Time to Stop

As is typical of our Saturday mornings, it was very very quiet at The Happy Abode. It's almost enough to just stay at home, but we DID get a lot of 'behind the scenes' work done, so we feel like we achieved something.

I only have one day off and my brain has a million things spinning around trying to prioritise. This is some of what I want to do ...

• Get out with my camera for some photography practice
• Edit some photos
• Cook - like - for hours in the kitchen, because I have a LOT of recipes to try
• Clear off the dining room table ... again
• Get my washing up-to-date
• Clear all of the spare bedrooms (or should I say 'junk rooms')
• Tidy my dressing table
• Wash the windows
• Clean the bathrooms
• Swim in the pool
• Stay in bed all day
• Do some study
• Read books
• Watch DVDs
• Cull my emails
• Design my online course
• Add more to my book
• Play my guitar
• Go to the movies
• Go out for lunch
• Write up a new post for my website
• Update the statuses on all of the social media accounts that I have, including Instagram, which has been totally neglected for almost 18 months

What to choose ... what to choose.

It's well after 11pm and if I don't get to sleep now, I will be tired tomorrow and just stay in bed all day  - where I can actually do some of the stuff on my list, like read, study, edit photos, add more to my book and design my course, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I'm really tired. Still suffering withdrawals while my body adjusts to no potato, bread, sugar, dairy and only drinking one small coffee per day. It's day 5 and I'm guessing I'll struggle for another week or two but it will be worth it.

So I'm off now.

Nite all.

Fabulous Friday

It was a busy day in the shop, not just with sales, but with all the other stuff that The Motivator and I were trying to do - still playing the numbers game and searching for missing links - feels like it's never ending! But when it's all done, our minds will be lighter - especially The Motivator's, because she's working bloody hard to get it right.

Adoring Husband was kind enough to come and close up the shop by bringing all our paraphernalia inside, pulling the blinds and changing the sign, while the two of us finished up and packed our gear to leave.

I was home by 3.30pm so I sat down for 30 minutes before getting ready for the club.

I had some luck on the pokies and quite a few at our table had wins in the 'lots of pots' draw and the raffle, so we all left feeling happy.

There were not quite so many people at the club tonight, so the noise level was much lower than it has been over the past few weeks. Much nicer for me.

AH had prepared some chicken wings for dinner and I had some lychees for dessert.

He had spent the day trimming the Lilly-Pilly trees that grow along the fence line at one side of the house, so he was exhausted and went to bed early.

I sent the psychotic dogs to bed and then phoned Vegan Chickie, who had messaged me earlier in the day to chat, but I was at work. We chatted for about 45 minutes - well SHE chatted for about 45 mins but her stories were hilarious and by the time I hung up, my cheeks were sore from laughing and smiling so much.

It's now approaching 11pm but it feels like midnight or later, so I'm off to bed because I'm working again tomorrow.

I got a giggle out of this ...

Nite all.

Togetherness

The Motivator and I shared some togetherness today - that is, we were both working in the shop at the same time.

Unheard of!

The Motivator, in between a few customers, spent the entire day doing bookwork, matching invoices, checking totals and bank statements and generally hurting her brain.

I paid some bills, served customers, packed up the Christmas baubles, cleaned out my desk drawers, 'attempted' to clear my desk, photocopied receipts and filed them, did some searching for The Motivator and gathered bags of stuff to take home. Stuff that I've had at the shop taking up precious space and never used. Now I have the precious space.

We both left the shop late and I arrived home at 4.45pm.

I went straight to the kitchen and began preparing dinner.

I've had some ox tail in the fridge for a few days, so that HAD to be cooked today. I dragged out the slow cooker and threw a heap of vegetables and stock in with the oxtail. I'll have to package that up before I sleep.

For dinner, I char grilled pumpkin, beetroot, carrot, onion, capsicum and zucchini. I lay them on a bed of baby spinach which had scattered sun-dried tomatoes with it and sprinkled them with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. That was accompanied with duck breast.

Very nice I must say.

