Rewardable Wednesday

[Harriet]

What reward have you thought about but resisted, even though you know you've put that off just about long enough?

Maybe there's a "wish list" item that has been waiting a while.
Or a meal that you'd rather have, but keep pushing to the end of the week, then end of next, because others like different things.
Or a special routine you've always said you were going to add into your day. Is it time to start scheduling that?

How do you decide when to reward yourself? Do you wait until the end of a project, with the reward as one item in mind? Or do you reward first, get things done later?

Or do you just surprise yourself because you probably deserve it for the things you don't even remember doing?

If you resist rewarding yourself, why do you think that is?

[Lady Maverick]

Good Morning

I'm always finding ways to add little rewards to my day. Each one is small, but the happiness they bring is beyond measure. I’m always bargaining and negotiating with myself to set goals and earn the next reward. It's a great motivator for me, but the downside is that I struggle to do something unless there's a reward involved.

Last night was a whirlwind at our house, with teens coming and going all night long—11, 11:30, midnight, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, even 5:00 a.m. Life360 kept track of their locations, while our home cameras stayed busy monitoring the constant activity. The 9 teens keeping us entertained ranged in age from 14 to 19. Our three teens are still asleep, so I'll hear about their adventures once they wake up. DGS18 heads back home today and moves into his university dorm on Monday. Today marks the very last day of summer break, as public school and home school both begin tomorrow.

24 SHE cards completed. It is an instant reward to mark each one of the completed tasks.

[Nancy]

Harriet thanks for the great start today.

Today I was up in the nite did not really get back to sleep & finally got up at 4:00 hurumph.
Got some dwarf holly hocks seeds our of the bach thought they might be good in the front.
Where they were was underwhelming.
Next I have tall seeds to put out in back after I collect them.

Watering by the tree in front now.
Had bfast.
Logging I feel after I eat and what I ate very enlightening.

Hoping to be rewarded with successes today I'll keep you posted later on.
Walked a short walk with ddoggo after sun rise.
Did some desk duty and had success in finding something I needed for today yea!

[CathyS]

I reward myself too much sometimes and not enough at other times.

So far today I cleaned 2 of the 3 litter boxes, took out kitchen compost, kitchen garbage and bathroom garbage. I'm getting ready to go pick up dry cleaning and 2 stops for groceries after that.

The air is a lot better today and there is blue sky to be seen in the first time for a while. Lots of smokiness making the air quality bad here.

[Lady Maverick]

Two of the three teens are awake. Once the last one wakes up, I’m sending them to the donut shop with my credit card so they can pick out their own breakfast. That’s my plan to feed them this morning. We had four gallons of milk, but **blink** **blink**, and it’s all gone. DD14 asked, “What happened to all the milk?!”

DH and I are both sleep deprived. He only got 4 hours and 37 minutes of sleep, while I managed 5 hours and 15 minutes last night. Neither of us feels sleepy, but we understand it's not a good day to make any important decisions.

Our cooler weather break is over, and it was nice while it lasted. The 10-day forecast looks monotonous with triple-digit temperatures every day. The cooler weather revived the garden, bringing all the plants back to life with new blooms. They had stopped blooming during the high temperatures, but the cool spell allowed blooms to return, ensuring the plants will keep producing vegetables even during the scorching heat.

Speaking of the garden, I have never seen so many butterflies! The zinnias are abundant, with around 100 flowers blooming. Each bloom hosts 1-3 butterflies. When I’m cutting zinnias for bouquets or harvesting vegetables, I have to stay mindful and turn my head as the butterflies take flight when disturbed.

[Harriet]

Hoping Twins' has good travel today, that it's nice and safe, and that it seems like a reward.

LadyM, it's encouraging to hear about the butterflies.

We are finished with our eye appts. Dr. says if he were me, he wouldn't bother spending any money on new glasses, so there's a little disappointment there. He says wait until I am cleared for a cataract surgery sometime and get new glasses after that instead. HRH also doesn't need to buy anything. I do have my referral to HRH's cataract surgeon now at least. Dr. says there's no reason not to go ahead and have a consultation. I already feel like this fellow is my surgeon too, anyway, since I've accompanied HRH each time.

When I think about rewards, I notice that I seem to envision a bookstore. Besides books, another thing I used to pick up would be a magazine and consider that a reward. Does anyone just "pick up a magazine" at stores anymore, or has the whole world gone the way of having them on devices? Once, a trip to a cloth store would be a planned reward (my dentist was once near a lovely quilt shop, so that was a perfect match!), but that would not be nearly as possible now, with most cloth stores defunct.

Also, thinking of hobbies, I have the usual guilt of sewers, feeling the need to use up my "stash" of materials before "allowing" myself to buy more. There have been a lot of discussions/articles written about how creative people should feel about that. You'll see plaques and things that compare therapy to making a trip to find more fabric, etc. Ordinary shopping affects me very little. It's like, "Oh, yes, buying a shirt. I bought a shirt before. Take it home and put this one in the closest beside the other shirt. Yawn." (unless it's a 100 percent cotton shirt from Goodwill in hopefully a large man's size and a plaid, because those go well in a quilt.) Incorrigible.

[Nancy]

Harriet I think I like shopping for fabric more than that actual sewing of it! LOL!
I'm with you on the book store!
I got some generic readers for my sewing threading machine and that helped a lot.
Amz. had the good ones I could afford in 2020.

I did get a book today wrote about it in journey thread.
Renewed my Dr. lisc. I still needed a doc. for the enhanced one ~ sigh oh well I do not "need" it
but would be nice to get that at some point. So I'll get that document out of the brief case if it's in there.
Got two skiens of yarn new colors for shawls.
Hope there is enough they are not as big as the others.
Self striping one black white and grey and the other green and beige white and black I think.
With the new lamp I can do them.

Got a fan to replace the one in the basement I gave away so pleased this one has "feet"
So it does not tip over.

Store run done pantry is restocked now !

[Lady Maverick]

The house has settled back to normal. DGS18 is on his way home. DS17 is excited to be hauling hay again. DD14 and GF are relaxing and getting ready for tomorrow. GF is transitioning from a brick-and-mortar public school to an online charter school. This means the teens will have three different schooling methods this year: in-person public school, virtual charter school, and homeschooling.

[Lady Maverick]

I am laughing at myself thinking that things were settling down. I just made a 33 mile drive down country road to get DS17 from the hay field. He and friend had words and suddenly hauling hay isn't something he wants to do today. Alls well that ends well.

[CathyS]

I have had my head stuck in a very interesting book for most of the day. It's a John Sandford book with the usual things-guns, murder, suspects, lots of cops of various levels of government, back roads, lots of driving at high speed, highways, farm fields and I'm very close to the end, where the main character is close to finding the main suspect and then there will be a happy homecoming to his wife and children and then I will put the book down and go to sleep. I have very few pages left in this particular book and a very cozy bed to read in with soft pillows. In other words, I will see you tomorrow.