Sunday
Stretchy, sleepy, no-alarm
Dozing, slow-moving
Time for breakfast
Lazy
Sunday
I love you!
Frantic, rushing
Procrastinating consequences
I know I forgot something
Where did the weekend go?
Planning, packing
Sunday
I hate you.
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
What I think I can do vs. what I really can do.........
My husband has been in San Diego for the past five days. Every time he leaves, I set out to do something amazing. Like remodel the whole house. Or paint. Or.....ok, just put clean sheets on the bed before he gets back. Whatever my pie-in-the-sky plans are, I always come up short. I did accomplish a pretty big one this time - converting my oldest daughter's former room back into my office. Years ago, when I purchased my house, I had a special "just for me" office added to the floor plan. I loved it. It was a disaster. I called it my second garage. But it was MY space. And it was glorious.
This weekend's transformation took a bit of effort and some help from my strapping 15-year-old son who begrudgingly helped me move the bigger pieces of furniture. Then there was a fair amount of cleaning and purging, and the realization (not a happy one) that my daughter's "stuff" still inhabited 90% of the very generous closet space. But it's functional now, and although it still needs some pretty-ing up - pictures on the walls, perhaps some inspirational quotes? - my desk faces the park and open space behind my house and it's lovely.
My husband will be thrilled that the various plastic drawer-like devices containing stamp pads, stamps, various scrapbooking items, fabric and other miscellaneous stuff are no longer inhabiting the corners of our room. He will be delighted that the many photo storage boxes stacked on top of our dresser are now re-homed in the 10% of closet space my daughter generously left me. To him, these items are my "crap" - the completely unnecessary and ridiculous piles of things I need in order to create things. Kind of like his multitude of tool boxes and rusty tools he calls vital to his lifestyle. In all fairness, though, he doesn't keep his tools in the bedroom, so I guess I don't have to, either. (LOL on everyone who just though of a "tool in the bedroom" joke).
I wanted to clean my bathroom from top to bottom, but that didn't happen. I did make my daughter mop my bathroom floor but noticed that she stopped just short of the tiny closet-like room that houses the toilet. That was very helpful. Kind of like when I asked my other daughter to mop the kitchen floor the other day because the dog's injured foot was bleeding all over it and when I came home to the "yeah, I did it" I noticed a few spots of dried blood still on the floor. Gross AND lazy.
I wanted to have pictures hung in my new office. But first I had to inventory all the frames I had, then match those up to pictures I need to frame, and of course most of them don't match up, so that means I have to print pictures to be framed and when do I have time to weed through my millions of pictures to find just the right ones for the frames? Never, that's when.
I wanted to complete the scrapbook I've been promising my husband for the past two years. When I found all his childhood pictures were glued to the pages of the old-time NON-acid-free pages of those "magnetic" photo albums, I immediately disassembled them and promised him a new, better, shiny scrapbook with all of his childhood memories. This Christmas I actually purchased the book, page protectors, etc. A few months before that I (sort of) organized the photos. This weekend, I moved the whole lot of it into my new office, closer to where I'll actually have space to work on it. Progress, right?
Yeah, I always have big plans. And I never accomplish them. But it's ok. I usually reach that point where I figure I'll never get it all done on time so why bother? Plus, my husband is a guy, and guys by nature barely notice things like the above-mentioned wish list. He won't care about the semi-mopped bathroom floor. But something about him going out of town makes me want to accomplish things. And boy, do I have lofty goals sometimes! Thankfully, my procrastination (blogging, Facebook) bring me right back down to earth where I can settle into mediocrity.
Nothing but the best.
This weekend's transformation took a bit of effort and some help from my strapping 15-year-old son who begrudgingly helped me move the bigger pieces of furniture. Then there was a fair amount of cleaning and purging, and the realization (not a happy one) that my daughter's "stuff" still inhabited 90% of the very generous closet space. But it's functional now, and although it still needs some pretty-ing up - pictures on the walls, perhaps some inspirational quotes? - my desk faces the park and open space behind my house and it's lovely.
My husband will be thrilled that the various plastic drawer-like devices containing stamp pads, stamps, various scrapbooking items, fabric and other miscellaneous stuff are no longer inhabiting the corners of our room. He will be delighted that the many photo storage boxes stacked on top of our dresser are now re-homed in the 10% of closet space my daughter generously left me. To him, these items are my "crap" - the completely unnecessary and ridiculous piles of things I need in order to create things. Kind of like his multitude of tool boxes and rusty tools he calls vital to his lifestyle. In all fairness, though, he doesn't keep his tools in the bedroom, so I guess I don't have to, either. (LOL on everyone who just though of a "tool in the bedroom" joke).
