One Minute Monday PWYC

[Twins' Mom]

a thought I’ve been meaning to share. It is from James Clear:

“Two is better than one,
But one is infinitely better than zero.”

For example, one minute of exercise is better than zero, one minute of housework is better than zero, one minute of gardening is better than zero.

Quoting Lucylee, quoting James Clear last night. Let's get that one minute in!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

That is more inspiring that "Just another minute on the computer!"

Which is where I am in the day so far, actually another 10 minutes as I keep snoozing my alarm to get off my butt and get dressed.

I drove up to the cottage yesterday.

I finally have a fire going (that took effort to get it right partly because I only had one piece of softwood to try and get it going (there's more outside, I was just being lazy because I'm not yet dressed for the day and it is 32F outside this morning.)

The bathroom is toasty because I turn the electric baseboard heater on when I first get up in the morning. So there's no excuse to not get dressed!

My drive yesterday was stunning. I suspect it is peak colours, at least up here. The island across from me looks like all the colour has filled in. Birch trees, which turn earlier than others and loose their leaves quickly, are pretty dominant here. The ones that frame the deck turned two weeks ago and are now pretty bare. It will be 10 days at least before dh makes it up here so I suspect he'll miss all of the fall colour.

My original intent was to come home on Friday but I have a lunch with cousins 2/3 of the way home on Thursday so think I'll just come home a day early. I came up a day early since I didn't have dgs3 after all on Sat/Sun so it won't really affect my total count of days here. It also solves any car charging issues. At the moment, Thursday is supposed to be gorgeous weather so my plan it to take a favourite backroad that is all twists and turns with trees that have grown over the road so it is like driving through a tunnel in places. It will add only 10 minutes to my trip to lunch but also add a ton of joy.

Now, this was more than a minute of posting so now I'll take some time to do chores!

[Twins' Mom]

I need to get myself busy. I need to get out later today for errands. It's a gorgeous day. Temp is to top out in high sixties, and so sunny. We actually need rain again.

DD will be here on Wednesday night, late, until Monday a.m. early, I think.

For now, first thing is a.m. routine. I've been like Kathryn, one more minute on the computer. I'm researching the children of my William White 1742-1831 and having fun.

Errands for later:
glasses adjusted
return at jjill
CVS pick up meds
CVS - other store, pick up lotion
post office for HOA
maybe car wash

[Ramblinrose]

Morning…

For some reason I started thinking about changes I could make to my day and that got me thinking about my routines before and after I started working. In the past I would get up and immediately get dressed, wash my face and brush my teeth, and shower and did my hair if needed before I made my coffee.

Somehow I got away from those routines. So I decided to start doing that again.

So I did just that, drank my coffee and went to class.’came home and did my morning routines and made my breakfast. I need to go to the grocery store but want to cut back some plants outside before I do that.

It’s not as hot as it was before the storm but there seems to be another one brewing in the Caribbean. We didn’t have much damage to our home. A couple of the lania screens pulled away from the frame so we’ll need to have them repaired

[CathyS]

Hi!

Rose I have been worrying about you and your home. Glad the damage is minimal.

Happy Thanksgiving to Kathryn and BSweet!! We had our feast last night. I think 1 turkey thigh for the 2 of us will be more than enough going forward. Maybe a smaller dish of scalloped potatoes as well. Dh decided to go out and get us some dinner rolls yesterday. I put them on the table and neither one of us touched them.

Dd didn't come yesterday. They went to his parent's for their feast. They are on their way here now.

I told dh I wouldn't do anything today. Looks like a minor white lie. I have taken all the garbage out and cleaned the litter box. I also dusted the living room. Plus I emptied the dishwasher and started to reload it.

I also mopped the bathroom. There is other spot mopping to be done.

[blessedw2]

thank you d Lucy for sharing the James Clear quote yesterday!
I agree d Lucy: "I think this is really something I need to hang on to."

dear Twins thank you for sharing d Lucy's quote from yesterday
and thank you for starting us on our new day together!!!
How lovely that you have a beautiful day! enjoy!
enjoy your time with your dd this Wednesday!
I love your research!

hello d Kathryn!
how far is your cottage from your home?
your fall colors sound beautiful!!!
have a beautiful day!
Happy thanksgiving!

hello d rose - so lovely to see you here!
how wonderful that you doing your morning routines - I too got off this schedule for this. I am trying to get back to am and pm getting ready and settling down routines again as well.
I am praying that the storms whittle down fast. I am glad you didn't have much damage to your home - what a relief.

hello d Cathy!
oh yes I forgot about thanksgiving - happy thanksgiving!
enjoy your time with your dd today!
well done on your work

happy thanks giving b is sweet!

hello d everyone!

