Recently (31 May) the Chinese government announced that they would be lifting the maximum number of children a couple could have from 2 to 3. Vox Day hailed this as proof that the Chinese have chosen life with carrots and sticks to follow. Other commentators have been more circumspect, allowing that the policy has softened but that the Chinese are unlikely to a) change behaviour and b) that it would make a difference anyway. The largest cohort of Chinese is about to enter retirement. They are too old to have babies themselves. The cohorts under them are the product of the one child policy. They have been brought up as princes. Bringing up a child is expensive in terms of both money and time. To bring up more than one would fill the average modern Chinese with dread. I met some Chinese touring Australia back in the 1980s. My family is very large by anyone's standards. The Chinese looked at us in horrified wonder. A family with 8-9 children was not something to emulate. I'm guessing that attitude has only hardened in the years since then.
Monday, 7 June 2021
Wednesday, 2 June 2021
Lies and hairdyes
My 16 year old daughter was running the idea of dyeing her hair blonde past me. To her surprise I was not in favour. "Why?" she wanted to know. My answer was that it would not be as pretty as her natural colour; it would look fake and that it would damage her hair.
From there we somehow got to how perhaps deep down she really was a blonde trapped in a brunette's body or however they phrase these things these days. To which I replied that of course that was not true as she could never be a blonde, she could only be a brunette with dyed blonde hair and the dye would be a lie.
This of course opened me up for attack as in the past I had dyed my greying locks back to roughly their original colour. (It is impossible to replicate the original colour.) Yes this had been a lie and also a mistake. Learn from my mistakes.
Tuesday, 3 March 2020
Minimalism, De-cluttering, Housework
I have been a fan of minimalism for a while now, at least five years. Marie Kondo had written her 2nd world wide best-seller on the life-changing magic of tidying up and I went through my house looking for joy in all my possessions, category by category. (I never did get to the sentimental items category - they all give me joy! Let's go with that.)
I am a sucker for anything that says that it will make my housework easier. I've Enjoed. I've Ekoworked. I've Konmaried. I've filled bags with garbage and taken bags to Vinnies. My garage is still full of stuff transitioning from the house to somewhere else. I pretend that it isn't there. If you put your hands over your face you can barely see it. (I can still park the car in there though, so that's something. Luckily it's a four car garage. Jokes, jokes.)
I've also read lots of sites about housework, I tend to gravitate to the lazy, reasonably clean, I'm a closet slob end of the market; hence minimalism. Unfortunately, Minimalism butts uneasily with the other household management idea in my head, Frugality.
Does this ugly whatever give me joy?
No, but spending money on a new one will give me the opposite of joy. So it stays.
I go through stages where I get pretty ruthless, occasionally followed by someone asking for something, e.g. a scap piece of fabric in the right shade of blue, (I have crafty children).
Sorry chucked that!
Mum!?!
No joy!
Aagh, groan, door slam.
Then I'll go through stages of "prepping". No "bug-out" kits but definitely a few extra packets of toilet paper. It's a family full of girls, we need a lot.
Which is a long way of saying that I still have too much stuff and my house is not always reasonably clean and I would have thought that by now I would have had this down. This makes me think that like many other things in life the trick to housework and de-cluttering is consistency. So I'll use this blog to keep me accountable. I've heard it works.
I am a sucker for anything that says that it will make my housework easier. I've Enjoed. I've Ekoworked. I've Konmaried. I've filled bags with garbage and taken bags to Vinnies. My garage is still full of stuff transitioning from the house to somewhere else. I pretend that it isn't there. If you put your hands over your face you can barely see it. (I can still park the car in there though, so that's something. Luckily it's a four car garage. Jokes, jokes.)
I've also read lots of sites about housework, I tend to gravitate to the lazy, reasonably clean, I'm a closet slob end of the market; hence minimalism. Unfortunately, Minimalism butts uneasily with the other household management idea in my head, Frugality.
Does this ugly whatever give me joy?
No, but spending money on a new one will give me the opposite of joy. So it stays.
I go through stages where I get pretty ruthless, occasionally followed by someone asking for something, e.g. a scap piece of fabric in the right shade of blue, (I have crafty children).
Sorry chucked that!
Mum!?!
No joy!
Aagh, groan, door slam.
Then I'll go through stages of "prepping". No "bug-out" kits but definitely a few extra packets of toilet paper. It's a family full of girls, we need a lot.
Which is a long way of saying that I still have too much stuff and my house is not always reasonably clean and I would have thought that by now I would have had this down. This makes me think that like many other things in life the trick to housework and de-cluttering is consistency. So I'll use this blog to keep me accountable. I've heard it works.
