Just One Thing

My head is always full of blog posts, until I sit down to write them and then I can't remember any of the thoughts I had. So I think I will have to do what I did in Jr. high English class. We had to write a journal entry for 15 minutes every day, so I would just start writing anything and this would start the thoughts flowing and usually I would come up with an idea to write about.

My baby, Matthew, is seven weeks old. Crazy that he has been part of our family for so short, yet so long of a time already. Matthew is a joy and is happy, as long as he is being held by me. The children are constantly  fighting over whose turn it is to hold him. Lydia tries the most for it to always be her turn and Matthew tolerates her the least.

It is raining right now and Tom keeps coming and asking questions about flooding - asking how long it would have to rain to flood Florida and what are we going to do if it floods. I ask him why he is so concerned about it flooding and he just shrugs and says "I don't know".  Definitely here in Florida the adage holds true "when it rains it pours".  I've forgotten how heavy the rain comes down, because it has been a few months since it has rained regularly.

A few months ago Jeremy bought Rebecca (5) a pair of rollerblades. She uses them and loves them, but Lydia (3) kept taking them and using them, so there was constantly a fight over them. Lydia is actually really good at rollerblading, so this week we got her a pair of her own. Now all of the kids (except Matthew of course) have their own pair so when we go to the park I push Matthew in the stroller (or wear him in the baby carrier, which he prefers) and the kids glide on their skates.

A couple days this week Lydia held on to the stroller for part of the time and rollerbladed for part of the time. However, yesterday she rollerbladed the entire time (about a mile) and I don't think she even fell at all. Funny thing is, as brave as she is about rollerblading, she isn't so confident about trying to ride her bike without training wheels. She saw her friend who just learned to ride his bike without training wheels and her comment was "I think I will have to wait until I'm older until we take the wheels off mine" or some such remark indicating that she is not ready to go two wheeled.

Jeremy's car got totaled last month in an accident. Thankfully he was not injured but our 1995 Honda Civic that we loved and hoped to have for many more years was beyond repair. Our replacement car we have chosen to buy, from some friends who are moving, won't be available for a couple more weeks, so Jeremy has been using the minivan. That leaves me carless. I don't go much of anywhere anyway, but we do like to go to the park often. Not having a car available has taken away my ability to be lazy and just drive the mile or so. Granted it is hot most days (even though it is barely March and only in the 80's, it still feels so much hotter than that) but it has been a good thing for me to be "forced" to walk and get back to exercising. I've even started adding in an extra lap around our neighborhood to get more distance in and get more of a workout.

This morning I took the girls and we did one loop around the neighborhood. It was at 10 am and we went at a fairly slow pace (lydia was pushing the stroller for most of the walk, so she set the pace), yet I was drenched with sweat by the time we got back. Florida is beautiful, but it is so humid and hot. Like I said, it's only been in the 80's, but the direct sunlight (not in the shade) feels so intense and hot and makes it feel at least 10-15 degrees hotter than it really is. 80 here doesn't feel like 80 in Idaho, where I grew up.

One reason I don't write on my blog very much is because I spend to much time reading other blogs and run out of "computer time" and/or energy to want to try to compose my own thought. However, I do read some great posts that motivate me and inspire me.

 Maybe since it is spring time many people seem to be talking about spring cleaning and a popular idea going around is "40 in 40" - to purge 40 bags in 40 days. Although my home really does need some good purging I didn't set this as my goal, but it did motivate me to tackle to girls room and be ruthless and get rid of as much as I could.

It felt good to accomplish  that much, but I knew that more of my house really needs the same ruthlessness. However, I get overwhelmed when I think too globally, in terms of the whole house. A blog post I read last night talked out doing just one thing, and how that usually is enough to help us keep going. Like if you don't feel like cleaning the house, just think of one thing that you can do in regards to cleaning, like wiping down the sink. Once you get started you usually will end up doing more than just that one thing.

So I think that is a good mantra/goal for me to have - ONE THING - I can do one thing at a time and one thing here and there will add up to many things, that usually overwhelm me, to get done.

Today my one thing was to pick out five shirts from my closet to get rid of. Once I got started I picked out five and then ten and then soon the bag was full of things I was able to get rid of. It felt good to accomplish that. So, my goal, instead of "40 in 40", which seems good, but would eventually overwhelm me (mostly because it is someone else's goal, not my own, even though I adopted as my own) is to do "one thing".

And this one thing pertains to more than just purging my home of excess, but to everything, one scripture, one moment with one of my children, one blog post, one walk, one moment of gratitude. I don't have to plan weeks and months and years of how many minutes and pages and miles I need to do such and such. I can just focus on the one thing.