Clean House

After a nine month hiatus to get my finances in order, I rehired my cleaning service. They came yesterday, and boy, did they put the spit-shine on the house. I had been doing a stellar job (if I say so myself) of keeping the house tidy during that time. But to have that professional touch added; it’s marvelous.

My next area to get under control is the terrace in the front yard. I did well with adding perennials last year, and keeping it mostly tidy. But I need to up my game this year. I’ve been putting aside the general clean-up of the terrace because I keep seeing these posts about all the beneficial bugs I’ll be throwing out if I do the clean up.

Well, it’s almost Memorial Day, and in Minnesota that means it’s time to get your summer act together. If the bees, butterflies, and moths haven’t woken up from winter hibernation by now, they never will. Time to get cracking on that terrace while I have some more moderate temperatures in the next couple of days.

The Return of Summer

Over the course of a couple hours, Summer returned to Minnesota with a vengeance. Between 9am and 11am, the south wind arrived and brought with it the humidity. By 7pm, there were tornado warnings two counties south of us. We never do anything halfway in Minnesota.

With the arrival of the humidity, my dry skin has taken a hike. The frizz has returned to my hair. I’m glad to see it all.

Declaring War on the Fungus Gnats

I’ve been dealing with a fungus gnat infestation since I brought the plants inside in October. I didn’t know what these little flying jerks were for the longest time. They are harmless to humans and pets, but they are annoying as hell. Especially when they fly up your nose and you get a sinus infection. I thought I had caught COVID until I blew my nose and out came a mucus covered gnat. Gross, on so many levels (including this description!)

I’ve been using sticky traps faithfully since before Christmas, but they’re still flying around like drunken mosquitoes without the stinger and West Nile. These damn things are resilient — even when I’ve let the soil dry out.

While doing more research today, I found this hilarious and informative video. Off to Amazon I went, and soon I will be the proud owner of bigger sticky traps and a bunch of perlite to top off my plant soil. I am looking forward to the day I can have dinner with my DH and not be joined by two or three fungus gnats meandering across the table top or divebombing our nostrils.

Warning: Crafty Weekend Ahead

I have a Stampin Up workshop to attend Saturday morning, but before that there’s a crop tonight and Saturday morning. I get to get back into my scrapbooking groove. And I still have Christmas cards to send out. Just a few, been procrastinating. Got a birthday card to get out in the mail.

I will be glad when I don’t have my work equipment around. It’s on a nice table that would be a great addition to my scrap space. But that’s not going to happen in 2021.

I still have the Vikings layouts to finish digitally. I also have to work on my One Little Word work, and catch-up on The Reset. Fortunately, I just have to do a load of laundry or two. The rest of the weekend can be crafty. Hope you have a great weekend.

Working a Five Day Week

I’m lucky that I’ve worked for the same place for a very long time, and therefore have accumulated a lot of vacation. Because EVERYTHING was cancelled this year, I had a bunch of time off I had to burn up because it couldn’t be rolled over. I had a lot of 3 or 4 day weeks starting in October. So it’s been a huge change to suddenly switch back to working five days in a row.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed is how brain-tired I get. I think I’m more prone to brain fatigue, given the stroke I had several years ago. But it’s really noticeable when I have just two days for downtime, and then I have to crank-up and work in high performance mode for five days straight.

The interesting thing I’ve noticed over the years is that I can work a long day and be OK — like a 10 or 12 hour day. But once I hit about 45 hard hours total of work on consecutive days, my brain wants to turn off.

It even impacts my creative pursuits. I don’t want to scrapbook, or do anything that takes brain power. I just want to sleep, and even that doesn’t come easy. No rest for the weary, in my case.

It’s no surprise then that the last week has been less than productive on the creative front. It look me 15 minutes last night, working on a digital layout, to remember how to do something that is nearly automatic for me. And, true to form, instead of stopping, I just kept trying to make it work until it did. And I paid the price with a migraine.

I’m much better this morning, but I can feel my work to-do list creeping up on me, even though I have a three day weekend ahead. It was so much easier to turn off the work part of my brain during the holiday season than it is right now. It’s probably because of the distraction and demands of the holidays. I need to find that switch for the other 10 months of the year.

My Creative Dashboard for January & February

Finishing up my Refresh Journey activities at Simple Scrapper, and setting creative expectations for the next couple of months.

What are your top three priorities right now?

  • Finishing the last three 2019 Vikings games layouts
  • Complete three modules in my Graphic Design class on Udemy.
  • Create four pages in my Portlandia album.

Where do I want to strengthen my skills right now?

I want to learn more about graphic design and the application of color/color theory. I have signed up for two Udemy classes, one in progress. And I have a couple graphic design and color books I could read.

