Chesire, you want to be what?

[Chesire]

"A purple giraffe when I grow up."  - 3yo Ches

.

 

I think it's high time I explore this goal.  What would a giraffe do, purple or otherwise?  I may need to pull in the wisdom of a 4yo I once heard as he was preparing for his birthday party, "I'm going to party 'til I'm purple!" if I can't find another way to achieve that particular aspect on my own. 

 

Giraffe food;  eat what vegetable foods I can find. 

Or, more to the point, use what I have in the pantry focusing on vegetarian protein sources for most of the day.  Meat source proteins may come with dinner since MrC isn't aiming to be a mysterious animal. 

 

Giraffe fitness; get bendy.

Do mobility and flexibility work daily.  Lats are arguing a bit from pull up work and my right arm is a bit unhappy about it.  So, I will continue with my calisthenics training, but carefully and at a reduced level.

 

The herd; doing things for others.

This is a stretch to make the idea work, but I'll roll with it.  I have committed myself to a slightly stressful number of knitted Christmas gifts.  I am neither a confident knitter nor a fast one.  Followed by a baby gift for my SIL who is due in Feb. 

 

Being purple; the value of simply being what I am.

Still not working; still struggling with recognizing my value is not my income.  This is where seeking quality of life and sources of joy come into play.  I have the time and energy that would have been sucked out by work to put into lots of things, but the inertia is powerful some days.  I'm looking at you, reddit.   And, of course, partying will help. 

[juliebarkley]

13 hours ago, Chesire said:

I have committed myself to a slightly stressful number of knitted Christmas gifts.  I am neither a confident knitter nor a fast one.  Followed by a baby gift for my SIL who is due in Feb.

Every gift is faster if you make it out of chunky weight yarn! (Do not try this on baby gifts.)

 

I have an extremely easy cat toy pattern that I use as a first project when teaching beginners. If you have cat people on your gift list, I can share it.

 

13 hours ago, Chesire said:

Still not working; still struggling with recognizing my value is not my income.  This is where seeking quality of life and sources of joy come into play.

I think this is important for all of us to be reminded of, and bears repeating: The status of your job, and how much money you make or have, have nothing to do with your worth as a human being.

[Chesire]

3 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I have an extremely easy cat toy pattern that I use as a first project when teaching beginners. If you have cat people on your gift list, I can share it

That would be amazing!  

 

And I absolutely would have used chunky if I didn't have tons of worsted that I overbought earlier in the year so I wouldn't need to go back to a store.

 

3 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

The status of your job, and how much money you make or have, have nothing to do with your worth as a human being.

100%  I believe that and try to plant that idea every chance I get, but...  sometimes I forget I believe this.   

 

I think the bigger issue for me is the season.  During the warmer weather I was able to garden and do more house projects which had a recognizable value.  Right now, there isn't a lot I can do besides cooking and cleaning.   I will figure something out, I usually do.

[Chesire]

Things I forgot to write down but am doing so I don't forget again:

 

Still have chicken liver 2x week with breakfast.  It's the easiest way to get iron, and the cheapest.

Do scap rehab/strengthen exercises from PT, including YTWs, scap setting, and int/ext rotations.

Continue with daily dare PVP. 

Do zero week check-ins and record in my challenge journal.

Set a time to end useless morning scrolling.  Useful things like Duolingo and checking on Rebels is fine.

[Jupiter]

Great challenge. Following.  

[juliebarkley]

14 hours ago, Chesire said:

18 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I have an extremely easy cat toy pattern that I use as a first project when teaching beginners. If you have cat people on your gift list, I can share it

That would be amazing!  

Ok, here's how the pattern works. It was originally from the Lion Brand website, but it has disappeared into the digital ether.

 

Knit (or crochet) a square. Any stitch pattern you like that's not lacy. Fun fur works especially well, but any yarn will do as long as it isn't much chunkier than worsted (because the square is small). Use needles a size or two smaller than what you would normally use with that yarn if you don't want the stuffing to show through. At least that's what I do. Anyway, you knit a square. The length of one side is the final length of the toy, so 20cm x 20cm  makes a good kicker toy, and 15-20 stitches in most yarns makes a small toy they can bat around. Once you have your square, sew two adjacent sides together, so that it looks a bit like a tiny ice cream cone with an extra flap. You can leave a long piece of the yarn you were sewing the sides together with loose to be a tail if you like. Now stuff the cone part with your stuffing. Toss in some catnip, a little bell, a piece of chip bag for crinkle, whatever the cat would like. My cats are suckers for the crinkle. Once everything's in there, fold the little flap down and sew it to the remaining sides. Voila! You can add eyes or ears if you want, but that'll be for the humans; the cat's won't care. You can also add a more robust tail. The cats might like that. If you have scraps of yarn, or wild and weird colours, this is a great way to use them up.

[Chesire]

Christmas had to come early this year.  All the decorations were up before the first.  That is not how I usually operate.  I will be merry in the face of this madness, dammit!

 

 

My parents had intended to come back from snow-birding for the holidays, but I've convinced them to stay put and save traveling for more important things, like the birth of their grandson in Feb, and to be around for future holidays.  This will be my first holiday season without seeing them in my over 40 years.   F'in Covid/Typhoid Marys can get f'ed for all this.   Anyway!   That's out of the way.  Let's get merry!

[Artemis Prime]

On 12/1/2020 at 7:54 AM, Chesire said:

During the warmer weather I was able to garden and do more house projects which had a recognizable value.  Right now, there isn't a lot I can do besides cooking and cleaning.  