I wanted to clean my bathroom from top to bottom, but that didn't happen. I did make my daughter mop my bathroom floor but noticed that she stopped just short of the tiny closet-like room that houses the toilet. That was very helpful. Kind of like when I asked my other daughter to mop the kitchen floor the other day because the dog's injured foot was bleeding all over it and when I came home to the "yeah, I did it" I noticed a few spots of dried blood still on the floor. Gross AND lazy.
I wanted to have pictures hung in my new office. But first I had to inventory all the frames I had, then match those up to pictures I need to frame, and of course most of them don't match up, so that means I have to print pictures to be framed and when do I have time to weed through my millions of pictures to find just the right ones for the frames? Never, that's when.
I wanted to complete the scrapbook I've been promising my husband for the past two years. When I found all his childhood pictures were glued to the pages of the old-time NON-acid-free pages of those "magnetic" photo albums, I immediately disassembled them and promised him a new, better, shiny scrapbook with all of his childhood memories. This Christmas I actually purchased the book, page protectors, etc. A few months before that I (sort of) organized the photos. This weekend, I moved the whole lot of it into my new office, closer to where I'll actually have space to work on it. Progress, right?
Yeah, I always have big plans. And I never accomplish them. But it's ok. I usually reach that point where I figure I'll never get it all done on time so why bother? Plus, my husband is a guy, and guys by nature barely notice things like the above-mentioned wish list. He won't care about the semi-mopped bathroom floor. But something about him going out of town makes me want to accomplish things. And boy, do I have lofty goals sometimes! Thankfully, my procrastination (blogging, Facebook) bring me right back down to earth where I can settle into mediocrity.
Nothing but the best.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Get up and go.........
I have so much to do today and it's almost 1 p.m. and I'm still sitting in my sweaty workout clothes, blogging, instead of getting showered and ready to head out the door. Why is that? Why, when I have all the time in the world (seemingly) do I procrastinate and find a million other things to do and when I'm pressed for time, I try to cram way too much into the short window of opportunity and end up feeling less than accomplished? These are the thoughts that haunt me.......
But. I did do a treadmill workout, so I think that should almost give me a free pass to goof off the rest of the day. Because it was challenging.
However, there is a party tonight. My newly-minted adult "child" will be hosting her passel of friends and that requires a lot of pizza making, snack procurement, and the requested ice cream cake (did I order one in advance? I did not. She told me yesterday she wanted one!). Last year, she also wanted an ice cream cake (again, a last-minute request) and I sent Jeff to Dairy Queen to procure "anything". He took that quite literally, and feeling so proud of himself for finding an ice cream cake that said "Happy Birthday" on it, immediately plucked it up and brought it home. Only it was decorated all tribal-like with scary-looking Tikis on it and her party was a 20's theme. Thank God I had some leftover chocolate frosting with which I covered the offending Tiki decor. Whew. That is why, this year, I will be the one buying the ice cream cake (although at this late hour, I'm not expecting much and should probably buy some emergency frosting just in case).
I also have to return a bunch of stuff today. That is my least favorite thing to do. Jeff says I "must" like returning things because I'm willing to buy clothes without trying them on first. I usually only do that when I'm pressed for time, and it inevitably leads to a few returns. But the real bugger is that I have to return items to FIVE different stores and I HATE driving all over the place and standing in long lines just to return one or two items. Bleh. But I must. I need that money back in my checking account so I can buy more stuff!
Getting a late start just messes everything up. I know I'll be frantically trying to throw together pizzas, get snacks out, clean up whatever doesn't get cleaned before I get home, and basically being a food producing machine while a crowd of hungry teenagers mows their way through my kitchen. Ah well, I love 'em!
So, what gets you off track? What makes you procrastinate? I've accomplished a lot this morning, actually, but nothing of what I set out to do. My life is a series of unfinished projects. I get distracted by switching the laundry around, folding towels, paying bills, Facebook, checking my email, reading other people's blogs, uploading pictures, going through a random drawer or closet and reorganizing....so many things to get distracted by. I almost never watch TV and I don't play any online games. I know those are some biggies in the distraction world. I find the Nike adage "Just Do It" to be exceedingly difficult sometimes. But, here I go! Watch me......I'm going.......really I am...........
