Think Horses, Not Zebras

It has been a productive week. It's amazing what adding a few hours onto the end of one's day can produce.

I stained the entire deck in the after supper &/or after work hours of the past week. I didn't have to go to my second job yesterday so I put in some extra hours at my first job and accomplished so much.

I have woken up in the middle of the night, unable to go back to sleep for three straight nights. All work related. I was certain last night my mind would be at rest and I'd sleep through the night with ease. I was wrong.

I left work with two unsolved mysteries. One of the mysteries was where in the world did I put something I just saw a few days ago?

I worked through and filed away almost everything in my basket. I went through everything page by page. Nothing.

I recreated what was missing to the best of my ability. But I was still missing a letter that arrived by mail (a person certainly gets accustomed to having access to an email back up copy of things). I was mystified and disappointed.

"Where did I put it?!?" I lamented to my boss. She reassured me that it was here somewhere. Nothing walks out the door but some days it sure feels like there is a gremlin in our midst as something we just had in our hand disappears in plain sight.

The entire week felt like a blur. I dealt with month end and quarterly types of deadlines. Payroll, GST, reconstructing an account, tail ends of an enormous task that has overtaken our weeks and so much more. All I could think, is that I must have accidentally picked up this paperwork and accidentally filed it away with something I had been working on this week.

"I just had it in my hands!" What did I do with it?

I would come back and look another day. Hours after my usual quitting time, I packed it up and headed off into the weekend. Not a bad day at the office. But those two unsolved mysteries plagued my sleep last night.

Then ... POOF!! The moment my eyes opened for the day this morning, I knew where the missing paperwork was. I filed it where it belonged. I remember thinking "I don't want to lose this so I'll file it so it doesn't get misplaced."

Who would have guessed? Look in the file.

Sometimes the hardest questions have the simplest of answers.

As they say on Grey's Anatomy: "We teach residents, when you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras. It means that the most obvious answer is usually right."

Ahhh!! It has been a busy and fulfilling week. I am going to pour myself a second cup of coffee and enjoy a quiet morning at home.

Ahhh ... Life Feels Good This Morning

It is 7:45 a.m. and all's well...

A morning thundershower has descended upon us: 

The power went out for a few minutes. I was all ready to settle in and savor a morning without the hum of electronics, connection and all the white noise of the world. But it didn't last.

I've tended to all life's little needs, all excess tabs and Windows are closed on the computer. My month end banking is taken care off. The table is clear and I'm ready to roll with the day.

I need a clean slate as my starting point in whatever project I must tackle. The bigger the project, the higher my need for organization. 

I'm feeling very calm at home these days. Now I just need to go and recreate this feeling at work. A lot has been piling up in the busyness of the past several months. I need to find some "zen" there too.

Wrinkles

If ever there was a morning that went completely awry, this would be it.

I was awake for the day by 5 a.m.; out of bed by 5:30; no cats were sleeping in this morning so I stripped the bed and washed sheets; I showered; I tended to all my morning chores and thought I was so ahead of the game I would be out the door bright and early.

Then came the wrinkles.

Forty five minutes on the phone with our home security company. I transferred money to the wrong account. I looked out the window to admire our freshly stained deck boards and the morning dew made it appear it may need to be restained (?!?); I had trouble signing into all of my financial accounts ...

Nothing major. Just lots of little wrinkles in the system.

After all is said and done, I accomplished a lot this morning. Wrinkles and all. So much so, that I am wondering if I should go away for this unexpectedly free weekend.

Looks good at a distance but ...

... close up is up for debate.

Here is hoping now that all the wrinkles have been ironed out in my day this far, I can enjoy some smooth sailing at work. I'm so ready for that.

There IS Life After 7:00!

I have been on a mission to stain our deck. One section at a time. One step at a time. One day at a time. Weather permitting. Energy is just a bonus.

I have reached a stage in our home maintenance/renovation where I am solely responsible for what is left to do. We have a deck to stain. And an endless fence. I decided the deck was a "must do" item on the list. Anything else is a bonus.

I stepped into last weekend feeling overwhelmed and depleted. The weather forecast was spotty rain showers. This was not conducive to good deck staining conditions. Until I realized staining the railing would probably be fine since the rain would not be sitting on it.

So I began.

I did the tedious part first. I squeezed in a few more sections before I went to work Monday afternoon. Fuelled by the realization that I work best in two hour increments with a set deadline, I tackled two more sections when I got home Monday night. I did the same Tuesday night.

It is now Wednesday and the railing and all vertical surfaces of our deck are stained.

I have never had railing on a deck before. I will never have railing on a deck again. It is a time consuming task that I have never had to invest in before. I have clocked over eight hours of staining and I have not yet stained the actual floor of the decking. The ONLY part of a deck I have had to stain in my history of staining.

The hard part is done.

And do you know what?!? I have done the majority of this work between the hours of 7:30 to 9:30. At night!!

