A night with the kids

Spent the evening with my grandkids.  What fun they are.  Ethan, however has entered in to the whiney phase of development and we are having to teach the appropriate way to communicate.  Olivia is such a sweet little girl.  She sure loves her grammy;  how lucky am I?! :-).  Kaleb is a very concerned big brother and as such, he spent most of the evening making sure that I met the appropriate needs of his siblings.  It was quite cute! 
As I am typing this and advertisement for the show "Horders" came on and I saw a woman, laying on a bed reading a book.  Not an unusual scenario until the chaos surrounding her is observed!  I do not want to end up like that!  As long as i am married to Bernie, I know that will never happen, however,I need to learn to do my part. 
It is so easy to sit back and watch him do everything, especially after 13 years of doing it all by myself.  The most exhausting years of my life were the years as a single parent, taking care of my little family on my own; to include changing my own oil and hauling my trash to to dump.  Not ever having cable television or a computer or reliable transportation (not to mention a very limited budget)  I never had anything to distract me from doing what needed to be done and I certainly didn't have anyone to do it for me.  There was never a time when there wasn't something that needed to be done!

I found some time!

I did it!   I took down my plant and watered it!  It now seems perfectly content, I know that I am!  Sounds silly, huh?  But I chose to "get er' done!" and  knocked ONE thing off my list.
In the shower, I realized there are so many things that didn't make it onto my list because, as I mentioned in my first dialogue, I forgot what they were. So today I did get a few things accomplished that I had been procrastinating.  I spent two hours of quality time with my best friend, I cleaned the kitchen, made it to the post office and mailed Christmas presents (hows that for procrastination!), put gas in the car (can't procrastinate that!) and went to the grocery store.  Only one of these things is on my list, and although my list has been reduced by one, it will never get shorter when I keep finding scutwork that needs to be done!  UGHHHHHH.  Where is the time!!!???
Grand kids on their way over to spend the night, will have a hard time getting much accomplished, but there is nothing like quality time with the babies!

My goal is to put myself on a schedule.  Maybe if I give myself a timeline for accomplishing these chores, they will get done!  Setting goals for weight loss and to stop smoking are top priorities for me but it seems like all the other little stuff gets in the way (thats my excuse).

A good example of "Not enough time...."

I'm sitting here staring at a plant, wondering if I should feed it.  As I continue to eyeball the leaves, which are beginning to droop and turn fallow,  I know I should take it down and douse it will a heaping helping of H2O, but I have to get ready for my friends visit!  Is there enough time?  I will make time right now.  These are the simple things I need to do daily, and why I am here.  I don't want to waste any more time, however, it will be a great challenge for me.  The goals I want to set for myself are many and here are just a few:
Lose weight (find time)
Compete Unit Plans (find time)
Put away Christmas Decorations (find time)
Quit smoking (find time)
Clean Carpets (find time)
Practice Tap Routine (find time)
Keep up with laundry (find time)
Cook dinner a few times a week (find time -- Husband does most of the cooking now)
Keep up with friends (find time)
Edit and organize pictures (find time)
Go out and take pictures (find time)
Take a photography class (find time)

Thats all I can think of right now but I am sure there are a lot more things that I will add to my plate.  Do you think I should cut back a few things?  Or are all these things what a normal person does on a regular basis?  Am I a normal person?

In the beginning..........

I haven't always been this way.  What way? I am the worlds (my worlds) largest procrastinator.  I'm sure I am not he only one who could claim this title, but it is one I do not claim with enthusiasm.  So much time, so little to do, yet it never gets done until the ZERO HOUR!  By then it feels like there is more to do than I can handle! 

So, here I am on the eve of my First Annual 49th birthday (phrase coined by my best friend, Sandy) and I am trying to figure out why I have lost my ability to use the time I have to manage all aspects of my life.

I am here to begin holding myself accountable.