Set-Backs and Forward Momentum

I managed to put myself back in the hospital. I am so talented. However, a few x-rays, a few days of NPO, tons of blood work, and being able to tolerate clear liquids, got me home again.

Tonight we light the fourth candle on our menorahs. I had this whole post about bringing light into the world and peace on Earth and all sorts of stuff like that planned out in my head. I have managed to misplace it somewhere in the recesses of my brain. Alas and alack.

In any case, may the season bring joy, peace and love to you and your family.

Yakira

Good Things

I am home from the hospital and doing well.

Surgery was successful in removing All The Things from my abdomen. According to my doctor, aside from my weight, I am in good health.

A few things that occurred to me at 5:00am while debating whether or not to wake Larry to bring me pain meds:

1. Crying, like laughing and farting, uses abdominal muscles.
2. When one cries with a sore abdomen one sounds like a beached whale.
3. When one laughs with a sore abdomen one sounds like a beached whale.
4. I never looked at pooping as an all encompassing life goal before.
5. Getting your panties in a twist is not as fun as it sounds and harder to fix when you can't lift your butt.
6. Life is good.
7. I have amazing friends and family.
8. I am looking forward to the coming year.

I have also been working on making other lists, project wise. I have some ideas on where I want to start in the next few weeks. I will write on that later this week as I improve in my ability to sit up for longer periods of time.

Yakira

Year of finishing stuff

I posted this on G+ yesterday:

The Great Finishing Things Journey

In the personal reflection that is happening as I face major surgery next week I realized that I've left a lot of things unfinished. Now this is not meant to be morbid bucket list or a lamenting pile of regrets. It's simply a reminder for me to shit or get off the pot.

I start a lot of projects. I do a lot of planning. I get caught up in the 'oh shiny'. One of the things I've always admired in some people is their ability to finish things. Don't get me wrong, I do finish things, just not as many things as I start. You know, I do the one step forward, two steps back. Cha, cha, cha.

I'm a great project manager. I know how to plan, delegate, motivate; I just have a hard time doing it for/to myself.

I took inventory of uncompleted projects, I've already deleted ones that I will never finish, won't use, are no longer relevant, etc.

Knitting projects-25
Spinning projects-5
Sewing projects-8
Cleaning/decluttering projects-4
Writing projects-10

My goal is to change my Cha, cha to two steps forward, one step back. For every project I want to start I must eliminate two, by either finishing it or deleting/removing it. 

I haven't decided if I'm going to blog this journey or talk about it here. Any suggestions?

What do you use to motivate yourself to finish things? How do you push through the tedious part of projects? Are you secretly envious of folks who finish things too?


I got a few nice replies a some great suggestions. I spent the evening thinking about it more and what I really wanted to achieve. I ended up coming up with a few things that I don't want to happen.


I don't want to loose my creativity. In other words I don't want to be so stifled with schedules and 'must do's' that I loose the free-form thinking and doing that I love.


I don't want to spend my time griping about my family who seem to undermine all my efforts at cleaning and decluttering, and getting stuff done. They don't get things dirty or not put things away simply to piss me off and their demands on my time are legitimate and deserved most of the time.


So what do I want?


I want peace. I want accomplishment. I want beauty. I want love.


I desire to work towards a life rich with these things.


I am going to start to put my projects together with goals, task lists and time lines. Hopefully I'll be able to do that part while I'm on restricted movement during my recovery. 


I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, ideas. I'm over at G+ as Yakira Heistand. I hope to have an ongoing discussion about simplifying one's life here and over there.


"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."  Ralph Waldo Emerson


Yakira

Lots of Goings On

Haven't written in a while, been busy living life. Kinda.

I figure with NaNoWriMo coming up that I ought to do more writing.

There's a lot going on around here. Good and not so good. I'm not going to try to do a recap of the past year. I'm just going to jump in and start writing.

Of course I always choose to do these things when I should be doing something else. So while I go make dinner take a look at our new Etsy store. The link is at the top of the page.

Yakira

Criminal Vegetables

A very good friend of mine from Israel with whom I lost touch is going to court because of a vegetable garden. As a homeschooling mother our vegetable garden was the basis for our Earth Science studies. I'm just totally speechless. I'll probably wax eloquent later when I can digest the absurdity of it all.

Here's a link to her blog: Oak Park Hates Veggies

Here's a link to a local news station: Oak Park battles city over vegetable garden

Yakira

More Yarn Porn!

Two more glorious skeins so show off!

Spunky Eclectic, Eclectic Jam on BFL/Silk, 3oz, N-ply, 12-14 WPI, 240 yards, 35 gram top whorl spindle. It's by far the best spinning I've done to date.


Spunky Eclectic, Retreat on Domestic Wool Blend, 4oz, attempt at 'rustic' thick and thin spinning, 9 WPI, 240 yards, 1.5oz bottom whorl spindle. It's so hard to go back to uneven drafting after trying for a year to get my yarns nice, even and consistent. It's like trying to color outside the lines. It was a fantastically quick spin though, instant gratification at its best. It's chunky, floofy and oh so squishable.




My next project is to build a light box so I can get more consistent lighting for my photographs.

More fibery goodness coming soon!

Happy Pi Day!

I count Pi Day as the anniversary of my aspinneration. One year ago today I posted this yarn:



I went on to spin this:



And I spun several more lovely yarns learning about twist and plying. And I spun my first plied yarn:



And my second plied yarn:



And then I just HAD to knit with my own handspun:




And, of course, I had to design something specifically for handspun:



And finally, today's Pi Day presentation: