What I learned while on sabbatical...

 perfect discussion for the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

The first object of my attention was my habits. I made a concentrated effort to reform some of my sloppy ways. That alone changes so much in our life.

I believed being online for many hours a day was harmful. Now I know it is. And so I've severely limited the sites I visit.  During the past few months I tended to all my duties associated with my state in life before even approaching my computer. I might add in most cases these tasks were written in my agenda the evening before - usually after spending a bit of time cogitating in my journal. 

I try to stick to the 3-3-3 method to prioritize and it's working like a charm.

• Every quarter, you set three goals that you want to achieve in the three months ahead.
• Each week, you define the three objectives that will have the most impact on your quarterly goals.
• Every day, you choose the three tasks that will help you make the most progress toward your weekly objectives.

By doing this I've managed to fix the tiles on my kitchen floor, paint my bathroom, while learning how to tape and mud. I've used joint compound before, but have never taped. Piece of cake!  I have yet to have my new toilet installed and will miss my deadline for that, but not by much. 

All my garden seeds are ready for planting, and I'll start pruning trees next week (yay! - love to prune.)

I'm back at the gym after my silly surgery, continue to intermittent fast, aka time- restricted-eating, for my health,  As it happens, many medical people in the know have discovered time-restricted-eating helps protect you against the Wuflu and all sorts of other health problems.  Dr. Jason Fung is the master of explaining the science behind intermittent fasting in his two books - The Obesity Code*, and The Diabetes Code.*

The best resource for helping with habits is Atomic Habits*, by James Clear. I acquired this book back on January 10, 2019 and this past year (2021) it was, by all accounts, the largest selling book on Amazon. The hardbound is on sale right now and I highly recommend the paper version over Kindle. 

Ukraine

It happens I'm reading a novel set during the final year of WWII. The descriptions of the bombings are so similar to what is happening in Ukraine at the moment.  It's all very sad, and it reminds me how blessed we are in this country - at least so far. 

My good friend Lone Star Parson has a post on the spiritual and religious elements in play about what is going on. Not only do I believe Brandon will screw this up, I also know it. Sigh...

Believe nothing you read about Ukraine. The First Casualty of War Is the Truth – The Current Western Propaganda for Ukraine Is Epic in Scale. This is something I not only believe, but know.

Is the Wuflu finally dead?

Oh, hell noes.  First off, the elites have Ukraine as a distraction claiming inflation is all Russia's fault, and by extension, Trump's fault. The morons on the left are already bleating Russia, Russia, Russia, Trump, Trump, Trump. Yeah - whatever.

Gateway Pundit reported The Great Reset: National Vaccine Passport Rolled Out in 21 States and More Are Joining Including Red States. Do you really believe after seeing how the sheeple acquiesced and cowered in fear the monsters are just going to abandon such a great way to control?  It's time for you to know it's not going away, and make appropriate decisions based on that knowledge.  Unfortunately, Washington State will, no doubt, be one of the first in line to impose passports meaning we'll be kicking even more Washingtonians out of our way at our local Post Falls, Idaho Walmart and Super I.

Ash Wednesday

This coming Wednesday, most believing Christians will "celebrate" Ash Wednesday, starting off my favorite liturgical season.  Some of us will be lucky enough to have ashes smeared on our foreheads in the shape of a cross to signify  death and repentance. How's that for a smack upside the head?

The ashes come from a previous Palm Sunday. The palms are burned, the ashes collected, crushed, and mixed with a bit of holy oil.

The ashes are blessed by the priest during the Ash Wednesday Mass after the homily. People are invited to come forward, and the ashes are applied to each person’s forehead in the shape of a cross (we hope - sometimes it's more of a blob) as the minister says, “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”

The rest of the day, we'll be assailed by helpful people telling us we have dirt on our forehead.  NB: It's really not too Christian to reply, "WTHell, you pagan heathen. Don't you know it's Ash Wednesday?" Please just smile all holy and sphinx like, nod, and say, "Thank you."

* affiliate link

Dear Lord in Heaven - please spare me the Kavanaugh drama...

the very fact that his accuser is a psychologist tells me she's certifiable. 

And that is all I have to say about that.

Hold the vote.

Make Brett Kavanaugh our next Supreme Court Justice.

*                             *                           *

Odumbo and Hildabeast are running around trashing Trump.  A couple of amoral losers who repeatedly refer to our "democracy."

We are not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic. 

More:

Pacific Pundit:  CHRISTINE BLASEY-FORD MOTIVE: REVENGE – KAVANAUGH’S MOTHER JUDGE AGAINST PARENTS IN FORECLOSURE CASE 1996

Breitbart:  EXCLUSIVE – Classmate Named in Kavanaugh Sexual Assault Accusation Stands by Denial of ‘Absolutely Nuts’ Allegations

Buck Sexton at The Hill:  Republicans should not allow the hit on Kavanaugh to succeed

Gateway Pundit:  Kavanaugh Accuser Is Unhinged Liberal Professor who Former Students Describe as Dark, Mad, Scary and Troubled



Amazon:

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Need help with downsizing or decluttering?...

plan a Kamikaze clean out.

