Colourful Threads

We live in a small city that likes to think big.

Apparently our mayor wants to add an LRT. He says that its a way to make the city more attractive to investors. It sort of feels like he wants us to be some sort of miniature Calgary. It’s like being in high school again where we’re supposed to try and be like the popular people. The problem with wanting to be someone we’re not, is that we lose sight of who we really are.

Winnipeg is a great place to live. Seriously. I have homeschool friends who moved here from out west after researching the best place on the country to raise their children. They looked at all sorts of statistics and chose Winnipeg because it was a great place to raise a family.

Why can’t that be our tag line? Why do we have to focus on gambling and power stations in the over-priced Spirited Energy campaign. I heard a radio show about how the government is trying to lure more young people here by increasing our night life, how we need to compete with Montreal. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Why can’t we admit that we’re a small town with all the quaint charm that goes with that. Why can’t we focus on creating a safe urban oasis that offers all that a growing family could want.

My hubby thinks I’m naive and optimistic. He says that marketing for families doesn’t bring in money or jobs. Maybe he’s right. I took educational theory not economics at university. But somehow I can’t help thinking that spending time, effort and money to create a safe place with strong community outreach, excellent educational opportunities, and a vibrant artistic and recreational life that includes children would be a good thing – a thing that families would want to be a part of.

If we build it, wouldn’t they come?

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I read Getting Things Done a few years ago and loved the concept. I followed the plan laid out in the book and tried desperately to organize my self. I definitely made things easier, but still felt that I wasn’t completely working the system.

Over the last few days of focusing on my meditation/mindfulness challenge I realized that I needed to really work the GTD system in order to help slow down the “wild dog” in my head.

So these last few days I’ve been purging my mind and writing down all the “projects” that I have on the go. GTD defines a project as any outcome that requires two or more actions. I stopped when I reached over twenty active projects. These are things like finish renovating the basement and plan school for five children for the next ten months.

Experts recommend that top project managers should carry no more than 4 work projects. GTD fans say that when adding in home projects, your list should hover around 6-8.

I apparently have too many projects on the go. Which might explain why I’m having trouble keeping track of what needs to be done and feel like I’m never get anything finished.

Because I’m not.

So I called my friend Ash. She’s my organizing hero. She is currently raising three month old twins and still finds time to sew. She apparently has two projects on the go and won’t add more until one is done. It always feels to me like Ash is getting things done.

Because she is.

So I need to pair down my active projects lists and move all the rest to the Someday/Maybe list. This way they will still be around, but they will be out of my mind.

And how, you are probably not asking, does all this fit in with my meditation challenge? Jan says on day six, in response to a question about, “Is it enough?” that only I personally can tell if it is enough. I have been working very hard at trying to slow down and find myself. So for me, while I haven’t been finding/making time to just sit, I have been breathing and slowing down and trying to clear out the clutter in my head.

If I can pare down my projects that will, hopefully, lessen the buzzing in my brain which in turn will allow more room for keeping track of what I’m working on and hopefully more success at getting things done.

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I woke up before most of the kiddos this morning and sat in the sunshine on the couch. I did not set a timer, but just sat and listened to my breathing. I also reflected on many of the beautiful people in my life and how thankful I am for them.

At dinner I was feeling slightly sorry for how little work I got done today and my children cheerfully pointed out that we had fertilized the garden with two types of organic fertilizer, made lunch, researched summer swimming lessons (but who wants to sit at the pool for four hours and still have one child not take lessons?), shaved the dog, cut six people’s hair, put up the tent, watched a PBS special on Ancient Greece and an old Mork and Mindy episode and spent a few minutes trying to uncover the sewing room.

I have a terrible time trying to remember moments in my life and I wonder if it’s because I’m not really present. I wonder if I’m so busy following other thoughts and tangents while I’m working that I can’t recall what I was doing because the noise in my mind obscures it?

How we spend our days, of course, is how we spend our lives. ~Annie Dillard

May I spend each day mindfully.

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2. Meditation Challenge Day 2
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DAY 3

I was trying to take Jan’s advice to heart and not make my meditation something to do. My time Saturday morning had barely begun when I heard the boys begin blasting an audio book on their new CD player and a few minutes later my little one crept into my bedroom and hung off the end of my bed. I felt that time with my daughter was more important and so the two of us curled up together and read a few picture books.

For the remainder of the day I worked on just being present for my children and with my children. I tried to remember to look them in the eyes, to stop and hug them spontaneously, to stop and really listen when they spoke to me.

We had a beautiful day yesterday.

