Menu-Plan - week ending 28 Jan

Breakfast: no-fruit muesli with lactose-free milk
Lunch: Salad with Tuna.

Dinners:

Monday: Bacon and Onion Omelette with steamed Veges.
Tuesday: Microwaved Fish with Steamed Veges.
Wednesday: Grilled Chicken Fillets with you-guessed it Steamed Veges.
Thursday: Hmmm. Prawns I think - Australia Day!
Friday: Take-out
Saturday: Lentil Curry
Sunday: left-overs.

February 2012 Goals...

February is China Cabinet.

. get glass doors, and knobs for bookcase that is turning into a china cabinet.
. wallpaper/paint the back of the bookcase for extra pop. (Currently is white, when the rest of the bookcase is birch).
. get child-proof (read cat-proof) thing to stop Destructo cat from destroying fragile things.
. Get all the boxes of fragile china and etc from friend's garage.
. Unpack, declutter, and put the remaining in the bookcase.
. Put BJD's in bookcase. (BJD's are Ball Jointed Dolls)
. Do another happy dance.

Week 4: Utilising your Strengths

Did you know that I have strengths? I didn't. I'm not talking about things like sense of humour and smart, and that sort of thing.

I'm talking about :

Via Institute on Character

There's a self-test that you can do there that is quite long. But what you end up with (if you choose the free summary) is a list of all the strengths in order.

The plan for week 4 is to look at these strengths and utilise them in the way you would do your goals.

These are mine:

Your Top Character Strength
Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

Utilising this strength: That's easy - it's all the research over the net, doing the happiness diet in the first place, and creating this blog to research and follow up what I'm doing.

Your Second Character Strength
Appreciation of beauty and excellence
You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Utilising this strength: I don't know. I suppose making my home beautiful is using this, but how do I do it for the health-related goals.

Your Third Character Strength
Fairness, equity, and justice
Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.

Utilising this strength: I need to give myself a chance. I also need to call myself out when I'm slacking or procrastinating. Humm..... Not easy. When I'm whiney, being fair and calling myself out feels like punishment.

Your Fourth Character Strength
Forgiveness and mercy
You forgive those who have done you wrong. You always give people a second chance. Your guiding principle is mercy and not revenge.

Utilising this strength: I suspect not beating myself up when I fail is the goal here - especially when I'm being whiney. OK. How do I combine this one with the previous one?

Your Fifth Character Strength
Kindness and generosity
You are kind and generous to others, and you are never too busy to do a favor. You enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if you do not know them well.

Utilising this strength: No idea. How do I do kindness and generousity for my goals?


Character Strength #6
Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith
You have strong and coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe. You know where you fit in the larger scheme. Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you.

Utilising this strength: OK. This one is easy. Get God involved. Well actually he's been involved from the beginning. God loves me, and I should be looking after his beloved in the way he would want me to. I'm the one with the bad behaviour.

Character Strength #7
Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.

Utilising this strength: See Point 1. Pretty much got it covered.

Character Strength #8
Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

Utilising this strength: Maybe this is the way to deal with the whinyness - laugh at it! :D I can do that.

Character Strength #9
Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are. You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions. You are able to change your mind.

Utilising this strength: Also part of Strength 1.

Character Strength #10
Leadership
You excel at the tasks of leadership: encouraging a group to get things done and preserving harmony within the group by making everyone feel included. You do a good job organizing activities and seeing that they happen.

Utilising this strength. This one is an unwanted strength. I hate being a leader except when I have to be, and I prefer to be one that lets others get on with it rather than being an overlord. Also organising others is super-stressful. I think I'll skip this one.

Wednesday was Goodbye Day!

Good bye to the Filing Cabinet! There's a big hole where the cabinet used to be and I'm already planning to fill it :D There are bookcases in my future! :D

Also started moving the DVD's to the ring binders. I've gotten packets of "Compact Disc Storage Pockets" that fit in ring binders. Enough for 400 DVDs. (I hope that's enough). Already been through 3 boxes. 1 more box to go. I thought I had 5 boxes but it appears it's just 4. I only had 2 ring binders though - so will have to get another one from the Garage I know there are suckers in there! Maybe on Saturday or Friday?

Then throwing out all the DVD covers - replacing 4 boxes of DVDs with 3 ring binders that fit in one box. Woot!

It's all coming together!

Menu Plan - Week ending 22 Jan

Have to get back onto this.

Breakfasts... Muesli works. But I'll need to do muesli without milk until Friday. Um... I'll use juice although that's off plan.

