First Things First

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. The office/extra-bedroom is becoming a storage/office/craft/sewing/stuff-everywhere-no-organization room.

I started a list the other day:

What I'm Going To Need To Organize The Office

1. Patience - It's not going to get done in one day, no matter how fast I work.

2. Discipline - I need to put it on my daily schedule and, even if it's just a couple of hours each day, continue until it's done.

3. A plan - I should have made this item number one. To this task I must also add "discipline" so that I actually finish the plan before I start the physical organization.

4. Ruthlessness - I need to purge some things we’ve had on the walls of our home or my office, first at the university then the college, for years and now find their home in the office/extra bedroom because there’s no room anywhere else in the house. Quite frankly, I don't want the stuff on the walls anywhere else in the house. The stuff no longer 'fits' anywhere. It's mostly who we were not who we are, if that even makes sense.

And that's as far as I got with the list. I've spent way too much time this last week and weekend writing letters, emails and finally a letter to the editor about our Neighbors vs. Kroger-with-zero-help-from-the-do-nothing-mostly-unresponsive-but-what-did-I-really-expect-city-council, but more about that next time. Yesterday after we finally finished the last letter (for now), I did nothing. We even had leftover pasta for dinner.

I don't think I will get work on the list ~ the plan ~ until much later today. This morning I have to grout the newly tiled counter-top in our master bathroom so Tom can install the new glass sink. Then I have to take a trip to the grocery store. Then come home and pay some bills. And Dude needs a bath - BAD - even though it's only been two weeks. At some point, I need to vacuum and dust and empty the dishwasher. Oh, yeah, and laundry. There's always laundry.

Of course, on the peripheral there is the family cookbook that's not finished and the book of my late mother-in-law's quotes and messages that needs to be compiled. I need to finish a quilt I started. I'm only half-way through cutting out fabric pieces for the memory quilt. And sometime I have to get over to the fabric store and find two sewing patterns for gifts I want to make for Christmas.

I think it's the discipline thing.