How will I hold myself accountable right now?

  • Monthly — post my favorite layouts or other creative items I’ve made — do this on the 26th of the month.
  • Weekly — participate in the Weekend and Monday accountability threads in Simple Scrapper
  • Daily — before the Daily Pages sessions, I’ll check in with Honore’ and let her know where I am with my goals.

That feels like a big list, and yet a very small list. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Sunday To Do List

Lots of things on the agenda today.

  • Do the laundry, there’s a lot to be folded and put away!
  • Take out the trash and recycling
  • Meal planning
  • Update my schedule in my planner. I have a busy work week and creative week ahead. I want to get a jump on things
  • Clean off my desk so I can get crafting and working on my One Little Word prompts for January.
  • Cheer the Vikings to a win in their final game of the season. It’s been hard staying away from the stadium this year.
  • Order groceries! Good food, not the holiday snacking stuff!

I think that’s a healthy list for the day. Hope you’re able to knock off your Sunday list today. Good luck!!

And It’s a New Year

Happy 2021 to you all.

I did something pretty amazing today — I finished my December Journal and my 2020 scrapbook. I’m not sure if all this productivity this year is due to finding my groove or having more time because life is slower in the time of COVID. It’s nice to know I could actually finish an annual album shortly after the end of the year.

My friends had a virtual gift exchange on Zoom today, and I forgot to take pictures. It was pretty funny; we each had $100K in virtual money to spend on our recipient. I received a new car, and remodeling money to make the home office of my dreams. I gave an all expense paid Beatles themed trip to London, New York, and LA. Another got a 10% share in a winery she likes. It was fun, but it was HARD trying to spend all that money.

And that’s about all there was to my day. This is the first time I haven’t hosted the New Years Day party in 15 years. I didn’t have the desire to make Hoppin’ John either. I may make it over the weekend. Or I may not. I’m still trying to recover from Christmas.

Workroom Wednesday

Here’s the current state of my workroom:

Don’t let the relatively calm state of this room deceive you. There’s a lot going on, behind the scenes.

  • Taking photos of my December Christmas journal and upload to Simple Scrapper.
  • Making a layout with my friend Bre’s quick page from the Raspberry Road CT site.
  • Laundry. There’s always laundry.
  • Finishing my layout from last year’s Vikings – Broncos game.
  • Hosting an afternoon online crop for Simple Scrappers.
  • Creating my Daily Page with the Awesome Ladies.
  • Researching the virtual Christmas present for our virtual exchange on Friday. I have $100K of virtual money to spend. I’ve gone though about $20K, so far. Trust me, I’ll be able to virtually spend that much money!

And that’s plenty to do in one workspace for one day.




Not Prepared for the Cold

As a native Minnesotan, it feels strange to admit that I’m not ready to deal with the upcoming cold spell. But there are a couple of reasons why I think I have some justification for this feeling of dread:

It doesn’t usually get extremely cold in early November

Typically there are nights that get below freezing (32F) and some snow happens. But the days generally have highs in the 40s and occasionally a pop into the 50s. Next week, I’m looking at single digit lows, and highs struggling to get to 20.

PTSD from Last Winter

November and December 2018 were lovely, weather-wise. Then all hell broke loose January 2nd, and we were hit with snow, then cold, then more snow, then unbearable cold. Rinse and repeat through the end of March. That type of weather leads to “hunker down and hibernate mode”. It’s not a bad thing.

However I had a hellacious professional start to the new year. I was “in charge’ of The Project With an Impossible Deadline, working 60 hour seven day weeks and going insane with the internal politics of the situation. There was no hibernation, no hunkering. Just working my ass off during the bleakest part of the year.

I cracked. I had the worse case of depression that I had ever had. But I still got my ass out of bed and worked like mad because I had obligations. When I finally broke at the end of March, I was the lowest I had ever been and was considering if life was actually worth living. I didn’t start feeling more like myself until a couple weeks ago.

The original project got delayed, re-done, and implemented this summer with much less involvement on my part. It’s been a struggle. A struggle I don’t want to repeat again.

So, what now?

I am on an off-shoot of The Project From Hell.

The new project has some sketchy deadlines, but I’m no longer suffering the consequences. Those above me are noticing on their own some of the issues and/or amplifying mine. But other things are changing and the politics of it I wish I could drown out.

The days are getting long and dark. Now it’s getting cold. It feels like the 2.0 version of last January without much improvement. And I’m scared most of all of falling back into that deep depression. Last winter showed me that either the dependable drugs I have been taking aren’t working as well anymore, or that I need to find other ways to deal with the stress.