As I type this, my consicence is telling me that I should be preparing for a garage sale we're holding this weekend. The other voice in my head is saying a few more minutes won't hurt...
This is, I know, one of my worst habits. I have this mindset that I can perform exceptionally well under stress of time running out...truth is, I just perform when time is running out. I spend all the time I have leading up to a deadline mulling over what I should do, what I plan to do, what I need to do, what I will do...and then tell myself that I've plenty of time. Then I wake up one morning and realize that a deadline is no longer a distant speck on the horizon but the large object blotting out my view of all else in the world.
It's an ugly habit and one I truly need to not just break, but smash to smithereens, light the remains of it on fire, then bury the ashes in a deep hole in the middle of a desert somewhere.
I'm NOT a naturally organized or self-starting person. Just ask my mother...growing up she would have to light figurative fires under me to get me moving on things. Thankfully, my parents were the sort of folks who'd learned that we needed to learn from the consequences of our actions and would let us reap what we sowed.
Many times, the night a project was due I'd tear around the house gathering supplies, shrieking over needing posterboard and a box of sugar cubes...and my mom would calmly (irritatingly so) and simply tell me that it was really too bad I hadn't planned better as she'd just come from the grocery store. What I know now is that she knew all along that I had the project, knew I'd need certain objects we didn't keep in our home, and chose to let me suffer the consequences of my choices.
I'd like to tell you that the lone F I received on a book report project cured me of my nasty habits, but it didn't.
It would take many years, nay, DECADES before I was truly cured of being unorganized. BB might argue that I'm not truly organized yet...but he'd be telling you he was organized as he was searching for a tool in his shop...
I'm only as organized as I need be as an at-home parent to three little people. I keep a calendar simply because my brain would explode trying to remember who needs to be where at what time with which supplies/materials.
I'm only organized because I can't stand the visual clutter of things lying about.
I'm a trained neat-freak. The reason my spice cabinet is alphabetized along with my Jell-O flavors is because if it wasn't, I'd never know where they were.
Now that we're trying harder than before to be frugal and live below our means, it's even more important I be organized and not procrastinate.
Case in point? I bought peaches on sale (not as good a price as I wanted, but that's a different story) last week. 25 pounds of them in fact. After I came home, I realized that the only way I'd be able to process and preserve them would be the "quick" blanching, peeling, slicing and bagging of them as opposed to making jelly or preserves.
I'm not thrilled about it, because I purchased them on a whim, not a plan, and now they're hanging over my head making me feel guilty.
And now I really must get my garage tidied up so I can begin bringing up all the gathered items we no longer wish to keep in our home, clean them off, slap on some price tags and start the process of organizing items to sell on Saturday.
I'm not thrilled about it, and in fact, am procrastinating because I don't want to do the sale because I'll be by myself. BB and Capt have baseball, and my folks are taking the girls. Yup, I get to be all by myself with crazy garage sale people on Saturday during a 92 degree day haggling with folks of a certain regional bent that only ever want to pay a quarter for any item on my driveway...
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