Sparks or Sparkling Sunday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

What's sparkling in your corner of the village today?

The sun? Christmas lights? Polished silver for the holidays? Dusted surfaces? Your smile?

What is giving your sparks of inspiration today?

Many of you are enjoying your new planners and you are certainly sparking interest in me to dust off mine and open it up!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm up. I woke up at 5:45 which was 7 hours after going to bed and I gave it a half hour after going to the bathroom, refluffing my pillows and closing my eyes again, but sleep didn't come so I was up by 6:30.

Tea and chocolate is almost done. And while the tea was steeping, I refilled the little snack bags (seeds, nuts and raisins) that I keep in the car and added 2 bottles of water to take down when I go to church. I was hungry while waiting for dd yesterday so ate 2 of the last 3 dime-bags of snacks and discovered I had eaten the last protein bar in the car a while ago. Over the past 3 days we've also consumed 2 bottles of water from the car so I'll restock that too.

The advantage to keeping the car in a heated garage is that I can keep lots of bottles of water in the door pockets year round. They come in handy during emergencies (like when dgd threw up all over herself), during days when plans change, and for checking "am I hungry or just thirsty?" and stopping an unneeded trip through a drive-thru.

I need to get to church early today because I'm serving communion and I need to finish prepping the apartment for this afternoon since dgs2.5 arrives when I am not here. Phones out of reach, breakables up, and toys out. While he's napping, I'll sort through the bin of ornaments and set aside the fragile ones. Then the kids can handle the rest without me having to hover over them and be worried.

I have only one special plastic Christmas glass so I checked with dh and he would not be too upset if the glass Christmas mugs were broken, so the older two will get those 'extra special' (that's how I'll sell it to them!) mugs and the little one will get the one with a lid and a straw. It also has a built in snow globe but that comes out for cleaning and I've left it separate so they can all enjoy it.

[CathyS]

Hi!

Thanks for opening the village today Kathryn. I don't think I'm sparkling. Maybe later.

Dh did the dishes after I made the fried chicken last night. I made what he said was his mom's recipe and I double checked some recipes on all recipes dot com. Because he was sleeping deeply on the bed when I got home from my afternoon out, I didn't wake him and went ahead with heating a pot of oil When he finally woke up he told me that his mom never deep fried the chicken, she cooked it in the oven. Too late, because half the chicken was already in the oil. Dh cut some potatoes, so we had home made fries with the chicken.

We will be having the leftover fried chicken tonight and I think I can talk dh into making more fries so we can use that oil again before I get rid of it.

Today I plan on getting some books put away. I cleared the table off enough to be able to move it, so I moved it last night and then covered it in books that haven't been put away since June when the table went up. I can't tell you how happy this will make me. We have had growing piles of stuff for over 5 months. I want it finished this week. After the books are dealt with, I need to clear a mountain of paperwork on my desk. Once again, the sorting table is needed. When we first got the table, I covered it in paper and each piece of printer paper got a name of the month at the top, a number in a top corner and a year across the bottom of the paper. There are 18 pieces of paper and they are all taped onto the table. Once it is cleared, I can (hopefully) whip through the sorting of the paper work.

Has anyone here heard of "neurodivergent" or "neurospicy"? I took a quiz online this past week, and I answered yes to a LOT of the questions. ADHD is a huge part of what some of the questions were about, as well as ADD and another one that I forgot, but something to do with being "defiant" and I know I am that. Ask me to do something in regards to housework and there is NO WAY I will do it in a timely manner. I will do absolutely anything else but what you asked. I thought that was interesting. They also referred to energy as "spoons" and explained that when you wake up in the morning, you might have 10 "spoons" worth of energy, and you feel like putting away clean dishes from the dishwasher will take 3 spoons worth of energy, and feeding your family breakfast will take 5 spoons, so you feel like you don't have enough spoons to do anything else for the rest of the day. It was very interesting to read that as well.

[Nancy]

I woke up in the night it was raining. Did my journal stuff. Planning pages filled out did some future planning too.
Took the dog out to p.
Cleared the stacks of journals and stuff off the table from my writing / planning work shop.
I need to combine two of them both are future planning stuff so I can move those pages might be the first thing.

I got the bread dough out to warm up and rise a loaf I guess that will be easier than making rolls.
Planned leat overs.
Coffee is on.

Today is the mission focus sun. last time they had that gal speak she went 1/2 hr. over giving myself permission to skip it
I gave for that last week.
This is me waiting for hp winter release! LOL!
Standing at my tall deck as I type
word to spark my interest ...trall....
Started dog towels & did my basement walkaround for steps.

