It’s cold. It’s snowing. I miss the desert southwest when it’s like this. So I cope with a sunroom with mom’s plants to soothe me.

I can almost look beyond the white stuff outside.

Bear with me, this post may feel scattered. I’m retracing my steps in an effort to figure out what moved me out of procrastination on some long awaited activities/projects this morning. Maybe I’ll learn something and hopefully, if you’re reading this maybe you can too or at least help me figure it out.

Here’s where we end: I start to download pictures from my phone to work on a new blog post. Opening my file organizer I see a great deal of piled up files that keep getting dumped into my generic “documents” folder, instead of rolling my eyes like I usually do and telling myself I need to start cleaning that up, I actually start creating folders and moving files. After a few minutes my pictures are downloaded, I’ve made a significant difference in my digital clutter and I find myself inspired to continue the digital cleaning. Weird. I just killed some long lived procrastination and now I feel ready to keep it up. As I stop to ponder what just happened so I can figure out how to store it and use it again in the future, I decide to write it out as I’m thinking it. So here goes.

This morning I sat down at my computer to do the routine checks: email, google reader, blog, etc. What’s different? 1) I come to a clean inbox, 2) I break a pattern.

1) The inbox; stupid thing always gets full too fast. I’ve gotten so bad that I usually have two to three hundred read emails in there before I do a clean out. I hit that mark a few days ago so this morning my inbox was clean. (Side note, I’ve also noticed the cleaner my inbox, the less stuff I end up keeping. I like this.)

Lesson: Clean and organized - no matter how small - has a big impact, especially at the starting line of a day’s activities.

2) Pattern break. I usually go straight from my e-mail check to status checks of friends and family on Facebook. Naturally, this lends to games and other time suckers. This morning I go from e-mail to google reader and my blog.

Lesson: Patterns can become ruts that support energy drain and deter productivity. A little break goes a long way.

I move into my google reader. What’s different? 1) New features, 2) Obvious neglect.

1) New features were the first thing I found when I went to my feed reader this morning. While I’m not sure I’ll use many of them, it was inspiring to see the effort invested in improvement. I wonder what things I should be investing more improvement in myself.

2) Obvious neglect. At least 85% of my blogs I’ve subscribed to are completely inactive now. I can’t help but remember what it was like several years ago when these blogs were active. I reflect on my own blog, what it’s purpose was/is for me and if my actions support it.

Lesson: If it’s worth doing, it’s worth continuing to do and improve.

I respond to a comment on my blog about a file download. What happened? 1) I’m reminded of how badly I need to update and tackle this concept of file compilation and sharing. 2) I’m inspired that someone found something helpful.

1) Outdated - There simply has to be a better solution out there for me to share my files, teaching and creating ideas. I’m thinking about it again and how nice it would be to have a system that worked.

2) It’s helpful. This is the most inspiring piece of the morning. Someone is commenting on using something I’ve shared. Another comment reminds me there are still a few people reading my blog. I need to do better.

Lesson: Action begins with a thought, it is motivated by encouragement.

Inspired to do better on my blog I decide to write an article today. Halloween was yesterday, I have photos and things I could share about my son’s face painting success and failure. I need to download pictures. The device opens my file organizer where I see a mass of cluttered mess. I start moving/cleaning files. What happened? 1) I may have ADD, 2) Action is contagious.

1) The Attention Deficit Factor. This isn’t all bad. After all, these many steps lead to other steps right?

2) Action is contagious. This is an awesome recognition.

Lesson: Focus is necessary but if overdone can actually feed procrastination. There’s something to be said for the phrase “Do it now”.

Recap:
1) Start with something clean or organized.
2) Shake it up, do something different - break a routine.
3) Identify activities worth your time.
4) Think, act, feed.
5) Focus with flexibility, just do it.

I’m on the war path.

More first snow pictures

Lucky me! I was sent this free T-Shirt by Crazy Dog TShirts. They let me pick one I liked, and naturally anything Tommy Boy jumped right out at me!

