Week six - refurbishment planning

This weeks challenge is refurbishment planning. We have been living for 3 1/2 years in the same apartement, and it looks like we just recently moved in. It really needs some pictures on the walls, painting here and there, carpets and so on. This week I´m going to figure out what to do.

The fifth weekly challenge

This week´s challenge is going to be to learn to read faster. I have a book about speed reading which I started to read and study today. Now I have to measure how fast I read and then compare it to the result at the end of the week and see if I managed to speed it up a bit.
Mentally it has been a slow day, the fasting does that everything takes longer time do. Now I have just eaten and besides the headache I feel I am back to normal again.

The fourth weekly challenge - creatíve week

For the fourth week I have chosen the challenge of creating a work of art in different material every day. Today me and my children created a curtain out of decorated shapes made of paper.

Third weekly challenge completed

I have listened to classical music every day this week = task completed!
I learned a little of what I prefer to listen to and what not to, also I learned about some of the great composer´s life. It´s quite the drama when reading the cd covers, insanity and deafness among things. Reading the cd covers is good for understanding the composer and the music better.

During this week I have listened to:

Albinoni - Adagio in G minor for Strings and Organ, Oboe Concerti. The music is very beautiful and relaxing. My favourite composer.
Bach - "Air". Very beautiful and relaxing.
Bartók - Violin concertos 1 & 2. All parts starts so beautifully with the violin, but only a few seconds later they become unbearable.Very painful for my ears.
Beethoven - "Für Elise", "Moonlight Sonata", Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, Quartet in F major, H. 34. I love the "Für Elise" and "Song of Thanksgiving" (second part in Op. 132)and the "Sonata" are very beautiful.
Berwald - Symphony No. 1 "Sinfonie sérieusé, Symphony No. 4. No like, bit boring.
Brahms - Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77. Reading the cover one would assume to prefer Brahms to Schumann (both concertos on the same cd) but I had difficulties in listening to him. "The extensive use of the wind instruments to colour the first movement"..."from which the music seldom descends" and "Its first few notes apart, the violin never has the tune in its basic form." I think explains why I don´t like this music.
Gluck - "Dance of the Blessed Spirits". Very beautiful and relaxing.
Mozart - "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", Serenata notturna in D Major (K. 239), Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in G Major (K.313), Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Major (K. 314), Adante for Flute and Orchestra in C Major (K.315). I like Mozart´s music very much, puts me always in a good mood. Some parts in the concertos for the flute are very beautiful, but I find the flute to evasive.
Pachelbel - Canon and Gigue in D major for 3 Violins and Basso Continuo. Very beautiful. Listened to this a lot.
Sibelius - "Finlandia", "Valse triste", "The Swan of Touvela", "Tapiola". I liked the "Finlandia".
Schumann - Violin Concerto in D minor. This I like.

Summation: I really like listening to classical music and I don´t find it strange anymore. Even listening through the cd with Bartók didn´t make me feeling sick. I soon got the habit of picking fingers in the air, as playing the violin, and it reminded me of an old lady I once saw. Made me feel old , but even so, I will try to continue listen and even go to concerts (not picking fingers there).

Failed the second weekly challenge

Today I haven´t been in a good mood, probably because I failed the second challenge. I didn´t succeed in reading and listening to the whole Arabic course within a week. It doesn´t feel good failing already, well it doesn´t feel good failing at all. I thought the second challenge was doable and I understand now that I had forgotten to much of what I had learned earlier.
I did start reading the course and finished a decent amount of chapters. I find it fascinating that I understand more than I did when I started just a mere week ago, so I have gotten really motivated. Which was the intention: getting started with Arabic again.
But these are challenges! I have to step up, get my grips together, whatever it´s called. I have to understand if I´m up to a challenge, if it´s a possible task. If not - do it anyway!

Arabic - the second weekly challenge

Salam aleikum!
Well, today I started to read the Arabic course. I read through the 2 first chapters, just 13 more to go this week. Takes some time to read and listen to the chapters. I wonder why I didn´t think of having "learning to speed-read" or "early riser" as a challenge before anything that has to do with reading..? :)
Strangely I felt really thirsty and ended up drinking 7 glasses of water today. I think I will keep up the good work as long as I obey the thirst, and drink the whole glass at a time. Kind of remember that I supressed the thought of drinking many times prior to the challenge and only sipping when I was drinking.

First challenge completed

I did it! I did it! :)
To summarize the first weekly challenge: not as difficult as I suspected. The water did finally run down my throat and it seems like I´m always been drinking water (?!) I believe I even drank more than 8 glasses a day since I sometimes forgot to make a mark. Better safe than a cheat...
My stomach does feel a lot better when I drink water, I´m not more energetic though which I anticipated. I have to find something else that makes that happen.
I´m going to continue to drink water, but not as many as 8 glasses a day. I´m going to make it a habit of drinking a glass of water before meals, which makes it 3-5 glasses a day.

Next weekly challenge

The next challenge is for me to finally read the Arabic coursebook I have been borrowing from the library many times but never read past page 1... It´s 265 pages incl glossary and 3 cds. I have some previous knowledge in Arabic, mostly from the beginners course I took at university some years ago, but also from daily listening to my partner telling the kids "kul wa uskut" ("eat and shut up";) ), not to mention the TV which is constantly on either of two arabic childrens channels, so I can hopefully manage it by making a serious effort. Actually just by reading it through is going to set some standard. ;)
The coursematerial is from Living Language, beginners course in modern standard Arabic.

The first weekly challenge - drinking water

It has been tropical weather here in Stockholm for the past few days, well almost for whole last month. The other day it was 35 degrees C and it is very nice after the long cold winter. I have seen to that my kids drink excessive amounts of fluids, wear sunhats and whatever, but I´m not that protective of myself. I´m almost fainting after a long day playing out with the kids and have little, or no, energy in the evenings.
I decided to start to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Maybe you are laughing "that this is no challenge" :), but I´ve tried it before and it didn´t work. I just don´t feel that thirsty. I drink several cups of coffee and maybe one or two glasses of juice at dinner, that´s it.
Water is the foundation of life: drinking water makes you more energetic, makes your bodily functions work better. I even read that not drinking enough water is the main reason for many diseases.
So far I´ve been drinking 4 glasses today despite the hot weather, two and a half hours to go for the next 4. It´s going to be tough. ;)