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Procrastination is My Middle Name
I am the queen of procrastination. I have a saying that I post at the office that says “Success is doing the things that we procrastinate doing in a timely fashion”.I always seem to be able accomplish quite a few things when I am under stress, but as I get older, I find that procrastinating for a period of time only puts me in a very stressful straight of mind.
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There’s Always Tomorrow
All my life I have been told I have “no sense of urgency”. What does that mean exactly and why is having “one” a good thing?I watch the world around me fuss and fume and have a fit about getting everything done “on time”. Whose time exactly? Sometimes when I wait until I’m in the mood or I’ve thought a thing through in my head to start, the end result is a better one. I think I have a different view of the world. Often, I watch people hurry up and then wait with nothing to do.
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One Head Trip Without a Map
I wake up in the morning and have plans..plans to write, work on a creation, prepare for teaching. But what do I do after my shower and when I’m dressed for the day? Do I go to the table, set up my materials and dig in? NO. Do I go up to my craft room and start playing? NO. Do I pull out my notebook, put my feet up and get writing? NO! Instead, I load the dishwasher, put in a load of laundry, log into Pinterest…WASH THE KITCHEN FLOOR–ON. MY. HANDS. AND. KNEES (yesterday). -
Procrastination – ‘Chelle
If mom is the queen of procrastination, then I’m the Princess of procrastination. There is only one thing in my life that I ever remember doing ahead of time and that was an assignment back in fifth grade! Since then, I’m the type that does everything last minute. Even getting ready to have kids – I didn’t even have my maternity bag packed before I went into labor. Someone always had to bring me stuff after the fact. For all three kids!!
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Technology Ups and Downs
Everyday, people tell me how wonderful technology is and how much time it saves us. Really!?! How often do I spend hours trying to figure out how to insert pictures into something I’ve written only to accidentally delete half my writing or to send a picture into never, never land?How I long for the days of simply doing things by hand or typewriter. Like at work trying to understand how to fool the computer into doing what I need it to do. How wonderful it would feel to put a piece of paper into a typewriter and have it show exactly what I want it to show.
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Tech… The Gluttonous Monster
“Turn it off!” I feel I am constantly asking, bribing, yelling at my children to disconnect from their technology. From the moment my son gets up in the morning until my edict to shut tech down at 7:30, SnapChat bings echo through our house. My son doesn’t even look at the images when he responds to the bing! He just clicks to open and closes it…someone’s “streak” has been maintained. -
Come Hell or High Water – I Will Win!
I LOVE Technology!!! I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!! I am the type of person that can’t wait to get the newest gadgets and gizmos. I am the one in the family that the kids come to in order to setup all the new equipment. I am the one that deals with technology on a daily basis. I absolutely LOVE it.
BUT…
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Not for the Faint of Heart
Well, to start with, in order to even start writing this on my rather new tablet (actually 1+ years old), I had to have help in even starting to type this subject. You see, technology to me, is a royal pain, a god send, and one of the most confusing things I have ever had the privilege of being associated with.
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Can You Meditate?
We are discussing meditation and all I can think about is sleeping. How do people meditate? Sitting still and focusing on … nothing. Really? I don’t think I could handle that. All I’d be thinking about is what I should be doing instead. -
Overachieve Meditation
This is a topic that absolutely foreign subject for me. Perhaps I do some form of mediation, but I highly doubt it. The time that I could see doing this is during the day. This, surprisingly, is my awake time. That means I have to move around, and find, unless I am involved in a really fabulous book, I need to accomplish something, even if it is walking, bike riding, whatever.
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Sit. Breathe. Be.
I love the idea of meditating. I’ve experimented with it through the years. But it’s never been a practice that held any substance or continuity for me. -
Start Where You Are
I always knew that taking time to calm down, reflect, clear my mind and be open to the deeper thoughts buried within my brain would be of benefit to me. I knew these things and I had absolutely no idea where to start.
Did I read a book, join a group, listen to a singing bowl, hit a gong with a mallet, figure out a mantra???
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Walk to Downshift
Stress makes me crazy. Literally. I want to sleep the second I get home from work and then when it is actually time to hit the hay…guess what, I can’t shut my brain off! It doesn’t make sense.I wish I could drink and the calm continues. But alcohol just makes my brain depressed and my body tired. Besides that, I don’t need the empty calories..and I wake up in the middle of the night..and I can’t get back to sleep…My brain is on while my body feels groggy and heavy.
So..is downshifting an art? An art that I have a very limited talent for?
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What Downshifting Means For Me
Beaver Dam has become a member of something called “Blue Zones”. I am a beginner in what that means exactly- but with time I’m sure I’ll be on board. One of the elements that resonates with me in the “Blue Zones” information is something called “downshifting”.
What does that mean exactly? To me, it means letting go of all the crazy things that make me grumpy, psycho and just plain bitchy.
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Doing Nothing
The question is how do you downshift at night? How do you relax?
Well for me – it’s very easy. I am not a big drinker, so it’s just a matter of sitting down and doing… NOTHING!!
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I’ll Prove Them Wrong
I don’t remember ever being told that I needed to get a job, but when Lisa was 16, she had a job, therefore, because she was my hero, I had to also get a job at 16. It also followed, that because she worked at Larson’s Family Restaurant, that I had to work there as well. -
All Things Swimming – A Great First Job
When I was a little girl, I always wanted to swim well. I took lessons at the beach. I had to forge my permission slip and promise not to tell Dad because he was deathly afraid of drowning. I scraped my nose trying to dive and almost drown trying to tread water. This was not going well. -
Stuffing Beans is Not My Gig!
My first job taught me what I would never want to do for the rest of my life, or even a small part of it.
