Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Sat Aug 05, 2017 10:15 am
Pandora: Of course I remember you!
I hope our village is a good fit for you and that you'll feel welcome here.
You can just start posting where you are. You'll catch up pretty quickly with us. Don't be shy to ask questions about background - we've been together for so long many of us know all the other's back stories.
Anyone is welcome to 'open' the daily PWYC and in the past month we suddenly started doing micro-challenges, thanks to Twin's inspiration one morning in late June, sharing the "Getting Things Done" rule that if something will only take 2 minutes, just do it, don't put it on a to-list for later.
Many of us use timers for all sort of things as per P&P and Flylady. For instance, setting time for 15 and giving ourselves permission to quit when the timer goes off. Or setting it for 15, or less, and trying to beat the timer. Lately we've been building on the idea that hard work is the accumulation of small things that didn't get done when they should have, and we're focusing on those micro chores that can be done in 2, 3, 5, and today 6 minutes!
Ever since we started this, I've notice my apartment is much more in order. These minute challenges started at the same time I had to get on top of the paperwork piles and they've combined to make my life much less stressful. There was a 'table' challenge that wasn't a challenge to me this week - my table was already clear! Miracles do happen!!!!!
To be honest, I'm too lazy to look it up but I remember P&P talking about this in the books, probably Happiness File in particular (I recall a story about one of them walking past a smudge on a light switch for ages and their mom dropping by, licking her fingers and wiping off the smudge?)
Dee: I'm excited for you to get to repurpose things and get your desk space! This has been taken forever to come to be, but in the meantime, you had the inspiration with the coffee table. So maybe it was for the best.
This morning, I filled in two surveys for businesses that I wanted to support by giving them feedback. So those are ready to drop in the mailbox downstairs. And no longer covering the wood on my desk!
I also took the time to boil down the failed cranberry sauce. I may have gone overboard - we'll find out when it fully chills but it was too runny before and now it might be a solid! I actually did another 15 - 20 minutes of simmering (the recipe only calls for 10 minutes which is what I did.) I used too much liquid to begin with (just 1/8c too much) and I had 1/4c fewer berries to work with. So that explains my first failure with this recipe. Thankfully, Mr. Google informed me I should just try and boil it down more.
Still not s2s but I put away all my preaching research stuff so the living room is as close to perfect as it ever gets and my paperwork is well under control at this point, although I have a long to-do list in my control journal. Currently, I'm not scheduled to preach again until Sept. 17 which means it was time to retire one of my preaching guides and pull out the next one. So that's been done and my personal preaching planning spreadsheet has been put into the front of it so I know when/where I'll be working, and what I should be preaching on. When I did the planning I also added a few notes so they are there for inspiration. Of course, Minister Friend could change everything since he's pondering, after 20 years, on switching from preaching the Gospel to the Hebrew Passage and I might get caught up in that (I have to preach on the reading he tells me to use.)
Sermon was finished last night and I just have the prayers of the people left to write. The sermon needs another close look through fully awake eyes; things that seem inspired at midnight often aren't in the light of day!
It is a beautiful day here so I hope to get a walk in this morning and another this evening up in Pembroke. We still don't know when we'll leave but at this moment, I don't have a lot of things to do before we leave so that feels luxurious. Because dh is playing tomorrow (he's doing two anthems and the postlude), we need to get there early in the morning to connect his guitar to the sound system, so we decided to keep the hotel reservation and stay overnight. As well, I'm going to try out my headset mic again so I'm not tied to the pulpit. It cuts in and out there but I was using the church's transmitter/receiver which MF no longer uses, so if we can hook mine into their soundboard maybe I can go back to hands-free mic.
When I was doing the two churches, there was no time to hook up my system to their board because I only arrived at the second church 10 minutes before I had to start the service. So this is another reason to celebrate the parting of the two congregations. (Mainly, it no longer feels like work because we are free of the toxic church.)
There is rain in the forecast this afternoon but then there should be a dry time to walk after dinner and they have a lovely river walk there that I'd like to do again before settling in for the night.
Like Dee's it is cooling off here and tomorrow will be even cooler which is wonderful for me since it gives me more to choose from to wear. I need some green (I have a scarf for that), pants or floor length skirt since I'll be on the steps at the front with the children, something bright (that's a comment I get at the door - they like me in bright things!), something I can attach the mic transmitter to, and something modest that covers my shoulders, or better yet, my arms. In the heat of the summer that is a pretty challenging list!