March 2024

March was a top month! It was full but most of it was good. I took a lot of opportunities to cram in good things and helpful things! 

My sister organised a photo shoot for our whole family which was a bit achievement, stressful with the weather and getting everyone together including H from Brisbane, but we got it done and it is special to have the family captured at this point in time. You have to treasure it.

The V project at work continued to strain, but we pulled a significant stage off, and when my colleague went to hospital sick, my team leader and I stepped in to fill his place the next day, and I had almost a regular nights sleep instead of laying awake being anxious about it! Maybe it was because it was the absolute worst case scenario there was nothing left to worry about. I felt like this was a big win. Overall the rest of work has settled down so I don't have to keep up as fast a pace which is good.

Grad day, me getting my 10 year service award.

I have had a pretty rough start to the year in terms of my body, my inflammation has increased with the stress of back to work life and probably doing the pilates challenge, and even once I took steps to manage my stress and cut out sugar, it hasn't relieved much, so I increased my medication. Also back is stiff.

However aside from that issue, March saw a lot of things improve! The humidity slowly decreasing and cooler nights making me less uncomfortable. Some quiet but productive weekends and then some busy and fun weekends. 

My niece D and I had birthdays close together so one weekend was just packed with family and friends. I hosted Sydney friends for my 40th and had a lunch at heritage gardens tea room. I also enjoyed trivia on tuesday night with my home group ladies on my actual birthday, and a morning tea at work, which I requested because it was also my 10th year of working at Tocal. So the last week of March was just a lovely week on a high of love and birthday fun and general appreciation (while also worrying about work print jobs and music practices and the usual!). My house has several bunches of flowers.

My personal obsession was outfits. Watching youtube videos from hannah louise poston and testing her method of 1 or 2 colours in an outfit. I had some pleasing results. I broke my "make do challenge" and bought these giant navy linen pants, which I didn't need but will use a lot.

The lectio365 app was a wonderful thread of easter reflection through the month and the 3 special services this weekend - Praise and Passover, Good Friday and Easter - were helpful in painting a picture of the centre of the gospel so beautifully. I felt more immersed and affected by it this year than before. Even my gardening on Easter Sunday felt like a part of it. Cleaning out the dying summer flowers and planting seedlings to look forward to Spring.

Kayaking on Easter Saturday morning w mum and Kelly.

This Easter weekend has been great. Monday is just the sunny peaceful day off I need EVERY WEEK!

Feb 2024

Hello readers/friends, how have you been this February? I've struggled. Here is some AI stickers created in whatsapp that are uncanny in their accuracy. It wasn't all bad, the flowers were blooming and I was praying, but it had some hard moments!

A theme this month was becoming too busy, realising I was stressed (mainly by unrealistic workload), and trying to unwind it. When I am stressed, I have an inflammation flare up and get achy and tired, sleep worse (not helped by the heat or the achyness) and eat worse (sugar making the inflammation worse). It's a vicious cycle. Thankfully I am always able to unwind it once I start feeling it, it's never relentless and inescapable. Why can't I just stop it happening? Because at first, it feels good. Things get busy, I pick up my pace, I feel like I'm on top of everything. And then I start noticing signs having no patience for people or wasted time. And I'm snacking more. And I'm getting achy. So the start of the curve is OK, it deceives me, and I don't realise until it is too late.

I had a day off during peak work stress which I am very proud of. It was so helpful. I released feelings, had a nice lunch at the art gallery and looked at the art, did yoga with Ros, just had a very slow gentle day. It did not fix all the physical and mental stuff instantly but it was an important step back which gave me the perspective to start unwinding, and about a week later I did a diet reset (cut the snacks and rich food out),  to give my guts and inflammation less fuel for drama.

I completed the pilates challenge this month, I did 17 classes in Feb. I don't know if that helps with stress, or makes me busier and tireder. I know one week I did 5 no problem, the next week I only did 3 classes but 2 of them were way too intense and that really set off some inflammation, so I think it's about intensity not frequency. I should go frequently but probably not push as hard.

The big thing that this month marked is the finishing of the furnishing! My couch and armchair were delivered last Tuesday, and I was also given some bookshelves which I painted last weekend. The house now doesn't have empty gaps, or random makeshift situations, it has intentional furnishing and styling, blending new and old in a way I really like. Still haven't finished the styling, the bookshelves are empty. Also, the birdcage is on wheels so it's always rolling around from room to room and window to window, there has to be some flux. But I now have a couch for reading that is not in a dark room with a TV! And enough couch space for a cosy little movie night.

