One Little Word: March & ZIZO

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In my efforts to SIMPLIFY, here were my March intentions and a progress report:

Declutter and Purge

• Den purged. One bag of books donated to the library; closet emptied, painted, and organized; another bag of office supplies/notebooks to Goodwill
• Feedly purged:  stopped following blogs I didn’t read regularly so it’s easier to keep up with the inspirational blogs I love

Healthy Living – increase the number of vegetarian meals:

With just a few exceptions, I’ve established a routine of eating vegetarian 2 of 3 meals each day. I’m enjoying it, and not finding it difficult at all. Some days it’s all vegetarian.

Read 4 books:

I only managed 3 books this month, but our book group book was over 700 pages long.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and despite it’s length (771 pages) finished it in just two weeks. It got mixed reviews at our couples’ book group. Tracy thought it was way too long, but agreed the writing is superb.

I’ve read nearly everything Kelly Corrigan has written, and enjoyed it all. This is another memoir about her time as a nanny in Australia and how it changed her relationship with her mother. In some ways, it was hard for me to read since I lost my mom at such a young age, and never got a chance to know her as an adult. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and it was an easy read.

This was one of the most difficult books I’ve read in years. It was the Lenten book for our church, and our pastor led a retreat around the book a week ago Saturday. I could only go for the first hour since my Dining Room Ministry team was cooking lunch that day. The author is a poet, and I don’t find reading poetry an easy task. When the writing was more narrative, I enjoyed the book, and found some of his insights profound. In other sections the writing was elaborate, and it was difficult to extract the meaning from it. I wish I could have stayed for the whole retreat; I’m sure I would have gotten more from the book with some shared insights. (One of the big advantages to a book group.)

Classes:

Truthfully I should be working on classes I’ve yet to finish, but instead I enrolled in the Online Card Class: One Layer Cards, and tried many of the featured techniques. These classes are a great value. For each lesson there were a minimum of three videos, three more step-by-step projects, and a pdf of the lessons. Participants have access to the content of the class indefinitely; the message boards and galleries are closed for participation, but the content of those remains open as well. I always learn new tricks, and this time learned quite a few new techniques.

Photography Projects:

I’m way behind with the challenges in The Visual Toolbox as well as the online course, Practice. For the latter, the terrible weather has definitely been a factor so I think I can probably catch up once spring arrives. I am thoroughly enjoying Helena’s meme, Zoom In, Zoom Out.

 And here is this week’s, taken several days ago. Friends of ours asked if we thought Caleb would like a tricycle. We knew he didn’t have one yet, so brought it along with us. The first experience was a bit tentative, but when we “rode” it to the playground the other day, it was a huge hit. He’s just beginning to get the idea of how to pedal.

 

Sarah arrived home from California a “new” woman. After being a student for all but two years since she graduated from high school, she decided to say “enough.” She finished all the class work for her PhD a couple of years ago. She just finished writing her last comprehensive exams, but when she got to Berekley to defend the exams, she realized she’s lost her passion for the research needed for the dissertation. The work she now hopes to do doesn’t require a PhD. Two more years of steady research and writing seemed overwhelming. The door to the degree remains open without a second application for two more years, so she has time to reconsider, but she’s feeling very relieved. I think you just know when the time is right for these decisions. She’ll have more time to spend with Caleb, time to pursue some recreational interests, and opportunities to grow her spiritual direction practice. 

Today is Adam’s birthday, and I’ll be back tomorrow to share his birthday card as well as two others that went out this week.