Focus on the Positive #12

Honestly, I'm just too lazy to take a photo of my white board and add it to this entry . . .

For March 18-24: "Bday gift to Angela!"
I took her to lunch on March 22 (her birthday was the next day, but Louie and I went up to the lake for a long weekend). It was very nice to visit with her and she liked her gift, even though Louie said it needed something "fun" instead of just pragmatic stuff.

For March 25-31: "Wash fabric for Morgan and Angela wedding quilt."
Even though they got married a year and a half ago, I do not spend enough time in my studio! (It's all the puppy's fault.) I was hesitant to do this, because I dislike ironing and there are several yards of fabric! Yesterday (April 3) I finally washed, dried, and carefully folded it all! I may have a One Thing goal of ironing it sometime soon. . . . I know I got this thing done later than planned, but I did spend time last week working on the basement bathroom ceiling.

It is much easier to focus on positives these days. Quitting my job has been tremendous for reducing my stress level and helping me keep a smile on my face. I am so blessed!

One Thing? (Focus on the Positive #10)

Well. Time does have a way of slipping by.

Here's what's been on the white board for the past month-plus of my life:

We got the railing done (for his dad), but Louie wasn't super happy to spend the Saturday after Thanksgiving putting it up in the drizzle. Now it's done! It has been a help to Lou.

I'm still pulling stuff together for the fiduciary accounting, but may just wait until the 1099s are mailed . . .

I did what I had to do for Block of the Month, but never finished the January block (Kathie's design) and the February block was too big . . . and I should get up to my studio and make the March one! In any case, my favorite sewing thing this past month was making Angela's Christmas stocking. I really like how it turned out!

I go through phases in my focusing on the positives in life. I'm trying to stay prayerful and praise-focused. There is so much to be thankful for! Truly, just "making it" to Thanksgiving break was huge. Then getting to Christmas break. But here it is, January 1st, and there is so much I want to do still!

I have lots of to-do lists and goals . . . and I've done my official goal-setting for 2017. (Perhaps in another blog entry, I'll share that process.) For my "One Thing" and positive focus, I'll be using a plan my sister Louise came up with. It's called the Friends and Family Fun Encouragement Experiment (aka Triple F and Double E).

I'll blog separately (and weekly?) about that!

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 #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 #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

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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!