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 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!