But. I did do a treadmill workout, so I think that should almost give me a free pass to goof off the rest of the day. Because it was challenging.
However, there is a party tonight. My newly-minted adult "child" will be hosting her passel of friends and that requires a lot of pizza making, snack procurement, and the requested ice cream cake (did I order one in advance? I did not. She told me yesterday she wanted one!). Last year, she also wanted an ice cream cake (again, a last-minute request) and I sent Jeff to Dairy Queen to procure "anything". He took that quite literally, and feeling so proud of himself for finding an ice cream cake that said "Happy Birthday" on it, immediately plucked it up and brought it home. Only it was decorated all tribal-like with scary-looking Tikis on it and her party was a 20's theme. Thank God I had some leftover chocolate frosting with which I covered the offending Tiki decor. Whew. That is why, this year, I will be the one buying the ice cream cake (although at this late hour, I'm not expecting much and should probably buy some emergency frosting just in case).
I also have to return a bunch of stuff today. That is my least favorite thing to do. Jeff says I "must" like returning things because I'm willing to buy clothes without trying them on first. I usually only do that when I'm pressed for time, and it inevitably leads to a few returns. But the real bugger is that I have to return items to FIVE different stores and I HATE driving all over the place and standing in long lines just to return one or two items. Bleh. But I must. I need that money back in my checking account so I can buy more stuff!
Getting a late start just messes everything up. I know I'll be frantically trying to throw together pizzas, get snacks out, clean up whatever doesn't get cleaned before I get home, and basically being a food producing machine while a crowd of hungry teenagers mows their way through my kitchen. Ah well, I love 'em!
So, what gets you off track? What makes you procrastinate? I've accomplished a lot this morning, actually, but nothing of what I set out to do. My life is a series of unfinished projects. I get distracted by switching the laundry around, folding towels, paying bills, Facebook, checking my email, reading other people's blogs, uploading pictures, going through a random drawer or closet and reorganizing....so many things to get distracted by. I almost never watch TV and I don't play any online games. I know those are some biggies in the distraction world. I find the Nike adage "Just Do It" to be exceedingly difficult sometimes. But, here I go! Watch me......I'm going.......really I am...........
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tis the season.......and nothing changes......
So, here it is, Christmas almost and I haven't blogged for a month. What the heck? I mean, yeah, I'm busy. Everyone's busy. But sometimes "busy" is a relative term. Borderline insane comes to mind. I'm waking up before 5 a.m. with my mind spinning - things to do, stuff to buy, money to worry about, memories to make. And I even got to take a pass on some holiday rituals. Decorating, for example - Arlie and Harrison did it ALL including the tree. I was amused (and a tiny bit smug) with their placement of certain items (exactly like I do it), and pleased with their own spin on things. I didn't go around "fixing" things because nothing needed fixed. They did such a great job, and it made me a little bit sad to know they are so independent already. Then, Hayley wrote the Christmas letter so that job was off for me. Which was also nice! However, I am definitely the main shopper, decider, wrapper, etc. and that job is HUGE. I honestly do not know how I would have done everything I've done up to this point if I were working full time. Thank God for the internet, I guess. I've even ventured to the mall on a couple of occasions, which I HATE. But most of the shopping is done, I've been busy in the kitchen making sweet treats and I've shipped off all the packages (to the tune of WAY to many dollars!). We have a slew of Christmas movies I've yet to watch with the kids, in our holiday jammies, eating treats. That's on "the list". I've yet to make sugar cookies for an evening of messy decorating (also on the list). I'm really craving my annual holiday homemade Bailey's but have yet to venture to a liquor store for the ingredients (also on the list). Every year I feel like I missed doing a ton of stuff I've wanted to do and I'm in a race to cram it all in before the kids go off to their other parents' homes for their half of the winter vacation. The kids themselves are crazy busy with rehearsals, homework, concerts so that we are hardly all home at the same time. Tomorrow is the last day of school before the break. It's also my birthday. I'm really looking forward to having time to just hang out with my family, and be DONE - done with shopping, baking, shipping, packaging, cleaning, food preparing and wrapping. Which reminds me - I have not wrapped a single present. AAUUGGHH!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)