A Thursday Roundup — Janet Szabo

I attacked DD#2’s bedroom yesterday and got the bed taken apart and moved out. Along the way, I dusted, vacuumed, washed curtains, and rearranged the layout. I still need to move one more piece of furniture to storage and put up a shelving unit, but already I can tell that the workflow will be much more efficient. And if we ever need to put guests in that room, I can fold up the cutting table and put an air mattress down on the floor.

I wish I could be like those people with minimalist lifestyles. I can’t. I am not a hoarder, but I do like to have enough supplies on hand to do the things I want to do when I want to do them. And it seems that the minute I toss or donate something, I need it again. I’ve decided that the best I can do is to be as organized as possible and have everything sorted and labeled clearly. I’m also going to be better about not saving every tiny scrap of fabric. I’ll donate what is usable and won’t tie myself up in knots about putting smaller pieces in the trash.

Cleaning and organizing the upstairs rooms will be an ongoing project over the summer.

The potato seedlings are starting to come up:

I have a lot of work to do in the garden this weekend.

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Have you heard about the 75Hard program? I know a few people who are tackling it. This is a program intended to help develop mental toughness. It is a fairly rigorous program. For 75 days, participants are required to adhere to a nutritional diet with no cheat days—their choice of keto, carnivore, vegan, etc.—abstain from alcohol, work out twice a day for 45 minutes per session, one of which must be outside, drink a gallon of water every day, read 10 pages of a nonfiction book, and take a progress picture every day. If one or more of the requirements is missed, the whole program resets back to day 1.

The husband and I were talking about it over dinner last night. I have nothing but admiration for people who are willing to improve themselves in whatever way they find most helpful, and some people need programs with a lot of structure. It occurred to me that during the summer, I follow this program reasonably well. Working in the garden certainly meets the physical activity goals. The husband and I both gave up drinking alcohol almost a year ago. We eat good, nutritious food, although I am not above having some chocolate or other treat every day. I stay well hydrated, and I always read before going to sleep.

[I don’t get as much exercise in the winter, although I certainly am not sitting around, either.]

Food for thought. After everything I’ve been through in my 57 years on earth, I think I’ve got the mental toughness thing mastered. The husband mentioned that he signed up for The Daily Stoic e-mails. Every day, an e-mail meditation on stoicism is delivered to his inbox. He said that I should sign up, too, and then we could have a discussion group on each day’s topic, because that is what we do for fun here at Chez Schuster-Szabo, LOL. (I did sign up.)

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We let the pigs out into the pasture yesterday evening. They needed to get out and run around and they also needed to become familiar with the electric fence. It did not take them long to go up that learning curve.

They are packing on the pounds. Already, I can see a difference in size from when we brought them home on Saturday to last night.

The hummingbirds are back—almost a month late—and the husband spotted Little Bunny Foo-Foo chasing another rabbit around the yard. He suspects we will be overrun by baby rabbits shortly. I continue to be entertained by the determined tom turkeys with all their feathers up, trying to catch the attention of the flocks of hens. No bears yet, but I know they are out.