one step at a time

(a moment at home)

I loved your last post.  I had actually never heard that quote before, probably given my fondness for elephants and all, but no, really how much sense does that make.

It seems that to me everything is best taken one step at a time.  I have found it so much easier to not think too far ahead.  We are very similiar in very different ways.  Though I do not have your medical issues that keep me from doing everything I would like, I do have some major time constraints.  Somedays I get disheartened by what has not been done and forget to look at all that has been done which in themselves seem like mundane things but are really a lot of littles that add up to a lot.  Tonight I patted myself on the back because I cleaned the cat bin, cooked dinner, did the dishes, made sure homework was done, signed off on school papers, got library books in the backpacks for school tomorrow, made tea and picked up for my parent's visit tonight and got Karelyn in and out of the bath. To think that I was up at 6:00 a.m. packed lunches, made breakfast and got us all ready to go out the door and worked a full day, makes me quite proud.

But about the home.  Yes, I know.  I have been in my current home now, three years.  I have absolutely nothing on my walls except a lone calendar.  I still have no furniture in my bedroom, just a bed and a file cabinet holding my lamp and alarm clock.  The basement still holds a mass of clutter that dates back to the move from the divorce.  And then there is the dog that is leaving masses of hair everywhere she walks and lays.

I did get some furniture for the living room with a lump sum child support settlement and we painted last year, the girls getting pretty pink and purple rooms and a beautiful spring green for my bathroom.  It's amazing what a little color can do.

I think you are doing the right thing, doing one bit.  Now I operate in a very simple manner.  I try very hard not to multi-task anymore, it usually ends up in disaster.  If I had started the day looking at that long paragraph above here I would have fallen in to panic or perhaps (as I'm prone to do) frozen and not done anything.  In fact for a moment this morning when the girls were bickering non-stop, I almost contemplated calling work and crawling back into bed.  (Obviously, I didn't).  So now it is this.

Now I am cooking.  (Don't look at dishes in sink).  Now we are going to do homework.  Now we are packing lunches.   Now I am going to go upstairs and take a hot bath.  Sometimes things get forgotten, emails to friends, piles of papers on the stairs, a form that needed filled out in the kitchen.  But oh well.

I hope you continue on this little homemaking journey and manage great success one corner, one stack one (literal) step at a time.

I hope to somehow get there myself.  And remember when all else fails, if the people who fill up your home are smiling, then it is a happy one, and that's all that counts.

P.S.  I remember you had a photo one day of your kitchen with a lemon shaped timer in it.  I just went all the way through this blog and realized perhaps I saw it on your personal blog.  I am a great believer in setting the timer for fifteen to twenty minutes and having a go at it.