Courtesy of my daughter. Thanks! She was going for a walk with Maggie, her dog. They saw a Family of Four Foxes.
She only captured the one. Isn’t he/she cute?
Gratefully, I’m making strides on many levels. German is coming along. I’ve added more languages. I think 12 now. I doubt I will ever be conversant in most of them. But with two grandmothers who died from Alzheimer’s, I’m trying to keep my brain learning new things. LOTS OF NEW THINGS.
And I work both sides as much as I can. I have never been a left brained person so I do the Sudoku. I’ve nearly finished a whole book. I play math games.
Not quite this hard. Cross Math and Number Crush.
Music uses both sides, both hands. And that’s moving along, too.
Gradually the diamond paintings are coming along. I think these are mostly right-brained. The beach scene and the lighthouse cause my brain to relax and stay organized.
If you tap on the picture you can enlarge and see that I’m nearly finished.
This one is small. That is the only good thing. The glue is inconsistent, the symbols are hard to decipher. The drills are irregular. Still, both keep my hands busy.
One more thing I’m grateful for is
Gentle love and long adoring purring sessions between. Rosey and her favorite person. Grins and gratitude.
I’ve added Chinese to my Duolingo lineup. I highly recommend this show. Not a movie but a series. My husband and I couldn’t stop the binge.
I’m trying to find a way to put my biggest guilt trips here. The end of the month is looming. Two goals haven’t even been touched. I haven’t edited anything. Nor have I worked on my read-alouds or podcast. Finding privacy and time seems the biggest issue. Nor have I touched the real piano. Boo! Next month is Camp NaNo. I have no idea what I’m doing. And so I’m Muddling my mind.
These may be finished tomorrow as they will be shorty socks. I’m not excited about the color nor that they are cotton but I think their new feet will like them.
I share my little accomplishments because I have been discouraged in the past feeling less than or that I couldn’t learn or my blurry eyes or hurtie fingers messed with my feelings of success of any kind.
What I’m learning seems insignificant, even to me. But when I look at tiny new things I can do, the little things add up to something huge. I’m so grateful for these lessons and processes.
I can now spend 40 minutes on the stationary bike, 10-20 reps door push-ups, floor/ceiling touches.
My fingers stretch more for the tenor recorder, almost full range now.
I dreamed of playing When the Saints Go Marching In as the chord changes are becoming smoother. And it doesn’t hurt anymore. Can you believe it?
People, including me, believe a person can’t learn and grow in their 70s and older but I’m learning to see it differently. I don’t think I ever had the freedom to learn this way. To play, enjoy all the little things.
A part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “signa…” Find a word that starts with “signa” and use it in your post. Enjoy!
There, I found my favorite signage.
Sadly, I’m at a standstill on today’s fun. I need to study the YouTube about the Fishlip heel. It isn’t easy to know which tutorial will get the results I need. I’ll share when I know which to choose. The author of the pattern is very restrictive with her pattern. And I totally get it. She worked hard on her baby and deserves credit. Soxtherapy is her tag. My problem is trying to just use her heel part and not the rest of the sock.
Much looks the same as last time. But you want to know what I’m learning as I go? All attempts get me closer to not. Not a baby beginner. Not a total loser. And if I take a moment and look back I find more proficiency. Faster, not so lost. Progress. And it’s not linear. There are times I pick up the recorder and find that somehow God put holes in my fingers. Air is escaping, somewhere.
Sometimes I get the chord progression of these simple songs. But if I don’t, I only have to remember a month ago. I could tune my uke. Now I can sing little songs and not look as I move from F to G7 to C to C7 and more, and I know without looking at my hand that I did it.
I can remember being 12 and learning to crochet and knit. How I got so frustrated when I had to rip it out.
Now I look forward to trying again. The thing that makes these hobbies frustrating is placing time constraints or perfection goals.
I may not be producing the way society deems worthy, but I’m 74 and enjoying my life. Learning is my fun. Seeing changes in abilities, even as I’m told growth can’t happen anymore, THAT is the fun.