For dessert we had a bowl of watermelon slices.

I didn't eat anything all day, so I was starving and I ate so much, I was in physical pain! I climbed into bed before 7.30pm and 90 minutes later I still feel very uncomfortable, so I'm making this post short and sweet so that I can sleep it off.

In future, I shall practice some self control and only eat until I'm satisfied!

Time to package my oxtail.

Nite all.

Improving Health

Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay today to restock on foods that suit the Paleo lifestyle.

The initial expense is always quite high, but once the pantry is stocked, eating this way is not expensive and the health benefits show why it's value for money.

End of Day 2 and my body is already beginning to feel the withdrawals from sugar, carbs and coffee. I haven't quit coffee yet, but am attempting to wean myself off it slowly. I was up to three cups per day and I hope to put off my first cup as late as possible every day until I can go without altogether.

We stocked up at Go Natural, Nana's Pantry and the supermarket. I also bought a new top and two pairs of 3/4 pants - navy and white (of course) and I bought a day book at Officeworks.

It was crazy busy in The Bay and we couldn't wait to get out of there. It took us 4 hours from when we drove 'out' of our driveway to when we drove back 'in' our driveway.

It took forever to unpack everything because I had to cull the 'no longer on the menu' food and the 'out of date' food from the pantry to make room for the new stuff. It was after 3pm when I whipped together a quick lunch - lucky I did because it was trivia night at the club, so that sustenance tided us over and our brains functioned kinda sorta a little bit.

I believe we came third out of 14 teams tonight, which is much better than we've done for some time, so it's a good start to 2019.

AH rushed home to watch the season final show of Dr Who, but fell asleep in the chair before it finished ... he is still there now!

It's also well after 11pm so I'm off to bed because I have to work tomorrow.

Nite all.

  

First of the First

There are simply not enough hours in every day to do 'all the things'.

I want to read The Gypsy's books ... I've had them for almost a year, but sometimes I start to read them and then get interrupted and obviously never get back to them. There is always something else more important that needs to be done like ...

Continuing the business/manifesting course that I started, but I never seem to have a long enough block of time to get into it properly and there is always something else that needs to be done like ...

Writing up a new post for my website. It's been so long since I worked on it, I've forgotten how to do it and I know I need a couple of hours to sit down peacefully and totally focus on learning how to do it all over again.  There is always something more important to do like ...

Maintaining the Facebook pages for 'The Happy Abode', 'Romance Your Life with Roz' and 'Images by Roz G'. I have neglected two of those pages because there is always something more important to do like ...

Writing up the new advertisement for The Happy Abode, to go into the local newsletter. There is always something new happening in the shop, so each ad has to have changes made to it which means lots of edits. It's mostly done at the very last minute because there is always something more important to do like ...

Adding to my active journals such as

• New ideas for blog posts
• Finding affiliates for the Romance Your Life website
• New questions for the 'all about me' book
• Recipes for the Romance Your Life website
• Additions to the 'Beginners Guide to Finding Your Happy' book
• My gratitude journal
• Ideas for online courses
• Reviews of new products to put on the Romance Your Life website
• Updating the list of suppliers for The Happy Abode 
• Photography challenges for the photography groups
• Workshop ideas for The Happy Abode
• Health plan
• Food Diary
• Book ideas

and the list goes on, but there is always something more important to do like ...

Watching my large supply of educational dvds on medicine, nutrition, vaccinations, health, conspiracy theories proven true etc etc. They are still sealed in their packs because there is always something more important to do like ...

Cooking bulk meals to freeze so that I don't have to cook every afternoon when I get home from work, but I can't do that until I do something more important like ...

Cleaning out the fridge and the pantry which I'm pretty sure that NOBODY does often enough. There is always food in the fridge that shouldn't be eaten lest we die!! Especially in my house, but there is always something more important to do like ...

The washing, ironing, vacuuming, sweeping, bathrooms, toilets, dusting, windows, dog grooming, decluttering wardrobes, cleaning out the junk room, filing the paperwork, tidying and clearing, but one procrastinates over these things because they are not at all fun and there is always something more important to do like ...

