7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I’ve been rereading this book by Stephen Covey, the first time I read it I think I was only around twelve years old!  I really didn’t ‘get it’ then, but it shows how long I’ve been into reading Personal Development books!

Anyway, I started reading it again recently, and have set myself a “Challenge” to focus on and develop one habit a month for the next seven months.  I’ve been blogging about it on one of my business sites, Excellence Coaching, and will be updating over the months on that site.

The first habit that I’ve been focussing on for July is Being Proactive, looking at what is in my Circle of Influence and what is in my Circle of Concern.

I’ve been finding it challenging, because I can no longer whinge about something (ok, it hasn’t stopped me totally) I need to work out what I can change, what is in my circle of influence, and let the rest go.  Whining and complaining is much easier!

Our garden

I’ve been meaning to post pics of my garden for ages. So finally, here are some as of last weekend!

This is the pots all along under the kitchen window. There’s flowers, parsley, mint, cat grass, a lemon tree, a bay tree (that’s the tiny plant in the black pot!), a pot of radishes and coriander, fruit-salad citrus tree (grafted mandarin, navel orange, valencia orange and pomelo), three avocado seeds that haven’t sprouted yet, dead basil, russian comfrey and a chilli plant.

Then there’s the hanging baskets, with snow peas, sugar snap peas and a Broad Ripple Yellow Currant tomato plant. The tomato plant is still flowering and fruiting, absolutely amazing considering it’s the middle of winter and we’re having frosts! The fruit isn’t ripening though, it’s just sitting there green… Plus the child, who seems to grow anywhere!

These are our gardens along the back fence. The frames were made by Eddie, from scavenged pallets. We filled them about one-third full of ‘vegie mix’ that our neighbours gave us. Vegie Mix is purchased soil, well, it’s sold as soil, but I think that’s exagerating! It’s mainly made from cow manure and fill, plus a bit of fertiliser, and a heap of sand to add drainage. If it dries out it becomes rock hard, and plants actually don’t grow that well in it. However, when you mix it with a heap of compost, manure, vermicast and the odd old bag of potting mix, it does very well!

I’ve been harvesting out of these gardens for about two months now. This is garden one; there’s alyssum flowers, parsley, garlic, parsnips, carrots, spring onions up the back, spinach and some coriander that hasn’t sprouted yet and a cabbage that’s being eaten by bugs. However they seem to be sticking just to that one and leaving everything else alone, so I’m happy to leave it there!

Garden two: two walking stick cabbages, alyssum, silverbeet, garlic, spinach, ordinary cabbages. The one in the front was harvested just after this photo and used for the Cortido in yesterday’s post.

Garden three: Broccoli, Cauliflower, silverbeet, beetroot, garlic, Nero de Toscana Kale.

And I can’t find the photo’s of the pumpkin patch, which is now a pile of compost, but I did find a pic of the pumpkins we harvested. The pumpkins were growing when we moved in here, we think from kitchen scraps thrown on the garden. Also in the patch was two tomato plants, one of which we were able to harvest half a dozen small tomatoes (which Dian took to school in her lunches) however the other plant didn’t ripen before winter hit.

I’m intending to put in at least another three gardens for next spring, just need more pallets and a heap more time!

Cortido

Cortido is South American Saurkraut. I made two jars today using a cabbage from our garden! I’ve noticed how much juicier the home-grown cabbages are than shop bought. They taste way better too! These two jars used almost a full miniature cabbage, plus bought carrots, onion, chilli flakes and oregano. I’ve already picked a cabbage about a month ago and made ordinary saurkraut, with just the cabbage and some fennel and caraway seeds for flavour. There’s one more cabbage that is ready to be picked now, but it will have to wait for a week until I decide what to do with it.

Update on the last week

The boy who bullied Dian on the bus has been suspended from school. I found out that he is severely autistic, and he has no understanding or comprehension that he hurt Dian. The school has been having other problems with him for awhile now, and this incident was the final straw. He has been suspended indefinately. I really feel for his parents, having to deal with this.

I have work until Christmas! The area that I’m working with in Defence, who have been saying for four months that there is no way they can extend my contract, turned around yesterday and asked if I would like to stay until Christmas. Yes please! I’ll still be working 22.5 hours a week, but spread over four days. So I should be home by about 3.00pm each afternoon to get some time in to work on my coaching business! We’re all really happy about it.

Employment and a posting?

I got the news yesterday that the job I had applied for recently, that I really wanted, I didn’t get. I was ‘outstanding’ on my application and interview, couldn’t fault me at all and I should be applying for higher level positions. However…. the job went to someone who had done Executive Assistant work for the last 20 years! So we’re looking at the possibility of me not having work again when my contract finishes at the end of june.

To top yesterday off, I was waiting for Eddie after work, and his boss mentioned that Eddie’s career manager wants to post him again. His position is being upgraded to the next higher rank wef next january, and they want to post someone else in on promotion. Which means reposting Eddie. He’s known about it for a few weeks, but didn’t tell me because he knew I’d freak. Which I did. He was planning on telling me when it was decided one way or another, so I wouldn’t be worried and stressed in the meantime.

It was literally a year ago that Eddie rang to tell me we were posting back to Canberra.

