Becoming a DO-er

My life is a "To Do" list.  There is so much that needs to be "To Do"ne, that I'm just not making it.

When I was a kid, my dad (lived through the Depression) had a wall sign with a cartoon man holding out a begging cup or something, with the quote, "They say, 'Life is what you make of it,' and, brother, I ain't makin' it!" That's the way I feel so often in my clutter.

In an effort to get a handle on this, or at least in an effort to not become depressed, to enable myself to see that I AM actually getting things done, I am teaming up with Homeschooling Hearts and Minds to participate in a "Becoming a DO-er" project. We will individually be setting up goals and getting them done in an effort to accomplish forward motion in this life.

Now, I'm not exactly a candidate for "Hoarders" television show or anything, but there are  parts of my house that, if I photographed at careful angles, would/could look like they came off that show. I am constantly trying to work on decluttering, but it feels like trying to sweep out the tide.

You know those days when you clean the living room, then go clean the kitchen, then clean the kids' rooms and the bathrooms, and when you get back to the living room and kitchen they look like you were never there? For me, decluttering feels that way. If I focus on the sewing room/desk room, when I get back to the main part of the house, it has gotten out of control again. So often I feel like I'm not even keeping up with laundry and junk mail/paper piles, so how can I justify working on the hidden eye-sore room?

So, I'm trying to say that I want to do this in a way that I don't get overwhelmed. I'm supposed to set up achievable goals to be working towards. Some of my goals feel like ...well... sweeping the tide -- or sweeping sand... it never ends. One of those goals, right now, would be getting the yard raked.

• Rake the yard

I have a measly two-tenths of an acre, but it is fenced and has six trees, Even as I rake, which I can't get the whole front OR back done in a day usually, I am overshadowed by this sycamore that is just waiting for me to finish so it can drop more leaves. ::sigh::

A second achievable goal I will be working on is to:

• iron, fold, and then create with the baby flannels I purchased on Black Friday for donations to my favorite charity, Online Angels.

Some other goals, not in order of any plan, will be:

• Scrap-book with family photos received from Dad and Gram, and Mom, and even photos from my 33 years of marriage, so that I can get rid of the big box (copy-paper size box) of photos, and also have a record for my kids of who the people in the photos are.
• Do the hand-quilting on the quilt Nana made for my son, but couldn't finish.
• Organize my yarns and make more squares for my Online Angels.
• Finish knitting scarf for my daughter for Christmas.
• Finish knitting slippers for Online Angels.
• Get books I want to sell listed on my blog for y'all to consider.
• Work on Work Box System and get my son to learn to work independently on his schoolwork.

So, this week I'll definitely be working on the flannel project. I raked yesterday, but as stated, it still needs a lot more work. Today it rained, so there was no conflict. I don't think I can rake during the week, so we'll see what the weather is like next weekend.

I'll report in next weekend with photographs to show before and after on my flannel pile. I was going to post the "before" photo here, but my camera battery was dead, so it will have to wait. Feel free to comment below.