New Year, New Goals ( or same goals but just a re-focus)

It's February 2, 2015 and here, just north of Boston, we are having our 3rd snowstorm in just over a week. The first one was minimal, the second one was a blizzard, and this one is just a long storm that is giving us way more snow than I expected. I have to admit that I am not hating the snow, but now that it is February, I am looking forward to spring coming. I'm ready for warmer sunny weather, flowers, bright days and everything new that Spring brings with it. With this this weather, I have been reading Facebook. One of my friends posted about growing scallions on her windowsill. It really motivated me to start thinking seriously about my garden, both flower and veggie. There was some talk about growing potatoes inside and she mentioned how she had potatoes growing in her basement. She has a blog post about it at her blog Journey Toward Simplicity (http://journeytowardsimplicity.blogspot.com), I just haven't had a chance to read it yet. After writing this, I am on my way to reading her post. I have also been doing lots of thinking about my career, at this point in my life, and where I want to take it. I've written before about needing to refocus my career goals, but I still haven't figured out how to move forward with my goals. If I had more money, there wouldn't really be an issue. I would love to learn more about nutrition, gardening, and creating and how it all pertains to your mind, body and spirit. I would love to have a place for people to go with a creative arts studio, a kitchen and an outdoor gardening spot. I have an idea in my head, but it would take money I don't have an not sure if I ever will. I want a place where people can come and relax, learn about health and nutrition, and learn about things like yoga, meditation, and things like that. This will remain a goal for the future if I ever have the resources to do it, but for now, I will have to think of something else. One of the reasons why I was inspired to write this blog post is to re-energize myself and remind myself of my beliefs. With the superbowl this weekend, I bought a lot of processed foods that I am trying to get away from. Now that the superbowl is over, I need to get back to my goal of eating clean. I also want to start growing some plants in my basement. I had wanted to start earlier than this, but I haven't yet. I would love to get a couple of chickens, but I'm not sure that will happen this year. I want to start making my own foods instead of buying things like yogurt at the store. I'm sure I will still eat out, but I am going to try to limit that. If I do eat out, I want to make sure that I make good choices. I want to start eating less meat. I'm not sure I still have the goal to be a complete vegetarian or a complete vegan, But I want and need to neat more veggies, less meat, more non-animal protein, less starchy carbs, less sugar, and limited dairy. I need to start meditating more and doing yoga and even start running as well as some core exercises. I need to get my body moving and strong. This will help with getting my mind and body into a good place. As well as getting my body back in shape, I want and need to get my mind active and relaxed. I am hoping that I can use creativity for this as well as exercise. I'd really been enjoying my bird feeders at my windows and finally got a cardinal at the window for the first time (at least that I have seen) the other day. I need to start doing better at getting off Facebook and other social media and start spending more time doing things instead of just reading about things. I'm ok with spending time online researching things, but I need to start doing! I need to get my butt outside and enjoy being outside; in my backyard, on a hike, going for a walk, and other things like that. I want to enjoy my garden and my bird feeders. I am also going to try to get involved in a community garden project that my town is trying to start.

I wish I could find a job that I could use my love of natural health, creativity, and healthy eating. I have been using my own handmade soap, my own handmade deodorant, my own toothpaste, all using coconut oil as the main ingredient. I have started using coconut oil in my coffee and am loving it. I need to find more ways of making my own things. My next goal is to make my own laundry detergent. I've made it in the past, but I didn't like the recipe I used. I'm going to look St my friend Jenny's blog, http://journeytowardsimplicity.blogspot.com and see what I can learn from her. She inspires me to continue on my journey to living the life I want to live. Amy

Wishcasting Wednesday

It's Wednesday once again and once again I am joining in with with Jamie riddler at http://jamieridlerstudios.ca where she asks; "What do you wish to learn?"

