Okay, so I know I talked this morning all about how a list works for me. How it helps me not feel overwhelmed, to see what I have going on for a week, and plan it out nicely.
It's not working for me just at the moment!
In fact, I'm writing a blog post to avoid actually getting started on the things on my list, the biggest of which is writing a talk for the weekend.
Okay, okay, you've convinced me. I'm going to work. I'm going to change the sheets on my bed, and empty my garbage, and scrub a bathtub (well, maybe not the bathtub). The laundry is in progress, and I'm going to sit down for at least half an hour (hopefully more like an hour!) and study the stuff I'm supposed to be teaching.
See you tomorrow!
Monday, May 07, 2007
A Week in a Glance
"Personally I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught." - Winston Churchill
I got this quote in an email this morning, and related a little. I feel like I’m living in that place a bit right now. Liking to learn, but not liking the process of being taught. Plus, I’ve always liked Winston Churchill – how geeky of a history major admission is that for first thing on a Monday morning?
So, here’s how my week looks:
Work: slow as has become the norm lately. Lots of surreptitious checking of email and facebook. Lots of writing blog posts in word to sneakily post by copying and pasting, thus minimizing the time that blogger is open on my computer. Getting really excited when there’s more than the usual amount of mail on a given day, because it means it might fill up a whole hour instead of only half an hour. Lots of tea drinking.
Youth: have to come up with something to say for half an hour on Friday night. What exactly was I thinking when I agreed to speak? Also, realizing that I hated this sort of retreat as a teenager, and I’m not looking forward to it all that much more as a grown-up person. I also need to attend the production of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” at a local high school on either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (anyone want to go with me?) because one of my youth girls is starring as the White Witch, and another marginally connected youth girl is playing Mrs. Beaver.
Home: laundry. Change the sheets on my bed. At least five hours of studying (have to do something to figure out what I’m going to say for half an hour on Friday night). Little bit of cleaning. Trying to find a gift for mother’s day. Pick up the shoes I took in to have repaired on the weekend. Take some things I don’t need anymore to the local thrift shop for resale. A quick trip to the library. Pack for the youth trip. Revisit my budget and begin planning for moving out and car buying.
Friends: Lunch with Faye today. Lunch with Crystal either Thursday or Friday. Need to call Megs to find out when we’re getting together this week. Need to mail a card to another friend. Write a nice long newsy email to a friend I haven’t had time to catch up with since last fall. Find out when another friend leaves Calgary to go back to Thailand, and arrange to get together with her and my brother T. before she leaves.
This is a snapshot type version of the “To Do” list that I have begun to create as a way of organizing my week. It worked really well last week, so I’ve decided to try it again. There are a few left-overs from last week’s list that have spilled onto this week’s, but for the most part, I accomplished everything that was really important on the list, and am hoping that this will continue to be a successful way to bring some semblance of planning and order to my week. (It also helps me to have a big-picture list that lets me see everything for the week in one shot, and plan accordingly.)
I hope you all have a fantastic week!
I got this quote in an email this morning, and related a little. I feel like I’m living in that place a bit right now. Liking to learn, but not liking the process of being taught. Plus, I’ve always liked Winston Churchill – how geeky of a history major admission is that for first thing on a Monday morning?
So, here’s how my week looks:
Work: slow as has become the norm lately. Lots of surreptitious checking of email and facebook. Lots of writing blog posts in word to sneakily post by copying and pasting, thus minimizing the time that blogger is open on my computer. Getting really excited when there’s more than the usual amount of mail on a given day, because it means it might fill up a whole hour instead of only half an hour. Lots of tea drinking.
Youth: have to come up with something to say for half an hour on Friday night. What exactly was I thinking when I agreed to speak? Also, realizing that I hated this sort of retreat as a teenager, and I’m not looking forward to it all that much more as a grown-up person. I also need to attend the production of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” at a local high school on either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (anyone want to go with me?) because one of my youth girls is starring as the White Witch, and another marginally connected youth girl is playing Mrs. Beaver.
Home: laundry. Change the sheets on my bed. At least five hours of studying (have to do something to figure out what I’m going to say for half an hour on Friday night). Little bit of cleaning. Trying to find a gift for mother’s day. Pick up the shoes I took in to have repaired on the weekend. Take some things I don’t need anymore to the local thrift shop for resale. A quick trip to the library. Pack for the youth trip. Revisit my budget and begin planning for moving out and car buying.
Friends: Lunch with Faye today. Lunch with Crystal either Thursday or Friday. Need to call Megs to find out when we’re getting together this week. Need to mail a card to another friend. Write a nice long newsy email to a friend I haven’t had time to catch up with since last fall. Find out when another friend leaves Calgary to go back to Thailand, and arrange to get together with her and my brother T. before she leaves.
