Hello my lovelies. 🥰
Happy 11/11 😊
Another happy good day in the books (as opposed to one of the other kinds of good days it could have been).
I was much more focused today in my personal study, having prepared myself pretty well, and I made some good progress. 🥳
As I mentioned yesterday, I have far more principles of growth and progress to apply than I have the capacity to do all at once, but that gives me the opportunity to ponder upon the options and decide which are of most valuable immediate impact to me personally.
Before I can do that, however, I need to take time to go back and write down what the deepest desires of my heart are. I already know the answers, but I don’t have them written out in ways that will be of greatest value for me as I work on applying the blessings of knowledge that I’ve been given.
So, that’s the top priority in my personal study. In my couples study time (sans the other half of the couple 🙃), I think of all the topics I’ve been going through, prayer is the one I’m putting at the top of the priority list. My little studies into expectations and blessings have coalesced into principles I’m much more comfortable and confident applying, whereas chatting with Big Papi… it’s coming together, and I made some good progress on that this morning, but there’s a lot of mental work left to do there, and I’m not yet to the place where I’m comfortable and confident because I don’t yet have it all in my brain in a way that I can articulate and create that mental picture of well-rounded and thorough understanding: It’s more like a bunch of mostly-formed thoughts and principles, but not fully-formed thoughts and principles.
Still very incomplete.
Gratefully, Big Papi doesn’t care. He’s just happy I’m back chatting with Him instead of… cursing, uh, loudly at Him. 😅
And having prayer be the tippy of my choices so far could change as I redo my deepest desires dive.
But until that’s redone, prayer is the couple time topic.
What else… (the days are running together, so I’m forgetting what went with which day, and I don’t want to repeat stuff).
I’ve been doing really really well on keeping my morning routine. I miss little things here and there, and I’m still struggling to get breakfast down. I think I remember that I was just going to eat first and not drink the protein drink first thing, but I totally spaced that this morning, So I had the pea protein (it’s just mixed in water if you were wondering), But then I have such a hard time eating again. I think maybe the protein fills me up? Or maybe I’m just not used to eating so early in the morning?
It’s not a huge deal, except for the fact that since I started my new routine, I haven’t once even gotten enough calories in me to maintain my weight. 😅
And it’s funny how psychology and self-image work. I don’t look in the mirror very often… Because I don’t shower all that often. 😅
But when I’m sitting on the floor cross-legged staring at my computer that’s sitting on the floor in front of me, and I’m slouched, I can see that I have a tad bit extra fat or I wouldn’t like it.
But then Jim and Steph up the hill mentioned that I need to start eating because I’m getting skinny, and suddenly when I look in the mirror, now I see myself as starting to get skinny.
Funny how easily my brain can manipulate self image. Like those days I look in the mirror and think I’m decently physically attractive, and then other days, with no real difference, I can think I’m not at all.
Brains. Funny things sometimes. 🙃
Gratefully, I know that I’m a healthy weight and size, and I recognize and can call my brain out when it’s being stupid.
I can also recognize, that there’s a tad bit more squishy that I’d like to have take a permanent vacation, and my muscle mass is certainly decreasing, likely partly because of age (just a little, since I’m only 41) and partly because I haven’t done much of anything that requires muscles for the last 2 months, and prior to that, pretty much all the exercise I was getting was working on cars–which isn’t nothing, but it’s certainly not balanced strength training for improved health and fitness.
🐿️ squirrel!
Wait… 🦎. Lizard!
(that’s for you, Cory. 😁)
I spent a significant chunk of my day trying to find scriptures that were both meaningful to me that I would want to memorize as well as related to what my alarms are reminding me of, such that I can hear the scripture that is the alarm notification tone and know from the scripture what the alarm is telling me.
It’s a lot harder than I expected it to be. 🙃
I can just go through and choose any old scripture if I wanted to, but I want them to be both meaningful for me and useful in the information the alarm gives me.
Whoa! I didn’t realize it was Saturday until muscle memory started typing in ESPN, at almost 5 pm. Hadn’t even had a single thought. It felt so nice!
That muscle memory habit thing happens all the time. Gratefully, I catch myself each time. Sometimes it’s ESPN. Sometimes it’s Drudge Report. Sometimes it’s CNN, etc. It’s so branded on my brain that I don’t even think about what I’m doing. My fingers hit the keys and start typing one of those websites, but then I look at what I’m writing, and I go whoa! and delete what I’ve just written.
Anyway, back to scriptures: I found some good ones, and I’m completely set now for my entire morning up until the time it’s time to work. Then I have a few scattered throughout the day, but I have a gazillion left to find because I purposely created a whole bunch of alarms for things, not just to help me be focused and efficient, but also so I can memorize more scriptures in a way that’s almost… passive?
I’ll just be hearing them over and over and over again every day, and as time goes by, I’ll eventually have them memorized.
I’ve just about got my wake up scripture memorized, so I’ll be replacing that with another one soon that one of my brothers shared with me this evening.
I think I have scriptures for maybe a little over a third of my alarms so far?
Oh! I did servicize this morning! It was a good start. I worked on clearing vines (including poison ivy 😬) that had taken over the trees by the deck that goes out over the creek. I also cleared out a bunch of saplings and tree bushes and whatnot.
I found myself slightly out of breath at times doing the work, so I guess I’ve got proof of concept that it might work. I’m doing it in the dark with a headlamp, so that makes it a little harder, and I was struggling to get my headlamp to fit properly because the strap came out, I couldn’t figure out how to get it back on and have it cinch down properly.
Gratefully, I figured out how to get that fixed later.
What else… I helped Jim hook his truck up to my new trailer, so that we can get the big water tank and pressure washer on it, so we can pressure wash the deck in preparation for repainting it.
I think I’m going to buy another patio swing and maybe a patio hammock that comes with the stand. Might be kind of fun to have that stuff down there for people to just sit and enjoy the sound of the creek.
I also talked to Jim about putting in an artificial waterfall in the creek, and he really liked the idea, so we might do that.
Fun stuff. 😁
All that with me on my way out whenever Steve moves in. 🙃
I spent some time today talking to the realtor who’s listed the house that I’m potentially interested in up in Nauvoo. I also looked at some properties in the surrounding areas on the other side of the river, and also east of Nauvoo in the college town of Macomb. I’ve actually considered buying some rental properties in that college town before, and were I to live in Nauvoo, having rental properties in nearby towns would make some good sense.
We’ll see. Decisions decisions. In some of these little towns, I can buy decent little houses for the same price it would cost me for a down payment here in Arkansas or over in Utah and whatnot.
Oh! I scheduled cars to fix for Monday. I’m gonna try 2 days a week, but I might need to do 3 because it’s cold, and there’s not much light this time of year, so two long days ain’t gonna work so well.
We’ll see how it goes! I’ll have a brace for my wrist on Tuesday. I think.
🤞
Let’s see… good conversation with my mom today. Good little chats with Cory today. And though I didn’t chat with any other friends today, I felt connected.
😊
And little me is gonna go to bed right now but get right back up at 11:11 and post this.
I missed the first 11:11 on 11/11 by one minute!
🙃
So there you go. 🙂
Aaaaaand… I think my brain just died. 🙃
My love to you all. 💚
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 