The Power of Habit

I am loving this book, The Power of Habit. It's making me rethink all of my routines and rituals, wondering how I can harness them up to hone in on things I want to change and accomplish.

It's a very easy read, and I've been reflecting as I go through the book on positive habits I've succeeded in installing (flossing, housecleaning, planning), and negative habits I want to ditch. It's the whole idea of changing your course by a single degree, to find yourself miles away from where you would have been. Exciting, and perfectly time for a new year!

Head Above Water, Barely, Again

Whew. This is just a busy, busy season. Travel, wedding, giant party, whole-house renovation, work. My idea is that all of it will be finished by January, and then I will sit down with Sister in my arms.

*****

I posted this last fall. I am reposting it again as my current truth, although I have finished my travel, am working more, and am only renovating a garage apartment. Besides those changes, I'm right back where I was last year!!

Holiday Manners

Miss Manners hard at work getting out the holiday edition of her column, addressing all her readers' questions about how much they can eat at Thanksgiving, the conundrum of taking seconds,  and other burning issues.

Daisy's Advice Column: Ask Miss Manners

This has been issuing forth from the typewriter lately. The cats submit their questions and Miss Manners answers. Above: "When can you bite a lady's legs?" (probably submitted by Fitzwilliam, who is known to turn on those he loves).

Below: "What are the rules for sitting on a hotpad?" (likely from Lucy Gray, who recently sat on my sewing project and covered it with bits and fur.)

"Glamorous Women Are Walkers"

" . . . Most glamorous women I know are walkers; they have made walking a pleasant habit and part of their busy lives for which they always find the time. And notice how each of them has developed an unforgettable graceful walk . . . Walking preserves health and lengthens life . . .Walking--free striding, free-swinging, rhythmic, unhurried and unharried walking--is the perfect aid to [everything]."

--Gayelord Hauser, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An Invitation to Beauty [1960]

My Secret Library

Sometimes I dream that there's a room in my house, or a building downtown, that I've never seen before. It's always a wonderful space, full of inspiration and creative potential.

It feels like I've found one in real life. You know, every day I take Daisy to town for half an hour of practice on the pipe organ at an old brick church. Last week I realized that there is an empty library room right there, with a big empty table, big windows full of sunlight and flowers, and absolute silence. I have pulled my notebook of poems out and gotten busy.

A dedicated time and place? That works.

Mid-Afternoon

Mid-afternoon in mid-June. A day full of work, laundry, errands, and hospitality. 

I've moved my work computer upstairs into the Composer's studio and can't tell if I love or hate being out of the thick of things. 

I can concentrate, and there are no parrot squawks to apologize for when I'm on the phone, but on the other hand, what's going on downstairs without me? Is the laundry ready to turn over? I'm so far from the coffee! Does a cat need in?

My Duck Egg Filofax, Pretty and Blue

I continue to love my Filofaxes. I have a Original Nude Patent for work, this Original Duck Egg Patent for personal projects, and a raspberry Finsbury I use for my Bible reading plans and prayer lists. I LOVE having separate gorgeous notebooks for different parts of my life.

This binder is divided into a General Notes section (where I keep a running list of things I need to do, remember, schedule, etc.),  Festive Plans (where I work on whatever big do is coming up next--guests, menus, sleeping arrangements), Menu Tracker (where I note general dinner plans), Sewing (all kinds of notes about current, past, and future projects), Correspondence (I actually keep notecards, stamps, and addresses here so I can write a letter when I have a few minutes. I also keep a record of who and when I've written), and Weekly Goals (I write these across the appropriate week but without scheduling them. I generally pick 5-7 things outside my usual daily routine that I want to complete or make progress on).

For some reason, being able to hold all these in my hands makes me feel very connected to my projects and constantly inspired. 

The To Dos

I'm very happy with my current system--a notebook that sits out on the corner of the kitchen island. On Sunday afternoon I write out the upcoming week on a two-page spread.

Although I could do this on a computer, or re-use laminated sheets, I benefit from the re-commitment of rewriting my tasks each week--even the ones that repeat every day. 

I don't color-code my tasks--I just use pen to write them out--but I do use either warm or cool Prismacolors each day to mark out the things I've done. That's my treat.

Felix Recommends The Pleasures of Reading

Felix recommends a little reading to those of us turning away from distraction.

My Mostly Off-Line Lent (So Far)

Much reading, thinking, and discussion going on in the house about the issues surrounding Distraction by Technology. Lots of practicing the discipline of being unplugged.

Also experiencing an unprecedented interest in leather notebooks:

 (much cheaper on ebay than on the Filofax website!)

And in old-fashioned letter-writing. I use Daisy's piano lesson as my Correspondence Hour. 

The Hyacinths Say Hello

 . . . hello, and Lenten blessings. I am giving up internet distraction for the forty days. I will post on my blog and check my email, but nothing else for the weeks to come. A new season!

Our Home-Grown Onion

Periodically Daisy puts out an issue of our home newspaper called the Animal Times. Today Clara, in a masterful stroke of procrastination, instituted a home-grown version of the satirical Onion. 