This is a snapshot type version of the “To Do” list that I have begun to create as a way of organizing my week. It worked really well last week, so I’ve decided to try it again. There are a few left-overs from last week’s list that have spilled onto this week’s, but for the most part, I accomplished everything that was really important on the list, and am hoping that this will continue to be a successful way to bring some semblance of planning and order to my week. (It also helps me to have a big-picture list that lets me see everything for the week in one shot, and plan accordingly.)
I hope you all have a fantastic week!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Another Book
If you pay any sort of attention to these things, you'll notice that I've added another book to the list of completed readings in my sidebar. "Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation" by Frederick Buechner. I really liked this one, but, for those of you who are keeping track, and know that I just added a book to that sidebar yesterday, let me be completely honest and admit that I borrowed this particular skinny little book from my brother late last fall, read over half of it then, and set it aside as I got involved in other books. I picked it up again yesterday afternoon, after finishing Pete Greig's book, and decided to finish it off.
It went much faster now that I've developed a strategy for reading borrowed books wherein I use little re-stickable flags to mark anything I want to take note of, and then go back and type it all into a reading notes file on my laptop for that particular book once I've finished. This is MUCH faster than my previous method of stopping every time I came across something noteworthy, and meticulously copying it by hand into my journal. It's also much easier to find the bit I want later on if I don't have to flip through weeks of journal entries!
And for those of you who are wondering what I liked about this particular book, here's a few little tastes:
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. (pg. 87)
Part of what seems to happen in dreams – and what makes them prophetic – is that in them you lie out parts of yourself that have not yet entered your waking life either because you have never consciously recognized them or because for one reason or another you have chosen not to. Earthbound, you dream of flying. Inhibited, you dream of appearing in public stark naked. But it can be subtler than that, more profound and more telling, as dreams open out into the glimmering dusk of modes of being that you have not yet explored and may never explore but which are no less part of the mystery and the poetry of who you are. (pg. 99)
…If we really had our eyes open, we would see that all moments are key moments. That he who does not love remains in death. That Jesus is the Word made flesh who dwells among us full of grace and truth. (pg. 108)
It went much faster now that I've developed a strategy for reading borrowed books wherein I use little re-stickable flags to mark anything I want to take note of, and then go back and type it all into a reading notes file on my laptop for that particular book once I've finished. This is MUCH faster than my previous method of stopping every time I came across something noteworthy, and meticulously copying it by hand into my journal. It's also much easier to find the bit I want later on if I don't have to flip through weeks of journal entries!
And for those of you who are wondering what I liked about this particular book, here's a few little tastes:
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. (pg. 87)
Part of what seems to happen in dreams – and what makes them prophetic – is that in them you lie out parts of yourself that have not yet entered your waking life either because you have never consciously recognized them or because for one reason or another you have chosen not to. Earthbound, you dream of flying. Inhibited, you dream of appearing in public stark naked. But it can be subtler than that, more profound and more telling, as dreams open out into the glimmering dusk of modes of being that you have not yet explored and may never explore but which are no less part of the mystery and the poetry of who you are. (pg. 99)
…If we really had our eyes open, we would see that all moments are key moments. That he who does not love remains in death. That Jesus is the Word made flesh who dwells among us full of grace and truth. (pg. 108)
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Quick Reading Update
I finished Pete Greig's book, "God on Mute" this afternoon, and added it to my list of non-fiction reading on my sidebar. I'll probably write more about this eventually, particularly as I refer back to some of what Pete had to say as I prepare to teach my youth about the silence of God next weekend at our retreat, but for the moment, let me just say that overall I enjoyed this book that was so highly recommended to me by friends, and that I found what it had to say generally helpful, challenging and encouraging.
Lazy Saturday
I fully intend to do things slowly today, and manage to accomplish a lot.
I've done an hour of studying this morning, and now I'm headed out to do errands and shop for a couple of hours.
After that, home, a bit more studying, television watching, some cleaning, and basically, finishing off the things that are left on my list for the week, and maybe getting a start on preparing the list for next week.
I love the independence that comes when mom and dad are away, and I have a vehicle at my disposal. I can go anywhere I like, at any time I like. Or I can stay in and be a vegetable in front of the television, or both, or neither. FANTASTIC!
And with that, I'm off to find something to eat for breakfast, and to head out the door for my errands.
I've done an hour of studying this morning, and now I'm headed out to do errands and shop for a couple of hours.
After that, home, a bit more studying, television watching, some cleaning, and basically, finishing off the things that are left on my list for the week, and maybe getting a start on preparing the list for next week.
I love the independence that comes when mom and dad are away, and I have a vehicle at my disposal. I can go anywhere I like, at any time I like. Or I can stay in and be a vegetable in front of the television, or both, or neither. FANTASTIC!
And with that, I'm off to find something to eat for breakfast, and to head out the door for my errands.
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