Tag Archives: learning

Overcoming Overwhelm: Tackling Life’s Challenges One Detail at a Time (or How to Eat an Elephant)

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Oh friends! Have you heard the saying “It’s all in the details?” I’ve been feeling it this week. All the tiny things that have added up. Perhaps details are not the right thing to describe all those little nuggets of the day to day that need to be done but just eat up time. Mother’s day weekend has passed and we’ve all heard the stories of moms who need a break from all the things they do all day… and it’s true. My Pinterest board is loaded with things I’d love to try but never seem to get around to. There always seem to be dishes to do, or laundry, or a meeting, or a stupid walk for my mental health…

It’s not that I am bitter about it, it just seems to be fact that there is always some little thing. A form needs signing. A call needs to be made. A shelf fell down in our bathroom. It sat for days on the counter while I found proper hooks and measured and stuck it back up. It’s more than likely too high, but I am not fixing it again. Even tonight, a belt broke on our riding lawnmower, and the hubby had to hook it back up (with much fiddle-dee-dum frustration I may add to get it all aligned and working). It was a task that seemed to take way longer than it should. A hook. A lost button. And don’t forget to feed the dog. Empty the dishwasher. Is it me? Am I so disorganized I never seem to be up to date? Or is that just life?

Speaking of life… that comes in little things, too! If you have been following mittonmusings for any period of time, you know that one of the goals, one of the bucket list items, one of the long sought after tasks were chickens! WELL THEY ARE HERE!! Six beautiful little babies arrived on Thursday. Even then, there were tiny glitches. They were supposed to arrive on Tuesday, but the hatchery didn’t get orders and so we were postponed a few days. Don’t ask me what happened to the day old chicks that were born on Tuesday?! Maybe I don’t want to know. Anyway… teeny little peepers are now running around my living room (well not literally running around, but they are contained with lots of space in my living room). Again, they have been an example to me of tiny details making all the difference. They each have their own markings and personalities and have grown so fast in less than a week! Tiny wing and tail feathers are starting to show, and their legs and necks are stronger than the day I brought them home all snuggled together in a cardboard box. I am beside myself with joy. So is the dog. Beside himself that is, I dunno about the joy part.

Six baby Chicks have Arrived!

Even my momma robin nesting in the barn has chicks now! Tiny buds are sprouting in my flower bed. Thousands of tadpoles are lining the edges of our pond. The mosquitoes are returning, too. Billions of tiny things are springing right now! What are some of the small, seemingly insignificant things you have noticed in your world today? Have you taken the time to seek them out? Or are you feeling the crunch of all the details in a different way?

I suppose, therefore, it is ones perspective of the details, or “little things” that produce the outcome of our emotions behind the events. Do we struggle and feel overwhelmed that there are too many little things that need to get done? Or are we patient and take one thing at a time and enjoy it ? Savouring the details like fine wine. They say that the easiest way to eat a giant elephant is one bite at a time. And so it is.

As I ponder these things, I am reminded about the story of the mustard seed. Jesus explained that even if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains! I’ve been looking at our property … and we are learning there are a lot of details in maintaining such land… not to mention an old house and a bunch of creatures. I can easily get trapped in the frustration of pride, jealousy, anger etc. that the world view puts on home ownership. Keeping up with the Jones’? Ha! Let’s just focus on getting the grass cut. Of course, I want to have the beautiful gardens and whimsical bunny hotels and bird baths, but these things take work (and cash). Should I be so focused on the big picture? Or is God asking me to eat my elephant one bite at a time? Is it possible to have all I want in under a year of living here? My guess is that it’s not going to work out that way.

Let’s go back to that mustard seed. Perhaps my theology is all wrong in my comparison between faith and house chores. Maybe I shouldn’t compare earthly things to heavenly. Yet the tiny mustard seed… in fact all the seeds I have been looking at lately… are an example to me of how much potential are hidden in the small details. An acorn becomes a mighty oak. My little peeps will grow and produce eggs soon enough. The surrounding farmer fields will soon be higher than me. Things around here will get done, eventually. I have faith. I read somewhere that the meaning of the mustard seed is that our faith is only as strong as the One it’s placed in. And my faith is in a great big God who has blessed us with Itsnotta Farm. So many prayers of petition went in to moving here. Prayers for not only the physical, but that we would do God’s service here with this space and for this time in our lives. It’s an adventure I asked God for. Therefore, I am confident He will see us through it… and all the details that go along with being here.

