Quiet things.

After a very hectic weekend, mostly at work, I took a recovery day on Monday. It was a fun weekend though.

Aside: I’m seriously thinking about how I can observe the Sabbath. I have seen what it does to me, working full time then having busy weekends over and over again. And God has designed the Sabbath for us to enjoy, but by not being disciplined about it at ALL, in the freedom I have in Christ, I think I’m not enjoying it. I’ve dipped into the following resources this week.

http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/work-and-rest

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/bring-back-the-sabbath.html

http://www.challies.com/articles/the-day-of-rest

I’ve come up with a couple of ideas. I think I need to defend my sabbath, and use it wisely. So the first, defending. I got a message last night asking me to bring a dessert to church for some reason. I said yes, while groaning. I’ll have morning church on music, then be baking for work morning tea and church supper, watch some TV with Maddie, then night church. And that’s how I lose a sabbath. Then I remembered some of the things I absorbed, and decided to to my baking on Saturday instead. I was inspired by reading that hardcore Jews pre-rip their toilet paper on Friday. It isn’t impossible to defend the sabbath but it took that step of planning and rescheduling. And the second thought, use it wisely, will be about what I do with my mind and time, to rest and devote it to God. Will this mean screen-free time? A long morning devotion? Time to read edifying books? It’s becoming clear that real rest takes discipline.

Anyway, the work last weekend went well, I sold merchandise and there were fireworks and bagpipes in the evening so for unpaid time it was pretty good.

On my recovery day, I did some housework, waited for Optus NBN technician to never show up, and watched Chuck S3. I like S3 a lot. The NBN debacle was frustrating, because they just expect you to take another day off work and wait around indefinitely every time they don’t turn up. But then after getting really angry (had to hang up on an Indian call center employee because of tears) I realised that I’m not at all unhappy without the internet, and actually I don’t care if it’s connected or not. Meanwhile, Optus isn’t making any money until it’s connected. If it takes a month for them to connect, that’s money they effectively lose. Which made me feel a little bit more powerful, so now, whatever, I'm not going to sweat about it any more. Optus have left me messages saying they have made a new appointment, but I don't really care. 

I bought some drawer compartments for my socks. Because why not. I find the idea of an organised sock drawer very soothing. I can now see all my socks! This is more satisfying than it sounds.

I also listen to Unstuff Your Life every so often. I think books about organising and decluttering are helpful and personally I find them relaxing as well. It is helpful to reinforce my minimalism ethos regularly. For example, I can become flummoxed by gifts. There’s a teapot sitting on the bench, and I love that someone thought of me when they were at a garage sale and spontaneously gave it to me, but I don’t really want to keep another 1-cup teapot, because I already have one I like. UYL reminds me that the whole point of the gift was in the thought, and not in the keeping of the object in a cupboard, when actually someone else might like the teapot and use it if I let it pass through to the opshop. By regularly combing through the stuff I own, I want to make sure I have the space in my life to do what I think is important.

If you like piano music from period dramas as much as me, there is a youtube guy called TweedleDee1 who has arranged a whole bunch of themes and they look reasonably easy and you can download them here. My weekend amusement.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TweedleDee1/about

I'm also enjoying The Bachelor with my housemate. I'm not in it for the dates, dates are awkward. I enjoy the relationship dynamics in the mansion aka 'girl prison'. The theme is being insecure about your personality because if you're too quiet he wont notice you and send you home, or if you're too out-there he doesn't take you seriously, although basically, the whole premise of the show dooms 95% of the women on it to fail at a relationship no matter what. I like to read recaps afterwards and get an extra dose of snark.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/rogue/rosie-recaps-bachelor-season-3-episode-2/

Oshie’s hair comes out to break up with the losers for Bachie Wood, because if the Bachelor did that himself he’d seem like a dick who’s dating 16 women and just dumped three of them on national TV. Look how good Bachie Wood is at looking sad and remorseful while Oshie does his dirty work:
(pic)
Much emotion. So feels. Very hair.

Quality.

Ready for a big weekend.

I've been feeling awesome in a normal kind of way this week.

The Everyday Gratitude diary reached its funding goal! I finally got my act together when it had 14 days to go and posted it on facebook. And then a couple of people said they were pledging, and that spurred me to send it to certain contacts through work, a few of whom were so enthusiastic they ordered several and forwarded it on. The feedback for Bec was so positive. 

I enjoyed my cello lesson because I started the grade 1 book which introduces new key signatures. A good challenge. I'm approaching the end of my 12 month test of learning the cello. Should I continue? The cons are, it's quite a commitment of time and money. 400 a term plus books and cello hire. And when I've been tired and busy practice is quite a burden I can't sustain. But the pros are, I've learnt quite fast, and it's good to have a challenge that is different to my job and watching TV. My thinking is, I could learn to 3rd grade. That might give me enough ability to play in different keys to be able to transition into church music, at which point, buy a cello and stop lessons. Or take a term on term off or something. Ultimately, if I can't play at church I don't know that I'll keep it up at all. I can already play the piano for relaxation, so the main point of the cello is for church, and the interest of playing it in a group context.

