Beech Tree News Network

Although January has passed, its wintery weather provided the opportunity for indoor projects. I had uninterrupted time to do some things I’ve been thinking about. I took advantage of that time to work through a much-procrastinated project.

Because of life’s interruptions, finishing a task may take more time than we like. Several have shared their thoughts about completing or finishing something, including the following people (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/finishing.html; http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/finish):
•    Finishing races is important, but racing is more important. – Dale Earnhardt
•    I love that feeling of just finishing a workout and knowing I'm taking care of my body. It is such a good feeling. – Jenna Ushkowitz
•    There are a couple of utterly important rules to writing anything, whether it's a novel, a short story or a collection of poetry. And they're really the only rules.
1: Quit talking about it and start.
2: Focus and finish it. – Nicholas Trandahl
•    In the marathon of life, there is no finish line. – Bill Courtney, Against the Grain: A Coach's Wisdom on Character, Faith, Family, and Love

I wondered how others had used their indoor time. So, I asked friends and family, “What’s one thing you’ve done this month that you’ve wanted to do?” Their responses are listed below:
•    Washed crown molding in family room; started reading Bible January 1 to finish over entire year; and started sketching a painting for my bedroom.
•    Taught myself to tint windows, tinted my truck and will soon tint the Miata.
•    Cleaned and organized our junk room on a snow day. It was a huge job, but it felt amazing to get it done!
•    Played video games with my kids.
•    Went to visit a friend for the weekend.
•    That’s a good question. It’s sad I can’t think of anything. I seem to work my time around what is convenient for others.
•    Cleaned off my DVR!
•    I haven’t done anything but work and crash. It’s depressing how much I need to do at home that will never get done the way I’m going now!
•    I started exercising again and watched the Harry Potter series with my daughter.
•    I changed the spare bedroom into a craft/exercise room.
•    I slept late and watched movies!

I used some of my January bad-weather days to clean out a closet. The space partially functions as an office storage area (filing cabinet, Internet connection, FAX machine, etc.). As a part of this cleaning-out process, I forced myself to go through a collection of things related to my late husband’s death and funeral. I put the things I wanted to keep in a notebook and threw away the other things. After five years (and two days’ work), I’ve finally organized the funeral documents and related information so that I can find items if I want. Cleaning this area was a major accomplishment for me. I had procrastinated because of that basket of sadness.

John Dewey said, “Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/goal.html). That is true for me. Now that I’ve cleaned the most dreaded area in my house, my next goal is to organize my grandchildren’s toy closet. Won’t they be surprised?