Tag: organizing

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Around the house Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – 3 Bs

So, moving on to the Bs….

The Sins of the Fathers by Lawrence Block

A screen capture of the cover from the library app; There is a church steeple in the fog.

This sort of shouldn’t count for the decluttering / organizing part of this activity because it turns out the actual physical book I have is book two in the series so I read book one from the library.

Storygraph key words: fiction crime mystery darktense medium-paced

Me: while parts of this “written in the 70s” detective story were kinda painful to read nowadays (bosoms should just not be commented on okay?!?) the overall premise of this one is awesome and I will be reading more! I don’t want to spoil it – which is weird to say about a book as old as I am but still. Once I get through the alphabet I’ll come back to read the second one.

Milkman by Anna Burns 

A photo of the cover of Milkman, an evening sky in shades of pink and rose and a person walking by the water. The book is on Lisa's desk

Storygraph key words: fiction historical literary challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Me: if you want to read a book that seems to me like what my brain is like read this. Digressions all over the place (like for pages!), but always swinging back around to the point etc. Again, not my usual sort of thing but I LOVED it. So far it’s still on the shelf. And will likely stay there for a while.

Kindred by Octavia Butler 

A picture of the cover for Kindred. A Black woman wearing a light coloured blouse looking down; overlayed with an image of trees and houses

Storygraph key words: fiction classics historical speculative fiction dark emotional tense medium-paced

I loved this book first published in 1979. Usually Butler is lumped into science fiction but I far prefer The Storygraph’s use of “speculative fiction.”

I thought this was just beautifully done. And also so much of what I would do. She travels through time, but doesn’t understand how or why and she and her partner try to figure it out as the story progresses and I love that part of it. I will definitely read more by her. I have read Bloodchild and Other Stories – I love short stories and these were all fantastic.

So I was really happy that I read three A books and got 4 books out of the house. Less decluttering with B books – they are all still here. But ohhhh so worthy of staying on the shelf. On to C next!

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Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – 3 As

My quest to “read my own damn library” began with the idea of reading three books by authors whose names start with each letter of the alphabet.

Turns out I don’t have a lot of A authors but I picked out three:

Leave me by dying by Rosemary Aubert

The Storygraph key words: emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

A picture of the cover of Leave Me by Dying which shows a rumbled white bed sheet and pillow. The book is being held in Lisa's right hand.

My key words : slow and tedious. 

It was very nifty though for the setting I thought – 1960s Toronto; and he’s a law student in the book so I know lots of the places and that was the only redeeming thing for me really. So much so that I happily put this book, and another by Rosemary Aubert, in a local little free library. Hey! This whole “declutter by reading” thing may actually work.

The Greenway by Jane Adams

The picture shows the cover of The Greenway, a woman's face highlighted dramatically looks out over shadowy people. The book is held in Lisa's right hand.

The Storygraph key words: fiction crime mystery thriller dark mysterious tense fast-paced

My version: British rural mystery. My usual love. Ugh. It was awful. But yippie! Another book out of the house.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton 

The picture is cover of Ghosts. Primarily a sort of Tiffany-blue with a pencil line image of a lady laying on her front scrolling on a phone. The books is held in Lisa's right hand.

I’m not sure where this came from. Wait – yes I do, I ordered a sweet reads box and it was in that. Anyway, definitely something I wouldn’t have read otherwise.

The Storygraph key words: fiction contemporary emotional slow-paced

My summary: A comedy sort of; a realistic story also. A romance. Definitely not my usual genre. Gosh I loved it. Seriously. Not enough that I would read it again or anything so this one went off to SWCBNOF and there we go, three for three out of the house.

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Around the house Diversions Reading

Bookish – Aug 2022

Okay – so I actually had a dream while at the cottage where my dad made fun of my attempts at decluttering by asking when I was going to get around to reading the books I owned instead of reading the ones from the library.

Seriously. *insert eye roll here* I tease myself in my dreams!

So my goal for September is to read three books from A authors on my shelf.

On August 26 I made all my current library holds “inactive.” Well, except for a book on beadwork that the library is still looking for and Vol 1 of The Sandman because Toby is making me watch it on Netflix (and as of Aug 26, I was number 142 on the wait list for 10 copies).

I will finish the ones I have out now and the book of poetry I picked up on August 27 and then no more library books until it feels right.

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Diversions Get Crafty Health Reading

Trying to focus

How do you pick what you want to focus on? I mean, seriously – there are so many things I want to do, and help Q with, and I have no idea how to fit it all in.

