I’m finding myself at loose ends. Yet editing happened in the morning. One hour of Christmas pianoing happened. I finished the balloon diamond painting. Duolingo gave me ad-free time so I spent a lot of time on French, Spanish, and German.
Did NaNo drive me so hard? maybe knitting will settle me down.
Or should I aim to keep writing like a mad person?
Upper left purple striped socks. Just the toes. Straight down are the watermelon socks. Well into the arch ribbing. Middle row, top, lavender/pink socks, also to arch ribbing. Can barely see the white yoga socks in the middle but one sock is nearing the heel cast-off. I hate working a sock at a time. One sock syndrome is real. The bottom is new yarn from my son. I couldn’t wait to see what happens with this blue and white yarn. Upper right is the lonely yarn from my daughter. I will receive the new needles for this pair on Monday. They will be so cool!
While my daughter was here she bought black and white yarn skeins to teach herself colorwork. It looked like fun. So I pulled out contrasting colors to see if I could do it. Hey, this is fun. Now I need to try this on socks! And cabling. So I’m going to experiment on the pairs I’ve started.
My possible future young adult granddaughter had on a white sweater that inspired me. I printed up this pattern from Ravelry. But that much yarn will cost a fortune! And I’ll need needles. I like working in the round so I hope to get really long cables.
Does anyone else get like this? I want to try so many things?
Middle part in progress.
Printouts to practice from my 60s book.
One of my favorite composers. I have three volumes of his work . I’m sight-reading through these next.
Love this one. Ready to print it out and learn.
My brother found this for me. Now I need to look for John Denver songbooks
Yeah, moving right along. Italian is still my favorite.
I loved my week with loved ones and traveling. But I’m finding my equilibrium and energy levels blown to pieces. Bike and treadmill shame me this week. The weather is getting colder, less stable. I’m so glad my family members are safe and we can face the bad stuff from our homes.
Not to mention NaNo prep and character development is far from my focus right now
I’ll find my way back while teaching myself new passion.
Here is where I keep myself accountable to me for progress on projects of my passions. But yesterday I got behind and then ahead on this episode.
Sometimes I feel I make other people feel inferior through my checklist. Please don’t. I feel inferior to everyone else in that I’m sure they’re getting other stuff done that they don’t even need to report because they are so good at getting their adulting jobs done that I feel guilty not getting done or just overlook, like dishes and shampooing. The same 24 hours is all we get and we make choices of what we can do. What we need to do. And what we can’t wait to do, leaving other necessities hanging with futile hopes.
And since this blog is attached to ‘Warts and All’ I’ll start with what hasn’t gotten done. My husband asked me today why I haven’t been playing the uke, recorder, or violin. Well, I thank Mrs. Skinner for this sidetrack path straightener.
When I got sick of practicing piano and ready to quit lessons, she came up with this bait and switch. Forced practice came from Mom. But I adore my teacher. She sent me home with her ukulele. It helped so much in bringing me back to the piano.
So in hopes of keeping my music alive I tried the recorders and strings. And sure enough it worked.
When my dad was in the rest home over a decade ago, the lady in the room next to his played her piano all the time. I decided I wanted to grow up to be her, or Huge Lauri of House fame. He would sit down and just play, no sheet music just music.
I’ve been stuck with eye music since I was 5 years old. My goal this time is to learn to improvise and play. Still, there is so much to learn to get to that stage of free-playing. The other instruments help with learning chords and meandering melodies. And a change of positions. So I need to get back to them sometimes.
Shiloh sleeps waiting for me.
Shiloh makes it hard to skip piano. So I’ll need to plug in other musical play elsewhere in my day.
Scrap socks 1 Milo refuses to look.
Scrap socks 2
Watermelon socks
Blue boho socks. Not much progress for research booklets.
Duo still rides my stationary bike managing a few lessons for the half-hour 4-5 miles on #3 grade. So… There’s that.
When you love languages and take 11 or more on Duolingo, there will be a jumble of problems.
Sure, vocabulary can be tough, but the worst, for me, is sentence structure. I finally understand the adjective follows the noun in Spanish, Italian, French, and other romantic languages, but, German! Back in English order, but verbs get split up and land oddly to my eyes.
And then there are weeks when my brain just wants to deal with one language exclusively. Then I get hungry for as many languages as possible.
Italian has been my go to for a while. It seems easiest right now. I wish I could live in Italy for a year and absorb the words, culture, food, life.
Suddenly, today, I missed German. It makes a lot of sense, then the sentence jumble makes me miss every question. I can’t afford SuperDuo, so if I’m on a roll I have to watch, and listen to stupid ads just to regain the chance at the lesson. For those with learning disabilities like ADHD this makes retaining the new skill nearly impossible. Since languages are part of my passion skill, I put up with it. But this is proof of how those with money can learn and those without…
My newest sea turtle diamond painting is nearly 1/3 done.
I haven’t done but a row or two on my watermelon socks. Still not up to the arch ribbing.
See the yellow marker? I was ribbing along while chatting and oopsed. So now I have to tink back a couple rows. Darn!
My hands were longing for larger needles. So I started on scrappy socks. See how much faster the larger needles and yarn move along? Already to the arch ribbing. Turkish cast-on, 8, increase toe to 16. Then knit until arch. Then knit, purl until time for Fleegle Heel.
My son told me I would love the Skyrim Theme. He’s right. There are a lot of YouTubes to hear it for now. Soon I’ll do a Warts and All with all I’m working on.
My favorite song, played often on Grey’s Anatomy, Chasing Cars. Every time I hear it I cry. I don’t know why exactly. Now I’m enjoying learning how to play and sing it. Next to that song, is God Bless The Child. The closest to ready of all. It is so much fun to play.