Friday, 8 November 2019
Akita
I am intrigued by prophecy; especially apocalyptic prophecy. I have several books by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, and a couple about Fatima. I know the stories of Garabundal, Our Lady of Good Success, St Bernadette, La Salette, and of course Akita.
The story of Akita is basically that Sr Agnes Sasagawa received messages both from an angel (possibly the guardian angel of Japan) and the Virgin Mary with the final message being received on October 13, 1973, the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun that occurred in Fatima in 1917. The messages of Akita are considered to be a reiteration of the suppressed third secret of Fatima. They state that corruption will enter the Church up to the very top and unless there is repentance and a change of direction there will be chastisements that include fire raining from Heaven, massive fatalities and the living envying the dead. This message was accompanied by miracles including cures of illnesses and a bleeding, weeping and sweating wooden statue of Mary.
Sr Sasagawa did not receive anymore messages after this date until October 6 2019.
Go to confession as Father Z would say. Pray the rosary. Fast.
The story of Akita is basically that Sr Agnes Sasagawa received messages both from an angel (possibly the guardian angel of Japan) and the Virgin Mary with the final message being received on October 13, 1973, the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun that occurred in Fatima in 1917. The messages of Akita are considered to be a reiteration of the suppressed third secret of Fatima. They state that corruption will enter the Church up to the very top and unless there is repentance and a change of direction there will be chastisements that include fire raining from Heaven, massive fatalities and the living envying the dead. This message was accompanied by miracles including cures of illnesses and a bleeding, weeping and sweating wooden statue of Mary.
Sr Sasagawa did not receive anymore messages after this date until October 6 2019.
This is the speech said by Sister Sasagawa that Sister M heard firsthand.
On Sunday, October 6th at 3:30am in Akita, the same angel appeared before me (Sister Sasagawa) as from some 30 years ago. The angel first told me (Sister Sasagawa) something private.
The good thing to convey to everyone is, “Cover in ashes” “and please pray the Penitential Rosary every day. You (Sister Sasagawa) become like an child and every day please give sacrifice.”
Ms. S was asked by Sister M, may I tell everyone about this?, which when asked, per Sister M, she was told Okay by Sister Sasagawa. Also, “Please pray that I (Sasagawa) be able to be like an child and give sacrifice,” was said by Ms. S as heard by Sister M.
Covering in ashes refers to Jonah 3:1-10
I feel a chastisement on the way. Scarily 40 days, (the time frame given to the people of Nineveh to repent is on November 15.Go to confession as Father Z would say. Pray the rosary. Fast.
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
Things I learnt while learning to sew.
Well, I learnt to sew of course!
Ha ha, you already knew that, unless it was a really terrible course but since I was teaching myself that couldn't possibly be the case.
Teaching myself to sew was a bit of a challenge since I had to overcome some self-esteem issues from high school. My sewing teacher found me unteachable because I was left handed. Luckily my being left handed has never been a problem for me, so I found myself eminently teachable. The first thing I learned. I can learn to sew.
The next thing I learned was humility. I'm a slow learner on this one but sewing is a patient and persistent teacher. Whenever I felt that I was finally getting the hang of this sewing caper I would lift up my dress and find that I'd sewn the shoulder strap to the bottom of the dress; or the zipper on back to front; or the inside of the bodice to the outside of the skirt; or I'd just sewn a whole seam with an empty bobbin (which means that all I'd done was punch tiny holes into the material); or I'd failed to switch the machine from straight stitch to zigzag or vice versa; or well, you get the idea; lots and lots of mistakes. On a related note I also learned that the unpicker (or seam-ripper) was my new sewing best friend. Whatever mistake I tried, my unpicker was there to undo it all and take me back to the beginning.
My unpicker taught me patience. So, so, so, many times did it take me back to the beginning, back to me holding two bits of material that I wanted to be joined together in some fashion. Well not just any old fashion but in a wearable fashion.
I also found out that I am creative. I have found so many ways to make mistakes. The variety seems endless. I have also had to fix said mistakes and sometimes even the unpicker is not enough. Sometimes, dare I say it, even some ingenuity was required. (Oops, there goes all that humility I was storing up.)
There you go four things I learnt while teaching myself to sew, (well five if you count the actual sewing.)
Ha ha, you already knew that, unless it was a really terrible course but since I was teaching myself that couldn't possibly be the case.
Teaching myself to sew was a bit of a challenge since I had to overcome some self-esteem issues from high school. My sewing teacher found me unteachable because I was left handed. Luckily my being left handed has never been a problem for me, so I found myself eminently teachable. The first thing I learned. I can learn to sew.