This is an both easy and a difficult question to answer.  My broad answer is any and all creative thing I can learn.  I want to learn more about holistic health, aromatherapy, herbs, bath and body products, as well as more crafting creative ideas.  I currently am looking to learn about batik dying so that I can dye my own fabric to use in my sewing projects.  I want to learn to dye my own yarn.  I want to learn more about art and crafting as a therapeutic tool (for my professional career), I want to learn more about all the creative things that I already know and  do.    I could go on and on.  The reason that this question is difficult to answer is that there are so many specific things that I want to learn.  I guess, on some level, the most important thing for me to learn will be how to use art and crafting as a creative tool so that I can use it in my professional career.

As an aside, I am officially the chapter leader for Massachusetts for "Enchanted Makeovers".  I am the go to person for MA for people who want to donate dolls, pillowcases, and/or capes for children who are living in shelters.  This is my first way of introducing creativity and community involvement into my life.  Hopefully in time, I will be able to do more of this and branch out on my own with community involvement and crafting. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting more about Enchanted Makeovers and what I will be doing in the state of Massachusetts!

I recently went to an art therapy conference and it definitely made me want to do more with the arts and crafts with my social work practice!

Amy

Defining Goals

Like I said in my last post, I have a few goals that I want to work on in the coming year.  I think, to make sure that I actually follow through, I am going to give myself time to get there instead of making myself meet all the goals at once.  I also need to define my goals a little better.  When I wrote them, I just wrote them down to have an idea of what I wanted and needed to work on.  Now it's time to get to the knotty gritty of what I want to work on so that I know how I am going to meet these goals.  I will probably at some point actually write up these goals like I was working as a social worker with problem, goal, interventions, and time frame listed so that I can measure and see if I am actually doing what I want to do.  I will also be re-evaluating from time to time to make sure that the goals are still what I want and see if I need to change anything.  For now though, I am just going to me a little more specific about each goal.

1. Cook more healthy foods, cook from scratch, and try to be as sustainable as possible: This is pretty self explanatory and basic, but to break it down, I want to follow through with eating the way I should be eating, stop using processed pre-made food, and try to eat local, and in season when possible.  My goal is to shop the perimeter of the store, buy less packaged foods, make what I can instead of buying pre made such as using dried beans, making bread (gluten free), and buying good healthy food and making sure that it tastes good not just healthy.
2. Make time to be creative: I know how important it is for me to be creative, but I don't always make it easy.  I am hoping to figure out a way to be able to make it easier to be creative (maybe if our house guest of 8 months leaves, I can set up something in the basement and keep it set up instead of setting up and taking down each time.  I need to make set projects so that I am not trying to pull together everything when I find the time to do something creative.  I also need to finish one project at a time instead of having multiple projects going at one time!
3. Try to live as natural a lifestyle as possible: I am trying to eat healthier, more sustainable, and locally.  I am going to try to make my own cleansers and bath and body products for me and my family.  I am going to try use less paper products and use cloth products more.Sometimes, I find myself using paper towels more often than not just because it is easier.  I am hoping to use towels more and paper less.  I am also hoping to use my cloth diapers more consistently.  I have been doing a really good job here, but I am using disposable wipes more often than I had in the recent past and I need to get back to using the cloth wipes (especially since I like them better).  I have been using cloth pads for my last couple of cycles.  This may seem kind of gross and a little TMI, but I actually do like them better and I like again that I don't have to throw them out I just wash them daily with my diapers for the kids.  And again, a little TMI, but I want to use more family cloth instead of toilet paper.  I was doing it for a while, but stopped for some reason I can't explain.  The best part is I have a ton of flannel receiving blankets and fleece scraps that I can use so I will not have to spend money or waste material.  As I find or think of more ways of living naturally I will work on incorporating them into my life.
4. Spend more time in direct play with my kids: I have tended to let the kids watch tv probably more than I should.  I sometimes feel like I have contributed to my kids speech delay, but I know that there are other issues that have contributed to it too.  It has been a lot of work having 3 kids so close in age.  As tough as it has been though, I am glad that they are close in age.  Now that they are a little older (in 20 days, I'll have 3 three year olds for a month and a half), it is so much fun to watch them play with each other (that is when they are not fighting).  We got a bunch of new toys for Christmas and I am loving how they play.  We will be incorporating more structured play into our day as well as non structured play.  My twins are being evaluated for public pre-school, and while I don't think that they will get in, I will not put them into pre-school for 2 years.  I can't afford 2 in school for 2 years and I don't think that it is needed either, especially since I am home with them.  That being said, I think that have a homeschool pre-school setting is a good thing to do.  The only thing that I think will lack is interaction with other kids, but I am hoping that with playgroups, I can find kids for them to interact with.
5. Get my stuff organized: Man, this is going to be a work in progress!  A huge work in progress.  I'm not even sure I know where to begin.  This is one where I will need to start with one room, one area of one room and start small.  I will add more to this area as I figure out what to do.  One thing i do know is that I definitely need to have a system for cleaning.  That may be the first thing that I put in place.  How to keep up with the laundry, vacuum, clean the kitchen, plan my meals, etc.
6. Start an etsy.com store: This is a goal I have had for a while.  I want to try to make a little back from what I spend on materials being creative.  I am hoping to make fun, creative small little accessories that people can feel good about buying for themselves or a gift.
7. Learn more about the things that I am interested in instead of just knowing a little about a lot of different things: Wow, this is another area that I need to spend time figuring out how to be specific.  I want and need to learn more about gardening.  I would love to learn more about permaculture and how we can incorporate that into our gardening, both veggie and flower.  I want to learn more about herbs which also goes along with learning more about gardening.  I want to learn more about aromatherapy and how to use it in my day to day life as well as maybe using it professionally.  I want to learn more about art therapy and how I can use it as a career.  I want to learn more about sewing and other crafts that I can work on making and selling or maybe even teaching.  I want to learn more about meditation and yoga.  I want to learn more about journaling and how to incorporate it into my career path.  I want to learn more about cooking and eating healthy (not necessarily traditional nutrition, but more alternative ways of diets).  I'm sure there is a ton more that I want to learn, but for now this is where I am going to focus.

