Week 5 Evaluation or, When the Universe Conspires Against You

This week has been more disrupted than expected. It’s funny how when you make plans such as deciding you will do something at a specific time on specific days the universe goes, “Oh really? Well, we’ll just have to see about that!”. What’s that old saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans”? Well, I’m thankful that it was just little stuff instead of life altering tribulations.

I didn’t do art as my job this week therefore I’m hoping to do some drawing, including my homework, now through the weekend to make up for it. Only drew one day this week so far. I did get some rough drawings of the heads in ¾ view done but that is all.

Doing my numbers was also severely impacted but I will do as many as I can today and tomorrow to try and reach my goals for the week.

Numbers for pushups, sit-ups, and form repetitions this week, so far, are as follows:

Pushups (modified): 365/1000

Situps (modified): 406/1000

Weapon Form: 0/50

Hand Form: 20/25

The knee is a little better this week. I got an elastic and Velcro knee brace and that seems to have helped me reduce the strain on it. I feel kind of weird complaining about my knee when my spouse just finished getting fitted for much more serious knee braces yesterday, for both knees. As a result I keep reminding myself that I’m trying to prevent needing such things myself and therefore I have a right to be concerned about it. The two classes that I wore the knee brace for this week are the first two in the last few weeks that I haven’t come home in pain.

Got one more chapter of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance read. Now on to chapter 14.

The big declutter project I was hoping to make noticeable progress on this week has not happened so far. Hoping I can still do it by the end of Saturday.

One of the “clutter magnet” areas is almost clear of clutter again. A big help was the removal of a coffee table that was waiting to go to someone else’s house. That large flat surface was apparently too tempting to pass up putting clutter on in the meantime. Now that the table is gone that area should be easier to maintain… I hope.

It is amazing how getting rid of easily accessible flat surfaces aids in getting rid of clutter problems. We used to have a dresser in the bedroom that always got cluttered up with random stuff. Since we got rid of it and put in a much taller cabinet with drawers and doors we haven’t had the issue with clutter on top of it. Sure the cabinets with doors get cluttered up but it’s all behind closed doors and is so much less stressful to deal with and doesn’t cause stress just by looking at the cabinet the way the dresser used to with all the junk piled on top of it. The best thing is that this has been working for months if not most of the last year.

Something else we implemented with the declutter last year was a cabinet in the living room that has a cupboard designated to each individual living there (and the grandchild that comes to visit). I had noticed that each of us has things we do in the living room and dining room that inevitably results in stuff being shuffled around and left around when it’s time to have dinner or tidy up the living room, but these things didn’t have a home in the meantime. My sketchbook(s) would get moved to the couch or coffee table when cleaning up the dining table for dinner. Someone’s laptop would be moved to another place when someone needed the couch and coffee table. Books people were in the middle of reading were left lying about. What lives in these cupboards changes all the time depending on what each person is doing (eg. Hobbies) or interested in at the time. Mine currently is filled with art supplies and books I’m reading. By designating a cupboard for each person to put these belongings, that are in the middle of use, temporarily away (out of sight) we again have a much tidier space to live in. It’s not perfect but it’s so much better than it used to be! This cabinet is also too tall to easily put stuff on on top of.

Numbers:

Pushups (modified): 3521 / 50,000

Situps (modified): 3489 / 50,000

Weapon Form: 157 / 1000

Hand Form: 120 /1000

Random Acts of Kindness: 42 / 1000

Sparring: 50 / 1000

Kilometres: 104 / 1609

Memorize “Mastery”: 1

Nurture Relationships:

Blogging: 10 / 52

Art Like it’s My Job: 24 / 252 days

Declutter my life: 8 days this year where some decluttering was done

Greatcoat project: Well, the bobbins finally arrived.

Improved flexibility: 9 days