I’m feeling like this post is a little convoluted. My A.I. assistant is going to tell me I’m not fluent and should “create headers to make my readers understand my message better”. Another detail to worry about. So, you’ll forgive me if I am just throwing you in my messy musings without clear and concise thoughts and conclusions. After all, I am trying to eat an elephant over here this week. Perhaps it will taste better with some mustard.

NEW

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new

/no͞o/

adjective

1.not existing before; made, introduced, or discovered recently or now for the first time. example: “new crop varieties”

2.already existing but seen, experienced, or acquired recently or now for the first time. example: “her new bike”

3.just beginning or beginning anew and regarded as better than what went before. example: “starting a new life”

    OXford Dictionary

    New. New outfit. New Beginning. New month, new season, new house, new experiences. Everyone knows what it is like to experience something new. Anticipation mixed with a little anxiety. Perhaps it’s a thing you’ve always waited for. A dream come true. Perhaps it’s a thing you wish wasn’t happening. A new life lived without someone special. A diagnoses or news you didn’t want to know about. “Already existing but seen for the first time.” The spring season is upon us and I am excited for all the “new” around here.

    Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com

    I dug around in my flower garden for a bit yesterday. I have daffodils! We were not here last spring so I have no idea what may pop up. There is lots of new growth happening. I also cut back a bunch of old growth so a few new things can happen. It’s going to be work, work and more work. I think it will be worth it though. I’m excited about the possibilities (and much to the hubby’s chagrin, I have plans). A new couple has arrived in our cedar hedges: a pair of mourning doves. I am thrilled. I love their haunting cries! I hope they nest somewhere close by. Traditionally, spring is a time for “new life” and babies arrive! We’ll see what happens around here. Chicks have been ordered…. We celebrated Easter at the farm this year instead of in the city, with new traditions and family bonds. Things are different as we age. Kids grow up. Parents get older and new aches and pains arrive. Technology is ever creeping forward (sometimes quickly!) and everything seems new. We must adapt and change and keep up. Even if we don’t want to.

    I used to say I hated change. I wanted things to stay the same. I wanted things to stay within my comfort zone; in a place where I had control over them and I could feel safe about this or that. The familiar was a good thing and I didn’t want it to mutate away from what I knew. Now, however, as I grow older, I recognize that things must change. Without it there will be no progress. They say our brains get better as we go through new experiences. Our brain health improves when we learn new things and try and change and adapt. It makes our neurons fire and our brain matter grow. Just think about all those “littles” who soak up new information constantly: their brains develop at a crazy pace.

    Easter weekend had me musing about a few things, one of which was this idea of a new way of life… especially for the disciples. We got talking about Jewish traditions and the new movement of “Christianity” among the early church. Can you imagine the scene where the world as you know it gets turned upside down because of some radical who was crucified and now has been raised from the dead? Can you imagine if they had social media back then? Taylor Swift or Kate Middleton wouldn’t even be on the radar. Jesus would be all the talk.

    Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

    Yet, Christ followers would have to adapt to a whole new way of life after the events of Easter. Three years of radical existence climaxes into political upheaval, arrests, scattering and thoughts of “what now?!” Do you default to what you know? Go back to the old way of life? Do you trudge forward, taking on the risks that may lie ahead? Do you hide and wait it out, hoping things will settle down and go away? I suppose all the options were available and each one did, as we would, their own thing.

    I’m not sure there is a “right or wrong” outcome to all things new. There is no real way to approach it. Time brings change and there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Let’s embrace it, together, shall we? Join us each week here and keep up with all the crazies of our new country abode and all the changes we take on! I’m on all the social media, too, because it is important to learn new things. Like blogging, and reels, and writing, and social media. Blessings, beloveds.

    Want to see how my writing has changed? Take a journey back to the early days of mittonmusings. Here is a good one about new things!

