neadods | (no subject)

I thought I'd be able to knock out another of my resolutions last night - the one for hanging artwork - but managed to knock out my back instead. So I'm living on advil and taking a critical look at the list.

First of all, I'm going to be removing the entire gardening section for this year and for next.

maureen_the_mad is doing ALL the work and it's hypocritical to be buffing my nails and bragging that it's being done when she's the one putting out an amazing effort. (She can do more in a weekend than I can do in a month!) Same thing for fixing the fence - yes, it's a "to do," but again my input is relegated to picking up the phone and writing checks.

So no more gardening section until we get to something that I'll actually be *doing* in said garden, and that won't happen until all the mulching and clearing is done, at least in the back yard and the front yard. (The grove and back 40 are on their own for another 2 years at least.)

Second, telling myself not to do something I want to do - in this case, go learn a craft - is only making me frustrated instead of making me concentrate on what I should be doing. I figure if I'm programmed that September = Take a Class, fine. I've signed up for a one-day class on soapmaking and have looked up lucet and fingerweaving instructions on the 'net. So rather than shove off all the stuff I want to learn into next year, I'm going to make a standard section for "crafts."

Thing is, I have the attention span of a gnat, and a thousand unfinished craft projects lying around the house. So the third thing I'm going to do is to list not only crafts, but specific goals for each craft. i.e. - finish one quilt. Make 1 pound of scented, molded soaps and at least one loofah soap. Finger weave one belt. I know that anything I learn to do might fail, so at the end of my "project" I might have something that only merits a quick burial in a shallow grave, and that's okay. At least I've given it a whirl and tried to accomplish something. A crappy finished project is better than a dozen half-finished projects of any quality.

I still can't quite believe that there's anyone who actually reads these self-indulgent posts, but they are proving to be quite good for me - like every compulsive listmaker, I'm motivated by getting to cross things off, and by revisiting it at least once a month, I'm keeping focus on things I need to do.

Now if only my back will unseize enough for me to feel comfortable standing on the sofa and hefting the drill...