Category: activities

I Want To Do Everything

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 4 Comments

It’s a sunny, bright, cold morning around my castle. Birds are lovin’ my feeder, the breeze is slight, and the snow is starting to melt along the driveway and paths.

A perfect day to want to do everything.

Ever experience the superman/woman syndrome while sitting safely inside, on your sofa or at the table, in your creative shed or library or corner table that holds every piece of information you ever wanted to save?

You’re in your empowerment spot. Your creative spot. Put on a pot of coffee, turn on some upbeat background music, and you’re ready to do it all.

Write. Paint. Sign up for classes. Send off a deposit to several art fairs. Plan a weekend trip to some artsy city a few hours away. Make plans to clean out your kitchen cabinets. Your closet. Design a vegetable garden this year. Plan to visit museums and new restaurants and to explore new walking paths in local (or not-so-local) parks and forests. Start thinking of losing weight and finding a new job and having the entire family over for a family picnic in July.

And before you know it you have empowered yourself right back to a second cup of coffee and maybe a donut.

It’s so easy to plan your future when you’re sedate. Warm. Comfy. It’s so easy to imagine yourself exercising, walking, setting up booths, moving your painting equipment to the mountains, cooking for 50 people, climbing the Eiffel Tower, visit the waterfalls that are only four hours away.

There’s so much energy available in the future!

Too bad reality keeps both your feet mostly on the ground, safe and sound.

Case in point.

I have only one craft fair under my belt so far. I keep busy during the cold months making more product. Last year I planned two fairs and one was cancelled. The one that survived was fun and new and a great time. It also was a LOT of work.

This year I’m tempted by a third fair, one with the name “Dragon” in it. Right up my alley, baby. A wandering though a big park, only 100 booths, it sounds like a piece of cake.

But it’s one week after my first one up north and two days before I pack and take off camping for a week.

The one I have booked for late summer is a big one. A busy one. One I’ve only walked through as a visitor. Optimistically I need to make sure I have enough product and prep time for make this one a success.

I want to do it all.

But I remember how exhausted I was after my first one. I’m not a spring chicken. Even with help it’s a lot of standing and packing and unpacking and arranging and talking to people I don’t know and a smattering of nerves and brain freeze all mixed together.

It’s easy to put too much on your plate. For some, the answer is just to eat off a platter. For others, trade that big plate in for a saucer.

You need to know your limitations. Dream big, Live sensibly. You can plan a vacation to the mountains or the beach, just know how far you can walk on said beach and plan around that. Invite people over for a reunion but limit the crowd. Think about making tile mosaics but plan one at a time, not ten.

Keep dreaming and planning in your special place. It’s what keeps you alive and dancing in the sunshine and the rain.

Just let your past experiences be your guide. Not your daydreams. Don’t try to be SuperPerson.

Your body and mind will thank you for it.

 

 

Slugs Gather Here

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 5 Comments

444This evening I should have been editing my novel, tweeted about my latest Art Gallery post, done a little research, read some great blogs, and writtten a poem.

Instead, I spent this evening laying around like a slug, watching TV, washing a dish here or there, watering a wilty plant, and giving my dog an extra cookie or three.

Does this mean I’m not dedicated to my craft?

I know several people who signed up — and finished — the National Novel Writing Month challenge (NaNoWriMo) where they write a novel in one month. Others have done the National Poetry Writers Month (NaPoWriMo) where you write a poem a day for one month. I just saw someone on Twitter say they were digging in and writing 800 words — I don’t know if that was per day or per session. Another friend devotes at least an hour a day painting. Yet another schedules scrapbooking dates with daughters and friends. I know fellow bloggers that find time to sculpt and do wire works and probably take ballet lessons, too.

I am a failure.

Every morning I have the honor and pleasure to drive the back roads to work, my mind allowed to wander and plan all the fun writing and art gallery adventures that will take place once I get home. After packed days doing data on a computer, most of us come home with headaches and carpel tunnel, not inspiration. Add a dog yakking on the floor or a sink full of dishes, and all those dreams come crashing to the ground pretty darn fast.

Maybe I shouldn’t want a writing career so bad. Maybe I shouldn’t obsess about new twists to my blog or new artists for the Gallery or art fairs I’d like to wander through or jewelry I’d love to make or the tree branches I want to paint on three canvases for my bathroom or the beads I want to sew on the new top I got from Good Will.

Maybe I’m not a failure.

Maybe I’ve just got too much want.

Do you feel that way? You should. Are you a member of the 10/5 Sack Club? You know — trying to shove 10 pounds of stuff into a 5 lb. bag?  Are you a lets-change-our-days-to-34-hours-instead-of-24-hours member?

How do you get it all done? Are you ever really satisfied with how much personal time you have?

Damn, it’s frustrating, isn’t it? All the stuff you want to do, all the stuff you plan on doing, dream of doing, and all you can muster is a slug on the rug routine.