I don't "do" nights. I am a morning person. I come home from work at 7:30 at night and tell myself "You don't do nights. Climb into your pj's and savor the hours of consciousness that are left in your day. It's okay. You've done it. You got through the day. You deserve to take the night off."

I am such an enabler. I tell myself this and believe it. And for the most part? I believe this is true.

But in the meantime? I have made an awesome discovery. There IS life after 7:00 at night!

It's Done!!!

As I assembled the before/after pictures of our exterior renovations, I'm not surprised at the unremarkable difference. The difference is very apparent to those who have walked through the renovation process though.

It feels absolutely marvelous to be sheltered by our new shingles. I watched our new gutters and downspouts in action during a heavy rainfall and was thrilled. I often find myself gazing at our new soffit (lots of memories about that after a week with open access for the birds to start moving into the attic). The fascia seems like it was always there and the peeling paint is all but a memory. Then came the paint. And we are done!!

This picture was taken in the midst of soffit removal and after the shingles and foundation parging were done.

After ALL is said and done. Voila!! You have it - our renewed home! One side bonus you don't really appreciate in the after picture is the removal of all the low hanging branches on the fir tree in the front yard. We can now mow the grass without ducking under the branches and feeling like you are covered with creepy crawlies afterwards. P.S. And yes, that is a new front door you see there. I love it!!!

Before

After (the deck is in the process of being stained, so you can see an in-progress before/after there as well)

Before

After - many almost invisible to the naked eye, but oh-so-appreciated differences here. The bottom row of siding was replaced by a durable aluminum type of siding which will withstand the whipper snipper and replaces some of the rotting boards on the playhouse/shed. There is now casing around the windows on said playhouse/shed. The gutters are now seamless and do not leak - yay!! And Mom's wind chimes hang on the eave between the garage and playhouse. 

My handy dandy son extraordinaire took care of replacing old outlet covers and replaced the front door light, numbers and mailbox. It is the little things that bring it all together and make it a home.

All we need now is a railing for our front door. Then the bank is closed for business. Home renovations are not for the weak of heart.

The change is subtle but it is very, very real.

It feels SO good to be done.

Forgive Me World, For I Have Sinned

Did you ever have a day when you felt like you were at the root of misdoings, misunderstandings, under-doing, not showing up &/or possibly stepping on someone's toes?

Oh.

Me neither.

Except for yesterday.

I felt responsible for everything wrong in the world yesterday. I'm pretty sure you can even pinpoint me as the cause for Global Warming and the unrest in the world.

I spent this morning atoning for the errors of my ways and I have more to go.

Gotta run. I must ask the world to forgive me for my imperfections. For they are many.

Forgive me world, for I have sinned.

Today will be a better day. Right??

P.S. This feels so big and so huge that I want to blame hormones. Whadya think? Post menopausal guilt? PMG perhaps??

Revitalized

My energy reserves have been replenished and I feel raring to go again. This is a very good way to feel on a Monday morning. Better yet, because I have a whole lot of staining to do.

I took what I needed from the weekend and besides tackling a few tasks I hadn't been looking forward to, I had enough sleep, solitude and sustenance to fill me up to capacity.

I waited out the instructions of when to stain the deck - do NOT stain if rain is expected within 24 hours of application; do NOT stain until after 24 hours after a rain. I found variations of these instructions with suggestions to wait up to 48 hours.

This could prove to be impossible with our daily rain showers so after I tended to barbequing the meat I had thawed for supper (the meat had to be cooked but no one was hungry, so it was simply an exercise in barbequing - no "supper" was actually involved), I thought I would start staining the deck railing. Surely to goodness waiting 12 hours to stain a vertical surface should be sufficient.

I was in the right frame of mind to start the job. The temperature was ideal. Not too hot. Not too cool. I was in the shade. I promised myself I would simply start the job. Anything I accomplished would be a bonus.

Apparently the sun starts setting just after 9 p.m. these days. I worked into the twilight hour of the evening. It was a perfect way to wind up the day.

It was a tedious job but I didn't really care. I chastised myself a little for not starting the railing the night before. I could have finished the job last night. But one cannot turn back the clock. I have started. Starting is the hardest part.

I hope the most tedious part is behind me. The jigs and jags of the railings by the stairs appear to be the fussiest part of the job. I am hoping for some clear sailing today ... if only it was Saturday again.

Now that I have started this task, all I can see is the endless fence which surrounds our yard. It should have been stained years ago. Thankfully I had a vision of this moment and prepared for it. I had a 30% off coupon at the paint store, so I picked up a wood revival/cleaning product and extra stain. I can tackle this job one section of the fence at a time.

Starting is the hardest part of most any job. From that point on, just take one small step at a time. A step in a forward direction is better than no step at all. I need to tattoo the mirror image of this on my forehead so I can remind myself of this small adage daily.

The only one who can make changes around here is the person I see reflected back in my mirror. I must give her some grace and forgiveness for what she has not yet done. But she does need a nudge in a forward direction from time to time.

One small step at a time. Big things can happen by doing small things on a regular basis. One forward step at a time...