Norwegianne.net

Category: Personal

  • Three books that are waiting for me to be read

    Three books that are waiting for me to be read

    Still stressed out. New week. Same old stress. It got slightly better and then *boom*.

    So, I’m going to try to avoid it. How? By burrowing down with books. Because that will not solve anything but at the very least it might give me a respite.

    Here are five three books that I have physically and am going to read:

    The Curse of the boyfriend sweater is the first one. I brought this one with me on a weekend getaway trip, but ended up reading the other one on knitting I had first.

    – Let me flee into the lives of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Well, probably not – but for escape a couple of hours, sure. I liked Debbie Reynolds’ biography better than Fisher’s princess book, so it will be interesting to see where this may fall.

    The secret lives of colors. I’m fascinated by the concept, and I can think of at least a couple of other people who will be, too.

    Originally, it was going to be five. I have more than five. But I figured along the way that I should rather actually read a couple first. Then I can build on that for next month/week/whatever.

  • 35

    35

    It’s my birthday. I’m going to be the cliché and say that the years really do pass faster as I’m getting older.

    35, but don’t really feel it. My boss had to check the employment records yesterday to see if the birthday list in our break room was correct – so I guess I don’t act it either?

    Anyway, on to a new year.

  • Gingerbread cookies

    Usually decorated with icing, but at my Mum’s cousin’s funeral – she got the idea to do them with coarse salt. Insanely yummy. 

  • Housewarming

    A while ago, I made a Facebook event for a housewarming party. I lacked the energy to actually invite anyone.

    Now the date of the event is approaching. Instead, I am having people individually over. That’s about the level of energy right now.

    It would be even easier to not have anyone over, but that is just not happening either. I may enjoy my own company, but I also like my friends. 

  • I bought an apartment

    and am currently waiting to see if my loan application go through. Signed the contract on the house yesterday.

    The bank gave me a pre-approval for a sum before I went hunting, and I am actually applying for less loan than I was pre-approved for. So, theoretically, I should be ok. Still a jittery process. Waiting. Waiting.
    I move in June. 

    I started packing. I have packed a (large) box of dvds and three (smaller) boxes of books. I am almost unable to see that on the shelves. May is going to be a long month.

  • Summing up January in pictures

    January has actually been pretty eventful – even though it may not seem like it here on the blog. We had snow. And freezing cold. And I just curled up under two sets of duvets (both designed for winter) and decided that I might consider hibernating like a bear during this period of year. Then I decided on being social instead. I had a tea party with good friends. Nothing like gathering a bunch of great people together a Thursday evening in January and just doing warm tea  and eating buns with jam and cheese. (When I found myself excusing that I hadn’t made the buns from scratch, but actually bought them, I realised that it may be time to downsize my own expectations a bit. Buying pre-made is not something I need to excuse, ever.)
    The electrical work is done. We started tearing off wallpaper in the downstairs bedroom. Still not completely done with that – but just getting started is a huge relief. Not finding anything particularly horrendous behind the three layers of wallpapers was even better. The amount of ease with which the wallpapers came down, cemented my decision that wallpapering another layer on top of the existing ones wouldn’t be a good idea.

    The plan is to finish that room before we move on to the next step in the renovation. Use it as a test run.

    I have made like a gazillion Pinterest boards for smart things I see for almost every room in the house. I am apparently very into dark floors and white walls, (considering I have limited amount of either at the moment it may be interesting.) window seats and craft storage. Speaking of craft storage – I am really into knitting. These are going to be socks for me. I was really unsure about the yarn on the skein, but knitted out, it just looks so pretty and makes me happy.
     And my Dad turned 60 in the middle of the month. The above is the cake table. (And that is us being restrained.) I made the chocolate cake.

     

  • Advent calendar: Colour away

    I know colouring books for grown-ups are everywhere. I have a lot of them myself – and the more I have, the less patience I have for doing it.

    But, for me, what is fun, is having a bunch of colouring books, drawing pencils and markers and having my sisters over for a colouring session. It is so much better when you can look at what the others are doing. Even though the point of colouring books for adults might be the mindfullness aspect of it, I find that that is one of the things I don’t have interest in.*

    This one looks nifty for adding to the collection and bringing out for the holiday parties: The Magical Christmas: A Colouring Book

    * This might explain why my mother is showing no hesitation in throwing away my old colouring books as I had a tendency to scribble all over them with one or two colours. For far longer than my age would dictate normal.

  • Nanowrimo update

    So far, about the only thing I have done with success (out of the three things I am signed up for that happens in November, as mentioned in an earlier blog post) is Nanowrimo.

    I’m a rebel this year. I am actually not writing a novel. Instead, I am sort of journaling the mood of the day. I am trying to figure out my anxiety and depression and panic attacks and fatigue and everything that comes with it. Just writing. All the crazy things in my head.

    The goal is still 50,000 words. The goal is still to see if there can be a book manuscript out of it. (After about a shitload of editing, obviously.)

    But it is more about getting stuff out of my head. So I can sleep. So I can try to get back to a normal function again.

    Making notes from things that are helping me. Trying to swim my way to the bottom and back up to the surface.

    Halfway in – I am kind of feeling more stable about it all. But also wary. I am over halfway in my word count.

    As long as the writing is going well, the knitting and the reading isn’t. But at the moment it feels like the writing is of paramount use to me so I can’t be bothered.

  • Goals for April, and burnout update

    I figured it might be time to give a little update on the whole burnout situation. Since my March goal was all about getting  better, it also seemed fitting to combine it with April goals.

    Because I am better. Slowly getting there. It has taken a while. But this week was actually the first where I have had a couple of days when I felt like I had a surplus of energy and was “clear” in the head. And it was so amazing that even the down-time the next day, did not feel like such a downer. Because I had a good day the day before.

    I am slowly taking the initiative to extend what I do and gain a sense of accomplishment from that. When I go to visit my grandmother in the nursing home, I take a walk around the nursing home (or further if the energy allows.) When I visited a local museum (because I had free tickets.) I actually stopped the car on the way home to walk three times around a small pond.

    We have also done some cleaning out and organising  of some storage space in the basement, and just the concept of being on my feet for four hours and doing things would have been too much for me a month ago. I am rather feeling that it is telling of where I am at the moment.

    Today I started work again. Not full time. But the time I was there was good. I even had more energy to spare once I was done. And then I biked 20 minute outside in the sunshine in the afternoon. And now I am exhausted. I know why I am exhausted, so it is a good exhaustion. I have done things.

    The goals for April is:

    • Continue what I am doing, as I feel like it is working.
    • Do some gardening outside.
    • Meet friends for coffee.