Project, smoject.

You know what? I have too many projects, and I stress myself out with them. This is probably not news for anyone but me, but I tend to forget this. We were supposed to have the Church Social here on April 15th. We might and we might not (there's an alternative in the air). But my Dad's friend in England, Sandy, pointed out that there is nobody but me who expects my house to be painted before that date. Obvious to the rest of the world, yes, but not so obvious to me. I've always done this to myself.

First of all, I am a natural procrastinator. I was born that way, I suppose. I remember in third grade my teacher loved me because I always behaved and I adored her, but I just had trouble getting all my classwork done. When I did it, I did it well. So she tried setting me on a timer. A red and white timer from my Mom's kitchen. Helped me focus one assignment at a time and stop looking out the window and day dreaming, I guess. Anyway, no matter what it is, I have trouble getting started, I make it to be a bigger deal than it has to be, and I am such a perfectionist everything must be planned out and just so before I feel like I can get started. And then I can't be finished until every detail is right. Am I insane or what? My Dad is a perfectionist, too- and actually, so is Mom, but I am not sure where the procrastination came from. I think I just hate the thought of failing (which is the only alternative to absolutely perfect when you are a perfectionist), so sometimes I don't start and then I can't fail. Also, as I am sure you can understand, small projects are never small. Clearly there are many details that must be handled in addition to the ones that you think are the important ones.

Anywho, I finally got well into my office unpacking and organizing project. We did a great job settling in and combining stuff last spring and summer, but lost steam when it got to all the office stuff we had both collected since college. So a lot of it sort of stayed in boxes and hid in the closet. Six weeks or so ago, I pulled them all out of the closest to start organizing and the closest looked great-- but the office became a disaster area and I got overwhelmed. So I avoided it entirely. Last weekend, I finally started getting into it. I did pretty well, and got the junk spread out and organized so I can just do one box at a time. I've gotten through many boxes and no longer feel overwhelmed, just motivated. Hooray.

But, HELLO! What am I thinking? There are boxes and chaos from that project and I am thinking I should start the painting project this weekend just because I am taking Monday off and am having people over in a few weeks? Well, folks, my sanity must come first.

IMPORTANT BULLETIN
As project manager, it is my duty to inform you that the painting project must be delayed until further notice due to scheduling difficulties. We apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort this may cause you when visiting our house with purplish walls with a few blue spots where we tried a color we aren't actually going to use after all....