decluttering and somewhat packing. I've been focusing on the two adult children's bedrooms. Yes they have a lot of stuff here and I'm thinning out the belongings. Yes this should have been done years ago with their help. There have been phone calls and discussions on what to keep or give away. A lot of the stuff can go and that is a very good thing. My husband and I were eating dinner and I announced that I (WE) would never ever 'save' stuff again. My house is not by any means a hoarder's house, BUT I have a set of kitchen dishes that have been sitting in the basement for sixteen years unused and I never liked them in the first place.  Why? Why save them??  While I've been in the bedrooms decluttering, my dear sweet husband has been in the basement going through tools and such. Again - many unusable drills that

  How has your week been?  We are knee deep in decluttering and the first phase of packing up a house we've been living in for sixteen years. I try to squelch the little whispers in my head that get overwhelmed by the process. I just wake up, do my morning routine (mostly journalling and praying), get ready, eat breakfast, meditate and then tackle the to-do list. I have a moving notebook where I'm capturing ALL the tasks. I'm getting it done box by blessed box. Yesterday I finished packing up the dining room (yay!). That room was 'easy'. The rooms with closets where I can stuff them from top to bottom are the challenge, remember sixteen years of stuffing closets. I'm finding the more I let go the easier it is to let go of more stuff. We are paying the movers by weight so that is a contributing factor as well. I go through closets and boxes and have my internal questions: 'does this bring me joy?' 'is this meaningful to me?' 'do I want to pay