Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 230

Today's Daily 5:

1. watching Top Chef in my pajamas
2. a great salad for lunch, with pecans and dried cranberries and apple and chicken
3. having fun at a bridal shower for a friend from house church
4. another Sunday evening of excellent and fascinating introductory teaching on Islam from a very unique source
5. collecting a few hugs from friends today
6. a brief moment of revelation/realization

Steal Like an Artist

Because it's Sunday and because this is possibly the last Sunday in a while where I will be enjoying my Sunday morning watch food network and do almost nothing routine, thanks to a job and school and final exams and Easter, I thought I'd send you someplace else today.

Yesterday one of the blogs I read linked to this article, and I read it, and then read it again, and thought it was fabulous, and that you should all absolutely read it too.

Here it is:

How to Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)

Go.  Read it. Then come back and tell me what you think of it.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 229

Today's Daily 5:

1. a good first day at a new job
2. a long bath, watching a favorite funny television show online
3. the upside of the fact that it snowed at least a foot today (and still falling!) is that I don't have a car.  While I DID have to go outside today, I DIDN'T have to drive on roads that were icy and wet from all the snow.
4. a bit of down time
5. getting some writing projects that have been on my list for a while done

To Do

So, this morning I worked my first shift at my new job.

I'm working for a small company that makes 100% natural soap, bath and body products and operates a number of stores in Western Canada, and I'm totally excited about it.

I then came home, and stared at my April calendar.

It's going to be a busy month, with research papers and two more weeks of classes, and then 5 final exams.  Add to that leading at house church, the basic commitments to things like getting a decent amount of sleep and exercise, some medical appointments, a wedding to attend, my brother's graduation from Bible school, and now a job, and you have the makings for a little bit of a wild month.

So, I did what I usually do.  I made a list.

This is what my list looks like:

Shortly after I wrote that list, I added several more items.  Those are the outside of class and work hours things that need to be accomplished between today and next Saturday.  Everything from wrapping a present, to preparing to lead at house church, to Latin/Greek homework, to writing a term paper on Che Guevara.  The list doesn't include the stuff that gets done daily outside of class or work hours - things like exercise, scripture reading, and so forth.

It's going to be a busy week, but I think it's doable.  Some of it is flexible and not super time sensitive, and if it waits another few weeks, it waits.

And, I'm kind of looking forward to it.  To the satisfaction of pushing for productivity, and marking things off lists.

I'm also realizing that I'm going to have to be incredibly disciplined about how I use my time, and that I will definitely need to make sure to carve out time for rest.

It'll be an interesting month!  I'm curious to see how it goes.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 228

Today's Daily 5:

1. Vietnamese noodles at school
2. chuckling over lessons from the story of Gideon - "You're really going to make this harder?"
3. reading The Pioneer Woman's new book "Black Heels and Tractor Wheels" - after a crazy week, this fun and (mostly) happy read was exactly what I needed
4. chatting on the phone with my friend J - a bit of follow-up from last night's house church
5. a good appointment
6. home-made popcorn and a brainless movie