August Goals and Balance Wheel

Dancer Says: "Take Time to Smell the Roses, Mummy!"

August Goals will focus on Health, of course, as all other things are dependent on my health.  But other aspects of my life will not be neglected while I focus on my health.   As Dancer reminded me this morning:  Take time to smell the roses!  :)

Spiritual: Continue with daily devotions/meditations.  Continue to focus on gratitude and abundance.  Attend the monthly prayer meeting, if possible.  Pay another visit to the temple. 

Environment:
- Outside:  Continue to maintain: Mulch, Weed, Prune
- Inside: Focus on deep cleaning and decluttering: call for a donations pick up

Daughter:  Enjoy her visit, later this month.

Family:  Continue to keep in touch with family members: phone calls, letters, emails, etc.  Call aunt for her birthday.

Friends:  Continue to keep in touch with friends through email/phone calls/video chat, etc.  Get together with two friends this month.

Career:  Continue to work on my projects in a timely manner.

Finances:   Make funds available for daughter's Fall semester tuition due mid-month; pay other bills on time; continue to manage budget.

Health:  Big focus this month is on health.  The mammogram results require follow-up and that is what I'll be focusing on.   

Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies/Me-Time:  Continue to sew down the fabric stash and read.  I'd like to sew at least 2 items from the fabric stash this month.  I am currently reading a book I borrowed from a friend and I have put in a request for another book from the library.  I will also be doing small things to pamper myself, throughout the month.

Productivity and Time Management:  I've received a reminder that my time here is limited and I need to use it wisely if I am to accomplish all what I would like to do.  So, the goal this month is to continue to make efficient use of my time and procrastinate less.  Focus on what is most important and realize that I might have to streamline and let some things go undone and that will be OK.

So those are my goals for this month.

Today, I went to the Post Office when they opened at 10:00 a.m. and picked up the certified mail letter from the radiology lab.  It was simply a modified version of the form letter they had sent me by regular mail, earlier, basically saying the same thing (abnormality detected, I need to follow up with doctor, they have sent a copy of the report to my doctor, etc.) and adding that this letter fulfills their obligation to notify me of my results!  Indeed! 

Milk Rice

The first of the month symbolizes a new beginning, for me.  When the first of the month falls on a regular working day, I don't do anything special to celebrate it.  But, when it falls on the weekend, as today, then, there is time to celebrate.  Then, I make a traditional dish called Milk Rice, which is basically, rice cooked with milk.  It is similar to rice pudding, I suppose, except it is not sweet and has a firmer consistency.  I don't have any recipe for it with quantities specified, but, basically, I cook the rice the usual way with water and a little salt, and once it is boiled, I add milk and cook a little longer to get the proper consistency.  This rice is not fluffy and separate; it is sticky.  Once cooked, it is usually put on a plate, the top is smoothed with the back of a spoon, and cut into diamond-shaped pieces.  Milk rice is made for special occasions, such as New Year's Day, weddings, or other celebrations.  It is eaten with spicy relishes, curries, bananas, or a type of sweet palm sugar known as jaggery, or, even, just regular sugar.  Today, I ate some of it with chicken curry.

The plate on which I've put the milk rice, in the picture, is one from a set of dishes my mother received from her students, one year, for Christmas.  It was 1978; we (my mother, stepfather, and I) had just moved to California from Florida (and Wisconsin, before that!)  All we brought with us from Florida was what we could pack into our car.  So, obviously, not much.  Our first apartment in California was furnished with other people's extras.  At the time, one of the grocery stores was giving out pieces of stoneware dishes, free (or at minimal charge) with receipts showing $5 or more of purchases from that store, and my mother was collecting them, piece by piece.  She had mentioned it to her students, too, and they must have mentioned it to their parents.  That Christmas, they gave a china dinner set to my mother as a collective class gift.  Dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, cups and saucers; four of each.  Over the years, most of the pieces have broken, but I still have 2 plates and three saucers.  I keep (and use them) as reminders of a time when we were restarting our lives in a new place and didn't have a lot. 

I also picked some roses from the garden, which are shown in the top picture.  As I was photographing them, Dancer came to sniff them and it was like he was telling me to take time to smell the roses.  :)

I also did a load of laundry (my bed sheets), which are hanging to dry as I type this.

Today's to do list:

- Post office to pick up certified mail - Done
- Pick roses - Done
- Make milk rice - Done
- Laundry - Did 1 load (bed sheets, etc.)
- Remake bed once pillow covers are dry
- Temple in the p.m.

Today, I am grateful for:

- Being alive
- Roses
- Fond memories
- New beginnings
- Ceiling fans and the electricity to run them!

Hope this first day of August is a day of blessings to all of you, as well.