M. Suzanne Terry

I can do many things.  I’m not great at multitasking, but I am crazy efficient. I can get more things done – even doing them one at a time – in one hour than many people can get done all day. I take great pride in this ability. I am not a person who requires others telling me how awesome I am (because please – I already know), but I love it when people notice how much I can get done in a short amount of time.  Because I KNOW, right?!  Recognize.

I tell you this so that you can understand how much I do not want to admit that I cannot complete my Getting It Together project according to my original timeline.

But here I am.  Admitting it.

I could blame the sudden acquisition of a summer class that left me with two fewer evenings every week than I had budgeted.  Speaking of budgets, I could blame my lack of adequate funding for feeling like I am always waiting on the money to pour in before I can move forward.  I could even blame my writing schedule – which I’ve actually been following pretty well this summer – and the two writing classes I’m taking – which are kicking my ass in all the right ways.  There are a lot of things – many cases of “and then…” and “if only..” and “but when…” – lots of caveats, limitations, and warnings to others that I could set apart with dashes.  I could write a whole post on just these things.

But these things, factual as they may be, do not change the unfortunate truth that there are only so many hours in a week, and that’s not enough hours to do what I had planned to do. I can get into a weekly routine of cleaning (check), and I can get into the habit of cooking so that I have food at home and thus feel less compelled to drive through Whataburger every night (check), but I can’t do that and deep clean and shop and reorganize and write and work and see people occasionally and sleep.

So here’s what I AM going to do.

Step 1: Breathe. Just calm the hell down. Focus on finishing Fishbowl and reading and having a proper summer. Eat more snow cones. Paint my toenails.

Step 2: Recognize what I have accomplished (see: weekly routine and cooking habit). This is how my living room looked last night (filter applied because the sun was down and the filter brightened it up):

Not perfect, but not bad for just your average Sunday when no guests were expected. Behold, the power of routine.

Step 3: Revamp. Later this week, I will post my new plan.  There will be an ultimate (soft) deadline, because I can’t bring myself to let it drag on forever, but beyond that there are no time constraints. I have learned that some areas will take longer than others, and that’s okay. Each room will just take however long it takes. And I am happy to let it take its time, because I want to make the apartment home, not just the place where my stuff lives. Well, really I want to move.  But while I’m there, I want to be pleased with it instead of having my current reaction, which is something like, “Oh. That mess again,” every time I walk in. Ideally, my new projected deadline will coincide with my December cookie party, but we’ll see.

Step 4: Invite friends and readers (hey – that’s you!) to hold me to this.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some breathing to do.