One Step Report #2

This week was a different sort of week.  I need to remember that the weeks when I’m the one driving the kindergarten mid-day carpool are very different (and not nearly as productive) as the weeks when I get to stay home, waiting for my daughter to step through the door.

This week I recorded 35 steps.  Most of them were in the area of nurturing, discipline, and home management.  While I do not feel that I gained any ground this week, I am grateful that I was able to at least maintain a few things.  My little girls still have a clean room, my kitchen has been consistently clean, and there has been no clean laundry piled in my bedroom.

For some reason this week was a little bit harder emotionally, a little harder to feel happy with myself.  One night as I was cleaning the kitchen, I overheard something that my husband said to our son.  They were watching a surfing video online (Mr. Wonderful is a surfer) and he said to our son, “It’s about using what the wave has to offer.”  Light bulbs went off in my head and I thought, “It’s about using what the day has to offer.”  My days offered different opportunities this week than last week, many of which I could have done without.  But I did my best to be cheerful and work toward my goals.  This was a week of learning more lessons instead of accomplishing tasks.

I do have two things worth mentioning specifically:


I uploaded 150 photos of our family from 2009 and had a photo book made with them.  It was so awesome to receive the book at the end of the week and read through it!  If I get no other memory projects done for last year, we have this, and it is a great snapshot of our family at this stage.

It was in beautiful condition for about 90 minutes.  I then left to pick up a daughter from gymnastics, during which time someone chose to eat a homemade granola bar while they read it, and left tons of crumbs in the pages of the book.  When I discovered it the next morning, there were oil spots and sticky spots in many places.  Bummer!  So, do I let myself feel frustrated with my children for misusing something that should last, or should I be grateful that they wanted to read it?  I considered both options, then shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

Second thing:


I stayed up late on Friday night to put together my first Rouenneries quilt top.  I’ve had this fabric for 2.5 months now, and decided that I deserved to break into it.  I love this fabric line!  Saturday night I was suddenly possessed with the urge to list my favorites of 2009 in the quilting world.  It was a lot of fun, and I’m excited to see what 2010 will bring in this fun hobby.

Looking back over the past 17 days, I realize that I need to give myself permission to sit down and pick up a good book.  I spend all my time working on things, but I’m not going to meet any of my goals unless I just do it.  I can’t keep saving books for when all my work is done.

So there’s my report.  I wonder what little steps will define the coming week….