 

My Make Do (low spend year) challenge is enjoyable. I basically don't go buying things just because I like them. I start from my life, and what do I need. If I see something I like, I have to ask, can I make do without it. It's simple. I've got a list in my phone of things I want or need, or wants that might be needs in future but for the short term I can make do. This month, I bought new joggers - my feet have grown, so I looked at my current shoe model, found it on ozsale and bought a half size up, saving $100. I also bought paint for the bookshelves. Technically i could have made do with them not being repainted, but they looked pretty worn and second hand, and since I got them for free, $60 on paint was a pretty small investment for 2 large bookcases in fresh clean white. And, I totally forgot this, but I bought a bottle of dye and dyed some faded jeans to dark grey! They didn't turn out how I hoped but they did turn out how the bottle said so I think my hopes were delulu. However, I have been wearing them, they are much more wearable, and doing things like that make it better to make do.

While this summer has been way too humid, my garden has loved it! It is such a pleasure to look out the window and see green in every corner, and swing in my hammock.

It being a busy month, there were a lot of fun things too! I picked a pub for dinner with some colleagues and it was PERFECTION. The food, the music, the fun drinks, highly recommend the Family Hotel. 4 gal pals from church did Mt Tomaree and we also swam even though the weather and water didn't look great, but it was so refreshing after the humid walk. There was a surprise farewell party for a girl leaving Maitland and I made lots of chicken wings from recipe tin. I had some fun fridays with JK. Me and my colleague picked some sunflowers from the field at the homestead.

And I bit the bullet and organised my 40th, booked a lunch venue and invited people to come. I decided to keep it low key but this year combine family and close friends into one group of about 20 at the private tea room at heritage gardens. So it will be more special. I'm also looking forward to pub trivia on my actual birthday with my home group! 

 In reflection it was a huge month, and terrible warm and humid, so no wonder I was tired. Slow and steady into the next month then, looking forward to Autumn and trying to keep life manageable.

Jan 2024

This year, as I promised, this blog might be different. I think it will be more random. This month I've summarised my current feelings.

2024 goals: a "make do" challenge (minimise discretionary spending); and guard my tongue better.

I’ve been thinking a lot about interior design, decluttering and all things Home. I saw a short video ages ago from the school of life, which was about the sense of Home being something like when our space reflects our soul, when our surroundings are things that we like and have meaning to us it feels right. 

And I have suddenly noticed after my own efforts that there is a real joy in “decorating” your house and making it less generic and more personal. And also in making it more functional, more private, not just aesthetic changes. Making it a space that is an extension of you in a way, bc you feel more comfortable in it both physically and emotionally. Putting thought and effort in and even spending money. I’ve always liked rearranging furniture and not having ugly stuff, and but that was about it. I tended to think that it’s a superficial material thing but it’s not. Feelings are important and how you feel at home is suuuuper important. Even removing annoyances and repairing and maintenance is a part of it. 

I was blessed to share my home with friends over the new year, including one who hasn't visited in years and has been through a lot. It was precious to give her a place to have a holiday that she could afford, and reconnect with each other. At the end of her stay I realised however that I was in introvert burnout after 10 days of hospitality, so I will have to factor that in, in the future, especially as I still had more to go!

I ran music at church for one of our combined summer 5pm services which was amazing, and then got up at 5am on Monday to go to Summer school, where I stayed with my sister and her family. It was really lovely, and a good time of bonding especially with her kids. It was, however, to intense for me, the house had no bedroom doors so I was around them all the time, or around 2000 other people at the sessions, so it was hard. It was also hard for them as a family! And there was added logistics from the wet oval so no car parking. A few meltdowns but we made it through and grew closer.

I was so glad to be home and alone for a weekend before returning to work. My soul needed it and I decided to move furniture around in preparation for my new couch and also to just freshen things up and update the vibes. I got my old couch down this narrow hall with only minor wall damage. The TV unit and everything from the back room is now in the front room.

Returning to work was hard, I've been back 2 weeks now. The first week was a blur, it was so hard to focus and it seems that the year started at high speed not a slow build up. The second week was better, I did some immersive work which helped me feel focused and calmer. Thankful to not have home group or church music for a few weeks and build my weekly routine up slowly.

Me forcing myself out of the house on Australia Day, it was so hot even the beach was hot.

On decluttering. I received 2 boxes of nostalgia from my parents, and I also had a cupboard fall apart so I have been shifting storage and shelves around to try and make do without buying another cupboard or shelves for a while, because the long term goal is built in shelving in my wardrobes, not a whole bunch of random bookshelves and such.

Back to the nostalgia boxes and the things IN the storage. I cried while I threw out some toys, ended up keeping a couple I don't really want but it will be a multi stage process. I realised that they brought back memories of my childhood, especially my cosy safe bed and cute kiddy pyjamas. It was a whole thing remembering that time is gone, I'm an adult on my own in the big world now. It is however important to get rid of things anyway. "It's hard to let go of things but it is easy to live without them" (Caroline Winkler). I've taken some things to the op shop, I've photographed things and thrown them away, and I'm going to give some things to Elsie and my nieces at appropriate times. Due to the aformentioned storage situation, I decided to unpack my "glory box" full of random toys, fancy work and sewing supplies, and turn it into a toy box, so everything is in one child-accessible place now. I did a bit of a sort and cull of the sewing stuff but I'll do it properly later.