Cooking and cleaning are HUGELY valuable! Steve has a thing about producing (sorry I can't remember what article or a whole lot of detail) that has stuck with me as far as feeling like I've made a contribution that day. So much of our time is spent consuming. Even some beneficial things like reading are more about consumption than production. But if we can spend part of every day producing, that offsets that. I do a lot of my producing outside, so I understand your problem with the season. In winter, a lot of my producing is writing and music. Cooking and knitting are definitely producing!

[Chesire]

2 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

Steve has a thing about producing (sorry I can't remember what article or a whole lot of detail) that has stuck with me as far as feeling like I've made a contribution that day

Oh!  I haven't seen that one.  I'll look it up.  Thanks

[WolfDreamer]

I love this goal! So creative, and I am certain that getting in touch with your inner child's desires is great self-care therapy during all this stress and chaos. I'm proud of you for taking this on as a challenge. 

 

Let me know if I can help in any way. 

[Artemis Prime]

12 minutes ago, Chesire said:

Oh!  I haven't seen that one.  I'll look it up.  Thanks

 I found it! The produce thing is #7 on the list, but the whole article's worth a read.

 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/overwhelmed-anxious-how-to-get-unstuck/

[Chesire]

9 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I found it! The produce thing is #7 on the list, but the whole article's worth a read.

That was definitely worth a read and reminder in general as we head into the cold and hibernating time.

[Chesire]

Three days in a row I've actually done my stretching or shoulder rehab work as planned!  And gee whiz, don't I feel better for it.  Shocking! 

 

i discovered that I find crafting with a brown noise running in the background very relaxing.  Usually I'm an audiobook junky, but I didn't have the interest to dig through the online library.  I am making note so I remember to go back to that on crazy days.

[Artemis Prime]

First time I heard of brown noise. I shall have to investigate!

[Chesire]

20 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

First time I heard of brown noise. I shall have to investigate!

I discovered it in an attempt to soothe a stressed out dog during fireworks.  It has a deeper sound than white noise and supposedly does a better job at interrupting other sounds.  And then I discovered there is a WHOLE rainbow of sound apparently!  Pink, blue, red.  Crazy!

 

[Chesire]

I had an idea that my brother is full support of.  We are sending a small "emergency Christmas" package to my parents as they don't have anything nor plan to buy much of anything for a one-time holiday season there.  I had made a couple small crochet trees a few years ago, and I have a bunch of mini Christmas tree ornaments and garland!   Into the box with them!  My step-nieces were totally on board with crafting some felt decorations.  I purloined a few sprigs from a holly bush around the corner, cuz nothing says Merry like illicitly gathered greenery!  

 

Seems to me that this falls into Herd care and being purple all in one go

[Rurik Harrgath]

On 11/30/2020 at 11:32 AM, Chesire said:

I think it's high time I explore this goal.  What would a giraffe do, purple or otherwise?  I may need to pull in the wisdom of a 4yo I once heard as he was preparing for his birthday party, "I'm going to party 'til I'm purple!" if I can't find another way to achieve that particular aspect on my own. 

...

Being purple; the value of simply being what I am.

 

I absolutely adore these challenge goals and how they're related to the title.  Can't recall a challenge having made me laugh aloud quite the same way EVER.

 

Also, by the way, I'm always on board for the value of being purple!    I wish I had a similar clever quote from when I was a kiddo, but young!Rurik just wanted to be Kevin Costner from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves... so I guess I came to the right place after all haha

[Waanie]

On 12/4/2020 at 8:57 PM, Chesire said:

I had an idea that my brother is full support of.  We are sending a small "emergency Christmas" package to my parents as they don't have anything nor plan to buy much of anything for a one-time holiday season there.  I had made a couple small crochet trees a few years ago, and I have a bunch of mini Christmas tree ornaments and garland!   Into the box with them!  My step-nieces were totally on board with crafting some felt decorations.  I purloined a few sprigs from a holly bush around the corner, cuz nothing says Merry like illicitly gathered greenery!  

 

This is such a nice idea .

 

On 12/2/2020 at 3:01 PM, Artemis Prime said:

 I found it! The produce thing is #7 on the list, but the whole article's worth a read.

 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/overwhelmed-anxious-how-to-get-unstuck/

Thanks for sharing! I've read it before in the past, but it's a good reminder how tiny things can help with feeling more productive again .

[Artemis Prime]

On 12/4/2020 at 2:57 PM, Chesire said:

I had an idea that my brother is full support of.  We are sending a small "emergency Christmas" package to my parents as they don't have anything nor plan to buy much of anything for a one-time holiday season there.  I had made a couple small crochet trees a few years ago, and I have a bunch of mini Christmas tree ornaments and garland!   Into the box with them!  My step-nieces were totally on board with crafting some felt decorations.  I purloined a few sprigs from a holly bush around the corner, cuz nothing says Merry like illicitly gathered greenery!  

 

Seems to me that this falls into Herd care and being purple all in one go

Such a great idea! I suddenly feel the need to go illicitly gather some greenery.

[TrashcanCarla]

Following! I love your inspiration and philosophy regarding this challenge.

[Chesire]

3 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

 I suddenly feel the need to go illicitly gather some greenery.

Seriously underrated hobby 🤣

[Chesire]

Reviewing some of the fun things Josie and I found on our walking adventures this year....

 

To begin with....  I don't know why this caught my eye as we were jogging past...  close up next pic

 

 

Guard well, little man.

[Chesire]

A barbarian was vanquished.   Someone had better gear and didn't need the loot.  Fool, you can sell it.

 

[Chesire]

They even had a ? block!

 

[Chesire]

We found a thing!  Peek-a-boo!  My city does an art symposium every year and the sculptures end up in all kinds of places.