Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Anyway Project

I haven't been doing very well with this. A) I haven't been posting like I said I would and B) sitting here right now I can only remember a couple of the things I was going to do for Dec and I haven't completed them, let alone any of the others. Dec is a really hard month for me mentally. I hate the days being so short, Christmas is stressful, it's cold and probably some other things too. I just hate december.

I think I'm going to bow out of the anyway project, as I'm really excited about some other things I have starting. I'm going to do the merit badges offered by mary janes farm. I'm going to start with the Cleaning up section. I've done some work there already so this should give me the umph to get green completely.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Anyway Project - December Goals

DI - Organize laundry area, especially shelving above w/d. Get out drying rack and get back to air drying again. Air dry 2 loads a week.

HE - Create 2011 budget with Thaxiss.

RC - Window quilts - Continue working on window quilts. Monitor propane usage each week.

CIS - Herbs - Don't kill them. I do not have very good luck with inside plants. Design seed starting setup for the basement, start sourcing supplies to build.

FC - Sign up for seed starting class. Visit farm store in town and purchase straw for sump pump discharge pipe insulation. While there, review what the store offers. It is a smaller store and supporting local business is important.

OW - No overtime. Research organizational methods and choose one for the new year. I need to organize my growing list of tasks and tasks I oversee and not feel so frustrated trying to just remember everything I need to do. I've tried several organization methods through the years, so I have a good idea of pieces that work and don't work, now I just need to find/create a system that will work for me. Less stress at work, means less stress for my overall health and well-being.

TH - Somewhat family, but household relations definitely impact happiness. So, work on relationship with son. Continue sessions every 2 weeks and practice at home meditation and stretching.

Anyway Project - November Wrap-up

Well i didn't get everything done that I planned, but I'm keeping honest to myself and putting it in writing here. One of my overall goals of this Anyway project is to get more things done on a consistent basis.

DI - Clean my bedroom closet - I'm going to call this done for now. There is more that could be done, but it will be later. Build the shed - didn't happen, and now that winter has arrived for real, it won't be getting done until spring. The old shed, with no door will be used instead for storage for the winter.

HE - This is an ongoing task, we will continue it into Dec.

RC - Window quilts - Not done. Excuse - I sew by hand, very meditative, relaxing, soothing, but it is slow. Based on comments and research determined that plastic will most likely not help since there are no drafts. I am working on sourcing the large bubble rap at an affordable price.

CIS - Garden bed - Cardboard is down, being held there by bricks, that will be all until next spring. Herbs - Ack, I forgot about them. I will plant them tonight.

FC - Taking seed planting class in Feb.

OW - Worked no overtime this month. It was difficult but I did it anyways. The thanksgiving weekend was nice. I did think about logging into work several times during the 4-day weekend, but didn't.

TH - Sessions are scheduled for every 2 weeks, with practice as homework in between. Meditation is HARD, but it's suppose to get easier the longer you do it.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Anyway project - November, Week 2

I haven't gotten very far on any of my November items, but I do still have another 1.5 weeks.

DI - Clean my bedroom closet - There is a path now, but I haven't went through all the boxes yet. Build the shed - unfortunately not started. Going to try again this weekend to get it done.

HE - Discussions have started.

RC - Window quilts - Started cutting up material scraps/old clothes/sheets. No work done on the window plastic.

CIS - Garden bed - I have the cardboard to start the bottom of this bed lasagna style but no other work done. Herbs - planning to plant when I return from my business trip.

FC - Looked online at classes and decided on a seed planting class in Feb.

OW - I managed to only have 40 hours for last week and this week, but I have had one day off in each of those week, so still some long days. Next week, no days over 8 hours.

TH - I did start the sessions. I had to skip this week as I was traveling for work. My session is set up for next week.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Groceries

Well Thaxiss when shopping with me for the first time since I've really started watching the ingredient lists on products. He really dislikes grocery shopping so I usually don't make him suffer through it. I am not a person who makes grocery lists. I wonder up and down each aisle looking and thinking about what we need at home and/or what's on sale and/or what sounds good. He wants a list of exactly what he can go and get to expedite the grocery shopping. So this time I sent him for eggs-had to be farmer's hen house cage free, milk-land-o-lakes is the only brand at this store with no hormones and bread 2 loaves - no hfcs. He did go and get these things but he didn't ask for any more items to run and get.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Anyway Project - Week 1

Well, it's officially starting. Sharon posted the slightly revised categories and her 2 goals per category for the month of Nov. I'm going to try and do weekly Anyway posts. The categories are:

Domestic Infrastructure
- these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

DI - My 2 goals for Nov. are to clean my bedroom closet and build the shed (pre-fab purchased 3 months ago.). My bedroom closet has all the boxes of old clothes that I have saved up to make window quilts (see RC) but they are in the back and completely non-accessible at the time.

HE - I'm going to enlist Thaxiss for help with this one. We really need to get our spending under control. The first step is to track exactly where we spend all our money. The 2nd goal for this is to increase our savings by $50 this month. Not much, but it all helps.

RC - Goal 1 is to make window quilts for the 5 west facing windows we have. Goal 2 is to put plastic on the windows before I put up the quilts. We get most of our cold winds in my neck of the woods from the north and west. We have no north windows, so priority is the west ones.

CIS - This one is harder. I'm not up to considering a CI right now, my life is pretty stressful and I need to reduce stress right now. And for S, it's almost winter, so there's just not as much to do. So goals are to get 1 new garden bed built before winter hits, going to have to be this week, as I'm out of town for work next week and then it will probably be too cold after that. Plant 2 pots of herb seeds that I could grow in the house this winter. I've only ever done annuals outside, so getting a good herb setup is a long term goal as well.

FC - Only going to do one for this for now. I'm going to sign up for one class or event in our new community. The event class doesn't have to be in Nov, I just have to get signed up in Nov.

OW - I work..a lot. Too much sometimes and it is high stress, but my job pays most of our bills. The goal is week after next to only work 40 hours. I have commitments that make it impossible for this week and next.

TH - This section will be self-care for me. I realize that most of the sections involve self-care to some degree, but I tend to let self-care go. I start going to relaxation/stress reduction sessions tomorrow, they are once a week. I have done this before and it helps immensely. It's all stuff I can do on my own, but I just don't.


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Active

So I've been using this blog for over a year and a half now to just read the blogs that I follow. Note Blog List to the right. However, I've decided to try and get active on it again. Sharon Astyk's new Anyway project is the impetus. When she was calling it her "Whole Life Redesign" project I wasn't interested in participating. That just seemed like way to much to take on, even if it is what I need to do. Somehow the "Anyway" story just made sense with me. I also really like the idea of merit badges that someone suggested in the comments. I'll post a link to her post later, right now science blogs seems to be having issues, as I can connect to any other website but it keeps failing to load the page when I try her site.