Sitting with Adoring Husband to watch meaningless, mindless TV that stops us from having meaningful conversations, but there is even something more important than that to do like ...

Looking up recipes and writing out shopping lists for our return to the Paleo Way lifestyle and there are only two things more important than that like ...

Swimming in the pool or writing a blog post!

It's exhausting just thinking about all the things that never get done, but it's nice to know that the choice is mine to do the things that I love the most and the rest of it really doesn't matter - it will still be there tomorrow if I choose to do any of it!

If and when I choose to do them, I will do them with ease!

Today, I did some washing, emptied the bad food out of the fridge, made a paleo coleslaw, a salsa, a roasted pumpkin and spinach salad, crispy skinned chicken, celery juice and avocado ranch dressing. I selected some recipes from my paleo books and made a shopping list for tomorrow. I posted on two of the Facebook pages, watched some meaningless TV, swam in the pool and did this blog post!

There are simply not enough hours in the day to do 'all the things'.

Nite all.

Next Year

A great day at the shop.

A quiet afternoon at home.

While we had every intention of making an appearance at the Street party behind us, in the end it all seemed like too much effort and instead we spent an hour in the pool drinking a beverage or two, listening to some danceable music (I danced in the water) and after we dried off, we watched a Doris Day movie.

I created and posted this on Facebook ...

My biggest plan for New Years Day is clearing out the pantry and fridge - a clean start to the year - followed by a trip into The Bay to visit my favourite shop, Office Works.

It's almost midnight so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Sensational Sunday

The Motivator opened the doors at The Happy Abode for half a day and had quite a few customers but considering how many people were on the main street and how many cars were parked on the road, filling all the car spaces, not many of them visited the shop.

I on the other hand, spent most of the day in bed. I read almost the entire year of my blog posts.

Adoring Husband brought me coffee and food and I totally relaxed and chilled and enjoyed my Sunday.

At 3pm I changed into my bathers and went for a swim. The Motivator joined me at about 3.30pm and we spent about 90 minutes lolling in the pool, chatting and floating and planning our new healthful start to 2019.

She left just after 5pm and I dried myself off and began making dinner. I fried up some zucchini and carrot fritters and made a mushroom sauce to go on the steak that AH cooked on the barbecue.

We ate the last of our boysenberry ice-cream vowing to wipe it from our shopping list as we aim for a healthier lifestyle next year.

I've selected my word for 2019 ...

"Ease"

I plan on accomplishing all of my goals with ease, to receive everything that I hope for with ease and to live a life of ease that will result in my quiet happiness and contentment.

Reflecting on my 2018 ...

1. I began regularly attending the weekly meditation classes at The Happy Abode and now practice daily meditation at home. The benefits have been life changing.

2. I designed and created a photography workshop and successfully ran four workshops during the year.

3. Attended the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney with Tracey for the third year in a row and busted the budget!

4. Karen and Owen Appleby survived a horrific car accident and eventually returned home to us, a bit the worse for wear, but still alive and kicking!

5. Completed about 60% of DDT's Business/Manifesting bootcamp course (still a work in progress).

6. I've lost count of how many photos I've sold this year, but it's a lot, including large framed images. Every sale still gives me a thrill!

7. We had Juniper for three and a half weeks in May which was both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time! Taking her to hold a live alligator was the highlight.

8. My son, Brad, came to visit us for 5 days - short but sweet.

9. I attended and photographed Melbourne's wedding of the year.

10. I created a calendar of my photographs and printed 50 copies in the first week of December. They have almost sold out!

11. The pool!! The beautiful pool!! Still a work in progress but at least we are enjoying swimming in the cool magnesium filtered water on a daily basis.

12. On Christmas Eve, we broke The Happy Abode daily sales record!!

The year wasn't quite as full as 2017 but it was pretty amazing anyway and a nice one to look back over. - hence my reading a year of blog posts!

Anyway I'm working tomorrow and it's 11.30pm so it's off to bed for me.

Nite all.