Hey, everybody!
Time for another random collection of things we’re enjoying at our house these days:
1) Drinking water through a straw.
I’ve been reading another health book recently, because I’m always up for a good book with some new tips or recipes or whatever. The whole book is completely awesome, but my favorite tip has been to drink water with a straw! What?! Who knew straws are healthy!!
Here’s the deal: When you drink from a straw, you gulp down less air, so you can fit more water into your stomach, and not feel uncomfortable. Judging from my own experimentation, I would have to agree with this. Plus, the straws at our house are all neon-coloured, and there’s something very festive about using a bright, flashy straw. Every day is a party.
I have been drinking more water over the past week, which is awesome. But according to the book, if you’ve been dehydrated for a long time (and about 90% of all North Americans are, apparently), your body takes a few weeks to adjust to soaking in all the extra hydration. Going from drinking 2 glasses of water to 10, overnight, for example, will not start working instantly – you’ll just flush most of it out. But gradually, over a few weeks, your body “wakes up”, gets really happy about lots of water, and then your life is awesome forever after. Or something like that.
So to get all this awesome water into your body, you grab a straw. Very easy. Very festive. Now there are straws all over the place at our house. I’m kind of intrigued with the idea of reusable, stainless steel straws…
2) Purging our fall and winter clothes, and doing a little shopping to fill in the gaps.
I am a big believer in liking what you have. If I don’t like what’s hanging in my closet, I get rid of it. Sometimes I replace it, sometimes I realize I never needed it in the first place.
In the midst of all of this reshuffling in our closets, I came across this blog post: Why I Wore the Same Outfit Everyday For a Year
I loved it! Such a great read. She learned some pretty fantastic stuff from her experience. I think my favorite part was that during a whole year of wearing the same outfit, exactly ONE person asked her about why she always wore the same thing.
People really don’t care nearly as much as we think they do.
My other favorite observation?
The way I interacted with others changed. I felt less on display when I walked around outside. I knew I didn’t have as much to “hook” people in with, so I had to be twice as interesting to convey my value. I cared a lot less not just about impressing people with my clothes, but about impressing people in general. I felt more comfortable in my own skin.
What an idea, hey? If people won’t like us more for our clothing, we need to try harder with the personality!! She wasn’t writing from a spiritual point of view, but I think it fits – care less about the outside, and more about the inside.
I couldn’t do the same outfit for a year, but a month? No…maybe a week? Just for fun? I’m curious…There’s nothing wrong with wearing nice clothes, but I don’t want it to take up too much space in my brain or my closet. Sometimes I think I like clothes far too much…
3) Washing our windows with this intriguing method.
Window washing is a struggle around here. I like clean windows, but having tendonitis makes it pretty difficult for me to clean them on my own. Ben is great with helping around the house, but I didn’t know how excited he’d be about washing all of our windows before fall.
Fortunately, I came across this idea on Pinterest: a window-washing solution that promised streak-free windows without any polishing. You slosh it on, wash it off with a hose, and you’re done.
This sounded far too good to be true, but I really wanted it to be true. So a couple of nights ago on a beautiful fall evening, I convinced Ben to help me give it a try. He scrubbed it on, I washed it off.
I wouldn’t say it was a home run, but the windows look pretty good. The solution is VERY soapy, and I needed to rinse it off better than what I did. The first few windows look the best, and I spent the most time washing them off.
We will definitely be trying this again, but I’ll be sure to wash up very thoroughly. It’s still MUCH easier and faster to use this method than a squeegee or a polishing rag.
Note: I think my windows would also have looked a lot better, if Kaylia hadn’t been inside, scrubbing the windows with a tomato! Who does that?! What would make her grab a tomato and start rubbing it on the windows?? BIG mess to clean up when I got in! Yikes.
4) Attending a prophecy class!
Oh, this is so out of my comfort zone! There is still far too much conservative Mennonite girl in me to feel at ease about this one!! But that’s kind of why I’m doing it. My friend asked me if I wanted to go with her, and I was feeling as though I needed a challenge – something that would stretch me.
This will do it! We went to our first class last night, and I think it will be good. I’m sure I’ll have much to get off my chest in the weeks to come! You’ll be hearing more about this one…
5) Laughing over some Brian Regan.
SOOO funny! We used to get together with the other staff at Red Rock Bible Camp in the evenings, and watch Brian Regan together. And then for days after, we’d be quoting lines, and the fun would never end.
The other night, Ben got a Brian Regan video going, we laughed like crazy, and then I went to bed with that awesome, sore stomach feeling from laughing so hard. Perfect way to end the day!
***********************************
Anything new going on in your life? What have you been up to?
Ordinary Days 