You simply can’t go wrong with Callahan Auto Parts. This T-Shirt won’t make you look fat, doesn’t come with a thin candy shell, and won’t call you from a walkie talkie, but it will bring a smile to your face!

I think I’ll get Blake one and we can be a matching set for Halloween!

I’m home, and you want to know how I’m certain?

And….





That’s how.

The ‘Reader’s Digest Condensed Version’ of the past ten weeks is 20+ hours on the mower, 60 quarts of raspberries, 20 quarts of apple preserves (so far). Yup, I’m home alright. *wink*

Apparently, I missed a month.

Things have been slightly crazy. That’s silly, there is no ’slightly’ there is or is not. It IS definitely crazy!

We’ve now been back in Idaho for six weeks. We’ve already fit in two birthday celebrations, one family reunion, one wedding, one business trip for Blake to Boston, two rounds of girl’s camp and a full calendar of fun with family and cousins in between. We’ve got a few more birthdays and school registration coming up in the next two weeks and I’m still looking for my white flag for calendaring. This past week we also had some extended family experience some real hardships. Blake’s cousin lost her 15 year old son to a drowning accident and another cousin has experienced complications with an early labor and delivery. Our hearts and prayers go out to them during this trying time.

Sanity checks are finding themselves in quiet moments spent outside. Picking raspberries, mowing the lawn, watching the kids play in the water and the dog run off energy in a huge yard. Maybe this month I’ll get more than one post up on my blog.

I finally made it back to my blog! I found this in my comments waiting for approval on my post “Almost”.

I can’t quite decide which is more intriguing…the fact that someone I don’t know found my blog, took the time to read my post and then comment on their opinion of my wording choice, or the fact that I took the time to go prove I was right. LOL

Where to start? I sat down in a race against the clock to blog a few thoughts running through my head on how today feels like an almost day to me. One of those moments when you feel like you almost reached the mark on so many things. As I was struggling to organize my thoughts, I decided maybe a definition or two might help, so I opened a new window to google the word. I started glossing over the page and then I hit the bottom link and stopped short. I think you’ll see why.

Its link is purple because I HAD to click on that to see if it was really mine. It is! I’m down to 10 minutes to post this now and my mind is spinning in the oddity of seeing my own link come up on a search. Regardless of Google’s changes and internal patterns, seeing something of your own come up on a search page is pretty fun!

Almost: to nearly but not exactly achieve something. Do you ever have an almost day? A day when you reflect on how you’re almost at a new deadline, almost ready to take another step in a process or project? Or maybe just a reflection moment on how you almost reached a goal, expectation, etc.? I was having just this experience when I sat down to start this post; thinking on how we’re almost at the point of knowing what the future weeks and schedule bring regarding our upcoming move. How it’s almost time to pick up my son from school. How it was almost warm enough to enjoy being by the pool for an afternoon reading excursion.

I’m almost there in so many ways, and SO NOT in so many others. It’s a brain bender. So I’ll end this post with a quote that struck me with incredible impact the first time I saw it years ago in a commercial. The words were being spoken by the author and the reality of his words made a mark that EXACTLY hit the mark.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
~Michael Jordan

So here’s to the almost days, the many little failures that allow us to succeed. Here’s to success!

I’m sitting here trying to compile a few thoughts and I find they keep shifting. Hmmm, that’s a clear representation of my life at the moment. Ironically, I now live in earthquake territory so maybe my sub conscience is trying to adapt?

Perhaps, this is in part to blame for my lack of blogging lately. I keep thinking I’ll be able to get a few thoughts in order and then get back into the swing of posting more of them, but they remain ever elusive. In hindsight, some of the best posts come when I’m just able to spit (well type) it all out as it’s hitting me. But lately, I’ve had less time to ramble with my keyboard when my mind is racing.

My daily schedule has shifted in the past month. Between plans and efforts to get our ducks lined up to move back home to be closer to family and enjoy better schooling for my children, I’ve thrown in some homeschooling of my 13 year old. All the projects I’ve been doing in my mind (yes most haven’t yet formed into the tangible, physical sort yet), have been put back on hold. On the upside, other benefits have been present. Like helping my daughter with her memoir book of our recent family trip, not only did she stretch some academic muscles we also have now a nice completed book of pictures and journaling. That makes one project started and completed!