I was pretty busy at work and the weekend looks to be tiring, but I've got the day off on Monday, to recover and to meet the man who is installing our NBN!

This is the monster wood pile at work for the bonfire on Saturday night. A few of the trees that fell down in the flood.

This is a whole lot of bags with books and flyers in them for the visitors.

This is a snapshot of my 2015 personal goal list, which I have just updated for the 2nd half of the year. I'm not a super detailed list maker, I don't list everything in my life, but things like "I should have a brunch for people" are a good idea and if I put it on this list I am making it a priority. And then when I do it, it feels like I'm accomplishing a goal, and I get that little moment to reflect on the event. I hope you guys don't feel less special for being items on a list btw. I think something is no less thoughtful for being listed or planned rather than spontaneous.

Holiday! IKEA and Field Days in one trip.

 There were two legs to the holiday. JK and I went to Sydney for a weekend, to do lovely Sydney things and see lovely Sydney people. First stop was meeting Elsie at Kurtosh in Crows Nest. Its bigger than the randwick one but I like it as much.

Then we got a tour of Elsie's 'spinster pad', still in a state of unpacking. We had a lovely cup of tea and watched her 'kondo' her tops. The Kondo method means gathering all items, holding each one to evaluate its condition and whether it 'sparks joy' or is just an item you keep out of guilt or frugality or whatever. Keep the things you enjoy, and fold them a certain way. Thank everything else and get rid of it.

Then we went to Georges new place for dinner, which I seemed not to take photos of. It was fully unpacked and really nice. It is unusual for us to do hospitably in homes because we always had KESC or something, not in our homes. So that was special.

We stayed with a friend of JK and her two doggies. We went to JKs old church on Sunday morning, and had yum cha with those ladies. Then we went briefly to Birkenhead Point outlets, which I remember being quite easy to get to and not very busy, but they were mad. Then we went to Wild St. Felt all loved by my people.

On Monday we went to IKEA, and we bought a few things but spent under $100 each. Then we drove to Mudgee!

Part 2, Mudgee, we hit a cafe and sat in the sun doing craft.

We painted nails with little girls.

Another cafe, this is an amazing lemon tart.

A walk in the park with H and the kids. Speaking of kids, we taught everybody to crochet.

There was one day that was pretty rubbish but we overcame it. JK needed the RTA and got lost finding it. So the RTA took most of the morning. Then we went to a cheese place for lunch, where I had a lovely cheese lunch last time, but the customer service is ridiculous and after standing in front of the counter for 10 min or more without even getting any eye contact we left. Went to another fancy place we were planning on visiting but it was shut until the next day. Went back to town, and hit up BWS for some wine and Woolies for some cheese and took it home and ate it on the couch.

We cooked dinner for the family a couple of times.

On Thursday we went to the fancy place. Samples of the food.

Then we went to Rylestone to see a yarn shop but it was closed too. There was a nice 'funky' shop we enjoyed though and a lolly shop.

On the last day, Friday, we went to the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days. I wanted to check it out in a work related way, but also its pretty interesting because its a very country thing. This is the animal nursery.

Indian Runner Ducks are my favourite ducks.

And then we went home. The kiddies decorated my window as a souvenir. The inside of the car was filled with fun things like a quilt JK got at an op shop, a big bag of crochet wool, a toy dog, IKEA goodies, lollies.

So it was a really good holiday. A good balance of everything.

When we got home I got straight into my IKEA on the weekend. One failed anchor, but overall a great success at putting up shelves. I put 2 in the ensuite and 3 next to my bed.

Julia B visited for the weekend and we spent some time in Newy with JK, trying gourmet doughnuts and watching Hart of Dixie. A new addict was converted.

Lately I've been doing a bit of baking. I went to make a lemon tart but I had hazlenut meal instead of almond meal, so I made a chocolate tart instead. Then this weekend I bought almond meal and did the lemon tart instead.

This weekend has been rather delightful. I've been at home, apart from trips to the shops. We have signed up for the NBN so soon will have internet! Did housework, jillian, baking, cello practice, washed the car, vacuumed it, found some things I lost as I vacuumed it, cooked soup and scones from $1g pumpkin. 

Normalness.

I want to report I am a normal Jessica again now.

Highlights this week, other than just feeling OK about my life, include helping clear out this store room at work.

I ended up bringing home 4 wooden boxes (you can see one just to the right of centre in the first photo) which I will paint white and use as shelves in my closet. Happy thought indeed.

Last night, to my extreme delight, I found this swing installed at a new playground. it has short chains so it doesn't go very high, but you can lie comfortably on your back and swing while looking at the sky. It is my new favourite thing.

This post is mainly to mark the time until the next post, which will be a "what I did on my holidays" post, God-willing.