Dwellingness

Its amazing what happens when you browse around the internet.  One good find inevitably leads to another.

This is a Robert Jones 5 minute makeup tutorial.  I’ll confess, I’ve had the books and loved the looks, but I’m not skilled enough to really do them.  Seeing someone else do the “doing” certainly deepens understanding.

Watch and see

I was browsing around Pinterest the other day and it led me to this lovely French  eye makeup tutorial.  The instructions are in French, with cryptic English subtitles to help you get the gist of it — but the French directions are so much better.  And the look is rather natural, but more dramatic.  See what you think

As I’m moving toward better habits this year, choosing a good life, I’m re-embracing my love affair with France.  I was thrilled to find this lovely video series on YouTube.  Rachel Khoo does a wonderful job of french cooking in real life.  Watch and fall in love

I’m keeping up my commitment to the 10 minute tasks.  Today, I planted our Aerogardens — yes, that was a plural.  We have three Aerogardens — 3!

Once friends and family discover that you actually use your Aerogarden, they start offering and delivering their neglected and abandoned Aerogardens, leaving them on your back step like abandoned orphans of old.

We really DO use our Aerogardens.  (but don’t deliver any more to me — 3 is plenty for our little household).  We grow fresh herbs year round for the kitchen.  I snip and snip for our meals, even in the dead of winter, we have fresh, yummy flavors, thanks to our Aerogarden.

Then, around this time of year, I start our seedlings for the spring garden outside.  I start tomatoes and peppers, more herbs, lettuce, and flowers.  Gradually, I’ll transfer them to small pots and then outside into the garden they go.  I get a garden with strong plants ready for the growing season, without paying the nursery prices for young plants.

It takes a little time to prepare and plant the Aerogarden.  It has to be washed out thoroughly, a new filter cut to size and inserted, and the grow bulbs checked and replaced.  Then the seed pods are planted and inserted into the pod holders.  The tank is filled with water, the light stand adjusted, sprouting caps put in place — its the perfect 10 minute job.  At the end of 3 days, I’ve got all three Aerogardens planted and ready to grow.

My, oh my.  Sometimes the universe just comes together and God seems to speak to us that we are sooooo on the right path.

Recently I posted about my one word goal/focus for 2012.  My word — CHOOSE. Well, today, a friend emailed me this:

Don’t know where it came from (would happily give credit if I did).  But it seems that God really IS still speaking.  And today he spoke directly to me.

I told you how Rachael Anne over at Home Sanctuary inspired me to rewrite my own version of  One Two Buckle My Shoe…  well, I got going.  And when I get going, I’m a little like an Energizer Bunny (or some other really annoying toy that won’t stop).  I just keep going.

So I kept on thinking about nursery rhymes and how they might be useful tools for reminding myself about habits I’m trying to build for myself.

Here’s what I came up with:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.  – one meal a day — eat no fat.  A simple fat free meal, lots of whole grains, lean protein, yummy veggies.  No fat. Easy, right?

His wife could eat no lean. — one meal a day — eat no lean.  No that doesn’t mean that you should do the Atkins thing and eat bacon and cream cheese!!.  Just skip the meat.  No meat, not even lean meat.  Just lovely veggies, grains, maybe a tiny bit of fat at this meal.  Yum.

And so between the two of them — share.  Meals or treats that aren’t exactly on the diet plan — share them.  Then I’ll only consume half of the calories, right?

They licked the platter clean. — Do the dishes.  That means that you have to use real dishes so that you’ll have dishes to do.  No paper plates, take out boxes or eating off of paper towels.  I know you would NEVER even think of doing such a thing, but some of us have to be told.

What do you think?  Mother Goose does diet plans?  Think Dr. Oz might be interested?

Then I kept going (I warned you!).

Jack be nimble. Do some flexibility exercises every week.  Stretch, do some yoga.  Make yourself nimble and loose.  

Jack be quick.  Push yourself to do something speedy that will ramp up your cardio.  Run, jog, walk really fast, swim — get yourself all out of breath.

Jack jump over the candlestick.  Do something that puts some stress on your bones and makes them grow and get stronger.  You can jump over candlesticks and let your own body weight strengthen your bones, or you can lift some weight.  But strengthen those bones.

Okay, I’m done now.  (probably not, but I’m done for now).

A couple of days ago, Rachael Anne from Home Sanctuary posted her version of the nursery rhyme “One Two, Buckle My Shoe” for homemakers.  I love Rachael Anne’s blog and keep up with it daily.  She always inspires me.