[Nancy]

Waving to all.
I was up till ten slept in till 6:30
Got most of my journaling done.
Sheets are changed and ones I took off are in the wash now.
I hemmed one pr. of pj's while I was down stairs.

They turned out fine. So I will do the others when I change out the sheets to the dryer.
Thread was upstairs for the others.

I have chicken soup going I had meat prepped for it already.
Got dressed.
Dump Trash is next up. X
47*/76* today's temp. range.
Morning music is on.
I am waiting on bfast till I get the other pj's hemmed / no bathroom down stairs. Done.

[Twins' Mom]

I forgot about Thanksgiving today too! Happy day to Kathryn, Cathy, and bittersweet!

I've been puttering about but not getting very far. Kitchen is clean, I replaced zinnias - they are petering out but still some small ones blooming. I need to s2s and get moving. As I said, I keep getting distracted by things that are more fun.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Blessed: the cottage is 3 hours of driving time away from home. There is both good and bad in this.

The bad is that on the days I commute between basically nothing gets done. There is 3 hours of driving, usually a 30 minute stop along the way to stretch my legs, and often a grocery run of 30 minutes (not at the half way point therefore an extra stop). Then there is the hour of shutting things down at home (and this past time failing to take out the garbage which was already very stinky...) and the hour of unloading and putting away things at the cottage.

On the days I'm driving back, leaving is about 2 hours of work, because it includes gathering up all the laundry to bring home, putting out fresh towels, making the bed with fresh sheets and putting out fresh kitchen linens after cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. I do all that for two reasons, first to make a decent impression since there is always the chance people will be coming into the cottage while I'm away because of repair work or rebooting the router since my cottage feeds the internet to the whole property. Secondly, it is lovely to arrive with everything fresh like it would be if one is arriving at a hotel room. Once I arrive home, I immediately start laundry (first load is the first trip up from the underground garage along with the cooler, so I can start it while the rest of the things are being unloaded from the car.) I spend at least an hour on laundry on return.

So commute days contain 6 - 8 hours of focus time.

The good is that is far enough away to completely shift one's mind from city to lake. I'm also enjoying audio books on the drives.

A second advantage is that the drive up uses about 65% of the range of my car and there is nowhere to fast-charge here so I need to be up here at least 30 hours before I can return. In the case of the drive home, the car uses 55% (it is downhill a lot of the way) so I need to be home about 24 hours before I could head back up. In both cases, it would require driving after dark at this time of year and since I don't have to, I choose to say I can only return 2 days after arriving, giving me a full day in either spot.

The best part about the distance is it is so far away from cities and even highways. That's a real bonus as far as I'm concerned. The lack of background sound at all times is astounding. And the level of dark is also much appreciated at night. The other people on this property as very quiet as well so there are times when I think I'm up here by myself, in the spring once it was for 2 days, when in fact my neighbour whose cottage is only 70' away is home. She is like me, ADD for sound and so we both love being here where it is so quiet.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I spent over an hour working outside.

It is still under 40 here so I had on my Norwegian wool sweater, gloves and a cap but I manage to spend 15 minutes bringing in wood, 15 minutes going for a walk, 15 minutes up on a ladder cleaning the leaves out of the gutter over the door (so if it rains it won't get me too wet on the way to car) and 30 minutes cleaning up the porch and rearranging things. The tables I was using for dining are now put away, one in my car, one in the shed, and the cushions I've brought as also in the car as it is unlikely I'll be sitting out on the deck reading now that autumn is clearly here. I cleaned the spots of food off the indoor/outdoor carpeting on the porch, used the carpet sweeper on the porch carpet and rearranged the seating back to the way my landlord keeps it.

I'm going to write my landlord and see if she wants me to put away the fan she keeps on the porch. In the summer, even with all the nesting windows open full, there were days it made up for the lack of A/C here. But it won't be needed now until next June. It was such a great fan, I bought one for myself. The cottage next year has ceiling fans but this one is nicer than a ceiling fan and quieter.

Next time I'm outside I need to check the crawlspace for dead mice. I forgot this time.

Now to have the muffins I just baked before finding my next task to work on.