    Sticky Situation

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    We did it! We did it! We did it! Hooray! Now that I have Dora the Explorer’s theme song running through my head and yours, let me give you a little update on what exactly we did. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we have tapped a few of our maple trees to make maple syrup this spring. Well, our minimal research and best laid, however naive, plans, made me host a “boiling party” this past Sunday. I invited a few friends over to sit by the fire with us and see how the day went. I thought it would be relaxed and fun. Roast a few hot dogs, maybe, get at least half of our sap boiled up, and perhaps bottle a bit.

    Photo by Sindre Fs on Pexels.com

    As life would have it, our plans don’t always work out as we expect. First, our sap is frozen. Stored in the freezer to keep it fresh. That’s fine… but after an overnight thaw, we still had big chunks of ice. No worries, right? Gonna boil it down anyway. Big chunks of ice don’t fit in my shallow pans. Then it rained the night before. Which means our wood and fire spot was fairly damp. We did save some fuel indoors (because we did check the weather!) but the hubby still had a hard time getting the fire going. And he usually has no trouble starting fires. Wink Wink.

    Now remember, we’ve never done this before. We have no idea what we are doing. Yet, we march forward… fire going. Pans boiling. Sap levels start going down. Things appear to be working. Let’s put another pan out and try the bar-b-que. Yeah, that will work. We won’t mention the propane bill. I have fed my guests hamburgers. They are gracious, long time friends whom we love. They don jackets and “check on the fire” and encourage the hubby. We drink coffee and complain about the cold.

    Hours have past. So, let’s get to the crux of this story. We have “thickened” sap. Our research tells us we can “finish off” our syrup inside on the stove. Everyone tells you not to do the maple syrup inside because it makes everything sticky, but this “finishing off” part needs to be monitored. The temperature checks and precision is needed to get the sap to the syrup stage… so it is okay to do this part inside on the stove. Okay. Stock pot locked and loaded. Two inches of sap from an entire 12 litre bucket. Candy thermometer marked at 219 degrees F. And then we got distracted. Chit chatting outside. Thinking the other was watching the pot boil. Disaster. Our syrup was burnt sugar.

    Disaster

    Okay, okay. Let’s fix it. I break out the candy molds. Maple sugar candy… that’s a thing, right? The family says add water… we boiled again. Yes! Syrup! Bottle it in our cute maple syrup bottles… wait. What are the floatie things? Eww. Is it supposed to look like that? Google. Apparently, one must filter the sugar sand or niter that remains in sap-syrup. Coffee filters don’t work. I spilled some. The syrup is now thick and sticky…. and drips and drops are everywhere! On my elbows, on my counter, on the stove, in the sink, in pots, pans and bottles. Sticky rolled up coffee filters with sandy grit are piled and discarded. Spoons and taste testers are left on sticky counters. Our friends have abandoned us. This is why they tell you don’t do maple syrup inside. It becomes a sticky situation!!

    After 6 or so hours and all that… we have two 250ml bottles of thick, clear, sweet maple syrup to enjoy! (And 9 or so more buckets in the freezer to do it all over again with!) Seriously though, we had fun. We learned through trial and error. We laughed, we panicked, we yelled a little, but in the end: We did it!

    We did it!

    And so we come to the life lesson of boiling day. So often, we get ourselves in sticky situations, don’t we? We plan an Instagram worthy party with good friends. We think it is all going to be fluffy and romantic. We underestimate the time needed to invest. We think we will get so much more accomplished than we do. We try. We learn through trial and error and mistakes — and Google? We yell a little. Things get burnt. We waste precious resources and get distracted when we should be focused. We end up with big messes that need to get filtered through the One who is in control of it all.

    Psalm 40 shows us how to get out of that sticky situation and stand again on solid ground. The stability (with all the sweet benefits) of being in the hands of the one who has laid out “good plans” for us. God no longer wants our burnt offerings, as sugary as they may be to us. He wants honest, raw worship and obedience. He wants us to call out to Him in those times of trouble, so He can lift us out of the mess, and show others the Way. It’s tough work. Sometimes it’s messy and things don’t go as planned. Sometimes we have a lot of cleaning up to do. Often, we get given the chance to do it all over again — and learn from our mistakes, as we work towards “perfection”.

    Keep following along. The Mitton crew has buckets full of more chances at perfection sitting in the freezer. And if you receive a cute bottle of syrup from Itsnotta Farm — ignore the floaties –and enjoy the sweetness! Just know it was painstakingly life lessoned and prepared for you with lots of love and time!