One of the tasks I feel I have in this life is get a handle on my tendency to walk away from messes rather than man up and take care of them. Why I find that so difficult is unclear, but it’s what it is. As I’m sure most of you, stitch readers, know, untidiness occurs on a daily basis if you live with other people (men or women both), pets and, most notably, children. Contrary to what you might think, having large places like we do in Berlin makes the problem worse instead of de-escalating it. It’s way too easy to physically remove yourself from the epicenter of the chaos without leaving the house. Dangerous, that.
I’m in a weird mood today. I have work, but can’t concentrate for s… Waiting for the shop to call back and give me the verdict on the car. Urgently waiting for my girl J. to _finally_ receive a package that has an astonishing history of getting lost. Making up my mind whether to knit a new hat for my daughter who has yet again lost one, or just get her a new one. Looking forward in panicky anticipation to seeing my son on stage as Lucifer in the school play that’s premiering this weekend. Waiting to hear back from a client who may or may not have ditched me for backing out of a project. The slings and arrows of pulling out of our hats the annual Winter Fayre at the Waldorf school on Thanksgiving weekend (Waldorf moms, you know what I’m talking about). Meeting with teachers about a kerfuffle at my daughter’s school concerning a very difficult kid (not mine, thank God, just me doing the parents rep thing). Needing to bill a client for a poorly organized project, which makes the invoice both complicated and susceptible to mistakes … Lots of stupid little things like that, and they keep piling up like a messed up round of Tetris. Stressful and annoying.
Oh, you’re asking for a solution now? Well. I guess I have a strategy, you could call it. I recently read a discussion on a related topic in a forum, regarding workday organization, time management and such. What I took away from it is that the world seems full of very organized folks. To my relief, there is also great diversity with regard to the systems they use. In the end, we’re all different, and whatever gets the job done is all that matters.
So, my personal way of going about Managing Messy Days is the following.
1. First beat into submission my knee-jerk impulse to walk away from it all. It’s real, I’ve done it more times than I can count, even though I’m aware that most issues do NOT just dissolve into thin air when you look away, sadly. Addendum: Walking the dog first is absolutely fine, for clearing of heads and channeling of energy from the trees and the sunshine and the oxygen. Also, it’s exercise, always a bonus.
2. Then, sit down and write down all the things I currently worry about. There should be two columns (or clusters if you’re a mind map person). One for the things that just require keeping an eye on as opposed to actively doing something about them. And another for actual tasks and chores.
3. Acknowledge the things you can’t change right now, and ignore for now. The other things: Just do them. One after the other. Check, check, and check. Banal, you say? Well, duh. I’m no type of expert for systematic approaches or life coaching, haha! You don’t even know how hilarious that notion is. I’m just 52 years old, have worked for about 30 years and have managed a family as a working mom for about 18. I suppose you could call me ‚experienced‘.
4. If you can, talk to someone about the other list, or cluster. Call a friend, whine, be a brat about it. Journal. Just communicate your dissatisfaction to a friendly listener. It always makes me feel better! And I guess the task to absorb my rant fell to you guys today :-). You’re welcome. And, more importantly: thank you for reading, truly.
So that is my method for getting the better of days like this one, lest they get the better of me.
There’s not much else I feel like talking about today. One thing, maybe. I mentioned that everybody is having babies, right. And you know I like to make things for little people. So I can’t really decide about the pattern for a friend’s baby. I have a bit of time, as it’s only due in a few months. But I’d like to get started before all the Xmas craziness sets in.
Remember the ripple pattern baby blankets I did in the past?
They were all pretty much the same, and based on Attic 24’s awesome pattern. This time, I wanted to do something different, more monochromatic. I was thinking a simple textured pattern. So, over the weekend, I played around a bit with patterns, color combinations and yarn.
I kind of settled on off white, maybe using two strands to make it more chunky, for it is thin yarn, which would be perfect for a summer blanket but the baby’s due in spring, so. I was also thinking of adding a pompom border in pastel colors, pompoms like I did here?
But around a blanket with a pattern like the one below (those are just swatches, to see and feel the pattern).
So that’s a question I’d like your input for. My daughter liked the middle one, but I’m not sure if it isn’t a bit too geometric for a little baby girl. What do you think? The one on the left is of course nothing else but the ripple pattern minus the different colors. Please help me make up my mind!
Btw, I’ve gotten my car back in the meantime. The verdict is not great: I walked away with another appointment and the prospect of having to spend a good few hundred bucks, easy. :-(.
So, now I’ve gotten all of that out of my system, I guess it’s high time to sit down and do some work I’m actually getting paid for. Ducking back out of here with a picture I took last week by the lake. I swear this was midday to early afternoon (as the clever ones of you can probably tell by the position of the sun). I love the eerie lighting and the sense of impending doom. You can easily imagine an army of zombies just waiting to stagger out of that murky water in search of braaaaaiiiin.
Have a lovely day, everyone, hopefully more focused and less messy than mine.
A Stitch is a stitch 