Overwhelm

Overwhelm is what my life has been filled with this spring. Trying to complete 2 quilts. An amazing trip to Australia. An incredible trip to Germany. Jet lag recovery. Celebrating grandchildren birthdays. Cataract surgery on my right eye. Three weeks of rainy days and clouds.

I went downstairs this morning looking for some colourful card stock to make a few posters to put up on my quilt room walls. 

• be AWARE
• be HONEST
• be INTENTIONAL
• be STRATEGIC
• be FOCUSED

So I started systematically sorting through the papers in the cubicles under the printer and found 5 colours. Great. But I also found, among other things like construction paper, copy paper, A4 copy paper, lined school note paper, colouring books, bright coloured paper, pastel paper, fancy dancy writing paper, quilting paper including newsprint, wash-away interfacing, round sticky labels for jam, full page sticky labels for needle-turn applique, dust bunnies galore as well as manuals for each of the 3 printers that sat on top, and countless other stuff, I found the knee lift for the Bernina and the draft copy of the manuscript for the book I am writing about my adventures in India. So, I picked up only a few papers since I am not to lift or carry anything heavy after the eye surgery and headed to the kitchen to have some breakfast. I got a sink full of dishes soaking and scrambled some eggs that I eat with salsa and washed all the plates then filled the sink with more dishes and headed upstairs to look through the papers I brought up. Then I pulled out the project box with all the rest of the India book  notes and found - drumroll please- the Plan-It curriculum that I had not seen in 3 years, so I kept looking through notes and discovered the 23 suggestions to taking control of your stuff and time so you can be more productive.

I like the number 23 this year. Among other things on the list is to complete the task at hand so I went back downstairs and put away the clean  plates and filled the sink with more dishes to soak. I last washed them Monday night after I had the call telling me the eye surgery was moved up 3 days. With the eye surgery behind me, I spent 2 days napping and watching movies with my sunglasses covering one eye since it was blurry and the lights were too bright and it felt all scratchy and I am not allowed to rub or scratch just put 3 different kinds of eye drops in 4 times a day. I was not able to read nor write but I did manage to post a couple of selfies and glue baste a few Lucy hexies. And now there are chainsaws buzzing outside my window as they are cutting down yet another tree. My brain has been composing countless blog posts and all I really want to do is rub my eyes.

Some of the 23 things are suggestions like make a to-do list and keep it visible, de-clutter on a regular basis, write things down and listen to music. I do all of the above except maybe not declutter so often. And I do make my bed every day. Another item on the list is to simplify my life. And this is where I am today. I am not allowed to drive until the surgeon gives me permission which may not be for a couple of weeks and then the left eyes is scheduled for May 29 and so another 2 weeks after that. This simply means, stay home girl - you are going nowhere for a while. Stay home? I like that. But I also have to stay out of the hot tub. 

So the moral of the story is - in my present state of overwhelm, I have been given the gift of time. Of staying home and that with a purpose. I have committed to a writing group of 11 Christian writers for 11 days writing together with God on one specific project. My goal is to get all the How We Stayed Married for 50 Years blog posts completed, edited, and printed off ready for proofing. I started a new blog a year ago for this and plan to begin releasing weekly posts July 2 after our Big 50+2 Anniversary Celebration. We begin meeting on Monday so that gives me 4 more days to declutter my desk and finish those dishes. I plan to resume regular blog posting next week with highlights of my trips. There will be only the 2 of us here for the next few days and, now that 3 weeks of rain has come to an end, my Sweetie has been out on his tractor most of this week already. Getting ready to plant corn. And he gets his own meals. 

Now, where are those eye drops? 

Blessings,

Chris