So I have spent some time figuring out more specifics to my goals.  I now need to actually work on accomplishing them.  I am definitely going to wrote these down in more of a care plan format, like I would do for work.  Maybe once I get that done, I can share a couple.  Maybe if I luck out, the twins will get into public preschool and I will have a couple of hours of free time that I can devote to making these goals are reality.  Maybe I can spend time creating and selling so that I am finding time to be creative and also so I can make some extra money.

Thanks for listening (ok reading),

Amy

Amy

Art Every Day 11/13/2011

We are on day 13 of AEDM and I really have not been meeting my goal. this weekend I did try a new recipe and I started learning how to make CP (cold process) soap and decided that my first attempt at soap making will be hot process (HP) soap making. I have a few goals for this week. I need to start an advent calendar and I need to start it soon. I plan on using this blog post as my inspiration, httt://www.acaseofthemundays.com/2010/12/felt-friday-felt-advent-calendars.html. I need to research HP soap making and supplies. I need to start the projects that I plan to make for the kids' Christmas gifts.

It is really difficult to make time for being creative when you have a 3 1/2 year old and 2 3/4 year old twins, but I think that it is really important for me to make time to be creative. I cant't wait for Tuesday morning. I will have about 2 1/2 hours all to myself. If I can get my act together, I will work on ,y daughter's Christmas gift which will be a felt "paper" dolls set. I am really excited to make this. It will be hand sewn so I can bring it any where. I am also planning on making some felt food as well as some wooden carved food for the kids. I am really excited to make the kids a lot of their gifts.

And now for a confession. I mentioned that I am going to start focusing on jewelry making as my creative medium, but I have decided that it is just not in me to limit the mediums or the type of craft that I use to be creative. I would love to be one of those people who can just excell at one thing, but I am the type of person who likes to try all kids of crafts and crafting mediums! I love learning new things and ways to use different materials. Maybe I really do have ADHD especially creative ADHD! I just need to plan better! I have all sorts of ideas in my head to get more organized and have more time, but right now they are just not coming to fruition! All in due time, I guess!

For now, I am just gng to try to focus on being creative and not worry about anything other than making time to enjoy being creative!

Amy