Stuff.

We all have it.

Some more than others.

Once you have stuff it breeds in the dark of night until cleaning out and organizing becomes almost impossible.

Shortly after moving onto our 5 acre property 20 years ago we had a 30 x 40 pole barn built.  That works out to 1200 square feet. To put that into perspective an average two car garage is about 670 sq feet.

Do you have any idea of how much stuff you can pack into a barn that size?  Not only does it easily accommodate our two vehicles, it is also home to two lawn tractors, two walk behind mowers, two weed whackers, a small roto-tiller, a small wood chipper, and a small snow blower. There is also trailers for the tractors, wheel barrels, garden carts, and a cord or two of wood.  And..........a work bench with a full size rolling tool box and a craft area. That still leaves plenty of room for "stuff" to lurk. 

We also have a 10 x 14 shed that was here when we purchased the place.  Most of the garden chemicals and garden tools live there - also leaving a bunch of room for more "stuff."

One of the biggest problems people face is how to get rid of "stuff" until it becomes overwhelming.

Solution

You need to cast about in your community for a competent affordable trash stuff hauler. Check your local paper, Facecrap, and ask your friends for recommendations, which is exactly what I did.

So yesterday I started what I thought was going to be an onerous task, but instead turned into a liberating and exciting project.

It is pure joy to start stacking "stuff" in a big pile to be dealt with by someone else for a fee.  Sure - you can plan trips to the dump yourself if you're lucky enough to have a truck (right now we don't.) But that's how clean outs get stalled.  It never seems to be finished.

We're not exactly candidates for a segment of the TV show Hoarders, which I'm sure was only popular so peeps could sit back and say, "Well, thank God I'm not a slob like that person."  But it's certainly more than I wish to deal with.

With the knowledge that a hauler is coming, we can be a bit more brutal with our decisions.  I didn't have to think twice about the three broken plastic lawn chairs and chucking them in the pile was pure bliss.

If you don't have big furniture or other big "stuff" you can also contact your trash pick up peeps.  Many of them will bring a dipsy dumpster to your house and pick it up when it's full for usually not very much cost.

My pile so far:

It really doesn't look too bad, but I plan on doubling that pile over the next few days.

There is also a small donation pile inside the barn that I'll take myself to the thrift store.

Hopefully, by the end of next week it will be gone!


I urge you to consider doing your own clean out.  Having a lot of stuff is a burden - both physically and mentally.  Just do it...



Stuff at Amazon

Deals in Home Improvement

How to keep a housekeeping and maintenance schedule (for guys too)...

that makes sense.

It took me a very long time to realize that keeping a housekeeping schedule for many of us was backwards to the anticipated intended results.  I call it a maintenance log for men 'cause they get all huffy about housework and it makes them feel all alpha male.

I started out using FlyLady many years ago.  I still consider her system a wildly good resource for people challenged in keeping their homes in order and to this day I still automatically do many things I learned from her.

Her book, Sink Reflections, originally published in 2002, is still a best seller, and for good reason.

However, many of us have moved past the stage of having to set up a schedule that tells us to load the dishwasher, wipe the kitchen counter, or change the bed linens.

So what can we do between "baby steps", as Marla Cilley (the FlyLady) calls them, and a way to make sure that upkeep is, well - upkept?

When we move into that stage, the time and frustration of marking off stuff on a daily, weekly, monthly, etc, schedule was time consuming.  Not to mention if I missed a quarterly maintenance event, it tended to go sideways in my life.

Light bulb moment

The light came on when I was cleaning the blinds in our bedroom almost a year ago.  They had, behind my back and unbeknownst to me, scarfed up a bunch of dirt and dust.  While I was working away I was trying to remember when they had last been cleaned.

And that's when I knew the secret was to keep a log of completed tasks rather than a schedule of when something was to be done.

After a bit of trial and error I came up with a simple log using an Excel spreadsheet.  It's so dang simple that if you don't have Excel you can make up one by hand in under 30 minutes.

If you're all OCD like me you can Google free spreadsheet programs, but really - hand-made is fine.

Here's how it works

• Across the top have a column for the months of the year
• Down the left side list tasks that are not done routinely and often are forgotten
• When you complete a task simply write down the date in the appropriate month's column.

For instance: if I clean the top of the kitchen cabinets on August 20th, I write "20" in the August column for "Kitchen Cabinets - top."

Seriously - does it get any simpler than that? You can see at a glance if some task has not been done in awhile.  

