Today I am . . .
- Home after working the last two days.
- Thinking about playing a round of “What can go to Goodwill?” and filling a few bags for donation. And then going into the store itself to photograph weird stuff for a blog post.
- Laughing at this post.
- Excited for my personal behind the scenes tour of Goodwill next week.
- Thinking about the concept of “breeding discontent.” Without it, nothing would ever go out of style and no one would feel bad about their perfectly functional things.
- Reveling in the silence of my home.
- Planning on participating in some humdrum activities such as kitchen cleaning, laundry washing, meal planning and general organization. But thinking I’ll try to do them in the moment and without distraction. It’s hard in the beginning, but I always end up daydreaming in ways that sharpen my mind and passively problem solve any issues going on in my life. (Essentially, I’m doing all the dull stuff today so that the next few days can be more enjoyable.)
- Thankful for my world which includes healthy family members, paid for cars, thrifted clothes and furnishings, Tyrion Lannister and cozy blankets for chilly rooms.
Now your turn. What are you doing today?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Today I am also laughing at that text reply! Making that black bean soup you recommended, using carrots and garlic from our garden, and black beans from our emergency food store, and veggie broth I made from old peelings and scrapings and cuttings I’ve been freezing for months.
Thankful for the bartering I’ve been doing with my belly dance teacher for free exercise and practice, because I always push myself harder when I exercise with others watching.
Mmm . . . maybe I’ll make that soup again tonight!
Whoops, and shopping on Craigslist for a wood burning fireplace insert for our crazy heat-sucking fireplace, so we can be less dependent on gas, and better equipped for longer-term power outages.
DH and I can give a loud shout-out for the wood-burning insert, as we’ve been primarily heating with one for the last 5 years (the gas furnace is used only on the coldest days) here in Upstate NY, and National Grid doesn’t know what to make of us. (The solar panels we put on our garage roof 3 years ago confound NG further. Hee hee!)
Today I am also practicing various forms of gratitude:
(1) Gratitude that we have reached an amicable arrangement with our part-time cat’s other owner (we discovered recently that the kitteh has been double-dipping all along).
(2) Gratitude for the long-ago local housewives who left their clothes-drying racks in the basements of DH’s rental properties. I’m still using the racks–one of which has a mend with cloth-backed tape that is still holding up after all these years.
(3) Gratitude for my garden, which has provided some of the ingredients for a minestrone tonight (the others were obtained from a chicken I roasted yesterday and a thorough cleanout of the fridge).
A. Marie, I’m trying to sell my house in Upstate NY and it has a wood burning stove and electric heat. When I calculated what I used the past 2 years between electric and wood, it was 1/2 of what my girlfriend used for one winter with oil, not to mention her regular electric bill. As much as I hated NG, I’m thankful that my bills were so low. Yet, people don’t want to buy a house with electric heat. They are not seeing the benefit!! But glad you also feel the same way I did about NG!!!!!!!!!!
Maureen: I fully agree that National Grid stinks. Right now, we’re paying more in so-called “service delivery charges” than we are for our actual electric and gas consumption. Snarl!
That said, though, I can sort of see why your prospective buyers are spooked by the electric heat, given the recent spikes in NG’s electric charges. The buyers are probably just seeing your woodstove as an “accessory” and not an essential. Little do they know!
Today I am trying to schedule a block of time to have my task glasses fixed. They are wire-rimmed, and I lost the screw securing one lens. I have a repair kit, as anyone who wears glasses all the time should, but the replacement screw is too large.
So I got in to the optician down the street, and the lens is back in. Hurray!
Today I am trying to find a routine in a new season of life–husband started a new job today in a city 3.5 hours south, and my job is to mother the children and sell the house in a timely manner. 😉
I am prepping the walls in my (completely empty) master bedroom for paint…and learning how to patch a nasty hole in the wall at the same time.
I am debating whether to donate the last basket of culled clothing or save it for next week’s consignment sale. If donated, that would make 8 garbage bags of clothing headed out the door this week.
Mainly, I am sitting quietly in the lull created by a lingering naptime for the youngest and awaiting the elder son’s return home from school. Peaceful.
Katy, I couldn’t be happier that your blog is back to functioning. It’s one of the few that never “breeds discontent” or leaves me feeling “less than.”
When you drop things at GoodWill, do you always get a receipt?
Today I am –
Doing all the same humdrum activities as you to also enjoy the next few days.My nephew is getting married next weekend and family will start arriving at my house this weekend and it will be a revolving door of family members and activities. So today I scrubbed the bathrooms, am making zucchini bread, vacuumed, and am doing my first round of washing sheets and towels. (There will be many more!)
Am taking a load to the consignment store tomorrow as I have had a lull over the summer. Went through all our winter coats and a few house items to get ready to sell.
We have a 2 story , vinyl sided house which gets very mildewy in the humidity of the Southeast. So my husband cleans it with bleach water every 5 years or so. In order to reach the highest peaks he rents a lift – but our vehicle to haul the lift died. I am happy that a friend is loaning us his pick-up truck to finish the job this weekend. Love crossing things off the list.
Enjoying beyond beautiful 70 degrees and sunny weather to line dry all the sheets I am washing.
