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.

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.)