Wednesdays Just Aren't Working

Do Something Different

I have a great post I'm working on for you, and it will be here by tomorrow afternoon. I think it's inevitable that I'm going to have to start training myself (and you) to post (read) on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays. It's a new life here in California, and we have a whole different schedule. Wednesdays just aren't working for me. Thursdays will just have to be the new Wednesdays. Thanks for checking today. See you tomorrow.

~Angela'

P.S. As usual, the website from which I "borrowed" this photo has a great article that pertains to much of what I think and write about on here some of the time. Hope you enjoy it.

Inspired by Rest

Finding Joy in the Journey

I'm working on next week's post about mourning jewelry and the Grand Period of the Victorian Era. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know how things went this past week. I definitely rested from writing. I did work on my projects around the house, but progress is slow and steady. I have worked in both my office, the hall closets, and the kids' bedrooms. I am probably at about the halfway point with all three rooms, and that is both encouraging and discouraging.

I have stopped trying to make goals and have decided to simply allow myself the joy of the journey. I have thoroughly enjoyed sorting through pictures, abandoned craft projects, drawings done by my best friend and yours truly in high school, and baby memorabilia. There are so many projects waiting for another day, and I am more than happy to box them up in their own separate bins and allow them to wait until the time is right for their day of completion. Right now it feels as though things are actually worse than when I started, but when I realize how much I've separated, how much I've organized, and how few boxes are left, I must say that I've done a great job.

Joy in the Journey

There was another benefit from taking a break from writing. I have written all about it on my other blog, Brightness of Your Dawn. I hope you enjoy reading about the fruit of resting from my labors. I am excited to share the fruit with all of you in the coming weeks.

I will leave you with the best quote I've found so far in my research for next week's post:

"For the rest of her life she adhered, in the main, to what she felt Albert would have wanted—in her personal and moral life and in her political decisions. In so doing, she upheld the values of an Albertinian morality—the ethics of hard work, duty, civic pride, seriousness of purpose, and moral rectitude—that we now have come to call 'Victorian.'" ~Helen Rappaport

Please Stand By

A Short Sabbatical

Sabbatical

Hello faithful readers!

I am writing this week's post a little early, as starting tomorrow I am taking a short sabbatical from writing. First, I'd like to say thanks to all of you who thought of me and prayed for me this past week. I am sleeping!!! My daughter is still waking up once a night, but that's better than twice and I'm falling all the way asleep in between. I can't tell you how much of a difference it makes to actually be getting enough rest!

This brings me to why I'm taking a week off from writing. I have discovered in the past couple of years that I stink at multi-tasking. I am pretty sure I was really good at it at one point, or at least that's what I told myself and others. However, this skill has left the building. Perhaps my hard drive is just a little overloaded, and since I'm not real eager to perform any kind of memory dump I've decided that I need to just start concentrating on one thing at a time and giving it my full attention.

So this next week, I'm focusing on getting my home in order. We are down to the nitty gritty...the stuff that was shoved in the hall closet because it had no other designated place. My job this week is to sort through it all, get rid of what I don't need, and reorganize it so that it can be put logically back into the closet and so that I will never have to organize it again! This will probably take me a few more days, then I will be moving into the tornado aftermath that I'm calling my children's bedroom. It has been a bit of a free-for-all in there, and I'm going to be putting a swift and final end to that.

Sunset over Haifa

By the end of this next week, I expect my friend and I will have whipped the office and kids' bedrooms into shape, and my brain will finally be free to concentrate on writing again. I am so grateful for those of you who read my blog every week, even when I'm not writing about beautiful things like jewelry and queens of old. I am also grateful for those of you who stop by once in awhile to check in on me. I look forward to giving all of you my full attention two Wednesdays from now.

Until then, I wish for you (and me) focus, clarity of thought, direction, purpose, and the strength, joy, enthusiasm, and energy to pursue those things which most need your attention this week.

