Skip to main content

The Turtle Game

I'm starting to seriously slow down with just about everything I do, and not by choice. Writing now takes most of the day just to reach quota (I've been trying to go back to my one-session method, which is not working.) It's all I can do to get my housework finished each week. Meals seem to take forever to prepare. All the quilting and art projects I want to do are piling up; finishing one seems to take all the time in which I used to complete three or four.

I suspect it's my age, and like everything about this time of my life I need to accept it. Since my spirit animal is a cheetah, this is going to take some doing.

Slow stitch has helped me appreciate the journey more than the results, so I've got a bit of a jump on slowing down. I can go back to my two session method for work. Housework is always going to be unfinished, and I know I need to devote a little more time to it. I'm already looking for simpler and quick-fix dinner recipes (found some good ones, too.)

Finally I need to stop trying to do so many projects. I have my calendar mood blanket to crochet, and I'm really trying to finish hand-quilting the crazy double wedding ring quilt while I still can, so those are two daily projects. Instead of trying to do other projects at the same time I need to take more breaks from the quilt (the mood blanket only takes about 15 minutes.)

Another thing I can adjust is my expectations of myself. They haven't aged gracefully at all along with me; I'm constantly making demands of myself I'm no longer young enough to handle. Then when I fail to meet them I hate myself for being old. That's definitely not the right attitude. I need to be more grateful for what I can still do at this time of life.

I've been working out my feelings in my personal hand-written journal every night, and reminders to be kinder to myself seem to help. So does celebrating my little victories. Ageing isn't much fun, but it doesn't have to be all bad.

Labels:

Comments

Maria Zannini said…
I hear ya! It's frustrating and annoying. I never used to take breaks when I work, now I have to.

March 11, 2024 at 5:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more