Three weeks left of 2025 and I’m looking forward to it being over with. I know that isn’t the most positive thing I could say, but I don’t think it’s an unusual sentiment. I’m regularly struggling to get these blog posts out on time and I apologize for that.
Arts & Crafts
I began knitting myself a necktie for the upcoming choir performance. My choir will be wearing black with a purple accent and I had a bunch of purple yarn leftover from a past project and it seemed a good use for it. Could I just buy one? Sure. But this is a unique item and I like the idea of it. My hands were quite sore as the weather fluctuated all week, so I didn’t get far. Luckily, I found the purple tie I already had, so I’m under no pressure to finish it for the concert. If it gets done by then, I’ll have two different purples to choose from. If not, there is one less decision to make.
Decluttering and Minimalism
Slowly, I began reorganizing the dining room I’m using as a pantry, reading, and music space. A couple of weeks ago, I had figured out a way to finally give myself a cosy reading nook. It was nearly set up for it already and just needed to be reconfigured. By moving a couple of items around, I could relocate my storage ottoman and use it as the seat. It sounds quite easy when I say it like this, but it has necessitated removing everything from nearly every shelf to do this. But the ottoman was taking up needed space in my living room. Not only would doing this help clean up and improve safety, but it would give me a place to escape to for reading. It would become a safe space away from technology and the world. This was something I had been needing for quite some time.
It didn’t work out exactly as planned. My ottoman wouldn’t fit in the space between the shelving units after all, but my chair that I always planned as a reading chair fit there. And my ottoman can be used for my feet while reading and as a seat for music making, so it may actually end up being better than planned. The ottoman will temporarily live where my reading chair was and I’ll still get my place cleaned up.
On Monday, I got prepped for the first major move of items. I relocated one of the greige units. It’s now vertical and holds my vinyl and tall books. Next, I added L brackets to the lower greige square Kallax unit, so that it would hold the black one safely. On Tuesday, I completed the move of my black square Kallax on top of my greige one. It currently has my music bins in one side of it, but will likely eventually hold more kitchen items instead.
There is still a lot of mess to figure out in my condo after this, but it’s all more accessible. And I can’t stop looking over at this area that has improved so much over just a couple of days.
DIY and Projects
On Monday, I got in touch with the store to find out about my flooring. They assured me that it should be shipping that day and I would be getting a tracking email soon. I don’t know what took so long to get 18 tiles together, but I was happy to know that it was on the way or would be very soon.
You may be wondering, “When will she have her fridge back in her kitchen?” I have been wondering that myself, but I needed to deal with some stuff around the condo in order to have space to move around safely and get the steps done to make it happen. Not only did dealing with this other stuff accomplish that, it gave me the energy and motivation to move forward on the kitchen project.
The rest of my flooring arrived on Monday afternoon. It is in my entranceway in two boxes. They’re quite heavy, so just getting them over the threshold of my door and out of the building hallway, was a feat.
Education and Spirituality
Early in the week, I was preoccupied with my reorganization. Moving things around and cleaning them up left my brain feeling more ready to learn. I completed the first module on the exercise course. It took me much longer than I had hoped, but there has been a lot going on with myself and with some close friends that have had me in an emotional state. If I was the praying type, I’d be praying for them. Instead, I just try to be there as a support as needed. I’m hoping things improve soon for them.
A new month has begun, so there is a new music oracle:
We also had a full moon. This month’s fairy oracle is rather appropriate:
Gaming and Puzzles
I’ve only been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley lately though I do want to get back to Cyberpunk 2077. Perhaps that will happen next week as it is light on women’s hockey. With DDV, I can usually pop in for a little bit and leave when I want. That isn’t the case with Cyberpunk 2077 as quests have lately been longer. I’m in Dogtown currently and I don’t know if I’ll be able to do any side quests I didn’t get to before going there. It’s an experience to play though and that’s worth setting time aside for. I just haven’t had the time to give this week.
Goal Setting and Tracking
With three weeks left of the year, the annual recaps are coming out. In June, I began using Finch for goals and motivation and this is the result from mid-June to the end of November:
Now, I do think I could make better use of it, but a lot of those goals were related to self-care.
It’s the time of the year where I had to decide what planner to use for the coming year. I will be going back to a Bullet Journal. It is a nicer one than I used in the past. I really liked my hardcover planner for some things this year. I felt like I needed far more flexibility than the regular pages in the Leuchtturm and that’s why Bu-jo. Also, it’s fun to play with washi and stickers and get creative in the planning. I went with the Bullet Journal edition 2 put out through Leuchtturm 1917. I got a lot of my planner set up with monthly and weekly spreads and I began creating tracker sheets.
Health and Fitness
I discovered the best tasting way to have Amy’s gluten-free burritos. Use the oven method, cook for 20 minutes on each side, then open the foil and add some marinara and cook for 10 minutes more. It ends up crispy and tasty.
In other news, I’ve had to completely quit dairy. Due to allergy meds, I hadn’t noticed that I’ve been reacting to it for awhile now. It makes my whole head itchy and my tummy sore. Fun stuff. Not. At least there are a lot of options these days for most things though cheese is hard to replace adequately.
Music and Songwriting
Choir went well this week. We are doing so well that we added a song we hadn’t touched yet. It has the same notes and rhythms throughout and it has 16 repeating bars. I voted to add it because it’s truly lovely. If it doesn’t work, we’ll cut it. It was a no loss situation.
Reading and Writing
I began a new book on the weekend, Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur. I had been wanting to get to this one for awhile now. It’s a sapphic romance about a woman whose life hasn’t gone as planned and I can absolutely relate to that.
The Write Buttons 