DAY 4

Today everyone was up before me and we needed to be heading out to friends for the day. There was no time to be alone. In the car on the way home I was able to just sit and concentrate on my breath. Even though everyone was quietly chattering away, I was able to count my breath. I could feel the tension in my neck and shoulder blades. I could smell the beautiful scent of prairie grass. And I felt at peace.

So it seems a little funny to me that the two days I tried really hard to meditate didn’t feel very successful, but the two days I wasn’t able to sit down and meditate, ended up being more fulfilling.

Jan said that, “True meditation is simply about being with the experience, being with yourself, in the quiet.”

Maybe it’s about being with the experience even if it’s not quiet.

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I rose and set up a plain kitchen timer today, so as not to be disturbed by the laptop. I also put the dog outside.

I was able to sit for 18 minutes without looking at the timer before I just let go. I’m struggling with a difficult relationship issue that arose yesterday and I spent most of my meditation trying to figure out how not to sit and gnaw at it. Following Jan’s advice for Day 2 of her challenge, I just kept coming back to counting my breath. (You can also check out how Buddhist Mama’s second day went.)

I also can’t decide if I should keep my eyes open or closed. There are benefits to both for me. If my eyes are closed I am less distracted by the outside world: a bird flying past my window, a squirrel running along the fence; but if my eyes are closed I am more likely to wander about inside my head digging up all sorts of mental distractions.

I’m also not feeling calm afterward. I actually feel agitated which led to a terrible day yesterday in which I was unable to concentrate on anything and basically piddled the day away. I don’t want to repeat that today, but don’t really know how to maintain my daily focus enough to accomplish the things I would like to accomplish.

Related posts:

1. Meditation Challenge Day 5
2. Meditation Challenge Days 3 and 4
3. Meditation Challenge Day 1
4. Meditation Course

I’ve been trying to “figure out” meditation for awhile now. I’ve tried some sporadic bouts, but nothing regular, which is what I really need.

Buddhist Mama inspired me to join this challenge at Awake is Good from the the beginning of 2010.

Today I woke up, sat down on a pillow right beside my bed and set up the laptop with a meditation timer I had previously used.

Then the dog began whining at the bedroom door. I knew she wouldn’t stop and would wake the children, so I got up to let her in. Then I couldn’t seem to get comfortable. Finally I restarted the timer.

I was just going to try the technique of counting your breaths up to ten and then starting again. I also tried labelling the other thoughts that became apparent.

Oh my! I definitely need practice. I invariably lost count as my mind rambled away onto other things, or I would suddenly realize that I was on fifteen or sixteen counts.

My thoughts included lots of judgment type thinking – I’m cold, my back hurts, this is hard, my back hurts, my foot hurts, my belly flops over too much. Than I began wondering what I should do with my abdomen while I sit – do I hold it in (core training type stuff) or do I let it go? If I let it go I had trouble letting go of the belly flop feeling.

I peeked at the clock – 9 minutes and 28 seconds. Wow. Half way there.

Next I noticed the computer has some kind of regular clicking sound in addition to the fan. Then the dog’s intestines starting roiling and I wondered about looking that up since it’s an ongoing problem for her.

And then I moved onto planning how I could make meditation more enjoyable – maybe some incense? Where does one buy incense in out little city? And I really need to make some sort of meditation cushion and mat. There I go again. Planning how to make something work, instead of just making it work with what I’ve got. More judgment.

Each time I tried to come back to my breath.

Finally I peeked at the computer again and had just a few seconds left in the twenty minutes.

Then I wrote this blog, so I would capture the essence of what I felt.

Studies show this practice can be helpful to people who struggle with both depression and attention issues. Right now I’m a little depressed about my lack of attention! But as I tell the kids practice makes better.

Related posts:

1. Meditation Challenge Day 5
2. Meditation Challenge Days 3 and 4
3. Meditation Challenge Day 2
4. Meditation Course

Mom called today because their toilet was leaking all over their floor. We went over for lunch and Kirby helped my Dad figure out what the problem was. We’ll be going back on Friday to replace the toilet. This is probably the home reno project that Kirby has done the most often – I think this may make six or seven toilets he’s replaced for family and friends over the years.

While I was there, I helped my Mom sign up for Google Reader, so she could follow our blog more easily. I was horrified when I pulled up my RSS feed and saw ads all over my posts! I use AdBlocker Plus and so never see any ads on any of my pages in Firefox. I actually forget that the Internet is awash in the ugly things.

I tried to figure out what was wrong but had to leave it until I got home and could call on my tech guy.

Apparently my husband (also my tech guy, in addition to toilets) had been experimenting with some stuff on his own blog and had unknowingly activated some RSS feed ad plug-in thingamajig. He removed it and my posts should be clean now.

