Decluttering and Minimalism

I’m really excited to have made so much progress on my kitchen in the last week or so because it has helped me realize what comes next. I have a plan for my music/reading area once my fridge is back where it belongs. Most of it is just reorganizing things I already have. I’ll need to get one item from IKEA and I eventually plan to get another item later on. More on that in the coming weeks.

DIY and Projects

I did some paint touchup on Tuesday. It wasn’t a lot of painting, but it was another thing that had to be done because the walls had gotten white specks on them from the upper cupboard painting. I’ll do that painting on the other side earlier on. And if my walls don’t look right because of the time between coats and joining together is noticeable, I’ll get some wallpaper for the two end walls that blends it all together nicely. I hope it just works out, but I might do that on the wall nearest the stove anyway because it may be easier with the hood complication.

On Thursday, I got the last bit of backsplash up near the fridge. It is composed of leftover bits from the rest of the backsplash work on the sink side. The sink area needs the same treatment, but it’s accessible and my fridge needs to get out of my music room. The picture I took after putting them up allowed me to see that a couple at the bottom were not in line with the rest and I was able to adjust them using my level.

I had to do that as the backsplash went further than the end of the cupboard. I followed what is stated all over. That is to have your backsplash go several inches below your cupboard level. It’s supposed to help protect against water damage. But hardly anyone does it and this is likely why. It just adds extra work at the end of the day. I may not bother on the other side of the kitchen because it has been more of a pain in the rear and caused delays. Perhaps just the amount of tile that will be as thick as my countertop is more reasonable than the recommended 4 inches. There shouldn’t be a lot of water on the other side of the kitchen anyway.

On Saturday, I began the dry fit of my flooring and I quickly discovered that I hugely miscalculated and did not have enough flooring. At first, it seemed like it was discontinued and that I was going to be SOL, but I found it and ordered the rest that I needed. Hopefully, it all comes together OK!

On Sunday, I installed the tiles in the fridge area first thing in the morning. It feels great to finally make it to this point! As my dad used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together!” I think that’s also from The A-Team. We used to watch it a lot when I lived at his house.

Education and Spirituality

I’m currently taking an online course called Science of Exercise. It’s pretty heavy, but very interesting. Some of it is definitely going over my head, but that’s OK.

Gaming and Puzzles

I’ve made it further in Disney Dreamlight Valley this week. I’m really enjoying it. I have a decent number of characters, but still so very many to get. I just have the base game currently, but I will likely get the expansions after Christmas. It’s cozy, but I haven’t felt like I’ve been grinding at all. The tasks are different enough from each other. I never know what I’ll need to get in order to help fix the world. There is added comfort in hanging out with characters from my childhood. The storyline does get dark at points and includes a trigger warning.

Health and Fitness

It was finally time for women’s hockey again! PWHL returned this week and I could not be happier about it. I had hoped to be entirely done my kitchen before this, but there has been too much to figure out and other life things to deal with that were sucking up my mental energy. This week we had a few name issues in the captions including:

Emerance Maschmeyer: Emirates AshmireBuglioni: Bublion, Buglion, Bubble OnlyBilka: VilaSerdachny: Sir DakneCorine Schroeder: Kim KimGuilday: GildickBourbonnais: Borbonat Burban?: Soya OhSavolainen: Seba linenManon McMahon: Mana McMahon

OK, some I couldn’t even decipher with a web search. Emirates… Well, that involves Dubai in some way. Kim Kim, is just funny. I feel bad for Rory Guilday as that was not a great captioning mistake. Bourbonnais is rather funny. Mana for McMahon could be a could nickname if she’s energetic.

Music and Songwriting

Choir was quite lovely this week. We’re sounding pretty tight and still have four practices left. I think the Solstice performance will be our best yet! And we’re doing some of the pieces with the other choir, so it’s going to be amazing. We have so many altos and enjoyable parts in several of the songs. I’m pretty excited about it.

Reading and Writing

I’ve made a lot of progress on The Tapestry of Time this week. I’ve been able to focus on reading more recently and I’m loving it. I’m hoping to soon have a space for it as I think it will be even better to have a dedicated area to escape to and ignore the rest of the world.

Catch you on the flip side,

Rae