I’ve just been speaking to Eddie about the posting stuff, and we’ve decided that if the army insists on posting us, then we’ll ask to stay in Canberra first, if they have to post us out then we want to go to either Brisbane or Queenscliff in Vic. Either way, we’ll have family there and people we know. My sister and BIL are moving to Brisbane around Nov this year, from London, and I have other rellies in northern NSW. The in-laws are all down in VIC.

If they can’t post us to any of those three locations then he’ll discharge. It’s literally worth about an extra $100,000+ for Eddie to do another three years, we don’t want to lose that by being too inflexible. All three of those locations have heaps of positions for his rank and trade.

Kids and bullying again

Where do I start? These last two weeks are kind of a blur! We’ve all had the flu, Eddie was first, then Dian, in fact she didn’t go to school at all last week, then I had/have it. Thankfully we’re all on the mend.

Dian’s been getting bullied at school, we think that is under control at the moment and things are looking up, and then she came home yesterday with this story. She goes to school on the bus, and recently has been sitting next to a 15yo (possibly mentally disabled or autistic) boy, J. I’m not sure how severe his impairment is. Anyway, she’s been telling us that he likes her, and he used to like another girl in her class. That’s bad enough, so I’ve been telling her to sit somewhere else. Yesterday, the only seat available on the bus home was next to Jack.

He told her that tomorrow he was going to bring a knife with him, told her she had to come to his party so he could flog her, and then proceeded to push her head down to her knees and sit on her five or six times! Apparently the kids sitting near told him to stop but he wouldn’t, and the bus driver didn’t notice.

I’ve reported it to Dian’s school, and the deputy principal rang J’s school. They are all horrified, as they should be, and we’ve been told that we can report it to the police if we choose to, as an assault. I’ve chosen not to at this point, but if he ever touches Dian again then it will definately be reported!

June Capsule Contest

I’ve signed up to be a part of Stitcher’s Guild June Capsule Contest. The idea is to make a wardrobe capsule of four garments and one accessory during June. One item must be a top, one item must be a bottom and no black! I’ve already decided what I’m going to make:

Skirt - choc brown wool blend fabric, with a split centre front and back to show a gathered underlay of chiffon (or similar). I saw a skirt like this last year, asking $$$$$, and decided to make my own but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Trousers - I need heaps more trousers for work! At this point I’m planning on making them out of a gorgeous dark olive green fabric I’ve seen at Addicted to Fabric. I’ll be using Vogue 1040 as the pattern.

Top 1 - A knock-off of a top I saw in the latest Undercoverwear catalogue. I have to draft the pattern myself for this one, a v-neck tunic style top to just under the bust, with a fitted ribbing body in a contrasting colour. I have an orange/pink/tan fabric that matches perfectly with a choc brown ribbing I have.

Top 2 - A blue/purple/cream almost-paisley patterned fabric, using a crossover top pattern Butterick 5084.

For the accessory I expect (although this could easily change!) to make a necklace using brown, olive and cream beads.

I really need more office clothes for work, so this will be a great opportunity to make some and have some fun with others sewing at the same time!

Chinese Traditional Medicine and Fertility

I’ve been reading The Infertility Cure, that was recommended by a friend and decided to go and see a Traditional Chinese Medicine Dr for the infertility. had my first appointment today.

It was interesting… the Dr doesn’t speak english! LOL! So we had a male translator… I don’t think his english was all that brilliant either! Not to mention the fact that we were discussing my cycle in a lot of detail!

Other than the language barrier, it was really interesting. The Dr took my pulses, then asked “Do you think a lot, all the time?” Absolutely nailed it! My mind is ALWAYS going! I literally go to sleep and wake up thinking! Anyway, apparently I have unbalanced liver and spleen Qi and blockages. I had massage and acupuncture, and have to have another nine sessions of those and pick up some herbal stuff tomorrow.

The massage was fine, not like a normal massage, it’s designed to work on the acupressure points. Which was all very well until she touched the liver points and I nearly hit the roof, several times! The acupuncture stung a little, not when the needles were inserted but afterwards. I had two on each foot, one in each shin and three in my lower belly. The one on the left side of my belly hurt! It felt like something was both pressing down and pulling taut at the same time. The others just stung a bit, but that one hurt!

The things we do….

Recent Sewing

A few weeks ago I made two tops, out of cheap fabric to check the pattern fitting. The first one was a disaster, waaaay too big! (Silly me, I followed the pattern sizing!) The second one turned out well, after I ignored the pattern sizing and just made it in a size that looked right!

I had to add a ‘modesty panel’ partly to cover up and partly to keep the crossover front pieces sitting nicely. The fabric is very stretchy and drapey. I bound the edges, including the hem and sleeves with a coordinating plain purple jersey.

I quite like this top and will be making this pattern again, with a better fabric, now that I know it fits!

Business Changes

It’s been a long time coming…. I’m splitting Excellence Coaching into two separate markets, Life Coaching and Business Coaching. I have a large proportion of Work At Home Mums/Moms (WAHM) as clients, and I really can’t cater to both the business side and the Life coaching side at the same time. So I’ve made the decision to set up a second website, totally separate from Excellence Coaching, that focuses on WAHM Business Coaching. It’s going to be called WAHM Business Builder and should be up and running by June. This should make it a lot easier to serve both the markets that I currently have.