The next thing I learned was humility. I'm a slow learner on this one but sewing is a patient and persistent teacher. Whenever I felt that I was finally getting the hang of this sewing caper I would lift up my dress and find that I'd sewn the shoulder strap to the bottom of the dress; or the zipper on back to front; or the inside of the bodice to the outside of the skirt; or I'd just sewn a whole seam with an empty bobbin (which means that all I'd done was punch tiny holes into the material); or I'd failed to switch the machine from straight stitch to zigzag or vice versa; or well, you get the idea; lots and lots of mistakes. On a related note I also learned that the unpicker (or seam-ripper) was my new sewing best friend. Whatever mistake I tried, my unpicker was there to undo it all and take me back to the beginning.
My unpicker taught me patience. So, so, so, many times did it take me back to the beginning, back to me holding two bits of material that I wanted to be joined together in some fashion. Well not just any old fashion but in a wearable fashion.
I also found out that I am creative. I have found so many ways to make mistakes. The variety seems endless. I have also had to fix said mistakes and sometimes even the unpicker is not enough. Sometimes, dare I say it, even some ingenuity was required. (Oops, there goes all that humility I was storing up.)
There you go four things I learnt while teaching myself to sew, (well five if you count the actual sewing.)
- Teachable
- Humility
- Patience
- Creativity
Ta da! And I also got a dress that fits. Yay!
Tuesday, 5 November 2019
Plastic
Around 2 years ago I was looking for something to do with my lightweight shopping bags. I'm not much of a greenie but the bags were piling up. I had read on one of my favourite blog sites - St Corbinian's Bear (now defunct) that you could crochet sleeping mats for the homeless out of lightweight shopping bags. "Perfect!" thought I. Of course at the time I did not know how to crochet at all and did not have any equipment for said task, other than a large supply of shopping bags.
No matter, the internet is a teacher of useful skills. (If I ever need a primitive technology kiln in my backyard, I'm all set.) There are many videos teaching crochet and some specifically teaching how to make sleeping mats for the homeless out of plastic bags.
So I got a 10mm crochet hook and started chopping up plastic bags and linking loops of plastic together and slowly but surely I began to crochet a mat. I measured out my first chain stitch against a yoga mat and set the goal of making a yoga mat sized mat. My sources informed me that I would need between 500-700 bags for a mat that big. More than my stash but there were plenty more where they came from, right?
The fates were against me, because just as I was getting towards the end of my stash all the supermarkets decided to phase out free lightweight shopping bags - for the environment! The environment! but what about the homeless! Don't they deserve our free lightweight shopping bags lovingly crocheted into a sturdy waterproof and surprisingly comfy sleeping mats? Apparently not. So there I was with 10cm of a 2 metre long mat complete and my supply of plastic bags dried up.
Fear not! I am resourceful. I could buy lightweight garbage bags. (hang on- it would be cheaper and maybe more comfortable if I just bought a new yoga mat and donated that.) Then I realised that I had other plastic bags; bigger, thicker plastic bags. They would make a bigger thicker sleeping mat. There were some technical difficulties. Bigger thicker bags were harder to manipulate, so I chopped them up thinner. Bonus - more plastic strands per bag. Somewhere along the way I decided to chop up the plastic bags our bread comes in and accidentally discovered that bread bag plastic is the best for crocheting sleeping mats out of and since my children (oh okay, and I) eat a lot of raisin toast my mat ended up with a pleasing purple tinge. Being a beginner crocheter (is that a real word?) did mean that my work developed something of a lean as it went along but I think that just adds to the charm. Don't roll over homeless person! Just jokes, it was all evened out in the end and duly dropped of to Vinnies.
I'm now crocheting a new mat for the dog as his mat has worn out and he does like the smell of bread bags.
No matter, the internet is a teacher of useful skills. (If I ever need a primitive technology kiln in my backyard, I'm all set.) There are many videos teaching crochet and some specifically teaching how to make sleeping mats for the homeless out of plastic bags.
So I got a 10mm crochet hook and started chopping up plastic bags and linking loops of plastic together and slowly but surely I began to crochet a mat. I measured out my first chain stitch against a yoga mat and set the goal of making a yoga mat sized mat. My sources informed me that I would need between 500-700 bags for a mat that big. More than my stash but there were plenty more where they came from, right?
 |
| A plastic bag. |
 |
| Folded |
 |
| Cut |
 |
| Looped |
 |
| Lots of loops, Now a "thread" |
 |
| Chain stitching my plastic thread. |
The fates were against me, because just as I was getting towards the end of my stash all the supermarkets decided to phase out free lightweight shopping bags - for the environment! The environment! but what about the homeless! Don't they deserve our free lightweight shopping bags lovingly crocheted into a sturdy waterproof and surprisingly comfy sleeping mats? Apparently not. So there I was with 10cm of a 2 metre long mat complete and my supply of plastic bags dried up.