I just want to apologize to anyone out there who reads the blog via a reader and was subjected to those awful Google ads.

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This weekend Manitoba Living History worked at Grant’s Old Mill in celebration of Cuthbert Grant, who in addition to being a powerful early Canadian and Metis leader, also built the mill in 1829, the very first mill in western Canada.

We got dressed up and did our thing and were rewarded with some great news footage that aired on CBC’s The National, a country-wide news show. The children turning the hand mill belong to me, and I make a quick appearance teaching a group of children around the table.

CBC The National: Metis Leader Cuthbert Grant

(You have to wait for the commercial before the actual news report plays.)

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Our favourite local coffee shop had to close down awhile ago. Kirby and I had been going there almost since it opened, spending a large portion of our budget in decaf mochas.

In order to save our budget and avoid having to frequent Starbucks (which is the only other local shop that offers a decaf that’s really decaf), Kirby bought a Sunbeam Urban Espresso machine because it pumps rather than steams and it was cheap. (I understand about the cheap part.)

Usually machine operation is the domain of my coffee loving husband, but today I decided to treat him (he’s having a hard week) and so I set about making the espresso and steaming the chocolate milk for our version of a cafe mocha. One of my children asked to take over. Apparently my husband is training them all to make him mochas. He does this by bribing them with what we call a “moo” – steamed chocolate milk with optional flavouring.

So with decaf mocha in hand and orange, maple and coconut flavoured moos all around, we sat down to breakfast.

It’s a good start to the day.

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(This post will be become a permanent page at the top of my Blog)

WonderfulPages used to be a family blog that all the writers in my immediate family contributed to. As our blogging habits grew, the number of writers in our home increased, and our individual tastes developed, it became time to branch out. Luckily Wordpress introduced a multiuser program and so WonderfulPages became an umbrella site for all our blogs.

You can visit the main page at WonderfulPages.com and see what everyone is up to. You can also subscribe to a complete feed that includes all the blogs on the site.

Or you can visit their individual blogs and subscribe to just that page.

1. Right now you’re at Colourful Threads, my blog about family, children, home schooling, sewing and sanity. You can read a little more About Me and Family.
2. Kirby aka MrPages blogs at Doodads and Gimcracks about interesting places he encounters when he’s out and about on the web, on our house renos and his woodworking addiciton, on techie geek stuff and last but not least, doing life as a Dad. (Notice the pun? It’s his own inside joke.)
3. My oldest once know as Page1 and now going by BananaBerry or Lost, blogs about life as a home schooled, literary loving teen Lost on the Streets of Tashbaan.
4. My second daughter recently joined the fray and is posting some of her own Writings of Innocence.
5. I suspect it won’t be long before the boys begin clambering for their own space, but for now they need to spend more time putting pencil to paper.

Welcome here. We’re so glad you stopped by. If you liked your visit let us know.

Jennifer

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I have loved the idea of gardening for years and years and years.

When we got married, I started small with a few potted plants in our apartment. Over the years I have killed more tiny potted plants than I care to remember. The carnage is overwhelming.

This year my children decided to take down their play structure and plant a garden. Actually they decided to plant a garden, but the only viable place was where the play structure stood. So they decided the structure must go.

After we unbuilt it and gave it to some friends for their hobby farm business, we successfully grew an entire yard full of unidentifiable weeds.

We followed sage organic advice (though not environmentally sound advice) and covered the area with plastic in order to “burn” the weeds to death. Apparently we are growing some mutant variety because the plastic acted as some sort of green house and after four weeks the plants now stand over a foot tall under the plastic. And we still do not have a garden.

On Sunday we finally made a trip out to T&T Seeds and found they still had tables full of seedlings in their greenhouse. Everyone choose two plants. We came home, hand-pulled the mutant weeds in part of the garden area, and plunked the little vegetables plants into the soil. Now we have a garden.

In a few months we will hopefully harvest some tomatoes, peppers, melons and squash. Yesterday we had two kinds of fresh herbal pesto. And the front lawn now sports some beautiful plants that apparently are supposed to survive more than one season! It is all very exciting.

Of course one of the ornamental sunflowers (apparently not all sunflower plants have sunflower seeds and one should read the little plastic stick tags very carefully) has already succumbed to the ravages of life here in this harsh and dangerous place. We propped it up with a stick, but survival is looking very uncertain.

I should probably start some sort of betting pool where you can all choose to guess how many of the 28 plants will survive this whole experiment. The winner could come for dinner (although we cannot guarantee that any fresh garden vegetables will be served.)

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