One Thing #9 (Focus on the Positive)

So my last post was for the week of Sept. 12-17 . . . Jeanne will scrub out the fridge.

I did, but not super-thoroughly. And the two-plus months since then have been very full. Work has been exhausting, emotionally draining, and generally unpleasant. (I know - way to focus on the positives, right?) Ugh!

There was one glorious, amazing week in there. Louie and I flew out of MSP on 9/25 and back in on 10/1. We were in Maui and it was simply fantastic! The island is beautiful and our time together was so very nice. We are blessed!

Today, I'm struggling. Self-pity? "Down" time after seven weeks of intense go/go/go? Disappointment in my siblings-in-law yesterday? Midlife hormonal changes? Don't know. Don't really care. This is not where I want to be.

To focus on positives, I'm going back to the message board. Instead of one thing per week, I'm going to put up one thing as a priority. If it's done quickly, great. I'll put up a new thing. If it takes a long time, so be it. The message board will just be a reminder.

We'll probably always have more to do than time to do it. Trying to focus on one thing at a time may help. It will also help to praise God in ALL circumstances and not just when I'm feeling positive. The act of praise can change the attitude of the heart.

Things I'd Be Okay Never Hearing Again . . .

"How do!" (How am I supposed to answer that? Is it short for "How do you do?" I strongly dislike this greeting.)

"And so on down the line." (I wouldn't mind this one so much if it were not used in EVERY single conversation! Sometimes several times in a single conversation. It just gets old after three plus years.)

"Good morning!" (At 5 a.m., my eyes are barely open. Greeting me this way in a LOUD voice, especially after I've specifically requested that it not happen . . . this is why I try to avoid the upper level of my house until after I've had a few cups of coffee.)

"Whatever you want to get rid of." (It's good food. I don't want to "get rid" of any of it. I'm asking your preference for a flavor. Find a better way to indicate that you have no preference.)

One Thing #8 (Focus on the Positive)

Wow. 9/11/16 . . . time sure flies by. I remember 9/11/01 vividly. Having CNN on all day at NPMS. The shock and disbelief. The prayer.

And over the last few weeks with workshop and the first two weeks of school, I've thought that perhaps I wouldn't be able to get back on track with my "One Thing" project. I think part of the reason I got off-track was again selecting a goal that was too vague. My last "One Thing" was "work on the basement bathroom repair list" and I *did* successfully do three things on the list! However, it was too open-ended *and* I neglected to put a date on the whiteboard for that week. And so the weeks have passed by with the typical start-of-school crazy busy-ness. And I've gotten far off-track.

On the *positive* side, it has been a fantastic start to the school year with many "hurray" moments! It is Sunday and I am married to a wonderful man. I was able to help Louise for almost five hours yesterday and I have many wonderful things to look forward to (like a shower for Angela this afternoon at her godmother's house).

My new "One Thing" for this week: "Scrub out the fridge." This has been on my to-do list for too many days and I keep not doing it . . . we have vegetables rotting in there and I keep finding other things to do instead of dealing with it.

I need to continue to strive to focus on positives and not get discouraged by the things that don't get done (or by the evil in the world and all the hurt and hatred that exists).

One Thing #7 (Focus on the Positive)

Wow! Today is 8/10/16 . . . I'm falling behind on this and school hasn't even started yet!

For August 1-6, my One Thing was "Make a dinner date with Brad and Amy." We've talked about doing this for a few *years* and Brad gave me a hard time last time I saw him (March?). I said I was going to call Amy and make it happen! It has been on my to-do list for a looooong time and was my goal for last week.

Finally, I went to call her. Hmmm. I didn't have her as a contact on my phone. I looked in our paper-based phone book and tried the most likely (non-Brad) number. Generic voice mail. Hmmm. I sent her a FB message but didn't get a response. I tried looking her number up online. Finally, I texted Brad to ask for her number, fully expecting to get an excessive hard time from him. Nope. Just her number. After many texts back and forth, we have a dinner date on the calendar! Woohoo! I'm really looking forward to the two couples just hanging out. We used to get together every few months, back in the day.