I’m starting to relent and do scales and exercises, hence Hanon’s 1st exercise. Almost polished Ash Grove. Still working Con Te Partiro, another favorite.
And for my constant audience member in my Dabbling Den, Shilo for Shiloh. It’s coming along. I seem to be learning more about improv on this one. Daylight is HARD so I’m taking a measure or two at a time. And I’m still loving Succession.
And Italian is my favorite on Duolingo keeping me going.
Just following my passions. Book reviews coming soon.
I’m still slowly coming around. I’m still doing little bits of everything. What I’m learning in my old age is how even little bits get the job done. What am I on some kind of race? Just with myself. I just need to be patient.
There are a couple rows I’ve added to these watermelon socks.
I’ve added several rows on this pair. I don’t know why I favor this pair over the watermelon but I’m nearly to the arch ribbing.
While we’re watching local news I use the stationary bike while working on Duolingo. It’s interesting how the exercise my legs helps my brain.
When I move to my Dabbling Den, Chris hops on the bike. He’s working very hard lately. He went from five minutes to 30 minutes for 5 miles (like I do). We are neck to neck in this gentle race.
I’m averaging about 45 minutes playing and learning improvisation. I try to do my vocal warmups before playing so that when I’m playing something fun I can sing along. These are some of my favs right now.
And Shiloh our black cat wants to make sure I include her song. That white and blue book? The journal I’ve been keeping up for piano and voice.
From around 10:30 Shiloh and Sammie gather in my Den. Shiloh will walk on the piano keys to let me know what I’m supposed to do. I’ve begun to call her ‘Mom’ as she gets insistent about my practice time. Sammie just sleeps in a little bed under my diamond painting table.
As you can see the sunset beach is nearly finished. Just a bit of sky. All the pinks are done. On to the blues.
This made me laugh. Milo is forever jumping and dancing about. He’s always making me laugh. And when he looks at me with his serious brown eyes, I can hear Morgan Freeman’s voice
Sunset beach diamond painting is nearly finished. Just a little piece of sky. (Why did I suddenly hear Yentl in my head?) And I sealed the smiling turtle. As soon as I can I will hang it in my bathroom.
My fingering weight socks are coming along. Not very fast as thin needles and skinny yarn take more caution, time, eye-strain, nimble fingers.Guess who got a new watch? I’m still learning my way around it. I haven’t figured out how to capture my stationary bike time, distance, or levels. But the work should get reflected in other health numbers.
My new air plants found pinecones for homes.
Some things like the bike are hard to show progress. But my feelings about the tasks should be the quantifiable attainment. The gold star sticker is the happy accomplished feeling.
I’ve been working on “Shilo” on the piano in honor of
Shiloh. She and Sammie find their places in Dar’s Dabbling Den at practice time. I like their company as I stumble through 4 or 5 pieces a day. Once I’m bored with a song it goes by the wayside. But sometimes a song challenges me to the point of playing itself in my sleep.
I keep a practice journal and some pieces shine with my own praise of how well it went, others I actually draw faces sticking out the tongue in raspberries. I keep promising another ‘warts and all’ session. Stagefright keeps stopping me. Soon.
Duolingo is still fun for me. I do it while on the bike as the 11AM local news plays. I think movement while learning helps.
Sorry. Bragging time. I rarely talk about Duolingo. I play with it every day. Some days I enjoy it so much I don’t want to stop. Others I barely make it through one five minutes. I have a lot of languages plus math and music. By the way, the music sucks! Some languages seem easy for me. But others are nearly impossible for me.
I have about six books to review, but my energy seems to want only a blanket and garbage rerunning TV. But thought I’d check in. My numbers here should be the same as Duolingo:
But one lesson there and I’m exhausted.
On the plus side, my husband is up and seems to have energy. So I look forward to that!
Besides finishing The End of Alzheimer’s (see previous post) these are things I’m working on this week.
I’m venturing off the sand and into the ocean!
Two more rows then, if I decide to, the arch hug.
Three more inches of ribbing to the heels.
Another ponytail holder nearly finished.
Starting the increases for the heel as of this row.
Yikes! Hard ones! Now I may have to peek at the answers!
Musically, I’m beginning to recognize The Dexter Theme. It has been hard as how it’s written is a little hard to interpret. After I get the basics I may rewrite it to the way I hear it on the show.
Succession, title song from the show. I didn’t much like the show, but I loved the music. I’ve finally played all the way to the end. It’s certainly not ready for anyone’s ears. Still it’s fun as I get to play the whole piano, less than an octave from either end. It’s cool!
Since the smoke causes my throat to hurt a bit I haven’t been playing the recorders, just in case it’s more than smoke irritation.
Enya, my ukulele, is getting easier. The B flat minor has been the toughie. But it sounded fine a couple times this week. I’m beginning to pay faster and smoother and having fun.
Violin! Whoa, what a challenge! I’ve barely gotten beyond tuning and putting resin on the bow. But I can finally say I’ve played Twinkle, Twinkle a few times now. My eyes get tired looking up the strings to my fingers. But I think that is good for my lazy eye and tracking issues. So I’ll take my time and learn.
I rarely report on my Duolingo, but it is such habit for me to pick up my phone and do a Duolingo 5 minutes here or there. In fact, it has joined me as I ride the stationary bike. It works when I’m just riding slowly but I have to put my phone down to get cardio.
Our weather is getting chilly. Though we get smoke from other places we’ve had huge rains lately that seem to help clear the air a bit. As of next Monday we will have a low in the upper 30s. I think we will welcome an early Fall.
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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