(not necessarily in that order)
I spent a good portion of this Sunday afternoon basking in the sunshine and the quiet.
It was so peaceful that I decided to take a short video to capture the stillness of the scene.
Only one problem — I was evidently so relaxed that I forgot to switch from photo to video mode! Hopefully some of the peace and quiet will come through the photo.
The project for today was in two parts.
First we released a piece of furniture that served us well for over a decade but was well past its usefulness. Of course, that meant emptying out the accumulation of stuff with which it was filled.
Then Ramesha (with a wee bit of help from yours truly) assembled the replacement furniture, which looks really nice. No picture yet, because we still have to sort through all the accumulated stuff and decide what to discard. In the meantime, it’s all back on the shelves in a bit of a hodgepodge.
Now that it’s mid-November, I’m feeling the reality of short days and chilly weather.
Which is why there’s something incredibly delicious about finding a semi-sheltered spot on a sunny day and really soaking up some rays.
I indulged in this treat two times today, feeling pretty much like a cat enjoying its patch of sun.
A couple of friends wrote comments in response to yesterday’s post that got me thinking about what self-care is and is not.
True self-care means being gentle with oneself. And it shouldn’t be arduous.
I tend to get caught up in the “doing” part of it all (the food restrictions and physical routines) and forget the “being” part.
Nothing new or surprising about that, but I’m always grateful for the reminders.
The eating part of my cleanse is going beautifully — I’ve got a good morning smoothie routine going and my Instant Pot is great for creating enough nutritious food to last for several meals.
But I haven’t made much progress on the other nourishing activities — dry skin brushing, hydrotherapy (showering with alternating hot/cold water), epsom salt baths, and journaling.
It took time to get new food prep routines figured out. I’ve also been distracted by some necessary commitments (like recording the next video for our Patreon subscribers).
Bottom line is I’ve made my peace with adding in the additional self-care practices bit by bit over the rest of the week.
A rather different day than yesterday.
I had a very early meeting, which threw off the new routine I just established, and left my energies feeling rather scattered.
Sitting in the sun and gazing at the autumn leaves ended up being the high point of the day.
My cleanse is off to a good start. Of course, figuring out new routines takes a while, so I ran out of time for some of the self-care elements. But that’s okay; I’ll be more efficient tomorrow.
The big news is that I have to give a shout-out to yet another appliance: my Instant Pot Duo Nova!
I’ve always found appliances rather intimidating, but had heard great things about the Instant Pot. So I bought one on sale for a great price, only to have it sit in the unopened box for months. I finally unboxed it, only for it to sit on a shelf for another six months or so.
But today I took it off the shelf and used it to make a very healthy dinner of quinoa, leeks, Brussel sprouts, and fish.
It sort of feels like I climbed Mount Everest!
Living out in the boonies as we do, I’m accustomed to seeing deer literally every single day.
But I still find it wonderful to encounter one of these beautiful guys while out on an evening walk.
I’ve never been much of an appliance person, but this little Ninja Food Chopper has made a believer out of me. There is no way I could have made my microbiome mash without it.
It was still a lot of work. I chopped up radishes, carrots (white, yellow, purple, and orange), green onion, asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, fennel, leek, red kale, turnip, beets, red cabbage, and shitake mushrooms.
I would have included Brussel sprouts and broccoli, but there was no more room in my largest mixing bowl!
My freezer now contains twelve containers of microbiome mash, ready for Monday — the first day of my nourishing cleanse.
Mission accomplished, indeed!
Yep, we’re finally going to visit family and friends in Switzerland this spring. It will have been almost four years since the last time we were in Lugano.
We can hardly wait!