For August 8-13, I had a LOT of things bouncing around in my brain (and my paper to-do lists are extensive and growing, as always). I decided on "Work on the basement bathroom repair list." The bathroom is one of my favorite places and I want it to look nice. Since I already have an orderly list, I'm going to work on it!

I tried to get Louie to "play" with me, but he doesn't want to commit to One Thing. It was so much more fun when we did it "together." I promised to not blog his item any more, but either he doesn't trust me not to, or he feels pressured, or . . . I just need to have a positive focus for myself. Especially with school stuff ramping up, this "game" helps me to focus on what IS getting done rather than stressing about all the other stuff in life. Feeling the joy!

One Thing #6 (Focus on the Positive)

So Louie just told me he doesn't want to be blogged about . . . I'll just record mine, I guess, since it's important for me to respect his wishes and I want to keep doing the "One Thing" with him. There's an accountability piece (even though he never asks me how I'm doing on mine) and it feels as though we're doing this together (like exercise buddies work out together).

Anyhow, I'm way behind! Writing this on 8/2/16 . . .

For July 18-23, my goal was to research and make a list for the basement bathroom "fixes." Did it!

This has been bugging me for ages! The floor tile grout is dirty and I've tried different cleaning strategies, the ceiling has some trouble spots, the wall tile grout has issues, . . . and I really want to deal with things before we're dealing with mold, water damage, etc.! So just reading online, looking at some of our tiling resources, etc. helped me generate a page of things to try.

For July 25-30, we were up at the lake and my One Thing was planning my Personalized Learning presentation for our Summit on Aug. 1 and 2. I did brainstorming and initial planning, but didn't really pull it together until yesterday morning! My presentation was at 2:30 yesterday afternoon and it went pretty well. (When I told Louie it was good, but not great, he commented that it probably would have been better if I'd done the work on it BEFORE we went on vacation, as I had originally planned.) Of course he's right, but that doesn't mean I want to hear it!

For August 1-6, I want to make a dinner date with Brad and Amy. I've been meaning to do this for about a year . . . and it's just a phone call! Perhaps I'll just go do it now.

One Thing #5 (Focus on the Positive)

So I forgot that the week of June 20-25 when we were up at the lake, I had made a goal of "Jeanne will read her book club book." Yep. Did that. And read an additional seven books . . . and did jigsaw puzzles . . . and ate a lot . . . and helped Louie with his goals (treating the wood siding on the cabin and cutting down the dead birch trees). Woohoo!

For the week of June 27 - July 2, I learned that I should set a specific, concrete goal! (Hello, have you not spent decades in education doing SMART goals with kids?) My "Jeanne will work on the estate to-do list" was good in that I kept thinking "what do I need to do next" over and over and over. It was bad in that I couldn't have that sense of accomplishment. "Done!" never happened . . . and won't until that estate to-do list is totally done some time in 2017. So, yeah. I got work done on the estate to-do list, but am going to stick with specific goals from now on! (But not necessarily SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound . . . . )

Louie's goal for that same week was two-fold: "Louie will mow the lawn and find the water filtration system for Morgan." He got the lawn mowed and Wednesday evening, he located the water filtration system in his office. I had a lunch date with Morgan on Thursday, so it became a bit of a deadline issue. We had looked and looked in multiple places, so Louie said he is going to keep it with the Duluth packs in the future (since those are both BWCA-specific items for us).

For July 4-9, Jeanne will clean and paint the door trim by the front door. Louie has not yet set a One Thing goal for this week. These entries will probably read in a disjointed manner, since I have several different dates that I'm typing each one. If verb tenses seem illogical (past, present, and future mushed together) . . . that's why. I can either "publish" more often, or include the date when I'm actually writing above each section . . . why can't I be a normal blogger like others on this planet?

I believe I typed the above on 7/3/16, but I don't really know. Now it is 7/12/16 and after I type below, I'll post it. Still contemplating the best way to do these entries . . .