Fear not! I am resourceful. I could buy lightweight garbage bags. (hang on- it would be cheaper and maybe more comfortable if I just bought a new yoga mat and donated that.) Then I realised that I had other plastic bags; bigger, thicker plastic bags. They would make a bigger thicker sleeping mat. There were some technical difficulties. Bigger thicker bags were harder to manipulate, so I chopped them up thinner. Bonus - more plastic strands per bag. Somewhere along the way I decided to chop up the plastic bags our bread comes in and accidentally discovered that bread bag plastic is the best for crocheting sleeping mats out of and since my children (oh okay, and I) eat a lot of raisin toast my mat ended up with a pleasing purple tinge. Being a beginner crocheter (is that a real word?) did mean that my work developed something of a lean as it went along but I think that just adds to the charm. Don't roll over homeless person! Just jokes, it was all evened out in the end and duly dropped of to Vinnies.
 |
| Finished mat. Roughly rectangular. |
I'm now crocheting a new mat for the dog as his mat has worn out and he does like the smell of bread bags.
Monday, 4 November 2019
Getting Regular
I've been through my statistics and let's just say they are not great. Why doesn't anyone want to read my little blog? I'm funny! I write about interesting things. I'm opinionated! (Okay that last one was true.) So I did some research about how to grow your blog. Apparently you need to post regularly. Who knew? Well I did actually, but I just never managed to be regular. So I needed a way to be regular, a way to add some fiber to my blogging diet.
Some self-reflection showed me that I tend to procrastinate a little, sometimes for perhaps months or maybe a year. To get over this I will run the timer experiment. I will set a timer to write everyday which will hopefully lead to blogging everyday and hopefully to not posting the exact same article everyday, since that would be embarrassing. Setting a timer is a way to get started on a task.
The Timer Experiment
Method.
Think of something you want to do but never really get around to. Choose an amount of time you think you can give this thing right now. Set the timer. Do the thing. When the time goes off reassess. Do you want to keep going? Is that enough for now? Simple right?
So today I tried this method on several tasks, gardening, cleaning the bathroom, (I really do get around to cleaning the bathroom. Promise! Just not normally on a Monday.) doing some sewing, sorting out my menu for the week and of course writing this post. I weeded for 30 minutes and then stopped. I set 30 minutes to clean the bathroom and then tidied and vacuumed the bedroom as well, since I had time left over. I did some sewing in two x one hour long sessions, set a menu for a fortnight and I set another half hour to write this.
Today the Timer Experiment has been an unmitigated success, since I tackled every job on my list plus my regular jobs, (you know, laundry, making dinner, buying milk...) on a day I normally don't do too much because I teach an after school class in the afternoon. Having that class sitting there makes me feel like I can't start anything because I have to finish in time for my class. The timer made sure I would stop on time on tasks that can get a bit open ended.
We will see how things go tomorrow.
Some self-reflection showed me that I tend to procrastinate a little, sometimes for perhaps months or maybe a year. To get over this I will run the timer experiment. I will set a timer to write everyday which will hopefully lead to blogging everyday and hopefully to not posting the exact same article everyday, since that would be embarrassing. Setting a timer is a way to get started on a task.
The Timer Experiment
Method.
Think of something you want to do but never really get around to. Choose an amount of time you think you can give this thing right now. Set the timer. Do the thing. When the time goes off reassess. Do you want to keep going? Is that enough for now? Simple right?
So today I tried this method on several tasks, gardening, cleaning the bathroom, (I really do get around to cleaning the bathroom. Promise! Just not normally on a Monday.) doing some sewing, sorting out my menu for the week and of course writing this post. I weeded for 30 minutes and then stopped. I set 30 minutes to clean the bathroom and then tidied and vacuumed the bedroom as well, since I had time left over. I did some sewing in two x one hour long sessions, set a menu for a fortnight and I set another half hour to write this.
Today the Timer Experiment has been an unmitigated success, since I tackled every job on my list plus my regular jobs, (you know, laundry, making dinner, buying milk...) on a day I normally don't do too much because I teach an after school class in the afternoon. Having that class sitting there makes me feel like I can't start anything because I have to finish in time for my class. The timer made sure I would stop on time on tasks that can get a bit open ended.
We will see how things go tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)