Lunch... Tuna and salad. Lots of Tuna to get rid of.

Dinner:

Monday: Omelette and steamed vege. No Dairy!
Tuesday: Steamed Fish and steamed vege. No dairy. Sauce = paprika, soy, lemongrass
Wednesday: Grilled Chicken and steamed vege. No Dairy
Thursday: Cauliflower and Parmesan soup. Something Cheesy!
Friday: Takeout.
Saturday: Lentil Curry
Sunday: Lentil patties from left over curry, and steamed veges.

Monster Task: Step Two of Ten

Today (after a very nice sleep!) is Step 2 of Monster Task.

2.  Sort the ones I have to keep into 5 piles, one for each year that I'm keeping.

This one should be a bit easier to do considering that

(a) I have folders for them, and
(b) all the junk is thrown out already.

Hopefully this will be a nice short simple task - unless I make it more complicated by combining steps.

Off to put on loud friendly music and do the job!

7pm. Returned. Did half a bag, and have many, many more to do. But ran out of oomph for paperwork.

Did this stop me doing stuff? Nope. I went through all my tech stuff and now have a pile of tech stuff to throw out, depending on whether my geek friends want any of it. (I suspect no - so it'll make it to the garbage).

The thin part of the bookcase in the kitchen is now empty. Yup that's right! The thin part is empty! Woot. That is going to be the CRAFT cupboard! Yay! I finally worked out how to deal with that.

So productive - but not so much in the way I expected to be.

Friday - Not so much chucking things out as bringing things in

Tee hee!

Off to the doctor this morning for little to no reason - the message from the nurse didn't go through to the doctor. So she's going to write me a referral and post it to me.
 walls - that also need to be decorated , and sanded.
Had a spiffing good time coming back with 4 self-stick vinyl tiles to try out, 3 bottles of sampler paint for my MOPPE and some wood stain and sandpaper for the frames.

Then I discovered the Pet Warehouse - and they had grey mousies for Blanche! She enjoyed that.

Then to Officeworks and got my system for my financial papers - folder pockets and a concertina file.

Perfect!

How do you know you've got Depression?

The Official symptoms of Depression are:

• Depressed Mood.
• Loss of interest or pleasure in things that normally make you smile.
• Feelings of guilt, hopelessness, worthlessness.
• Suicidal thoughts or re-curring thoughts of Death
• Sleep Disturbance
• Weight/appetite change although you're doing nothing different
• Difficulty concentrating
• Lack of Energy and fatigue.

Sleep apnoea - you get sleep disturbance, lack of energy, fatigue, difficulty concentrating.

Diabetes - Weight/Appetite change, Sleep changes, Difficulty concentrating.
Anybody who deals with pain knows you get lack of Energy and fatigue.

So all that's left is the mood, the self-beating up-edness and wanting to die. And yet - you can be depressed without them too.

And when you've lived with some of those feelings and self-beating-up-edness for so long that it's not really a measure of whether I am having an episode or not.

And the truth is, that most days I have a micro episode. And here's how it is for me: I get anxious about doing things that I normally have a handle on - anxious as in, there's a hot stifling blanket pushing in on my chest and making it hard to breathe.  I can feel a weight on my head pushing me down, and making it hard to think. There's a ringing in my ears, and if the truth be told, I'd have a cry if I actually had anything to cry about. It lasts maybe an hour maybe more. And it goes away after I have a sleep.


My darling friends know - I'm out of spoons. And it's time for to go get some.

What I don't understand is how I can have a load of spoons in the morning, do really well - then all of a sudden they're gone and I can't remember even using them?

Take today. Went to the Diabetes Nurse. Got commended for getting my sugars down between 5-9 for most of the time. Came home. Cleaner turned up and cleaned house. Smells good! The house is clean and tidy, and I've just done my bits and pieces at my own pace. Absolutely no reason to be down - I haven't used that many spoons. And yet... I'm as anxious as anything for no reason, I've not gone to work because I'm too sad, things are exciting with the decluttering, and I'm not stressed about the things that apparently I'm supposed to be stressing about because I have got them to a place that makes sense to me, and feels in control.

So I'm not going to work. I'm going to bed if the cats let me, and see what I can do about getting some spoons. See you on the flip side.

Sunday: Laid back task day today...

Today when I went to church, I ran into Daff and Peter, who I had a USB and DVD to return too. So more stuff out of the house.

Also leaving the house today, is 1986 - 2011 diaries after the useful bits had been removed from them. 2 of the diaries were almost completely empty. I teared out the pages, and have two more blank books to go to my friends.

