I'm thinking of doing something to keep track of my progress in various areas of life, to keep myself accountable for staying productive instead of *ahem* messing about with my phone. Kind of a life-stealer, that thing.
I love my bullet journal but it's running out of room, so I may do something here.
LATER
Things I did over the last few days that were not phone- or doom-scrolling-related:
1) Yesterday, Hubby and I were driving around doing errands, and ended up driving by, and then touring, a house for sale in our neighborhood. It has 500 more square feet than ours, and we liked it pretty well (I liked it more than Hubby), but we found that the extra square footage is all used up in the bedrooms, and there's a living room but no family room - not a good fit for us.
Still, we're now planning to look for something new around here. We contacted our real estate agent, and I looked at storage units that we can start moving unnecessary stuff into. I have really begun to love our property, but I can't see us staying there with M and the granddaughters living with us. We'd have to remodel, or move.
2) I attended a meeting with a political group that has existed for a long time, but with our current political situation, has never seemed more relevant. We've entered what I call the Flight 93 portion of the program, where (on 9/11/2001) the WTC towers and the Pentagon have been struck, and now people are on the phone with their loved ones on Flight 93 to warn them of what's coming.
After the first few shocking weeks of T's second administration, people are waking up, taking action, and fighting back. I'm honored to be one of them.
We met to write postcards to voters in another state, to encourage them to vote for the more progressive candidate running for office in their area. It felt GOOD to gather with these local folks - I plan to join them again in the future.
3) Hubby and I have been doing more "dating". We went to dinner at a brew pub Friday night, and to breakfast at one of our favorite local spots yesterday, and we're planning a quick beach getaway for tomorrow night and Wednesday. We'll be celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary on Friday, 2/28.
4) I spent some quality time reorganizing my sewing area in the basement (part of the reason for #1, above - it's like a slide puzzle down there). There's so much clutter, furniture, books, bookcases... yikes. But I made some good progress. Now I just need a new TV for playing DVDs and videotapes - RIP our 30-year-old TV - and I'll be in business.
5) Genealogy up the wazoo. I've been working on a document about where my ancestors were for each U.S. census, and last night, as always happens while working on that project, I stumbled across numerous unrelated nuggets of information. Yesterday's included three stints in jail (two of them were the husbands of one of Grandma D's first cousins; one was my aunt Elizabeth, sister of Great Grandpa D - I think hers was Prohibition-related, which is just a dumb reason to incarcerate someone - but I did find out she was exactly five feet tall).
It got to be a little bit much - why do people do things? my poor cousin - and I finally had to put it away when I found that another cousin passed away from a heart attack in his 30s, and his wife unfortunately followed him two months later with self-inflicted asphyxiation in her car/garage. Just too much at that point.
6) Breakfast in Oregon City with my sweet friend, Beth - there's never enough time with her.
7) Created a monthly rotating dinner menu - no big deal but it'll help us decide what to shop for.
8) Dishes and laundry, of course.
