How big is your vocabulary?

Bonjour!!!  I survived! The French presentation was far from perfect, but I did it! Oh my gosh -- I remember when I could slip between French and English with no thought, and I still can. It's just that there's a whole lot of new terms that are not in my vocabulary!

I have to laugh because I get an e-mail from Grammarly with my stats for all my writing. 

According to them, I use a lot more unique words than 97% of other Grammarly users. Hmm  -- I don't know about that. I really don't. But it makes me feel good, I suppose. Let's just say that my French vocabulary is quite a bit smaller than the English one. I'm working on it! And look at the total number of words that I have written since February 13, 2016. 

I'm listening to the radio, and they are talking about people seem to have different personalities when they speak another language. I think they were referring, not only to themselves but to our Prime Minister. There was a French debate last night for the upcoming election!

Well, no matter -- I'll get through it, and I'll become more comfortable with each presentation. I have TWO presentations in French next week. Did you know that you can change the language in your sewing machine? OK -- I can do that with my Husqvarna Viking and PFAFF machines -- these are the higher-up machines. There are loads of languages in them. So I have to switch the machine to French and retake the screenshots for the presentations. That's on the agenda for this weekend. 

All in all, it's a good exercise, and I'm happy to see how much of my French that I have retained. It's been a long, long time since I haven't used it daily. Now to find a good French radio station. Or audiobooks in French? Or a group chat once a week? I must do that -- I need the practice. 

We had a HUGE downpour of rain the other night. So much that the little creek in the forest actually had water in it. It never has water at this time of the year. Our pond was almost overflowing, but thankfully no water in the house. 

Water in the creek in the forest

This doesn't really show how beautiful the sun is when it shines in through the trees in the morning, but it was stunning to see. 

Sun shining through the trees

Here's something that I noticed in the last two days. I have major issues with a dry nose. Yep --- it's awful and can be painful at times. I have just lived with it and, to be honest, never really paid too much attention to it. However, I'm reading a book called Breath by James Nestor, which is about breathing and the first part is all about the difference between nose breathing and mouth breathing. Mouth breathing is BAD - nasty, and we should all be breathing through our noses, which I think I do most of the time. 

Anyway, I've realized that the humidity we've had all summer has kept my nose moist and happy. Now that the humidity is gone, my nose isn't happy. Why has it taken me many decades to figure that out? I'd better start up that humidifier at night because the humidity makes a HUGE difference. 

I did a wee bit of cleaning. OK -- this was an item that I removed from the shelf in the office, and it has sat on the kitchen table ever since. I had a professional organizer help me clean up the office a while back and get me organized. I started this paper planner. What was the year? 2007!!!!  

Great hopes of staying organized

Did the session help? Obviously NOT!! I emptied the agenda of all things personal, and it will go. I have someone who might be interested in the paper, but I'm not interested in it! I keep things on Google these days, and it works for me. That's the BIGGEST issue with cleaning and organizing, losing weight, or whatever other habit you are trying to change. Unless you are coached, unless you are committed to making changes, you will gain the weight back, your office will go back to being a huge mess. It's human nature. It's like a law of human beings. 

However, I am NOW fully committed to getting rid of all this stuff. It is NOW that I should have that personal organizer come in, and we could have this place tidied up in a day. However, I know that I will do it, and I'm happy to work in small chunks of time. I'm good with it!

I was off cleaning another area -- well, I was digging out all my Kimberbell embroidery patterns. Oh my -- there are a few. Anyway, while searching for them, I came across a red scrap box. Who knew that one was missing? It's now back on the shelf with the others. 

A missing red scrap box

I trimmed two customer quilts, so they are now ready for pickup. This is the back of the T-shirt quilt. Four shirts didn't fit on the front, so they are part of the back. 

The back of the T-shirt quilt

And my MIL is looking for more work to do. ACK! I can't keep up. Well, I have one small quilt for her to bind. And she had finished off these string pieced blocks a while back, so I'm madly trimming them this morning, so I can give those to her. 

Trimming string blocks

And I have a Quilts of Valour quilt that needs the binding put on. I need to trim that this morning as well. Then I'll start her making the blocks from the flannel scraps that got sorted a while back. Yes -- I will get her working on these scraps and get those used up!! I MUST take advantage of the resources available to me at this point in time!!!

Oh, Murphy! She has two toy boxes. Lexi couldn't care less about toys. In her words - "toys are for babies!"  The house was cleaned yesterday - Murphy can't cope with a clean house. So instead of bringing in mud and leaves, she had to rifle through the boxes. What was she looking for? No idea. 

Murphy's toys

More toys out of the toybox

I got a notification from the gym yesterday that they need my vaccine certificate. I've got it printed off and will take it next time I go. Thankfully, they will put it on my record, so there's no need to show it each time I go. I know this is a big issue for some people, but what's the big deal? I have to show my membership card each time I enter. But I won't go there -- it's too political. 

And I learned that it's NOT a good idea to pair a set of earbuds with your phone and your computer. When I turned them on last night, they paired with the phone and NOT the computer, and I had to disconnect them from one device and hook to the other. That is not something I want to do all the time. I must get that other set of earbuds connected to the phone ONLY, and I'll be good!

On that note, I'm out of here. I have an English presentation this morning. Ah -- that is going to be super fun and easy! I'll use my expansive vocabulary to knock their socks off. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!