I am keeping my goal on the stationary bike and other exercises. And I see tiny improvements.
My only disappointment in me is trying to find my way to the reading aloud/editing goal. But I’ll figure it out.
Here’s the pics of progress.
I rarely finish a crossword puzzle book but I threw this full one away and am looking for another. The other thing I rarely finish is a bottle of hand lotion. It usually goes bad before I’ve used it all.
These balls are to crochet a strap for my uke. I’m following Bernadette’s YouTube
I’ve only added a couple rows since I posted these. But only 2 inches until the heel. I’m planning to try the Fishlip heel. I bought the pattern. You can Google where to get it. I’ll include it when I find out it works for me.
Only a couple more rows added here, too. I can’t get hyper-focused on the thinner yarns and needles. They can hurt my hands or eyes.
I’m loving this beautiful bird. Can you see how much more color lights up this picture with each section of drills?
Not as happy with this one. It is tiny and the colors are not so vibrant.
I feel good about developing discipline. Why is it only now growing?
I have the lighthouse project and a lightpad in it near my chair.
It was nice that this little picture came with a separate key to the symbols.It came with little baggies, pen, tray and wax, and tweezers.I set up my containers. The picture is in that little cylinder.
I started today. I’m not very adapted to working like this. The symbols are harder to work with than numbers and letters. I forgot to take a picture as I ran out of energy. Just know the picture is about two hands’width and one hand in height. So, tiny. It may be fast or a pain. We’ll see. So far the top right of the sky has happened.
Tomorrow I’ll straighten and seal the sea turtles. It is easier to work at the dedicated table than my recliner, so far. I know there are a lot of people who work from their beds. I find myself floundering around trying to keep neat and tidy. I don’t like scattering drills, that’s what the diamonds are called.
ADD means many projects. Keeping those separate and easy to get to is a struggle. ALWAYS!
This was a hard day. So tired I barely got anything done. But a tiny bit of progress happened. After a bit of floundering and getting nothing else done, I took a nap.
A pair of short slipper socks. They need more ankle then ribbing. I am incorporating the arch of the foot ribbing from the no-show sock pattern. I like how it feels on my foot so I hope the recipient will like it, too.
I mentioned the tray set I use for pictures with confetti of colors. I put a little label in each one if I feel I might get mixed up.
This little tool is great for straightening the diamonds as I go.
When there are large amounts of color I have these larger trays with lids making shaking the drills a bit neater. And you can save for later that way.
See the top line? That’s what I got done today. Reaching up that long did hurt after a bit. So that’s all I could finish.
I’m having trouble with the sun catchers. I’m not sure how to make the strings of sparkles to chain on them. I’m too tired to work with it this evening. I’m watching YouTubes to see if others know how to do the jewelry parts.
How is it already Sunday, almost Monday? The weekends seem to affect me now as much as they did when I was working. Back then, the time that was my own was filled with all the things to get ready for the work week and take care of the house. Now it’s just a rhythm change. Chris and I watch sci-fi, fantasy, or disaster movies. Just kind of like our date time. Today we watched Daybreak on, um, I think it was Hulu. It was pretty good to be so old.
Before we found a good show to settle on, we were watching vet shows and Sunday Morning and UU, where they celebrated Mardi Gras.
I got a bit more of the Sea Turtle done. (Just the back leg and tail).
The backlighting seems to show all the wavering lines. Guess I need to hit it with the straight edge to straighten it out. What’s funny is that that little tail bit took longer than the sea parts. I think I am not used to the confetti coloring and need to get more efficient with my trays. I’ll share that later. I think this is going to be pretty when finished with all the colors.
Time to do the recorder. Then scales on the keyboard. I do think all this floundering is making progress. But it is slow, for sure. By the way, I took a few moments while the computer wi-fi loaded that sea turtle picture, to practice chord changes and You Are My Sunshine on the uke.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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