Right now I’m trying to fit in – in addition to working-from-home-mostly-full-time:

  1. improving my French – mostly this involves the Duolingo app. My French is pretty abysmal for someone who took it for 13 or so years through elementary and high school;
  2. reading more – like actual books. I’m doing the Toronto Public Library’s reading challenge again this year and while I’m doing okay, I’d like to be more consistent with it. For example, I haven’t read anything not work related in the last two weeks. I’d like to work it in;
  3. cross-stitching – it’s fun and calming. Mostly it’s calming. I found an awesome group on facebook to stitch with and they have little games and competitions and while that helps me stitch more it also sometimes ups my anxiety. Thankfully they’re pretty laid back and chill and if I have to drop out of something there is no problem. I’m also VERY careful to follow through on the ones that actually require preparation and participation though;
  4. helping Q learn Morse Code – I’m not sure how much he wants to do this but we’ve worked our way up to E (and also SOS and the letter T);
  5. 2 x 10 minutes of my mindfulness app a day – why twice a day? The app is Calm and it has a “daily calm” of about 10 minutes on a different topic each day. Then it has different series that you can work through – right now I’m listening to a series called “relationship with self.”
  6. moving more – hard to do when we’re in a state of emergency I think; but we’ll try.

One of the benefits of not being at home right now is I can at least ignore most of the “housekeeping” stuff – no cleaning, no yard work etc. I am still doing laundry but less really. Also no piano to make me feel guilty for not practising!

So let’s see:

  • 10-20 minutes for Duolingo;
  • 20-30 minutes for Calm;
  • 30-60 minutes for reading;
  • 30-60 minutes of cross-stitching;
  • 30-60 minutes of moving more;
  • 30-60 minutes of helping Q with school, games, Morse Code etc
  • 6.5 hours of work (M – F)
  • 7 hours of sleep (ideally)

At the high end of everything and assuming some buffer for changing activities and that equals 19 hours. Plus eating and showering. I’m gonna try this schedule for this week or two. It has the decided benefit of being easily marked down as “yes or no” – isn’t that the hallmark of a “SMART” goal?

  • Specific – yes
  • Measurable – yes  
  • Attainable – not sure
  • Relevant – well, relevant to me
  • Time-bound – trying for a week, hopefully two and then I’ll see how I’m feeling about it all.

Wish me luck!

What are you choosing to focus on? One or two things or 50bazillion like I’m trying to do?

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Diversions Get Crafty Health

The week ahead….

So I thought I’d be a bit more organized if I could spend a little bit of time on Sunday setting out the week ahead so here goes. Work from 9 to 5 is a given unless otherwise noted.

Monday:
-run in the morning for 30-45 minutes
-get Q in to daycare and let Toby sleep hopefully getting a bit better in the process
-during a break at work – add the new coupons to my spread sheet and check out the flyers to see if there’s anything super I should be picking up this week
-hopefully meet up with my accountant friend who is doing our taxes again this year
-in the evening – boil a bunch of eggs and fry up some bacon for breakfasts/snacks for the rest of the week
-write two blog posts – hopefully I’ll be able to review/edit etc in time to post this week too

Tuesday:
-up early and doing some basic yoga/stretching
-mail some packages that have been sitting around for a while but I keep forgetting to bring to the post office
-send a reminder email to Toby at work to change his income tax withholding and also to submit his receipts for his recent business trip
-I have a physio appointment at lunch for my hamstring
-I’d like to spend an hour after Q goes to bed organizing my craft area. I’d love for it to be usable soon! Also throw a load of laundry in.

Wednesday:
-run in the morning for 30-45 minutes
-after work I have a board meeting for the day care so Q and I will be there late (Toby has choir)
-after that – maybe just some cross-stitching or entering contests for a bit before bed
-YIKES! Good thing I’m doing up this list – what I should do is go through the recipes for Easter Sunday and make sure we have everything we need

Thursday:
-weigh in day for month 1 of our dietbet. If I make it – losing 3% of my starting weight – I’ll be really really surprised. I’ve fallen off the bandwagon more often than I’d like to admit.
-have to bring out the recycling and green bin before work
-go over the City’s waste website to figure out when we can bring in our bigger garbage stuff that’s been hanging around in the basement for a year. Our local “Community Environment Day” is May 10 – we can bring our hazardous waste and electronics and stuff to the park down the street for free!
-in the evening get everything ready for baking and do some laundry and puttering after Q goes to bed.

Friday: Good Friday so no work today :)-hopefully we all get to sleep in a little
-go for a run for at least an hour
-hang the shelf in the basement in the treadmill room for holding my gym clothes and stuff
-I’m sure there will be lots more puttering and laundry and playing with Q

Saturday:
-make lemon blueberry cupcakes and chocolate mousse for easter. Toby’s making pain au chocolat bread pudding. I should really try and remember to take pictures for future blog posts.

Sunday:
-go for a run for at least an hour and hopefully closer to an hour and a half BUT we have to be at my parents’ place for like 10 a.m. so maybe not. Maybe I’ll run on Saturday instead…
-other than that – it’s easter so big family gathering at my parents’ place.

So do you try to map out your week? Does it help? I hope so! This ended up being a bit more detailed than I thought it would be so I hope I can do it all!