* * * 

"Student Turns in Handmade Pants in Lieu of Final Paper"

Student Clara P. shook the academic community this week when she turned in a pair of pants that she had made, instead of the final paper, in Dr. Janet Willoughby-Esperanza's "Introduction to Graduate Study," a seminar-style English class focusing on the films of 1964, primarily from the perspective of gender studies and psychoanalytic film theory. Willoughby-Esperanza described the wide-leg velveteen pants as "a brilliant, radical commentary on the interplay of masculinity and femininity in the oeuvres of these filmmakers."

Clara P. was distressed by Willoughby-Esperanza's interpretation of her pants, stating in an interview with the Pleasant View Pigeon that she had not intended to make any such statement by submitting the pants: "I just didn't want to write the essay. I kept putting it off until there wasn't time to finish the pants and the paper, so I decided to just hem the pants and turn them in instead of the paper." In an email addressing Clara P's objection, Willoughby-Esperanza explained that much of current literary critical theory rejects the idea that the meaning of a work is determined by the author or creator's intention, and stood by her original analysis of the pants' implications.

Head Above Water, Barely

Whew. This is just a busy, busy season. Travel, wedding, giant party, whole-house renovation, work. My idea is that all of it will be finished by January, and then I will sit down with Sister in my arms. 

For My Mother Going to Bed in Pain

"It is difficult to find anyone in our culture who will respect us when we suffer. We live in a time when everyone's goal is to be perpetually healthy and constantly happy, and if any one of us fails to live up to the standards that are advertised as normative, we are labeled as a problem to be solved.

 But these Psalms give dignity to our suffering. They do not look on suffering as something slightly embarrassing which must be hushed up and locked in a closet . . . because this sort of thing shouldn't happen to a real person of faith. And they don't treat it as a puzzle that must be explained . . . Suffering is set squarely, openly, passionately before God. It is acknowledged and expressed. It is described and lived."

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction  (extracted thoughts on the Psalms)

Clara, Teacher

The retro-style grade book makes it official--this week, Clara starts teaching Freshman Comp. The Fundamentals Of, I believe. It's getting students up to speed for regular Comp.

She's also starting back to class herself, learning to teach English to speakers of other languages. She'll carry on with her cello and piano students too, and manage several of the law firm projects. And continue to knit socks.

Report from Millenialland

My fellow believers, be encouraged, and do not believe that all is lost in Millennialland.

Around the country and the globe there are young people who stand on the revealed Word of God, whose lives are built on solid rock.

They shine like lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

They are teachers, social workers, veterinarians, scholars, therapists, missionaries, business people, entrepreneurs, writers, parents, scientists,

and they are holding fast to the word of life.

Infrastructure: A List of Smaller Blessings

The big blessings are easy to name.

Today I was thinking about the ones a step down, built into the infrastructure of my small-town life.

A safe and pleasant trail to run on.

A reliable grocery store that carries quality produce, meat, and dairy.

A decent library.

Good music teachers for my children.

Office supply, art supply, and sewing supply stores.

An active 4H Club system.

Really good-tasting municipal water.

Beautiful hikes a short drive away.

A lively three-season farmer's market.

Strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, peach, and apple farms.

Great hamburgers.
Excellent thrift stores--no need to ever pay full price for anything.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Today a reader asked for some inspiration to help her through the demanding years when it's you and a bunch of little people trying to make it through the day. The struggle is real.

Please, if you need help, good sense, and a wise and witty woman to help you through those years, I want you to start reading this blog. Every day.

Read the archives, read the links. Every single time I read Leila on parenting, I'm nodding along. To my mind, she gets things exactly right. It's everything I would have written out if I'd been thinking.

Now go and read.

Planning a Month, and the Weeks Inside It

Once I have planned the month it's time to make all those things happen by plugging them into actual weeks and days. 

Some things are easy--special events, trips, etc. go right on the calendar. Animal chores happen on certain days of the month too.

Next I look for easy match-ups. This month, for instance, all my special monthly cleaning is in the kitchen. And Tuesdays are days when I clean the kitchen sort of thoroughly. So I take my list of special cleaning tasks and add a few to each Tuesday of the month.

Shopping tasks I put on my usual errand days--Friday. I schedule haircuts and such for Thursday afternoons when Daisy is at co-op.

If I have a bigger goal--say to bill 60 work hours--I break that up into weeks, and then days, and note that I need to bill three hours each workday of the month to get there, so "bill 3 hours" will be an entry on each weekday.

If I've got special reading planned I put the books by the bathtub--that's where it happens. If I've got a handwork project planned it comes out into a basket in the living room.

If I want to get the kitchen baseboards painted (and I do) I look for a Thursday or Friday (least busy days) and block in a couple of hours for that project.

If I want to complete four speed workouts this month I block one in on each Wednesday.  Eight arm-strength workouts can go in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And so on. The calendar fills up, but you know, the days are going to fill up anyway, and this way I at least am aware of where I am aiming, even if I don't get to every last thing. I get a lot of satisfaction from getting my things done, and the days and weeks turn into months well-spent.