Progress on Projects.

April was really busy and full of travel, but was also full of progress:

Oliver and I have reduced our T.V. watching to such an extent that unless a movie is on, the T.V. is otherwise rarely on.  My production at work has been farely time consuming but I have started to run again and am beginning to feel more lively because of it. It's baby steps for me, and I got up to 1.7 miles by the end of April. A regular 3 mile run is my goal and with all the travel taking me from my plans I was happy to finally run 2 miles today! It was much easier than I anticipated and of course I feel great right now. It was triumphant!

I finally made a list of everything I need to move to my Moms and everything I would like to sell. Traveling as much as we've had has really shown me how much of our stuff we can comfortably live without. It makes me want to really skim our lives down.

My goal going into May has been to photograph all the items I would like to sell on Craigslist and get them ready for listing.  I have to travel again next week but can list everything while I'm on my trip and have things available for pick-up over the weekend. Anything left goes into a garage-sale my sister-n-law and I will have in June.

This month has really been transformative. The sun is shining and the warmer weather and extra exercise have picked my mood up significantly.

Oliver had his last day of Art-based preschool yesterday. They had a picnic at the park where he spent a lot of the time running all over the playground. Before hand we went to the salad bar at the grocery store and I let him pick out all the fruits, veggies, and cold meats he wanted. He was delighted by the smorgous borge of tasty fresh food to choose from and dug into it the minute we got to the park. After that he would take breaks to snarf down some food including radishes which I'm not sure if he's had. He is a good eater!

The only thing on our horizon right now is that today is Austin's birthday and we are celebrating over the weekend with the rest of the family. It is so strange to see my sweet little nephew turning 4 already--so fast, but stranger yet to think Oli is next.  Happy Birthday to Austin!

The spring and summer bring many promises and already new friends and contacts for me. Life is shiny right now :)

Fingers, toes, and everything in between.

Easter came and went without a hitch, minus one small hiccup...the night KU lost the game (in the sweet sixteen), I too took a fall. Somehow landing on my hand I rolled head first, popping back-up, and paying for it the next day...and 10 days later at that. I injured my left hand somehow in the fall and with a equipment heavy job, a three-year-old, and a lot on my plate--its been a bit of a challenge. It is still pretty sore, but the pain is isolated now so I can tell exactly where on my hand that I injured myself and without any swelling or bruising left to prove my fall, I'm thinking I'm healing just fine.

Definitely not my finest Moment!


Easter was great, Oliver looked darling and it was fun to look back at pictures and see how much he has changed over the four Easters he's had. 

The lower left was his first Easter, the bottom right was last year, and the upper right this year. I can't decide which version is the cutest :) I loved every age for different reasons.

He is going through a major language explosion as he is starting to piece together how the world works. One funny little thing he does is to combine words...fresh sage = frage, terrible and horrible = herrible (my favorite), amongst others. He is very inquisitive asking a lot of questions, needing clarification about why things work a certain way, wanting to define the world around him, he's a great help in the kitchen and carrying in groceries, and he loves to give directions to others when he feels confident about how to do things. He is beautifully trusting and maybe will be gullible like me; Justin has him test how cold his sodas are on his stomach before he hands them over and every time without fail, Oliver will lift up his shirt, hold the cold can to his stomach and then hand it over to Uncle Justin saying "Yeah, its really cold!" lol.

April looks like it will be a month of travel with some work stuff exploding around me that I need to take care of down in Oklahoma. In the meantime, Oliver is getting a ton of time with his Dad and I will maybe get a little break from the childcare costs. 

Our good news of the month is Oliver was on a waiting list and got into Raintree Montessori starting in June.  Higher education is in our future! Raintree is a wonderful school and if we find ourselves still in Lawrence when the time comes he can also go to Elementary school there.  I remember kids that came from Raintree and they were always so ahead of the rest of us. He is my world and his education is my priority--so I am truly excited to find a place like this that we feel at home. I will be sure to take pictures when he starts.

More later.

Project #2: Cleaning out the garage

As previously mentioned I am going to work on emptying out my garage unit attached to my apartment.  In this unit I have a lot of containers of the things I have held onto over the years. There is of course the typical stuff, like Christmas decorations and Oliver's old baby clothes, a suit case of cards I've received, a box of cords, and many many bikes and trikes. Some of it will have to go--sold off via craigslist, and I'll cross that bridge when I get there. For the rest, some of it I will get rid of, other important things I will have to move into my apartment.  Thus starts the first step to project number 2, making room for my stuff from the garage by de-cluttering my apartment.

I am going to try and donate something every week. That means picking one corner at a time to go through.  Knowing me, I would, without direction attempt to de-clutter my entire apartment in a days time, ruining any chances of enjoying my day and setting myself up for failure when while I will achieve a great deal, I will not manage to get everything done at once. This is what I tend to do--all or nothing.

Our good family friend, Bill once told to quit trying to eat the elephant in one giant bite--so I am making a list and then I will begin tackling each space and getting to enjoy the sweet taste of success as I cross each thing off the list.

1. Oliver's Toys: He has so many toys, and while he plays with a lot of them, there are many collecting dust and taking up space. Together he and I will sort and eliminate the extras.  Some of them will be donated to the salvation army, others to friends.

2. My T.V. Cabinet: This is my paper storage/dvd stash/tool cabinet/picture storage/catch-all.  I need a paper storage system but this is not the place and could be put to much better use!

