Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The days melt together

Me in Challenger window, Indiana corn in background...
and I lose track of whether this is Wednesday or Thursday.  And what is the date?  And how did this happen to a person who project planned for a living anyway?




We have had a couple of unscheduled weeks, and I'm finding that the day and date don't matter much.   Mike has been busy designing and building a bike storage rack for our garage, and I've been building our nest.  And all the while wondering if I should be "nesting" or out in the world volunteering or working or doing something of more meaning.  I'm a bit restless lately, wondering what the next steps should be.  As I've mentioned before, I believe I'll know the right opportunity when it knocks.  But as our friend John said, maybe that's true, but wouldn't it be more likely you will find the opportunity if you are out in the world looking for it.  Food for thought, for sure...

So here's a pictorial view of the past week's activities...

We have limited space in our garage and way too much stuff.  So we need a place to store our bikes so they're available when we want to ride.  And Mike is good at building things, so he put together a prototype "C" structure, modified it with pulleys when I couldn't lift the bike without hurting my back, and now the construction is underway.  And finally I "get" the importance of prototypes in the software development world.  Wish I would have known this during my program management days...
Mike with C frame

Pulleys on the prototype


And then there's my decorating streak.  Of course I still have the need to accomplish something each day, and so goes my attempts to dress up our home...

Amazingly clean laundry room!  And yes, that's an Eli Lilly lab coat in the back!

I cleaned out the laundry room, removing a huge amount of Mike's clothes which were on hangers and laying on this shelf.   And no, the paint isn't new.  Mike and I painted this room several years ago.  It's "rubber glove yellow".


Family room with new curtains.















And I wanted to soften the family room with curtains.  So after dragging Mike to Penney's, Lowe's, Target and a few other places, and him admitting he "didn't really care" about curtains, we finally found the perfect rod and grommet curtains.

The room looks totally different now, and Mike is getting over his fear that the curtains are encroaching on the room...













And I added some of my pottery to the hearth.  Hey, a couple more things out of storage!












My new pouf.  Mike hates that word!



I finally found a "pouf" or "cube" for the porch.  At last a place to perch tired feet while drinking a iced tea (or wine!).











First the balloon, now the CD's...





And we  hung old "CD's" to protect our ripening raspberries from the birds.  They move about in the slightest breeze and hopefully will scare the birds.











We spent an afternoon at the Eiteljorg Museum to view the Guitars Exhibit.  It was an amazing pictorial history of guitars.  We would cue up each exhibit on an iPod and listen to music from that instrument (think Stephen Stills and Jimmy Hendrix).  Amazing!


Mike playing a chord.

And I LOVE the flowers in our yard...

Notice the honey bee in foreground...First time we've seen honey bees in several years!

Don't you just love this texture?

Fig growing at center of leaves

Blue petunias! Really?  Hey, on sale after 4th of July!




And I finally got back to some crafting...pulled out the sewing machine, fought thread tension problems and broken needles to sew a couple of new purses...


"Pink is my favorite color..." 

Bling!
And so goes it.  Days that fade together, choosing how to spend each day, and wondering if there should be something more I'm doing with my life.  Restless, yes.  Enjoying the days?  For sure.

Hope you are having a great week!
Diane

3 comments:

  1. Your husband appears to be quite the character, I'm sure he keeps you entertained. And you are very funny as well in your writings. :-)

    Regarding feeling restless - whenever I feel restless, it's a pretty sure sign I've begun to allow myself to stagnate in some area of my life. A book that helped me tremendously in defining what my new, non-work passions in life were, was "The Joy of Not Working" by Ernie Zelinski. I think you might enjoy.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the recommendation! I just downloaded the book to my Kindle and will start reading it this weekend.

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    2. Please let me know what you think as you read through it. I think one his most valuable pieces of advice is "When you do that which is difficult, life becomes very easy. When you only do that which is easy, life becomes very difficult."

      For me, it's a reminder to push myself every day, after which the bliss of relaxation is mine to enjoy. How and what that push is is unique to each person, but the relaxation and peace that follows is pretty universal I think!

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