Have you ever been apple picking? This Saturday was my first time and I had so much fun. We took our bikes to the orchard, which is really close to our house.
We were handed a box which we could fill up and fill it up we did. We haven’t been out much the last week and we made sure to soak up every bit of sunlight.
At times it feels like I’m always working. I do this to myself. Because if I relax, work will never get finished. But when I take a break, pick some apples and relax. I suddenly remember why I need to relax. I need to refuel my creative mind and sometimes all it takes to have some new ideas is to get away from it all.
What did you do this weekend?
(big thanks to Nick’s sister for taking some really great pictures of us together!)
- Early morning walk with the dogs
- Making an apple & pear crumble. Recipe coming on monday
- You’re never too old to play with a frisbee
- I can’t believe I live here now. So insanely beautiful
- This dog is one of the craziest dogs ever
- Working on the apple & pear crumble
- The place we live is only 5 minutes from the sea
- Our friend came over and brought a local buttercake
Do you ever feel like you do a lot but you don’t get anything done? I’ve felt like this all week.I feel stressed and like I should be working on something. But at the end of the day, I have nothing to really show for. Starting next week, I’m going to work more organised and efficient. I have complete faith in myself. This will work.
I always have lots of plans and ideas. My mind is constantly thinking about how to make things better.
Inspired by Color Overboard‘s Month of Effort, I decided to put my thoughts into action. It started with making a list of 10 things I wanted to achieve this month. Tomorrow is the end of my month of effort and I loved it. It gave me some perspective and direction. I can really recommend you to look into it and give it a try. It makes focussing on what you want to achieve a lot easier.
I get easily distracted and can lose sight of where I want to go. Nick calls this my ‘shiny problem’. According to him every time I see something interesting, I drift off. Like a crow, seeing something shiny (She does! It goes like: ‘Ooooh, shiny!’). Does this make sense? The joys of being in a relationship. You develop your own language and quirks after a while. When we started living here with Nick’s dad and brother we really had to adjust. While on the road we often only had each other to talk to and we almost became that weird couple that no one understands because they have too many insiders jokes.
Normally I have Nick edit posts like this, to make them coherent and so it doesn’t show how easily I derail. I started out with sharing about my Month of Effort. I end up talking about our own relationship language. I’ve got the ability to do this during any activity, at any time. Sometimes I just drift off. Or see something shiny.
What do you think? Are you trying a Month of Effort? Any tips for me to be less distracted all the time?
- We’re so glad to have our bikes back.
- This little owl stole my heart. It’s so fluffy!
- We made our own Pho from scratch and these were some of the spices. Recipe coming soon!
- This gorgeous island with its blue skies
- Fence covered in wool. There are so many sheep here.
- Ice at the local ‘ice cream-farm’.
- A tiny manual sluice.
- All of the ice cream is made from cows milked on site.
This last week, we’ve been riding our bikes around the island, discovering little treasures like the tiny manual sluice (this does sound really Dutch doesn’t it? Who else has a sluice near his house?). These last day of summer are filled with bright days and cold nights. I hope they last forever.
Before we left home to travel, we sold everything we owned. We only kept a few boxes of really important stuff and our bikes.
It’s so weird when you have nothing, no possessions. In a way it is total freedom. There is nothing crowding our rooms and minds. I never have to worry about what I’m going to wear. I only have one pair of shoes. We own nothing except for some clothes, the few souvenirs we bought and some boxes with pictures and such.
It does make it difficult for us to really feel at home. When nothing is yours, it’s hard to make a place feel like home, even though we’re there. We were really looking forward to feeling at home again, something we never really felt while traveling. Don’t be mistaken, there were plenty of places where we felt awesome. But we were always looking for a home, and it seems we’re going to have to stick it out a little while longer. Or at least until we’ve got a place we can give the love and fill with the stuff a life needs.
How are you enjoying your last weeks of summer?
