stubborndev's photostream  

Tee-niny little bluish-purple pansy look-alikes. A treat in January.

Mysterious Universe: I had seen the cutest pair of purple Converse at the shoe store for $16. I thought, "She'll need new shoes for school. I'll have to come back and get these." Then, we went to play in the new children's consignment store. While there, I browsed through the shoe section, and-- lo and behold-- found these adorable purple Converse in her size that she can pull on all by herself! They were marked $5.99 and since I had store credit to use, the clerk took 20% off that price! And the best part? S LOVES them.

(Astute observers will note that there is a bookshelf missing, and the remaining one no longer has books on it. I hope to get this bookshelf cleared by spring. Can you recycle nasty pressboard? I've no idea.)

I adore dry erase boards. The bigger, the better and the more markers in different sizes and colors, the happier I am. I like to brainstorm by writing. Computer mindmaps don't work for me because I find the medium too sterile. And doing it on 8.5x11 paper limits how much I can write. I fantasize about having an entire wall (or room!) painted with IdeaPaint and being able to scribble to my heart's content. This long vinyl will have to serve for the moment. I lucked into a sale at Hobby Lobby and bought two rolls. This one is in the office-transitioning-to-exercise-studio and will be for exercise stuff and for planning out my personal work moves for the year.

The second one hangs in the master bedroom and has our 3 yr plans on it. One of the lessons the Universe keeps teaching me is that I have to focus on the future result. I can picture what I want my life to be like and then work backwards on how to get there. But I have to try hard to not get caught up in these steps, as the Universe may have something else entirely in store for me (I mean, who of you saw grad school coming? I surely didn't.). But not having an end result in mind leaves me stuck in a quagmire about what to do now. With these mindmaps as daily reminders of what we're working toward, the constant affirmations can only serve to invigorate the Universe-- and, hence, us-- to work harder, faster, and smarter to achieve our goals.

Even though we've gained so much over the past year+, there were a few things that got lost in the shuffle. My daily/weekly/monthly cleaning routines was one of those things. I had set up my routines before I started school and they were based on my old schedule, and so they weren't working any more. That is to say, my house and yard were pretty much wrecks. Oh, nothing was too far gone, all the rooms were still usuable, but I didn't have the sense of calm when I entered a room that I'd once had.

The new year brought the opportunity to reschedule all those necessary chores when I started making my new day planner (yes, Yr #3 of making my own). Two important decisions: not only did I rejigger the routine to reflect my NEW schedule (moving all those things from Wed/Thurs to other days so they would now get done) but I decided to have a 3-ring binder notebook instead of spiral binding the year. Now, if my schedule changes again, or I find that a routine just isn't working for whatever reason, I'm not bound to that printed-in-paper version. I can simply create a new routine, print it out, and plug it in. While I crave the firmness of a printed list, this provides me the freedom to change when necessary.

I just adore this little vignette. It was cloudy outside, so the bedside light just cast such a warm glow. All my beloveds lounging in the bed. I wanted to crawl back in with them, but then who would take the picture?