A pyjama cat.

Interesting to see pre-computer asignments. I loved these Arthur Boyd Nebuchadnezzer paintings, strangely obsessed. 

I have a lovely morning routine at the moment, after breakfast I take my cup of tea into the garden and listen to the morning Lectio on the app. Taking a moment to be outside in the fresh morning air and pause to breathe, listen and pray, is really really lovely and because it's lovely it's not a burden on my morning routine, it's a pleasure I anticipate. 

I'm discovering some prayers and poems this way too.

https://catieloveless.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/hear-me-quickly-lord/

Big note to finish on. This is my brother and G's baby, my new niece, Elsie Mae. Thanks be to God for her safe birth!

December funs

Last post for 2023! And next year I'm going to do a different sort of post. I didn't have time at the end of December or start of Jan, so this will probably be short due to 2 weeks extra memory fade.

Some pretty zinnias from my garden. 

 

Well I had Covid at the end of November and I can't remember if that continued into December as well, but I think so, so I enjoyed this show:

I think I used my recovery days in iso to do some culling, here is what I reduced my jar collection to. I did a similar magic on my container collection.

I binned this very worn out pillow. I now regret this because I found covers this size at HnM. But I have no shortage of cushions. This one came from the op shop with my green velvet couches many years ago.

I sold some shares! Selling shares is a harder decision than buying them, this decision took ages. But I just wanted to move a chunk back into my mortgge offset account, while they were ahead, and I heard December was usually an "up" time of year. I achieved my aim of making a profit while interest rates were low, and now rates are high there is less gain to be made in shares. Plus it has been so volatile, it's a bit more in safety. Still got some in the market though.

Here are some of the Christmas things! Drinks at the homestead on one of the hottest days.

Dinner with my home group friends, Kate is a wonderful cook and host.

Putting up JKs Christmas tree and watching Christmas movies.

 December was mostly full of music, rehearsals, performances etc. I played cello with the counterpoint choir. I also played cello in the church carols. These two events were very high level music. I was very relieved to get through them both.

On the last day of the working year I baked a cake for my colleagues 60th bday which is on 25 Dec. It was a lovely way to end the year with a morning tea with the last faithful workers.

I did music at the 9pm Christmas Eve service as usual. I kept it simple because I knew numbers would be small this year, since we already had a 5pm service. 

Here is the ample table space we now have for Christmas at the parents new house! I brought cheese and snacks, devilled eggs, and the game Dixit to play while we waited for everyone to come for lunch. I improved my devilled eggs production this year.

I put special effort into my behaviour lol. Lunch went well. Here is our Christmas gift time after lunch. I received 2 hammock chairs for my garden! They are great. So relaxing for reading. Sleeping.

After Christmas I had a few days of nothing, except pilates, and I thought a project would be a good thing to do to break up the TV watching. Something involving bunnings or spotlight. And I had the genius idea of curtains for my living room! This has been on my list for years but I just don't use the room much so it didn't need to be done. But when I have my new couch, I will be using the front room for TV. So time to give it some privacy. I went straight to spotlight from pilates as soon as I got the idea, hoping I had the right measurements for the windows in my head.

Turns out I did not, so the curtains I made went in my bedroom, and I went back the next day to return the tracks and purchase more material and rods etc. 

It was extremely tiring to do pilates and make curtains for 2 days in a row. I was physically exhausted. But the results are AMAZING! And really quite affordable. Spotlight had 40% off their curtain fabric. Note that rods and brackets are cheaper at Bunnings, I bought some from both. I think these came to something like $80 per window. More for the bedroom I think.

One change I made (I had curtains in bedrooms already) was to put the curtain rods right at the top of the wall instead of just on the top of the window frame. It's a cleaner taller look.

Heather was keen to kayak while she was here, so we (and mum) went up Wallis Creek, which is a fun little paddle with a lot to see.

Here is one of the hammocks!

And then Elsie arrived on Friday and G arrived on Saturday and we went to the Farmers Wife for lunch!

On NYE we went to 5pm church, shared dinner there, and then picnicked at the river until the fireworks. We had my huge blanket for all the food and for me, G, E, JK, Naomi, Ros and Sweep. A lovely night. Good to be back to normal after all the covids and such.

And we had our traditional swim, although the water and weather were not very pleasant, it meant we got the best car park!

I have started 2024 with a new plan for journalling: using a similar format and questions to the Monk Manual. It's aiming to be more reflective than productive, and I'm also going to keep my prayer and bible reading notes in the diary as well, so it'll be a place for all the growth and reflection. After 2 weeks of semi regular use I am enjoying it.