I'm pretty sure you can click on this and it will enlarge. 

First make your list:

Everyone is going to have their own list of tasks. Spend a few days thinking about what your special tasks are and making a list. 

Obviously, if you don't have blinds, but do have draperies, you would want to list draperies. If you list blinds without actually having them, you would have to come here and clean mine - which would be cool and I thank you in advance. 

 Since it was cleaning the blinds that triggered my ah-ha moment, I started my log with the blinds. So "Blinds BR" is for the bedroom blinds. Then we have the living room blinds, hubby's office, my office, and "TR" for teaching room blinds.

Another biggie for me was cleaning under the bed.  Honestly, it would get neglected until when I finally got around to doing it the dust bunnies were no longer bunnies, but rats on steroids.

I have added a section called "Extra" and given myself a bit more room to write.  Last year that section was used for stuff like caulking toilet, cleaning behind washer/dryer, and washing area rugs next to bed.  

For the guys

If you're a guy who's in charge of home maintenance stuff you can make up your own log listing all the pesky little tasks including things like:

•  inspecting the foundation and roof
•  cleaning the drier vent
•  cleaning gutters
•  maintaining the mowers
•  seeing to chimney cleaning
•  checking the smoke detectors
•  cleaning outside windows and screens
•  having the furnace inspected
• car maintenance
• buying your wife flowers

There you have it.  A simple and easy way to make sure stuff happens. 

I keep my log in the back of my ordre du jour (snotty French for agenda) and check it a few times a month.



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Deals in Electronics

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Information Overload: Feeling Overwhelmed?...

how to make it stop.

I'm a sucker for "self-help" articles.  I'm also a sucker for organizing and minimalist articles, even though I'm attracted to pictures of what most people would call over-decorated rooms, and at times feel very disorganized.

Today, after perusing the usual "I hate Donald Trump" and "I hate Ted Cruz" articles, I actually was thinking, "Who gives a sh*t?"

Is there skullduggery going on in this primary?  Of course there is.  There always is.  Politics and skullduggery have always held hands and skipped down the lane together.

Can I do anything about it?  Nope.

Are we being lied to, manipulated, and propagandized by the MSM and others?  No doubt.

What bothers me most with those who have picked their savior™ is their absolute certainty that their savior™ is the only savior™ and couldn't possibly do anything wrong.  Their articles have become so predictable that I rarely bother to read them anymore.

Comboxes everywhere are over-run with trolls who are no doubt paid to mess with our minds.  Up-voting a comment is run by bots and means nothing anymore.

So, what to do?

Here's the only thing I can do.  I can recognize that I'm an individual who is in charge of my own life, and must do my best to manage my affairs.  It's also something you can do.

Today, at Mark's Daily Apple, is a wonderful article that brought some much needed focus.

How to Get Organized and Stay Focused in a Modern World

His point on what he calls "anger porn" is of particular interest:

Avoid anger porn

Between liberals rage-watching Fox News, conservatives gnashing teeth over Obama dancing the tango in Cuba, and anyone with a pulse reading Youtube comment sections, people are drawn to opinions and news that enrage them. I call this anger porn, and I’m not sure why we insist on consuming it. At least with regular porn, there’s a pay-off. With anger porn, we just get angry and frustrated. We can’t affect the world events being reported on. We can’t change that other guy’s disgusting opinion (nor can he change your horrendous one); we can reply to comments, but that just turns into a flame war without victors.

Anger consumes you. It depletes you. It’s a huge waste of time and attention.

Also:
 

Take stock of your digital sensory organs

Phones, apps, and social media are sensory organs for our extended digital brains. They provide streams of data and information, and this information either helps or hinders us. Unfortunately, our brain can’t really distinguish between useful and useless information before we see it; it all gets processed simply by virtue of our viewing it, taking up valuable brain resources in the process.

On a free day, take the time to sit down and analyze the data streams in your life. Go through your Twitter feed and survey your “followed” list. Are the accounts you follow making you happy, improving your life, inspiring you, or making you money? Stop following the ones who you answer “no” to. Now do the same for the apps on your phone. If they aren’t improving your existence, or are sucking your time away without anything to show for it, delete them. Do this for every digital outlet you maintain.

It's a fine article with many more valuable suggestions and well worth your time to read

What seems most overwhelming to you? 

More:

Tom Woods:   9 Ways Successful People Think Differently
 

Beware the gods of the internet...

you could be a target.

This little post of mine asked the question:

How "connected" do we really have to be?

That evening we lost our internet servive and remained unconnected for over TEN hours.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Things to make your life easier...

like how to store those Christmas lights.

For years I've wound my strings of light around egg cartons.  It works well, but does take up more space so I switched to pieces of cardboard.

Here's another neat idea:

How to Store Christmas Lights Around a Coat Hanger