Our Relief Society temple preparation theme for the month is Clean UP. "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish. . .a house of ORDER." Imagine wanting to clean every cupboard and closet in your house and reorganize everything to different places and doing it every day, day after day for a long time. Keeping in mind that things need to be moved, what would you do first? How do you get space to put things and make it so you won't have to move things again when you need to add more things to that space? That Becca is willing to have us leave many things in place makes the project imaginable.
I am currently working on the food room and the downstairs kitchen, but the upstairs kitchen and laundry room have also become involved. In the middle of the night I come up with new ideas about what to put where and how to go about it. The garbage can and recycle container are full and pickup isn't until Wednesday. The trunk and Becca's are full of stuff for Deseret Industries with additional stacks in the house.
Ken doesn't come home from work any more, so there isn't a set time to quit and fix dinner or a set time to eat. We do stop and have lunch together but sometimes end up eating separately as well depending on schedules. When Steven and Alysa join us, their schedules provide some structure to our activities, but they are in Kentucky until Sunday night. Ken has been doing mostly computer stuff, so for him it has probably been a lot like working at work. He stops to help me when I can't move something or get it apart. I think it is a good thing that we have the temple tonight and tomorrow to give me rest time.
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5 comments:
I sympathize and wish I could be there to help. I'm glad that some things are coming together and hope that it all will be manageable. Don't hurt yourself.
I love giving stuff away. We have a thrift store drop-off mobile at our grocery store which makes it convenient. Stuff can be such an exhausting burden. When I give it away, I think, "I never have to move that, clean that, or organize that ever again!" It's joyful.
To avoid exhausting yourself, maybe you could give yourself time limits, mini-deadlines, every day. I also have a check list where I try to organize something, clean something, and improve something every day. After that, I can feel good about doing whatever I want-- within reason of course. If I have a lot to do, I try to alternate between things I have to do and things I want to do. It's a way of making myself take breaks.
I like the 3 task list Deb. Also the time limit idea. When I have so much to do that I don't know where to begin I pick a room and set the timer for 15 minutes. Then I tell myself that no matter what point I'm at, I'm allowed to leave that room. That does work best with things that are out of their designated place. The re-organizing pitching or packing kind takes much longer. Sorry, I think that's what you're up to.
Becca IS a nice girl. :)
I've read about the timer idea for cleaning, but never had it work well for me. I get too involved in the stuff, the sorting.
It is so much easier emotionally for me to work until it is done.
But John makes me take breaks. Brings me drinks. Distracts me. Reminds me of my goals.
My favorite couple missionary pictures have great lighting. I asked a professional photographer (showed him couple photos from Church News that I liked and asked what was the common factor) and he talked about spot lighting, making sure that blond/white hairs aren't washed out or darkened with shadows. The couple looks like they are glowing (well, they look really happy, too!). And the pose: don't stand shoulder to shoulder, but facing each other's bodies and looking over your shoulders towards the camera. Like two pieces of bread on a sandwhich, looking at the skinny side. Backdrop: professional backdrops are fabulously muted/whispy/greyed/soft focus things, that blend away distractions. Without going to a studio, there are things you can do to imitate that kind of background on your own. 100 photos spread out over at least a month, but trying to take one every day, every time you are both dressed up (every Sunday and day you go to the temple!). Timer, Steven, helpful neighbor, tourists on temple square, you could get a great missionary shot! And best advice for my favorite shots are ZOOM all the way in, then stand close enough to only get both couple heads and shoulders, use the flash, and be outside in a fabulous place, and take lots and laugh and make faces to relax your face so it isn't stiff-looking.
I've had fun success with freecycling old stuff. It is very staisfying to get rid of something by having someone else take it away for you.
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