~Angela

P.S. I had an interesting revelation about the word sabbatical and its close relation to the word shabbat (sabbath). That makes all kinds of sense to me now!

Shabbat Candles

Still Settling In

Moving In

As many of you know, moving is a lot of work. Earlier this week I did some research on Queen Victoria as a writer. It was very common in the Victorian Era for people to have very fancy writing sets, and I thought it would be fun to focus on writing as a subject since it's something I'm very passionate about. I have done some of the research for that post, but sadly I haven't done enough to write a good post for you by tomorrow morning. That means you get to read more about me.

This week has been full of transitional business. Decorating and organizing work took a backseat this week to maintenance and phone calls...lots of phone calls. Sadly, our favorite Washington bank has no branches in California, so we opened a new account last week. Like many fine folks these days, we have several payments that come automatically out of our checking account each month. This is great, EXCEPT when you move and have to open a new account.

Phone Calls

I realized a couple of days ago that I just couldn't put off the phone calls any longer. With $34 left in our old account and no way to get funds in there before the 7th, which is when our car insurance autodraft comes out, I decided to take care of some business.

That one phone call turned into five phone calls, and after an entire morning I crossed a whole host of things off my list...new California auto insurance policy, my address and bank account information changed with all the companies that take their payments automatically, and a renewed sense of urgency about taking our driver's license test (which technically we should have done the first week we moved here...geesh!).

California Driver's License Test

I spent one whole afternoon reading the handbook and am happy to report that I am now the proud owner of a temporary California driver's license. I'm excited, and my husband is feeling the weight of a huge commitment...neither of us have ever been licensed outside of Washington State. I'm so relieved that it's all out of the way. We are well on our way to officially moving out of transition, though we're not in the clear just yet.

Added to the list of things to take care of, I've also discovered why I haven't been sleeping well. Ever since we moved in, I've been waking up at least three or four times a night. At first I thought it must be the trains, which do go by and honk very loudly several times throughout the night, but there wasn't always a train when I was waking up. Next, I thought maybe it was because I was too hot. I started opening the window before I went to bed and turning on the fan. Though that has helped tremendously with the amount of time it takes me to fall back to sleep, I'm still waking up several times a night.

Finally, a few nights ago, I figured it out. Strange noises. I know...it's like I'm six again. It makes all kinds of sense, though, since the way I'm waking up is very strange. I know I'm falling asleep...nearly into deep sleep for sure...and suddenly I'm wide awake and my legs are all twitchy and restless. For several nights I was just laying there perplexed, waiting sometimes for over an hour for my body to relax and fall asleep again. I'd take Advil, get a drink of water, and then just lie there trying to go back to sleep.

Insomnia

A couple of nights ago, I decided not to wait it out in bed. I got up and went to the couch to read and write in my journal until I felt sleepy again. I had been sitting there for less than ten minutes when I heard a strange noise that made my heart jump into my throat. It was my cell phone, on vibrate, in a wicker side table drawer, with its batteries dying. What a creepy sound it was. Now, that hasn't been happening every night, but it was that noise that alerted me to how terribly jumpy I was, and the mystery was solved. I found my culprit....adrenaline.

Yep, though consciously I feel super safe here and I'm super excited about our new adventure, at night my animal instincts kick in and alert me to every strange noise (which is every noise right now). With these strange noises, my adrenals shoot me a shot of adrenaline, waking me up fully alert with legs twitching. I'm not sure what the solution to this problem is, but it seems to have helped the last couple of nights just to know what's going on. I'm really hoping that I start getting used to all the noises very soon. Good sleep would be really nice right now!

Anyway, now you know what I've been up to once again. I've resigned myself to maintaining the focus of these posts on the house and the settling in for the next couple of weeks until the whole house is finished. I hope you'll hang in there with me through this transition.

Until next Wednesday, I wish for you to be filled with hope for your future, joy in the moment, and peace with your past.

~Angela