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The Power of ONE
Sidetracked Sisters are sidetracked. That’s it…kind of…not really. One of our defining characteristics is that focus, and single-minded purpose is NOT our strong suit. We tend to flit, flutter and putter rather than being devoted to a straight path. Some might attribute ADD characteristics to the way we live our lives. Perhaps that earlier word that I used…putter…is what best defines the way I go about my “free” time (ie: time not taken up by work/job/career and family or household responsibilities). -
No Concept of Time
I swear I have no concept of time… But in my defense – neither does my family. My entire life – I’ve always been 5 minutes late. We even tease that we’ll be late to our own funerals! Well – that has always irritated me about myself (and my family) – so I’ve started to do something about it… -
No Sense of Urgency
Time and money. The two albatross’ in my life. The two realities over which I struggle for control and yet two commodities that are totally opposite.
Money is distributed based on successes, luck and abilities. On the other hand, each of us has the exact same amount of time in every day, every week, every month and every year. So why do I always feel as though I don’t have enough time to complete the things I want and need to do? -
My Time – Not Yours!
Time is certainly not my best friend. You see, everyone says I don’t like to follow time. The truth of the matter is time is always getting me in trouble. There is never enough of it to go around. My time schedule is definitely different then the norm seems to be. Have you ever noticed at work when someone comes in say at 6:30 a.m. and leaves at 3:30 they are the superstar, even though you come in at 8:00 a.m. and stay until say 8:00 p.m.
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Shopping Sucks
I think I may be the only person in the world that hates shopping. It totally stresses me out. I can never think of something wonderful to get for the person I’m shopping for. Or if I do think of something wonderful – by the time I actually need to get the present – I’ve forgotten what that wonderful thing is!!
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Flea Market Adventures
We have a bi-annual Girls’ weekend shopping trip that we go on, where all the women in my family (of all ages).
Twice a year, all the women in my family (of all ages) and our girlfriends, go shopping in St. Charles, IL. We started this tradition around the time that I started having kids, so in the beginning, I was either pregnant, nursing, or had a toddler with me. In our family, if you are a boy, you only get to come on the adventure if you are under the age of 3. Once you hit that age, you are banned from coming. Now… if you are lucky enough to be a girl, you get to come as long as you are fun to have around.
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Shopping for Treasure
I go on a junket called “Girls’ Weekend” the first weekend of every October and the first weekend of May. The focus of the weekend is the flea market. There are tv shows about the adventure of “flea marketing”. In the shows, people find treasures, then change them up to resell for a profit. There are magazines dedicated to “flea market style” where market items are used to add bling, pop, or interest to a room or a remodel.
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Tradition for the Sidetracked Clan
Some traditions are too important to break. Girl’s weekend falls in that category. Every first weekend in May and October is Girl’s Weekend for the Sidetracked Clan. Rules are Girls only- baby girls included (or breastfed baby boys).
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Girls Only!!
Girl’s weekend started twenty years ago. Our wonderful friend, Bonnie, who is no longer with us physically, actually got us started. I’m sure she is hovering with us as she would never have missed this chance to shop. -
Can You Do It All In a Day?
What would you do if you found out that you were going to die today? -
Savor Each Bite
If I were to die today… I’m assuming it will be in the evening, I know that this is coming since morning. I wake up and know….
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No Regrets – Just a Tapestry of Memories
I’ve always said life should be lived so there would be no regrets…and still if the moment came that I knew this breath was my last how would I feel? -
I’m Just Not Ready Yet
I always say that “I can’t imagine life without me”. This is a really true statement and feeling. Perhaps we all feel this way, but how can life go on if I weren’t here???? -
I Think I’ll Just Sleep
I definitely don’t deal with stress well. I end up doing one of two things: I either get extremely crabby (“bitchy”) or I just lay down and go to sleep.There are so many things in my life that add to my stress: work, family, the house, the yard, worrying, and anything else that doesn’t quite go as I expect it to.
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Stress: It’s Just Life!
I’m the kind of person that wakes up in the morning looking forward to the upcoming day. I do walk rather bleary-eyed to the kitchen for my coffee (cold in the refrigerator from the day before, already loaded with milk and sugar…I can’t wait for it to get made fresh). Then I get into a bit of a zen zone as I walk Huey-Girl in the dark, pre-dawn of the day.
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Is Anyone Bleeding?
The nightmare is always the same. It is Christmas morning. All of the stores are closed. The family is waking up and expecting Christmas to be here. Extended family will be coming by later. There are no presents under the tree, no tree, and nothing to wrap. The refrigerator is empty and I have no way to buy any groceries for Christmas dinner. The grocery stores are closed. Once again, I have waited too long and the results are complete devastation……
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Stress on a Daily Basis
I have been told that worry and stress are two of the biggest wastes of time. I agree, but have not yet at this ripe old age figured how to avoid them.
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Surrounded by Clutter
I deal with clutter on a daily basis. At home, at work, in my car… everywhere. I can never seem to get ahead. At work – I deal with clutter for clients. Taking all the miscellaneous paperwork they have and trying to help offices go paper-less. Wow – do some of them have a lot of paper around!! -
My Life is a Mess
The first thing that pops into my mind is….a messy desk is the sign of a creative mind. Is that how it goes? Well my desk is messy, my home is cluttered, my life often seems to be on the verge of chaos.
Kitchen…see that cute plant on the right?
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Clutter Be Gone!
Clutter in my life takes many forms. My main living spaces are clutter-free. My bedroom, kitchen, and living room are clear of clutter. I can’t stand it any other way. I am a pick-up as I go kind of girl. (Please don’t count the dust and dog hair)
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Clutter or Decorations?
Clutter makes my butt feel big!!!! Having a lot of clutter around makes me feel weighted down and out of control, depressed and rather hysterical.
I think I hate clutter and love it at the same time if that is possible.