3. Pantry Shelving: The space above my washer and dryer is meant to be used as pantry space but we've set up shelving in the water heater closet so instead this holds everything in the kitchen that doesn't have a home and gets so bad that things pile-up and spill out.  We have a lot of eliminating to do in here!

4. Coat Closet: Why is it so hard to get rid of shoes and coats I don't wear anymore? They are just so damn expensive and so nice. What I don't wear will go to my clothing closet. I need the space for stuff from the garage more than anywhere else. Swim gear and outdoor gear will need to fit in here.

5. My green desk: Talk about paper storage. I need to use this for work stuff because I certainly have a lot of it and I could use a better system.

6. ALL my work stuff: Ever since we got rid of our local office my home/garage has become the dumping ground for equipment and paper--its gotten a bit absurd.

So, if anyone needs something, let me know--I probably have it! (and sorry for such a boring post).

Projects

Sitting in Henry's Coffee Shop, sipping a coffee, eating a piece of lemon bread and listening to Otis Redding I'm reflective of all the major steps I've taken in the last week to feeling more whole.

In attempting to fine-tune the amount of television Oliver and I are watching, I realize my biggest problem is not necessarily how much we watch, but when we do it.  That was the entire point of the first week after all--to pinpoint the balance of setting limits on our first goal. Just by limiting the times at which we can watch television has helped with a number of problems--first and foremost, by not watching at inappropriate times I've picked back up more positive habits in its place. Sure my DVR is stacking recorded programs like they are going out of style--but hey, I'll catch-up when I can, and in the meantime, I've caught up on some sleep :)

I am in a much better place this week than I was last week. I had a good visit with a friend of mine who helped in giving me some perspective (thank you Laura), and with the support of my amazing older brother I can see that I really am making headway in my life.  I get so fatalistic about time, as if I am always running out. With that mentality I will miss everything in my sons life--and in addition--mine. We are both worth more than that.

I have a few big projects this spring and I'm ready for the snow to go so that I can get rolling on them.  I am working to re-design my friend's apartment. She is a single woman in her 60's--both children grown, but living in a small apartment with a gazillion books, three cats, and serious space problem. We are working with some handicaps that limit our spacial options--the placement of certain objects limited by her disabilities/capabilities.  But all and all--it is an extremely exciting project and I am enjoying it--I just need to give it and her more of my time.

Project number two involves cleaning out the garage unit that I have. It costs me money to store my stuff (and my families stuff) in there every month. I have renewed my lease for June and I've renewed it without the garage, so I have until then to clear out the space (and maybe/hopefully sell off a few items).

The final major project of my summer is to work on remodeling my sister-n-laws kitchen. She would really like to get this started and I think it would be a fun project for both of us.

I am realizing with all of these exciting projects, I need to really maximize my time and that starts by making the most of the moments I have while I'm in them. I need to get more done at work during work hours. I need to give Oliver more of my undivided attention when we're together, I need to make the most of my days off--if this doesn't help me at setting limits in my life, than I don't know!

Regardless I feel hopeful and after the few weeks I've just have--that is a major step in the right direction!

Making Lists...

...and then making the time.

Thanks to my sweet friend Laura Kelly, I am making the first step to spending more time with others by joining her monthly book club.  I am pretty excited to get there and talk about something of substance with other adults.  Yesterday I picked up a catalog from the Lawrence Arts Center to look into taking some classes, then when I got home and checked the mail I had received the very same catalog in the mail--I'm thinking its a sign that I'm on the right track.

Oliver is finally of the age that he can take classes as well, so I'm looking to double book us, he can do his class while I do mine.  I'm mostly interested in either writing classes or new artistic mediums...probably water color painting or print making--something I've never done before!

I have to admit I've been in a funk of sorts lately. There are so many reasons I could/should feel the way I do right now, but those reasons never make it any easier to overcome the emotions.  About a year ago, I had found incredible inspiration, was getting into shape, had a new place, the sun was shining, spring was here and I felt liberated. A year later, I guess I'm in a funk by my lack of progress, how in some ways I feel like I've regressed rather than moved forward. I guess I thought I would have seen more growth in a years time.  So many feelings to overcome and in general a feeling of being overwhelmed that I don't know what to do with. I feel like I have so much to do, but when I find myself with the time to take care of those responsibilities--I don't even know where to start.

So I'm starting here. I'm reading a book (well I read it a year ago and now I'm re-reading it) and making lists. The book is called The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta.  The book is about "the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential...in business and in life." Frankly, it feels so cliche and silly to even admit to turning to a book (one of self-help origins) in improving my state of existence, but I don't know where else to start and this book gave me tremendous inspiration.

The first step is setting Limits. I have to look at the things in my life that make me feel overloaded or that occupy too much of my time.  I need to analyze how much of my time is truly being occupied with these things and try and set limits, provide structure. Using the new limits I set, I will give it a week to see if the new limits work in my life or whether I could limit further, or need more...to fine tune the limits in other words. The second week I will add the adjustments made through trial and error, after that, I will practice making it a habit.

I have to publicly admit the first thing I will be setting limits around. It is rather embarrassing to admit it out loud (even if my audience is so small) but without the public admission I won't be likely to take this challenge seriously. The truth is, I spend (and Oliver spends) entirely too much time watching T.V. and movies. So much that I loose other practices in my life and allow T.V. (something that clearly makes me feel even more depressed) as a way to aid in my current funk. Its time to put the practice to good use. See if I can fill my time differently and who knows maybe gain some positive new practices in its place.

Stay tuned for progress reports to come.