Gaining Control

I've got a ways to go ... but I'm finally, finally catching up on some of the things that have been piling up on me.

I clipped my horoscope out of the paper several months ago, waiting for this to come true:

"You'll be working on several different projects at once. It will be an amazing feeling when several of them come together at the same time. One of your favorite feelings is the feeling of accomplishment."

Yesterday was a productive day. It felt like the day that horoscope came true ... at last!

I logged another (almost) 5 hours at my book keeping. 17 hours of catching up with one aspect of their year end; another 4 or 5 hours sitting in front of me; and maybe 3 more hours left. One job down ... many, many more to go. But the sensation of having a 3 inch 'done' pile verses 1 inch 'yet to be done' pile sitting in front of me ... is really rather marvelous.

Last night, I finally got the last of my taped conversations of family memories, transcribed into a scribbler. 3 hours of conversations that I collected over 2 months ago. I still have to decipher my writing and organize it into something tangible on the computer. But that part is a walk in the park, after days spent writing it out.

I (started) helping a friend with her family history. I transcribed the conversations and typed them out and she deciphered my words and the scrambled stories that were told and sent them back to me. I scanned photos and added some into the 'story', but we still must go through the rest of them and decide what goes into the 'photo album' section. I set up the layout of 'the book' and sorted the various stories into their perspective chapters and she has almost completed going through those chapters. We just have to meet up and put our heads together to see where we go from here ... but (thanks to my friend), this project is well past the half way mark.

As these various projects have each overcome the toughest hurdles, I am energized. My brain is relaxing enough to start to play around with the various memories of my dad's family and I'm trying to come up with ways to tell their story.

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel again. I have so many things I want to do and not enough hours in the day or days in the week, to do them. But now that I'm almost caught up, I'm ready to take on more.

I set a goal to have my family 'history to date' written out in some organized fashion before my uncle's (my dad's brother) arrival in 4 days. That felt like a insurmountable goal when I set it. But I'm almost there. Almost ...

I expect myself to work as hard and put in as many hours as I can possibly work, with my book keeping job. That is a challenge with summer holidays, good weather and a completely different schedule with the kids. But I've been trying. And succeeding (for the most part).

I have felt like such a schmuck as I abandoned my friend's family history project. I started this project before I took on the book keeping and then added my dad's family's story into the mix. This was multi tasking that far exceeded my time and energy. I felt like I let her down.

Yet between the 2 of us (mostly her), we are climbing the mountain. There are simply times in life when you need a helping hand. Hopefully I helped her enough to make her end of the job a little less overwhelming. I certainly know that she picked up the load that I couldn't shoulder right now.

I've reset the bar and I want to do more with the stories I've collected. I believe that is why I was stopped in my tracks when it came to my friends family memories. I wanted to do more than simply recopy words and reorganize them. There is such a story in these family histories, that I am searching for a way to make it a bit of a page turner (at least for the family members who will eventually read it).

Higher expectations at a time when my excess energy levels are at an all time low, has not been a good combination. But now that I've overcome some tough hurdles, I'm ready to keep climbing the mountain.

If I don't keep climbing, I'll never know where I could have went. It's not all fun and games, but the view from the peak of that mountain will be worth every minute it took to get there. From that summit, I hope to scour the panorama around me and find the next mountain I hope to scale.

I just want to keep climbing. One step at a time.