Author: Devona

Being organized is OK

Devona 2 Comments

I think we’d been married 2 years when Rob read Getting Things Done by David Allen. He was moved and inspired and insisted that I read it as well. I couldn’t even understand what the guy was talking about. Write stuff down to get it out of your head? If it takes less than 2 minutes do it right away? I’d be running around the house writing fractured thoughts and folding socks and sweeping the porch and folding more socks in succession. It wouldn’t be any different than the way I already am only with added guilt that I was supposed to be organized now.

So I spent the next 3 years ignoring Rob’s suggestion for programs and habits that will get my frenetic brain under control. NO way! You organized people cannot help Head-in-the-clouds people like me. You’ll just squash my creativity!

Well, he showed me how to use Google Reader and I was OK with that. Now I could remember who’s blogs were fun to read without having to follow my old rabbit trails. That got my defenses down.

Now he’s got me using delicious. That’s not too bad, it keeps pages organized for me, I just have to tell them the Tag that goes with it and I don’t have to think about it again until I need it. Passive organization.

Then something I never thought would happen has just occurred. I found myself laying out my planned blog posts for my craft blog in Google Calendar. Woah. That can only be real planning. Real organization. Rob has taken me to the dark side. I’m sure it’s a passing phase…

A year in pictures

Devona 1 Comment

I’ve been looking at a bunch of wonderful photo collections from the previous year. I thought I should do my own. So without furthur ado:

January- I began with resolve to clean every room of my house to tip-top shape. I failed in this resolution, but my kitchen did look wonderful for this photo!

kitchenpics

February- I repented.

lentashes

March- Elise started potty training. Elise is STILL potty training.

pottyfeet

April- I let the girls help me start seedlings. They were fun seedlings, but were so dense only one flower actually made it into the garden.

seedlings

May-I began gardening in earnest and Rob came home from a business trip to find a sink in his front yard. Much like the time he came home to find his kitchen orange (see January).

sink-planter

June- I had to cut a whole branch off this tree to let my garden get full sun. I did this alone in the heat of the day while teetering on the neighbor’s fence. I’m crazy.

tree

July- We came into possession of my Step-Mom’s old chair which has been recovered and now nestles into the office.

girls

August- I created my first dolls that didn’t look like blobs. I love these guys!

raggy-flats

September- Pigtails started Preschool. *sniff*

firstdayof-school

October-I probably should have posted a Halloween photo. But how could I pass up showing off the logical inconsistency of letting my toddler drink hot cocoa on a cold fall day with no shirt on?

hotcocoa

November- I plucked feathers from our local pastured turkey.

dsc_0063

December- We got all festive. There are a bunch of new photos from Decmeber, but they are all still on my camera. Must do something about that!

dsc_0035

Hope you all had as colorful a year as we did. And pray you’ll all have a blessed 2009.

New Beginnings

Devona 0 Comments

Last year was a big year for me. I realized some of my lifelong dreams. Some of them in a big way, some of them in a small way. I spent the year learning about my style and where I want to take my crafts. That was exciting. I learned that the biggest barrier to making this what I want it to be is my own lack of discipline. And since I know I can run a Marathon, which takes enormous discipline, I know that I can make the time to blog at least every other day.

This being the first day of 2009, the occasion of declaring this year’s plans is upon us. I never used to be a resolution person because I never cared about the same things in April as I had in January. Or if I did care it was because I had resolved to leave behind some vice, and not to put more effort into something I love. Vices die on their own as you get busier or more mature, but making your loves a priority is something you have to fight for. The people who love you have to make them a priority as well. That is the most important thing because when life gets urgent, peoplearesickandbillsaredueandschoolbeginsin10minutesandnoonehascombedtheirhair, it’s very easy to let the things that take effort fall to the side just to get by. It’s easy to spend naptime reading instead of sewing or writing.

This year I don’t want to let that happen. Rob bought me a mino video recorder that I want to use to make video tutorials. I bought a dreamhost subscription for 2009 and I want to move my craft blog to its own domain so I can have more control over it and hopefully neglect it less. I want to remember to post on Love and Blunder because I love that blog. It’s like a part of my family or an old friend and I need to stop by and visit more often. I also want to spend more time learning what other people are doing, and letting myself be inspired. I’m getting a ton more sleep now that the Elise-Beast is getting older, I think I can spend some of my newly found brain activity on learning something new.

Have a blessed New Year! I can’t wait to see how it changes us.