Last week (July 4-9), I scrubbed the front door area (which made it look a LOT better!) and got out supplies for painting. Seriously, I need to clean things more often. That alone improved the front door area appearance. Today (7/12), I finally painted it! I'm not super good at painting, but I tried to be careful. I cleaned up my stuff. I put up a "wet paint" sign, since I used an outdoor oil-based paint. The real test will be when Louie comes home and examines it . . .

He didn't set a goal for last week, but has been working on the four-wheeler quite a bit. He got it running last night and has the next three or four "to-do" items queued up. I think he's hoping to bring it to the lake the next time we go.

For me, my July 11-16 goal will be to clean up the window by the front door. I don't want to scrub it while I have wet paint to bump into. I don't know that I'll be more expansive than that. As usual, there are lots of other things going on (wedding gift for Olivia and Sam, meeting with Ryan while he's in town, laundry, etc.).

Life is good, and it certainly helps to celebrate the positive things in life rather than lamenting the many things that don't happen. I'm looking forward to more conversations with Louie about our goals and making strides on things we truly want to accomplish.

One Thing #4

Tuesday, June 14
Okay, time to "get back on the saddle" with this . . .
Our May 30 - June 4 goals were:
Jeanne - get laundry done
Louie - adjust bottom rack in oven (while it's cool)
These were pretty minor goals BUT I had meant to do laundry the previous week (and at the end of the school year, life is on fast-forward) so it felt really good to achieve that goal! I had clothes to pack for St. Cloud and I left Louie and Lou with sufficient clothing. (Of course, here I am on 6/14, doing laundry . . . but that's how it goes!)
Louie did his goal last night when I did a little nagging about it. Dude! I had only written it down for him because he kept mentioning it! Every time he preheated the oven, then opened the door to put something in, he commented that he needed to "fix" the thing in the bottom of the oven that had gotten out of place . . . but it was too hot to touch. So anyhow, those both got done.

Last week, I didn't write down new goals for us. As it turned out, my big one was staying cheerful as the Minnesota Quilters Volunteers Co-Chair with Louise. Success. Louie ended up doing some work in the garage and happily discovered the problem with the wiring in the four-wheeler (which has been a project goal for a looooooooong time). Success!

Now that we're practically to the half-way point in the week and I already have a page of goals, I think it will help my attitude to pick one attainable goal that will be completed before we go to the lake.

Jeanne - will wrap up her MQ Co-Chair responsibilities
Louie -

6/27/16
Excellent! I felt so fantastic getting all the MQ stuff done and dropping things off at the Bloomington house for Louise on 6/17. It was truly liberating (and time-consuming). Louie never set a specific goal for the week, but we did a LOT of stuff on his goal list up at the lake last week. His biggest one was to treat the siding on the cabin. Then when he realized he had forgotten to bring the sprayer AND the metal poles for the scaffolding, he set a goal of taking down the huge dead birch trees in the "front" yard. Well, he really, really, really wanted the siding treated, so we did it! With ladders and paintbrushes. I helped with the low parts. It felt so good to get it done - in two days - and move on with things. On Saturday, we (he) cut down the dead trees and I helped clear away the logs and branches. It was quite an ordeal and felt incredibly good to go swimming when we were done.

For June 27 - July 2, we set new goals.
Louie - mow lawn and find water filtration system for Morgan (for BWCA).
Jeanne - work on estate to-do list (from lawyer)

I really struggled yesterday and today with this. It feels so very good to finally really "be" on summer vacation but I'm almost overwhelmed by possibilities and all I'd like to get done! I spent some time during my devotions this morning just seeking God's will. I don't want to fall back into my lists and projects and checking things off . . . there won't be enough time in my life to "do" all the things I think I should or could do.