This time, she inspired me to create my own version of “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” and to fiddle around with a few other nursery rhymes as well.  You can head over to Home Sanctuary to read Rachael Anne’s version — but here’s mine: (we know a variation on nursery rhyme itself, so mine changes quite a bit — sorry Rachael Anne).

One, two buckle my shoe — in our house this would mean picking up the shoes that have scattered themselves all over the floors of various rooms of the house.  I swear, they roam the house at night when we are sleeping and in the morning I waken to find them scattered where they froze when the light hit.  Really.  Truly.  That’s what happens.

Three, four, shut the door — walk around the house and close the cabinet doors, the closet doors.  You get the idea.  If it is open and it should be closed, close it.  Simply closing the cluttery areas in behind closed doors does wonders for how the house feels.

Five, six, pick up sticks — pick up the bits of clutter that are in danger of becoming the decor.  The books left on the coffee table, the make-up on the bathroom counter, and the clean, dry dishes on the kitchen counter.  Just pick up the clutter.

Seven, eight latch the gate — shut the garage door when we leave — keep it all looking nice and neat.

Nine, ten do it again — every single day until it becomes a habit.

One of the habits that I’m trying to build as a part of my focus on Choose this year is something I’m thinking of as 10 minute tasks.

There must be thousands of things in my home and work life that could be done in only 10 minutes — if only I choose to take the ten minutes and do them.  My life (and the lives of my family and co-workers) could be much more beautiful and easy if I choose to take just 10 little minutes to take care of some chores.  But somehow, I don’t naturally choose to take that time.  And so the small chores don’t get done.  And life just keeps happening.

It reminds of me of the adage my grandmother used to quote, “for want of nail, the shoe was lost”.  Something as small and insignificant as a nail can cause a whole series of troubles — and the shoe is destroyed and falls off the foot.  All because of a silly little nail.  You have to take care of the little things.

So, I’m consciously choosing to invest 10 minutes each day taking care of a small chore that will ultimately make everyone’s lives better.

I learned a terrific trick recently.  My Ipod has a sleep timer built into it.  I can set it to play some rocking music and then shut off after 10 minutes.  I work along to the music for just as long as it plays — and then I’m done!  It feels a little like musical chairs — for grown-ups.

So — today, my 10 minute task was to clean out the coupon file and throw away all of the old, out-dated inserts and make room for the new, useful ones.  Look what I accomplished in only 10 little minutes!

that's the discards in the recycling basket!

I’m loving the trend sweeping the internet right now — one word goals.

Setting goals is important if we’re really going to accomplish anything of importance or significance.  I’m always reminded of the adage

“If you aim at nothing, you’re bound to hit it!”

Having goals removes that.  It gives a focus, an aim.  It also provides a measuring stick to help us when we are stymied and feel as though we are not accomplishing anything at all.

At the same time, almost everyone I know has difficult setting and following through on long term goals.  Just think about everyone you’ve ever known and New Year’s Resolutions.  Hmmmmm??? We get all fired up with inspiration and wishful thinking when we set goals for the new year.  But we don’t set SMART goals.  We don’t set goals that are meaningful for us.

And then, we lose our focus, we drift away, our determination fades and wnaes.  And then next thing we know, we feel defeated and frustrated.  We give up.  We abandon our goals.

Enter the simplicity of the one word goal for the year.  Simple.  Clean.  Flexible.  Choose one word to define the focus for the year.  Elect one simple word to reflect the progress and growth that I make in 2012.

Getting my thinking down to just one word was the challenge.  I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t love stringing words together.  One word — not my style.  But one word it is.

So here is my one word goal for 2012:

Choose — that’s my word for 2012.

I want to choose rather than simply allow things to happen.

I want to choose what I eat and how I care for my body, not simply live with the results of choice-less, mindless actions.

I want to choose how I allocate my time and my energy, not rush around putting out fires.

I want to choose to enjoy, to embrace, to live in the moment or to move on to another moment that I prefer.

I want to be intentional — I want to choose.

Remember the reason for the season.  Yes, I know that has become a rather trite phrase and one filled with politics and divisiveness.  But do it anyway.  This day we remember.  We celebrate because a tiny baby was born; born under horrendous conditions.  And he was wrapped in rags.  We like to call them swaddling clothes because it sounds so much nicer, but Mary used the rags from the stable.  She laid him in a feed trough filled with hay.  Funny how when we take out the poetic language and tell the story in the raw human words we use every day, it loses its luster and polish.  It becomes a real love story.  Can you imagine our great, powerful God, watching his son through a messy birth and then watching that?  Rags and a feed trough?  Really?  This is love.  This is the reason we celebrate today.

And if you’re not a believer,  could I convince you to simply notice:  if we who are believers really believed in a God who would do such a thing – how wonderful might the word become?