Buts what is more exciting to me is what came IN the house. :D I have 3 Magazine sets - Creating your Home, Changing Rooms and Creative Ideas.

My big plan for these books, is to scan them into the computer and make them into a html book for the reading of, then discard the books themselves (except for the patterns that I want to keep). Even though they are the Part-Series magazines they are full of good ideas and something I've read and re-read and perused over and over.

I just don't want to keep the big hulking books any more. There are 12 Folders, and the plan is to reduce them to just 1 or 2 folders with the appropriate patterns in them.

Also I bought a calendar of Tamara de Limpicka pictures (that I love) and will be cutting out the appropriate ones to put on my gallery wall. And finally a book on Chinese Textiles complete with CD-Rom which I'm hoping to use when I make the wallpaper for my bookcases.

Oh? Didn't I mention that I'm going to wallpaper the back of my bookcases with a handmade wallpaper made out of Smala paper from IKEA? And paint the rest of the bookcases in my favourite Dolphin Blue, leaving the shelves and inside sides white. My Bad! :giggle:

Saturday Monster Task: Step One of Ten

Reason: If I have completely cleared out my filing cabinet, then I can get rid of filing cabinet and replace it with two 2!! TWO Bookcases! Full of Books that I love!! :D


<- This is me when my books are home.


Did I mention that the reason why I have so much paper is because most all of my papers are financial, and I have tax returns and their accompanying evidence back to 1988. So yeah about 25 years of tax, and seriously, we only have to keep 5 years for the ATO. (ATO = Taxman in Australia).

The Plan:


1. Collect all the papers into one spot, and sort them into two piles - stuff I have to keep, and stuff I can throw out. Status: Complete 07/01/2012 5pm Time Taken: 4 hours.

2.  Sort the ones I have to keep into 5 piles, one for each year that I'm keeping.

3. For each pile, sort the papers into receipts and statements and tax papers. For ease of storing.

4. Make sure that the spreadsheets for each pile is stored in a useful place on my PC. Make sure that all the details in the spreadsheet, and all the papers in the pile tally. (Expecting that some papers have gone the way of all flesh).

5. For this years pile, and last years pile - make sure that all the data is entered into the spreadsheet for taxation purposes. Last year was a dog, and I didn't do any paperwork. So much needs to be done.

6. Go out and buy 5 nice new folders from Officework. These are the concertina thingies I'm talking about here that have pockets for different things. Status: Complete 13/01/2012

7. Once all the piles are sorted, collated, and audited - put them into their nice new folders that are labelled with the year on the outside.

8. Store the nice new folders in an appropriate place, and celebrate with a happy dance.

9. Include on the schedule - throwing out the oldest folder's paperwork as a part of doing the taxation every year.

10. Do another Happy Dance!

Today's Plan: Do Step 1.

I have Emptied the Filing Cabinet, brought the dining table into the living room, and dumped all the papers onto the table. I have also brought the roll of garbage bags from the kitchen.

Dining room table will live in Living room until steps are completed.

Now turning on loud music and throwing things into large garbage bags!

Wednesday is gob-smacked day!

I had an amazing day today - and one that I was not expecting at all. I was at my friend's house who are storing my things, and books in their house - minding their kids while they helped a mutual friend pack and move to their brand new home.

Now, my friend had packed up the books in two of the bookcases - because she's been inspired to install her own - an Expedit 4x4 in the same space. And she asked me to sort through the boxes of books for what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to get rid of. She has a huge long and wide hall and all but 3 of my bookcases are in the hallway.

She and her husband were gone from the house for about 4-5 hours. I spent the whole 4-5 hours going through not just the books in the boxes, but all the books in the bookcases and sorted them into the two bookcases I'm going to keep. At the end of the time, I was about 75-80% through and discovered that I can actually do this! I'm gob-smacked! I was totally without Ruth, and just chose the books that I actually used (in the case of music, cooking) or had re-read many times, and would miss if I didn't have them.

What I discovered was that I had books by authors that I had bought because I'd liked 2-3 of their books (e.g. Anne McCaffery) but the others I'd read only once and had no intention of reading again. So they were put into the get rid of book case. It was a real process of letting go of being a completist.

I had other books that were sentimental - a whole set of Poldark books that I adored as a young teen and that my mum had given me, read them many, many times but not in the last 20 years. They went too.

When it got too much, I went and played with the kids for a few minutes then came back to it.

I'm excited to say that I actually have done something that even as recently as last night thought that I couldn't have done without heartache - I've culled my books!

Wow!