I went back to the purpose of my starting this "one thing" deal . . . and I recognize that I am someone who can easily get lost in the "stuff" of life. I tend to focus on my failures and short-comings. The reason I pick "one thing" to get done in a week is so that I can enjoy the sense of accomplishment and be grateful that I was able to achieve something concrete. It sounds almost silly to type that, but it's honest. I will do many more things this week (I've already got my first load of laundry in for the week) but it helps me to see the little sign in the entryway with the "one thing" that I hope to accomplish over the course of the week. I'm not sure how long I'll be doing this experiment, but it's also fun to share it with Louie. We both talk about lots of ideas and projects, but it's nice to have a focus. (And I NEED to work on estate stuff - I've been ignoring it for too long.)

One Thing #3

For the week of May 9-14, we had these goals:
Jeanne - send MQ volunteer assignment emails
Louie - NO! I didn't get last week's "one thing" done . . .

So right now, it's May 14th and I've not gotten mine done. I can't really email people's assignments without having the spreadsheet filled in. So that's what I've been working on - getting the info and filling it in. I'm also struggling to stay focused on this one task because it seems so huge and complicated.

That's another lesson with this experiment - pick one thing you know you can DO. If it's too huge, break it down and figure out which *piece* of it should be next. I still like this experiment and will continue it. This post, however, will remain a draft for at least another week.

For May 16-21, I would like to:
Louie - sharpen the chainsaw blade and start treating the outlet covers
Jeanne - finish binding on Unity

<5 .22.16="" pm="">
I just finished the binding on the quilt! I didn't work on it very many evenings this past week. Work has been all-consuming and exhausting. Two more weeks in this school year! But tonight I finished off the binding and it feels *so* good. Here's what's left:
- bury the loose threads from the long-arm quilting (many bobbin issues)
- add a label
- attach a hanging sleeve for the show / I've entered it in the non-judged exhibit

Louie finished his two things right away. He sharpened the chain saw chain right away on Monday and got stain on the outlet covers. He hasn't poly-ed them yet, but has this week to do it.

For May 23-28, I would like to:
Jeanne - Make a rough draft of my dad's estate "inventory" that I need to provide to the lawyer for the next steps in probate.
Louie - ??? He snapped at me when I asked him and now he's asleep on the sofa. He mentioned sewing up the jib sail, but said it might not happen this week.

To be continued . . . 

I did NOT even START the inventory. This past week flew and I chose to try to "check out" at the lake this weekend. I'll post one more week here and then start a new entry. The end of the school year is a really tough time for me. The "too much to do and not enough time" bowls me over.

For May 31 to June 4:
Jeanne would like to get her laundry done.

Louie would like to adjust the stove's bottom burner rack when the oven is cool. (We only think of it when we're using the oven and it's too hot to touch . . . )

One Thing continued

For May 2-7, my one thing was to "Get a good gift for Louie" for his birthday. With Morgan's help, I gave him a 4k monitor for his home office. I got him two other small things, but he didn't like them as much as the monitor. He said, "you shouldn't have," but Morgan said, "that kind of makes me drool." The guys were pretty impressed with it. Louie's one thing was "Replace board under deck" but he didn't work on that at all. The week went fast and we didn't seem to have much time to do anything. He said he should have set a goal of changing the oil on the church lawnmower, because he got that done! Way to be positive, LaMoore . . .

For May 9-14, here's what we're choosing:
Jeanne - send MQ volunteer assignment emails
Louie - NO! I didn't get last week's "one thing" done . . .

For me, this has been a fantastic experiment. Focusing on what does get done instead of the myriad undone things helps me be positive. The visual reminder of what one thing I want to get done over the course of the week helps me to get that thing DONE.

I picked the MQ Volunteer emails because that's something I've been procrastinating on and feeling bad about. I just need to DO it!

Focus on the Positive

It's springtime, which is lovely, but I always seem to find myself overwhelmed and stressed at the end of the school year. There are more things to be done than I have time to do, and it's easy to get discouraged. A few weeks ago, Louie gave me a pep talk about not focusing on all the things I *don't* get done, but rather being happy about what I *do* get done each week. So I asked him, "What *one* thing do you want to get done this week?" And I picked one thing. I wrote it on the board attached to the entryway / garage door.