[Twins' Mom]

I have a friend/acquaintance who uses the term neurodivergent. She is on what would be called the autism spectrum, as are her children, but I recognize some of those characteristics in myself. I was so ADD as a child - bored in school so would read ahead in textbooks, but looking out the window and daydreaming too. Here's an article I found on WebMD: https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/features ... odiversity

We are not in middle TN so did not have tornados last night. We had some T storms and rain way in the night. I was a little spooked by the reports coming in the evening tho and worried about weather. Went on to bed but awoke several times to check weather app. No pain overnight or last night - a very good thing.

Not sure what plans are for the day... texting with river friends.

[blessedw2]

happy Sunday!!!

thank you for starting us d Kathryn
hello to all.

For the first time in 4 days I feel like myself again.
dh asked me, with a big grin, who I felt like before. (funny guy)

I wish I had given myself time alone before yesterday. it was a game changer. I shut the door - ignored all outside noise and it was wonderful - I just had the dogs with me.

wishing you a great day!

[Twins' Mom]

"I guess some people start a task and then just finish it instead of trying to do 14 things at once like a squirrel on cocaine."

Seen on a meme.


Dfriends are coming here around two and I'm making chili. Dh is going to the store for ground beef (so I don't have to thaw) and cheese to grate over it. And I can stay home today!

So glad you're feeling better, bw2.

[LadyMaverick]

I went down a rabbit hole reading about "neurodivergent" and "neurospicy". I hadn't heard those terms before. I was taken back by reading some forums with anger about not being considered neurodivergent. I am seeking to understand.

DS15 girlfriend (ex?) in in local hospital about to be transferred to big city hospital. She tested positive for covid (again) and has an inflamed appendix. DS15 has great concern and is struggling to hold himself together.

We are all going to church. *POOF*

[Ramblinrose]

Morning...

Aww.. I feel for your DS15 LadyM. First loves, when we are teens are very hard on our souls.

In answering the questions about my new plan: Its set up so what are really my morning routines have a checklist. The evening checklist is almost the same as my evening cards. What I like is the ease of being able to see what I need to do in case I should forget.

The beginning of each week has a reminder of what we might call a "focus". Examples are: Organize pantry, deep clean refrigerator, Organize under the kitchen sink. Each of these are simple ideas that I sometimes don't focus on.I like that they are not overwhelming.

Each day of the week has chores to do.
Sunday: Grocery shop, Clean out purse
Monday: Clean mirrors,Dust light fixtures and fans, vacuum house
Tuesday: Clean out fridge, mop hard surfaces, take out trash, Clean microwave and stove.

Some of these thing like cleaning the stove I do daily. Of course you can move what you want to do each day around, but for me, most of what is listed for each day is listed on my card for that day. My laundry day is on Thursday and its the same on my planner. There are plenty more checklist That are separate.
Company coming checklist with daily suggestions of things to do the week before guests arrive, a vacation check list. Spring cleaning and yard and home maintenance check list, just to name a few.

I like the planner because it reminds me to do certain things I sometimes don't think to do.

Neurodivergent is a very common word among the Autistic community. The word "spoons" is often used to judge or rate where an autistic person is in their daily life. Usually they talk about having 10 spoons when they wake up and depending how stressed out their day is, they will use the term spoons to let others, some Neurodivergent, some non-Neurodivergent...the term they use for those who are not autistic, where they are during the day.

As a side note, some autistic people refer to those who are not as NA's, meaning Non-autistic. LIke...I have a friend who is an NA.

An example of this is when Twins says she's all peopled out. An autistic person would say they have no spoons left. Sometimes autistic people, or kids will say ...I've used up 4 of my spoons and it only lunch time, or I'm all spooned out by 4pm,. The term was designed to help communicate what the frustration level is with autistic people because often they have terrible melt downs once they have no more spoons left.

I have a grocery list with things I need to buy to be ready for my Christmas Eve dinner and plan to go the to grocery store in just a while. We have a Christmas Festival at our community club house late this afternoon and I plan to drag Sweetie there. They are serving sub sandwiches and other goodies to eat. That way I don't have to make dinner...This little girl is no fool

[blessedw2]

thank you d twins!

hello d rose!
I have to have a visual if I get stuck as well.
I love how you have your week set up!
enjoy today!

This little girl is no fool

loved this

I am praying for the girl. ds is in my thoughts as well.
The hurts are hard. When younger you feel things so so deeply.
enjoy church

d twins the meme - I understand that one !
enjoy your d friends!
so happy you didn't have pain!

hi d Nancy! we had rain yesterday! your energy gives me energy!

hi d cathy! your dinners always sound wonderful - cheering you on through your paperwork!

hi d Kathryn! tea sounds lovely to me! enjoy your time at church!

Praying for all those who were in the tornado's path!