Looking forward to my nephews wedding and all the family coming in to town, even if it will be quite chaotic at times. 🙂
Today I am:
Wondering how my oldest child could possibly be turning 41 today….seems like yesterday she was still in high school…now her oldest is in high school.
Got my haircut
Bought a few items at the grocery
Went to the dentist for a cleaning and found I had a small cavity…boo!
Did a few other errands in town
Froze 6 boxes of beautiful and yummy broccoli
Picked green, yellow and red peppers and cherry tomatoes and basil
Made a large salad spinner to put in the frig….we regularly eat salads with our main meal and this is so handy
Thoroughly enjoying the 83 degree temps here in the Midwest but hear it is to change tomorrow. We have been having an awesome early autumn!
Today I am:
1. Just trying to function. It’s my dad’s birthday. He died in January. He would’ve been 61 today. I didn’t think today would be hard. It’s surprised me, snuck up on me. I’m wobbly today. So, I’m just kind of trying to shield myself and have a quiet, low key day.
2. Taking a friend who doesn’t drive to do her errands including picking up her 3 year old daughter’s medicine from the pharmacy. Since I’m currently mothering a big ole stinky teenage boy, it was kind of a supercute treat for me to have a toddler girl in a booster seat in the backseat for a while today. Nice to remember the days of having a little bitty kid.
3. Catching up on laundry.
4. Registering for a 5K. It benefits the local battered women’s shelter so I feel zero guilt about spending money on the registration fee. This’ll be my 2nd 5K. I’m hoping to better my running:walking ratio. I’ll be the wheezing fat chic with the blonde ponytail stubbornly lugging myself through the course on the 18th.
5. Working on filling crochet orders. I need to complete and ship everything before I move next month.
6. My son and I are calling my mom later tonight to see how’s she’s getting through today.
7. Watching the storm clouds form and enjoying the show the sky is putting on. It’s supposed to storm all of tomorrow.
Be kind to yourself today! Grieving is a process that takes time and you can’t force it. Remember all the good things you shared with your father….those will never go away! And consider yourself hugged by all your internet friends…we do care!!
Today I:
1. Wrangled a 2 year old visitor – played, read, fed, changed, put down for nap, etc.
2. Caught up on laundry, even though I’m not supposed to go down the basement stairs (due to issues with my legs … OCD overruled common sense! )
3. Caught up on dishes. I love doing dishes!
4. Cleaned the stove top.
5. Cooked dinner with my 12 year old daughter.
6. Read an entire book. Granted it was a very short book, but an entire book.
7. Converted the artwork I created for our Tuesday Night Sunday School into a format usable by the company that’s printing our t-shirts and made arrangements to save money by picking the shirts up myself.
8. Next up, I’m going to wander around the house randomly gathering items for donation and then clean up the living room, which was destroyed by a certain 2 year old.
can anyone join you on your Goodwill behind the scenes. Super curious!
Nope, this one is just for me.
Today I am: wondering if there’s a class in marketing school called “Discontent Breeding 101”.
Yes, it’s called advertising.
Precisely!
today I am grateful for an aging body that can still heal quickly – had my gallbladder out on Friday, had a massive 1.7 in gallstone, and last night slept all the way thru. Was able to change the bed, wash & put sheets on dryer rack, cleaned the kitchen, dry mopped the house (how does it get so dirty with just 2 people?).
So happy the water bill was so low – installing the water saving toilets and being super careful of water use has really paid off, a savings of $30 this month. The rest of the day will be spent reading, a little TV and sitting outside enjoying our ‘cool’ weather in the high 80s.
Well, yesterday I did a one hour evaluation for the NIH website for $100! That’s the best hourly wage ever. Too bad those evaluations don’t come along very often. Today will be a home day: working on a baby quilt, baking and cooking…just enjoying the beauty of home.
Enjoying the moderate weather we are having. I am grateful it has been a couple of weeks since we have had the A/C on and it looks like we’ll be able to go a while before turning the heat on. Some years that is not the case.
I am thankful that I am paying attention to the NCA group on Facebook. It is taking some of my time but I feel as if I’m getting a “fix” that I sometimes seem to need.
It is finally cool enough to serve soup for dinner so that really expands my repertoire (and I love soup).
Cooking a bunch of turkey sausage that I will freeze. It was on sale for a good price so I stocked up. A little goes a long way to add flavor to meals: Chicago style pizza, pasta with sauce, frittatas, etc.
Going in to Compton Unified School District for fingerprinting and a physical–I got hired as a teacher!
Reheating my coffee on the stove–we got rid of our microwave during our move, and have been okay so far.
Putting together a vegetarian Cobb salad for lunches for the next few days.
Today I am eating leftovers for lunch as usual and getting ready for my lunch time walk — a cheap way to get some exercise.
I ordered some herbs that are crazy expensive in tiny bottles in the stores, but will be very cheap to use by buying in bulk, and I do use them, so no fear of waste.
Planning a day to show a friend how to make her own laundry detergent, which I’ve been doing for a long time now.
Looking ahead — I plan to stock up the freezer with good-priced pastured chickens straight from the farm, as well as pork from the same place.