Good morning everyone in blog land. I hope everyone is well. On Sunday we had a snow storm all day. Thankfully not a lot of snow, but very windy which made driving too dangerous, so we did not go out at all on Sunday. Of course it was nothing like the storm north of us in Midland & Barrie areas or to the south of us in Buffalo (USofA). Buffalo will be digging out for weeks.
Currently Reviewing: One Little Word(s) for 2022 has overall not been one of my successes with OLW. My theme for 2022 was all Re words & my intention was to pick a Re word for each quarter. January - March the word was Reduce. Lots of success with reducing physical things, not so much with the reducing of emotional or other non physical things. Still the reduction of stuff did bring some peace of mind. Reduce has been running in the background all year. For the second quarter I settled with Return as I was most hopeful & determined that we should Return to getting on with living our lives within caution that COVID was still freely reproducing. Not so much success during April - June. For July - September I decided that Return would maybe be more of an actual action, alas it was not to be. So many other things got in the way. OLW for October - December has been Review. I've been doing a lot of that, reviewing the success & not so successful elements of my 2022 OLW plan. I have also been reviewing a lot of our stumbling blocks in 2022 as I would really prefer not to take any of them into 2023 with us.
Currently Inspired - Sort Of: I am trying to settle on a December project. Ruth, from This West London Life kindly sent me some instructions on her new style of December Daily project. You can see it here: Ruth's DD Foundation Pages . I've also been reviewing comments from people who have participated in an online December Pause project. Many of you know that I have often, from the start referred to the pandemic as The Great Pause. So maybe since The Great Pause has been a major stumbling block in our lives, I might put the concept of pausing to work to sort out December Daily 2022.
Currently Stimulating The Economy: just when I was in the middle of laundry day last weekend, our washing machine decided it had had enough of life & died in a dramatic way - who knew a machine could make such noises! The dryer, which was the other half of the set, decided, it couldn't go on without its' partner. Mr Man had one fix on the washer last year, but basically the repair person said "you know Madame that these machines are NOT built to last." SO, Mr Man in true hunter fashion hunted for the best bargain known to man & we ordered a new set. There are washing machines out there that connect via WiFi with your phone. Brilliant technology, but can you imagine the techno needed & if it goes wrong how expensive to fix ... besides I get enough messaging on my phone I don't want my washing machine to add to that load (laundry pun)! We expect delivery this week. On December 25th it will have a big red bow on it & marked Merry Christmas ,being that it is taking most the gift giving $$$s.
Currently Reading: "The Christmas Sisters" it was a start on my Christmas themed reading. It was SO predicable in plot, so IMO, not a very good read. I am in the middle of reading "The Courage To Be Disliked" not what I thought it would be, it is a philosophy book. It's written as a two way conversation between the youth & the wise. No recommendation from me.
Currently Planning: Christmas activities. One is to stroll the streets of a little village/town 20 minutes to the east of us. They go all out for decorating the shop windows & sidewalks. It is particularly lovely at night.
"Alexa ... start the laundry ..."
I didn't do too well with my OLW this year either. I don't know if it was to do with the lethargy after the lockdowns etc, but I really didn't keep it in mind this time. I will try again next year though.
ReplyDeleteThe washing machine and tumble dryer replacement is an expense you could do without at any time of the year let alone just before Christmas. Hope it arrives when promised xx
I am counting on delivery on the promised date - there are piles of laundry to do! There's always something that is begging for attention of my bank account. I am not planning on OLW for 2023 but that may change come January. What's the saying .... "watch this space!" (lol).
DeleteSeems like our machines came out in sympathy for one another! Not an expense we particularly wanted at this time of year. At the moment only our dryer has given up, but as the washing machine isn't much younger - watch this space! I saw the models which link to an app but honestly, the extra expense was ridiculous and how much trouble is it to get up and push an on/off switch?
ReplyDeleteI love Ruth's December Daily, I think you should join her this year!