Speaking of projects, I find myself daydreaming about them a lot. In fact, I’ve become quite adept at creating things in my head. For example, my blog is updated with all my file sharing neatly organized. Additionally, the boxes of paper and photos waiting to be digitized are empty and recycled with the contents neatly organized on my portable hard drive. For that matter, all my computer files are neatly organized and updated. I’ve mastered the art of making sushi rolls and pastries. My body reflects hours of careful toning and exercising, my mind filled with hours of educational reading. See how fun it is?! Now, if I could just figure out how to transfer all those wonderful thoughts into physical actions.

It’s hard not to feel distracted when another big change is looming on the horizon. I laugh at myself remembering the thoughts I had a few years ago when everything was going so smoothly and I wondered what might be coming. If I’d only known! It’s funny how comfortable you can get busying yourself with daily grind efforts and how things that are taking all of your precious time and resources can be so quickly redefined. This is all good, the new definitions and directions are both freeing and educational in nature. Now if I could just get everything to sit still for a moment.

In a matter of eight weeks life will shift again. I’ll be in Idaho taking all the next steps toward securing new stability for my family. It will be an event that factors in extended family on both sides which brings more facets into play than one mind can rightly think about without exploding. So I attempt to push it all aside, telling myself that things will be easier when I can be doing things instead of thinking only. I shift. Again.

Perhaps it’s not so bad, this shifting. Perhaps the shifting is what enables me to maintain my balance? Yes, this is a good way to view things. Embrace the shifting.

This post comes during a “life time-out”, or as it shall be known by me from this point on. A time when the daily life routine is interrupted for an important news flash. I’d be remiss not to follow the pattern and take a time out from my daily routine to write about it.

My heart is as full as my eyes at the moment, which just happen to be overflowing with emotion. I just hung up the phone with a friend. While content is personal, the feeling is universal. This dear friend isn’t someone I can put a tally of years next to, our time together was relatively short. It’s been several months since we had interaction, I’m chagrinned to reflect on the probability that I didn’t even get a Christmas card to her (I so hope I did!!). But here’s the magic, none of that matters because frankly, none of that matters. It’s not how long you know someone - it’s how well. It’s not the things you don’t do - it’s the things you do. Some people you get to know because you work with them, others because you serve with them, others because you share similar life experiences or live next to them, and the list of reasons goes on and on. The bottom line is there is a list and its bottom line is the same: people, that’s what it it’s all about folks, people.

On a day when my mood has been a reflection of the continuous rain outside (for all those friends who endure many days of rain, I have a newfound respect for you!), I can sit here at my computer and reflect how moments of interaction with friends through the day have brought me intermittent rainbows. One doesn’t know this because she was simply sending me an email which brought on some discussion during my day, but it was a rainbow all the same. In fact, most of the people who do much for me probably don’t know it. I try to express my gratitude and love often, but I know I miss more than I catch. If my friends who read and comment on my posts here could see what they do for my heart, they might be surprised. It seems so little a thing, but it all comes back to those who take the time to make the time. The busy dad in Oregon, the friend I met in a chat room so many years ago when our daughters were babes and who bless her heart still finds ways to find me and reach out to me, the co-worker from years ago, and the list goes on and on. Or how about that sweet lady who smiled at me at the grocery store, or the nice man who offered to take my cart when I’d unloaded the bags? Yes, they added rainbow fragments to my day too. If I had but the immediate memory and time to write about each of them I could fill an entire page. If I could extend it to those who have touched my life it would turn into volumes. If I could wrap it all up I’d have a lifting power beyond imagination. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Trust in your heart. Trust in your feelings. When you find yourself thinking you should just call someone you should. It’s the someones in your life that make it worth living. It’s the calls you make that make the difference.

I’m taking a life time out to share my thoughts. To openly put out there how grateful I am for all the people that make my little world go round. You are many. You are amazing. You are what it’s all about.