I know it all will get done sooner than later. Between the grandkids, the maddening work load, between mowing the lawn and brushing my teeth.

I know my characters will wait — they’ve waited this long, fooling around in a parallel Etruscan time zone or in 1885 Clairmont or at a writer’s gathering on the shores of Lake Michigan. They know their stories are good, their purpose clear. The morals have already been written, the points made. The artists continue their unusual creations until I get them in the Sunday Evening Art Gallery, and the fairs and fests await my arrival.

Until then, there’s nothing wrong with a good ‘ol SlugFest now and then.

 

 

7 Activities to Keep your A.D.D. Busy

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 1 Comment

circle-back-oI find that I’m always on my way to talk about one thing when I get turn around and talk about something else. I usually attribute this to my adult-onset A.D.D. Not making fun of the condition; just acknowledging that I have most of the symptoms.

I am learning to work with my short attention span. Sometimes it’s waving my arms like an orchestra conductor, forcing myself to slow down and breathe; other times it’s doing the whirling dervish, looking for the TV flipper that I just set down somewhere. There are other odd things that contribute to my upsidedownness — hubby working a different shift, too many dogs underfoot, having to sit still eight hours a day in front of a computer screen. The winter blues are hitting all of us full force, too. Tired of below zero, slush and piles of snow, boring browns and blacks as wardrobe colors.

What’s a feisty granny to do when she’s lost her zest?

I’ve come up with a list of activities that will combine my inability to sit still with my desire to nap half the time. See if you can identify with any of them.

1.  Multitask.  Now, most of you already do that. But if you orchestrate your movements, you can flow from one room to another, putting things away, running a dust rag across the TV on the way to the bathroom where you pick up dirty towels, drop the towels in front of the washer as you continue towards the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, taking a clean glass to your bathroom where you stop on the way to fold a couple of shirts in the laundry basket. By the end of the night you’ll have cleaned several rooms and burned off a few hundred calories!

2.  Exercise Class. It’s never too soon to start an exercise regime. I’m not much of a class person, but I have an elliptical downstairs that I can move right in front of the TV. Maybe one day I’ll be able to watch all of Gone With the Wind on the thing.

3.  Writing.  Now, I know you wonder, “How can sitting and writing in the evening help with my antsy pantsyness?” Well, no one writes quite like me. I know Stephen King hides himself in a room for eight hours a day, others have great studies, library desks, even a comfy chair in a quiet corner. Not me. Half the time I’m plopped onto my favorite corner of the sofa, TV going on in the background (mostly Sirius radio), laundry rollin’ in the dryer, flash drives and laptop and spiral notebooks and my phone all within reach, a glass of milk, (sometimes a cookie), and a blanket for the chill. It’s amazing what I can get done with I just sit. What also helps is that I have ten things I want to do and only a couple hours a night to do it.

4.  Be a Granny. Although this task is usually delegated to weekends, there is never a slow, dull moment when I get together with the world’s cutest 4-year-old. Often there are other grandparents around too, so we all can take a breather when duty calls. But I find trying to keep up — and ahead — of him, especially mentally, is the perfect outlet for my whirling dervish moments.

5.  Research. I know when I say that word you think of  putting together 30 references on the bottom of a 50 page research paper on the life of a paramecium. But that’s not true. No matter what your hobby/career/dream, there is always something you can learn from. Learn about. Some take notes; some have great memories. When people say you can’t be a writer unless you’re a reader, that’s true. Even if it’s Yahoo headlines. But your curiosity should take you places that inspire you. Surrealistic artists, wire sculptors, quilting patterns. Ancient ruins. Alien ruins. You can learn from them all.

6.  Organize. Yes, I know that’s akin to cleaning, something many of us are allergic to. But especially now that winter is thinking about leaving, what better time to rearrange your closet or jewelry box or kitchen cabinets. It’s funny, but organization does bring a slowing of the heartbeat and the feeling of accomplishment. After all, how many bracelets or blue shirts can one have?

7. Music. This is my final go-to when I find I can’t slow down. A piano sonata by Beethoven can work wonders. So can smooth jazz or even a visit to the New Age station. No words, no pounding beat (I leave that for Saturday mornings). Just a steady rhythm, a mysterious melody, to a beat that slows down your racing pulse and forces you to relax. Dim lights help, too. Incense. Candles. Just don’t fall asleep and burn your house down.

We all have hobbies/careers/passions that make our blood boil and our ideas clamor to see the light of day. We have busy days, meetings, conferences, data entry and countless other responsibilities. If you are retired, there is still a list a mile long of things you want/need to get done. And the last thing you want to do during the evening or on weekends is to keep running at that breakneck pace.

Yet your love of your craft won’t let you rest, either.

Your best bet is to channel your energy into a positive force to be reckoned with. You may find yourself writing down thoughts for your next story as you mix cookie dough while watching “The Walking Dead” in the background, but, hey! Isn’t that what life is all about?

Get ‘er done!