For the week of April 3-9
This week, I would like to:
Louie - take apart the shelving for transport to the lake
Jeanne- email March MQ hours to Rebecca

I was so excited when I got this done that I crossed it off and put

burn Aladdin CD

And then I did that, too!

paint eggs (the plastic ones I bought for the lilac Lent branch thing)

Then hot-glue strings onto eggs.

I think Louie and I finished these on Sunday, April 10th, but we did get our "one thing" done! And it felt good.

April 10-16
This week, I would like to:

Jeanne - write a letter to Konrad

Louie - sharpen at least one set of mower blades

We both finished (and I had been wanting to write to Konrad since well *before* his dad died) and that felt great!

 April 18-23
Louie - Paint the skylight

Jeanne - wipe down all baseboards and stairway woodwork

We were having our AIM group over for dinner and wanted to do more than the usual housework (admittedly not very wonderful - ever). Louie spent a lot of time that week getting rid of the peeling tape, re-taping, mudding, sanding, etc. It definitely looks a lot better! We still need to deal with the woodwork, insulation, etc., but it is much, much nicer now.

I did not love crawling around on my hands and knees trying to wipe down the woodwork, but it definitely needed to be done! It's something I should definitely do more often.

April 25-30

Jeanne - finish binding one full edge of Unity (Alex and Stacie's wedding quilt)

Louie - church mower blades sharpened and back on


Again, we were motivated and got these things done! It feels so much nicer to focus on accomplishments than on what is not getting finished.

I won't post pictures anymore (they're simply not that interesting) but I'm going to try to document our project more. It's helping me to pick one thing each week that I truly want to accomplish and to keep my focus on getting that one thing done.

For May 2-7, I put my thing as "Get a good gift for Louie" and he put "Replace board under deck." I have succeeded! I still need to wrap stuff - perhaps I'll do that as soon as I log off. I have tried to facilitate his project, but since tomorrow's his birthday, I think he might not get this one thing done . . .

I looked for the house paint we used on the exterior. I took out everything in the paint cupboard. We do not have any of that paint left! I told him to just use a different color, but he said no. I said no one goes under our deck and behind the firewood to look at the bottom board under my window! He said no. He hasn't gotten the board out or cut it to size . . . . and I'm not sure I'm interested in trying to find and buy paint to match what our house has. Ah well. He gave me crap about my goal this week, but I was seriously concerned. He got me wonderful gifts for my birthday; how could I be empty-handed tomorrow? It matters to me to try to bless him. I love my husband!

Dad's interests

As I'm getting rid of scraps of paper, I think about the content and meaning. I have a list:

Labrador / oil
Baffin Island
solar system
Ellesmere Island

These were topics I had been trying to find audiobooks about (without much luck). I was thinking of getting print books this summer and just reading them to my dad. The topics interested him and he wanted to learn more. Missed opportunity - but I don't have regrets about it. I tried really hard to keep him supplied with audiobooks. I did my best.

I wrote the above on 1/31/2016. I'm adding the info below on 2/16/2017.

Found a slip of paper to recycle, but had to record it here first. "Dad likes Michael Harvey's book The Third Rail. More by this author? Chicago Way and The Fifth Floor."

The first one had print copies at Pioneerland and Traverse des Sioux, but I never got them to read to him. I did my best to keep him entertained with audiobooks. Moving on.

When I retire . . .

There are a LOT of things I'm hoping / planning to do when I retire, but I could be doing them now. Time management is not a strength for me. In doing a bit of tidying (and tossing), I came across a catalog for "The Great Courses" audio programs. I've checked a few of these out from the public library (and would probably not ever buy them - they're pricey!) and will probably check them out again in the future.

My favorite one to date is the music history courses taught by Professor Robert Greenberg of the University of California at Berkeley. His intelligence and humor make him very interesting to listen to. The catalog has prices for DVD, videotape, audio CD, and audiotape . . . so you know it's old!

I hope these courses still exist in a decade when I'm shifting to retirement life. Even though the title sounds pretentious, the quality is really quite good . . . and less expensive than taking a college class!