It was a good week

I didn't have one specific thing to blog about today, but more of a list of things I've appreciated in the last week.

Things have returned to a more normal level of busy at work, compared to the last month which was really crazy. The office celebrated with champagne and cupcakes Friday afternoon.

Also work-related, I am getting some relief from the late schedule I've been working. It means getting to say yes to more things during the week and (hopefully) cooking and eating dinner at a decent hour.

It's been seven months since I first sighted the raccoon, and he still hasn't gone away. I begged my landlord to do something else, and she called in a professional. He's set three traps, and promised me he won't give up until they (convinced there are two now) are caught. They were having quite an evening on Sunday, so no luck yet, but I now have someone to call about it.

If it hadn't been for the raccoons, I would have been in tears watching a family from my hometown get a new house on Extreme Makeover Home Edition on Sunday. It's cool to see my city on TV, but the boy the house went to stole the show. He has a great attitude in the midst of disabling disease. He was hilarious and his smile just seemed to be contagious.

I've slowly accumulated various kitchen gadgets, pots, pans, utensils, etc., but I still have a list of things that would be nice to have. Occasionally, I break down and buy one of those things. Last week I gave myself a salad spinner. It's been great with all the greens I've been eating.

It turns out that I like rhubarb, at least in muffins and pies.

It was kind of a gross weekend weather-wise, but it made for a good excuse to visit an IKEA store a couple of hours away. Of course, no new furniture for me, but it is certainly fun to look.

I took a photography class on Sunday, and I finally know a little something about my camera. And I can now shoot manually instead of on auto all the time.

I am starting the week with the laundry and ironing (very rare) done. Just need to work on the dishes.

And lastly, here's a link to a really good blog post about remembering that we live in God's will in our current situations too, not just the future. It was something I really needed to read and be reminded of. My verse for the next two weeks came from reading it:  "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." Jeremiah 29:7

Life at 90%

I can't believe it's the 9th of March, and I'm just getting up my first post for the month. I feel like I've been running at about 90% lately. I get motivated and get about 90% of whatever I'm doing done and then lose motivation and fail to finish the last 10%. I have to admit this isn't really a new development, it just seemed more apparent this week. A few examples:

There are three blog posts that have been 90% finished for a week, but they still aren't completely finished and obviously haven't been posted.


On Saturday, I posted on Facebook about what a productive day I was having. In addition to some fun things, I cooked and did laundry. And while I completed all of the cooking, I went to bed with dishes in the sink and my kitchen in chaos. As for the laundry, I got farther than usual but here's what my drawer looked like:

On Sunday, I decided to start two sewing projects, and I got to 90% on both before stopping. Some of it was out of my control, I didn't have a good spot to hammer in eyelets since it was raining outside. But it was also because the other project got complicated, I got frustrated and gave up for the day. Now I'm afraid these projects are just going to mock me for the next few months.


So I'm pretty much resurfacing today with nothing to say. But hopefully, I'll start finishing up some of these things and have new posts this week.


Oh, one other thing, remember my visitor from a few months back? You probably thought the raccoon was gone; I knew he wasn't but had convinced myself to believe that he was. But last week I couldn't deny the racket he was making and I cried for help, i.e. emailed my landlord. Apparently, this is a smart and quick raccoon, he took the food, tripped the traps and got away with it three days in a row. I'm told they're going to try something else, in the meantime, I'm trying to ignore the scratching of claws I hear in my living room.

Unfinished projects (or dishes)

A friend sent me this link to a document on Myers-Briggs. Yes, we not only discuss Myers-Briggs at length at social gatherings but also email and Facebook each other with new discoveries.

In this document, at the end of each description, it had a prayer for that personality type. The one for INFP said, "Dear God, please help me finish what I sta..." Of course the "J" in me wanted to fix the end of the sentence, but the rest of me knew how true this was. And if anyone had walked in my house over the past week, they would have been praying this prayer for me.

It was a really good week work-wise. I got to have normal hours, even though I go back to later hours this week, and during what should normally be an incredibly busy time, things were actually very slow. (Apparently all the financial guys are on vacation in July.) Since I got home earlier, I got to do things like cook and attend a Bible study I've missed for a few weeks as well as go to my normal women's study. So I found myself with less time at home, and the state of my apartment reflected it.

But it also reflected the fact that finishing things is not my strong suit. I may start strong, but I lose my motivation before something is complete and I can let it sit there unfinished for quite a while.

Last weekend I battled my neighbors in attempting to get a lot of laundry done. Six of us share a single washer and dryer, and somehow all seem to want to do laundry at the same time. So it's a matter of getting your stuff in, washed and the next load in without someone removing your stuff and starting their own load, thereby, preventing you from getting another load in. And last weekend, I was successful and got three loads washed and dried. I even folded and put away the first two loads. But I'm going to admit that my third load, which finished drying Monday morning, was still on my living room floor unfolded on Saturday.

So if you came in my apartment you would find this pile of clothes, another pile of clothes in the general vicinity of my ironing board yet to be ironed and then in my kitchen, there would be a drying rack full of clean dishes and sink full of dirty dishes. This is not to mention the mail and other paperwork spread between my coffee table and couch and my new pile of dirty clothes covering my bedroom floor.

I will openly admit I am a messy person. I am much neater when other people are around and impacted by my mess, but in my apartment where it is just me, I am messy. However, I reach a point when I can't stand the mess and want some order back in my life.

By Saturday morning, that's how I was feeling. It was miserably hot outside, and I decided my best bet was to stay in my air-conditioned apartment and restore some order in my life. I finally got my clothes folded and put away and even ironed what needed to be ironed. I put away dishes and washed more. I organized all the stuff that has seemed to have been just floating around for weeks. I paid bills and completed some of other stuff that needed to get done.

But then I went back to the kitchen. This is what I'm finding so strange about what I started as an experiment. When I have some downtime, it is more and more likely that I'll spend it in the kitchen, cooking. And if you know me, usually the only time I am in a kitchen is when everyone else has gathered there to eat or talk but rarely to cook. Anyway, on Saturday, I made some pizza dough to have on hand and then realized I had everything to make some cookies I had read about in Southern Living and baked those. Then on Sunday I roasted a chicken (more to come on that).

Of course this ultimately meant that my kitchen stayed clean for about an hour, and I went to bed with dishes in the sink. I can't seem to escape this tendency to leave a project unfinished. It's better that I finish what I'm cooking and it's only the dishes that are left behind, but the constant dishes cycle is starting to make me crazy! I think I need someone to come along behind me and finish things for me or maybe a dishwasher would work.