I am just grateful that my other appliance haven't given up in solidary of the washer/dryer. I joked that if the refrigerator wanted out of a job, easily replaced thankfully as the weather of ice & snow would be a substitute (lol).
DeleteOuch, white goods do seem to fail at the most inopportune times, don't they? And of course, inflation is pushing the prices up everywhere and on everything!
ReplyDeleteHoping your aches and pain clear up quickly.
Thanks for the mention/link.
My hip is so much better, thank you. It was a good reminder of maintaining good chair posture. Apparently appliances like a refrigerator are taking a lot longer, to be delivered, I am SO grateful my washer/dryer is only 10 days of wait time.
DeleteA visit to a quaint and decorated town sounds quite lovely, I don’t think we especially have one of those around here. I mean, we have some nice enough towns, but they maybe don’t go as overboard at Christmas as the one you mention.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful to have such towns/villages close by. Our little village does a big farmer's Christmas parade but that is it. we really don't have many shops in business in town. If we get some guaranteed good dry weather, I'd like to venture as far as St Jacobs - it's like a Christmas card village.
DeleteI hope you and Mr Man give each other some other Christmas presents as well as the washer and drier!
ReplyDeleteBefore the W/D gave up, I had a couple of little items for Mr Man tucked away ... one is a big box of shortbread, one that he won't be required to share :)
DeleteI've had trouble with my OLWs the last several years, and have pretty much decided that after 11 years of having one, taking a year off--or just dropping it entirely is probably a good idea. I've started doing my Daily Tracking chart again and it has transformed my ability to get to projects that simply don't see the light of day. There's a biggie right now--haven't worked on it in nearly two weeks---the blank squares on the chart are condemning. It's at the top of the list over this long weekend along with decorating for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know that I'm not the only one struggling with OLW. I really like the idea, maybe it's just run the course with me for now. Nothing says I cannot pick up again. I use a daily habit tracker & it keeps me on track. I'll send good thoughts as you get back on track with your project(s). :)
DeleteSorry to hear that the washer and dryer quit! Glad you were able to get new ones and hope they will be delivered on time! I'm sure you'll find ways to make Christmas special even if the big gifts are the washer and dryer. :)
ReplyDeleteNew washer & dryer were delivered on Tuesday & I did my first load of laundry Tuesday night - I am happy to report the appliances were easy to use - I am happy. There will be some little gifts under the tree, no one shall do without :)
DeleteOh dear - sorry about the hip. Funnily enough, I had exactly the same thing recently and even started to worry that it might be the beginnings of arthritis. Thankfully it improved after a week's rest from walking so I think I must have injured it, either out and about or from poor posture. I usually sit with one or both legs tucked under me which is probably bad in all sorts of ways - circulation too!
ReplyDeleteHope you settle on somewhere nice to go and soak up some Christmassy vibes, and take lots of pictures! I was thinking the other day that I'd like to do the same thing and made a start on looking up some Winter Wonderland type things. Didn't find anything I fancied. Reluctantly, I have already passed up several BBC Christmas recordings. Of course, if I were in Germany or Austria there would be any number of lovely atmospheric things to do outdoors, tasteful, non-tacky and probably FOC! Maybe I will do some more research on it another day. If not, I will look forward to hearing about yours.
Thanks Lady Ella. It was definitely from sitting in a less than posture position, which included one leg tucked up under me & after a couple of days with ice it's fine now. It's funny that a few of the Christmas craft shows that I thought oh wouldn't that be nice, have now been cancelled because vendors are worried about flu & COVID. I think there may be more things cancelled. For us this side of the pond, it is people with flu in hospital more than COVID. Worrisome regardless.
DeleteOh, nothing is built to last - how sad that is true. I take it the hip recovered. Getting old isn't for sissies - is sort of a parallel truth I am finding. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes thank you, the hip is fine but now it's the aching back (lol). Seems each week a different body part is complaining!
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