A LIFE in the DAY

Some days are a lifetime long. Seriously. Other days just fly by. Recently I had one of the rare and unwelcomed lifetime types.

No alarm for this girl, just opening eyes and clearing the fog telling myself what day it is, looking at the clock, thinking quickly of what is on today’s list and then getting my old and sometimes unwilling body out of bed. Straight to the Keurig for the morning brew. Back to take care of personal matters while coffee brews. Add cream to the coffee and if possible head out to the deck in PJ’s with coffee and smokes in hand. Seven days a week, I do this. Until the weather won’t allow for the deck perching, then I sit at the kitchen table or curl up with a blanket on the loveseat.

This particular day, I had a short list of things to do. The toy chest needed to be reclaimed. It had gotten out of control and needed a total purging. I know my limits so I didn’t put anything else on today’s list. Just go attack that toy chest, after coffee, smoke and deck time, of course.

I gathered myself together and headed for the shower. After which I noticed my bathroom needed some attention, so I cleaned it up and put up fresh linens and tossing the towels into the basket decided to throw in a load of laundry on my way to the toy room.

Those little unscheduled tasks done, I headed toward the toy room.  The family room, aka sports arena, was a mess. Roomy had been snacking and packing. Next to his chair were water bottles, cf diet coke cans, some wrappers and dirty socks. UGH! Picking that crap up and taking care of it was not on my list, but okay, that was done and the vacuum needed to be run, so I might as well do that. That lead to washing the table covering and dusting and oh, the washer shut off, drying the first load and starting another.

Now, on to the toy room passing through the downstairs guest room, I remember I didn’t pull the sheets off the bed when it was last used. I’m going to be down here today, so I may as well get those sheets washed, too. Pulled them off, carried them to the washing area and dropped ‘em on the floor.  Back to the toy room.

The little kitchen set that the kids all play with needs a good scrubbing so I empty it of all sorts of crazy things and toss out a couple of things in the process. When I was finishing that, the dryer buzzed so off to the laundry area to fold, dry another load and wash another. Done.  Back to the toy room.

Opening the toy chest, I see so many tiny little pieces of fake food that I am a little overwhelmed. Where am I going to put these so that they will stay reasonably clean and handy for the kids. How about the shopping cart? In little cloth bags?  YES. Great idea. Now, where did I put those little cloth bags? I have several, but where did  I store them? 

This room has many cupboards; they must be in one of those. As I open the first one, I realize these are full of crap. Really full of stuff I will never use and don’t have a clue why I saved. Yet, here it is. I grab some garbage bags and start chucking.

Did I mention there are many cupboards?  Yes, 8 uppers and 8 lowers…all pretty much full AND the counter top between them, loaded with JUNK.

The washer interrupted several times or the dryer did, but I managed to get the entire counter and all cupboards cleaned out AND found the cloth bags. What did I want to put in those?

The laundry got done, but not put away. The sheets got washed, but not back on the bed. The toy room got purged and cleaned, but not the toy chest. The bags got found, but not filled.

I made about 53 trips up and down the steps with junk removal and my back was killing me, but I did accomplish a lot of stuff on this extremely LONG day. I felt as though I had been working for days when I decided to quit and order dinner in.

I went to the kitchen, made a cup of coffee, my first since morning coffee.  Looking over at the clock, I was sure the power had been out. It said it was 1 o’clock! WHAT? I’m exhausted, it can’t be 1 o’freakingclock!  It has to be 5 or closer to 6!  I have 4 clocks in my kitchen, coffee pot, stove, micro and one just cute clock. They all said 1 or a few minutes past.  UGH.

I did the only thing I could do at that point. I took my coffee out on the deck and sat my tired butt down. I watched the birds, stared into the pool and I enjoyed the rest of my afternoon. Leaving all those undone things, undone. Not something I am usually comfortable doing, but on this longest day of the year, I left it all undone.

Now the odd thing, the rest of the day flew past. Before I knew it, Roomy was home and it was dinner time. I was sitting for more hours than I was working, but the working time dragged and the sitting time flew. Hummmmm.  I think that is odd and it has taught me; sit more and let the time fly. I was very happy that afternoon and the next day’s list was already made.

Finish the undones and then clean out the toy chest.

The toy chest has still not been cleaned out and the bags are still empty.

Well, fall is approaching and those kinds of chores will be easier to do when I don’t want to be outside or even see outside and those days are not too far off.

Organization…I need more organization of my time.  One thing does NOT have to lead to another. Focus. I need focus. Oh, FB notifications…gotta run…..

Jo