Monday Motivation

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Just had a good productive couple of hours. Got s2s, the clothes on the line, then dh heard me moving the outdoor livingroom furniture so came out to help (it is light aluminum so no effort to move.) We got the roofs off, I got all the garden decorations into the shed and the front porch redone for winter (chairs that don't need a pad since the pads will get soaked with snow.)

Dh called me a monkey because I do the 'high' work with the roofs (I stand on the deck and balcony railings and lift the canvas over the cupola.) I was stiff and moving slowly but I can still climb. Dh is afraid of heights and balance beam was the only gymnastic equipment I could ever do anything on. Come to think of it, I'm afraid of heights too but when I'm on the railing, I don't feel like I'm up high, even though, for the balcony, it is a good 10' down to the grass. I'm holding onto the infrastructure of the shade structure so it isn't as if I'm on my own up there.

The gardens still need cleaning out and the driveway markers have to go in (although I usually wait until after Halloween to do those and the Christmas lights.)

Dh loaded the shed with our bikes, as well as some of the other stuff from the garage. He's left room for the wheel barrow and the reindeer and shovels are stored near the shed door so they'll be handy when I need them. Once the wheel barrow is away, there's room for a second car in the garage again, so guests can pull right in on foul weather days and then not have to clean off their car when it is time to go. In the summer the second car spot is taken up by the bikes.

Dh cleaned the heat recovery ventilator so we've turned it back on. Our friends last night were surprised we turn ours off in the summer because of indoor air quality but we have windows open all but 8 hours or so on hot, hot, days, all the time other days so we figure we don't need to waste the electricity running the ventilator too.

My two loads of laundry are now brought in because the sunshine is intermittent now and rain is on its way. Glad we worked outside when we did since it was pleasant in sweaters and jeans, about 54* but it felt warmer because of the sun and our moving around. I'm up to 3000 steps so far today and have only had the pedometer on for 3 hours.

Dee: it was below freezing overnight last night so we had our first hard frost of the year.

[helia]

I'm like Kathryn; deadlines are a big motivator for me. I include the arrival of houseguests/ dinner guests as a deadline too. I also work better when music is on; in fact, I jog better when I listen to music, so I've started doing that.

I'm going to punt the groc. store trip to tomorrow, possibly this evening. So, I probably won't make my 6x5. But, if I substitute in my Hebrew class, then I can still make 6x6:15.

Getting ready for a jog now. . . .Girls are home. I'll greet them first.

[Sadie]

Hello Dear Ladies,

It's a beautiful fall day here, sunny but cool. We've got our heaters going for a bit in the morning.

My motivation is a clean, orderly home. Unfortunately time and energy aren't always available to achieve that.

Lots of health issues going on at my home. DH's back continues to give him problems, but I think he has reached a turning point. Got to the point he couldn't stand to even be in a vehicle or to hardly walk around in the house. But he's been slowly able to walk around a bit now, sit in the living room for awhile. This morning he managed to make it to the breakfast table and then layed down for awhile. He is very depressed about it and of course the anxiety kicks in big time.

And Dson 16 cut his left index finger to the bone and needed a trip to Urgent care and seven stitches and a couple of follow up visits to make sure no infection occurring in the bone.

Dbrother was extra needy too during all this turmoil.

So today I made sure I walked and exercised, telling myself I need to take care of me so I can take care of others. Listened to 5 chapters of the Bible during my one mile walk.

Working on laundry and doing computer work, working on the budget and grocery list.

The house is crying out that it needs attention but I've put my blinders on for today, don't want to feel overwhelmed or get exhausted.

Enjoy your day!

[Harriet]

OKay, I don't think it sounds odd that you have so many cards. There is no doubt in my mind I do 1,000 things before lunch. That may be conservative.

One of my 1,000 morning things, for instance: The other day we walked out the door into the dark and dd said, "oh, no, Mom, I just locked you out!" and she really had! No worries, because after returning from school run I could rap on the window to wake HRH, or even call him with the phone - it would have only awakened him about 15 mins early. But it made us think about the fact that 365 days a year I faithfully unlock the back door every morning. I would tell you all about the next 999 but you don't have time.

Thanks for kind words about the calendar, OKay and for not thinking I am odd about it. It may seem silly to be happy sticking with the same artist every year, to the point I will tape on another month name if needed. But he published such pretty (and year-less) 12x12 calendars instead of 13.5x12, so they fit my handmade calendar holder found at the Southern Christmas Show on a very happy trip with HRH, who carried it for about a mile before we got back to the car! So other things, however beautiful, newer or bigger, are not this one, which is juuuuust right.

My ddad is having a hard day. I so empathize with you, Sadie, that the turmoil can be there or not but our caregiving goes on. I know you are handling things in a downright graceful way, and things will calm. ((dson16)) get well soon!

[Ivy]

Hi! I'm back! Just cuop!

OKay, Cards motivate me, too. I have fewer than you, but I write about 6 things per card.

Twins' Mom, Oh, how true! Yes! Deadlines are motivating!

Helia, I bet taking Hebrew class is motivation. Your DH is dong fabulous with his running BTW!

Lynlee, Glad that school keeps you motivated and volunteering,too..

Bernice, Accomplishing work is GR8 to motivate and family, too.

MT, Your motivations are nice, too.

Kathryn, You're a SHE PRO! I loved your list of motivators, too.

Nancy, You're so right about those cards motivating us SHE's.

Cowinkie, Yes, $$ motivates!

Dee, deadlines, cards, and a checked off list are great motivators for me, too.

Some of my motivators are my office calendar, because I write appt's and deadline story titles on it, a poster I've written for 6-month deadlines for Seasonal stories, and on-line calendar reminders, which come to my inbox to remind me to do certain things. DH's sports shows are a motivator because when they're on, I sort of zone out and do my own things, but am productive at doing my things because I know about how long his sports shows will be on, so they make me have little deadlines for myself.

Books are a motivator because when I get one, I have to be motivated to read it. I think BookSaver can sympathize with me on that one.

[Nancy]

Dson took a photo of the coop and the back yard was looking pretty bad so that's been motivating me to get working on picking it up.

my PODA
Dgd is here and the first thing she wanted to do was see the chickens we feed them pop corn and some fruit from the yard.
Then she played in the play house.
I pulled nails out of pallet wood for next box tweaks.
Made chili this morning forgot the onion!
Dish washer has been unloaded and reloaded.
s2s x
bed made x
decluttered another coffee pot
chopped veg and cooked 'em up for use in the next batch of soup I used the corn water!

[Emptynester]

We have driven our 35 miles, filled up the gas tank ($3.51) and are parked at the RV Park where the rally will be held. Tomorrow is the first day. It ends Saturday morning so we might head for home a day early. Dunno yet.

I have time before happy hour for a short lay down on the bed with a book.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm a SHE veteran, not a PRO! (The latter implies competence with the system, the former, longevity.)

I'm up from my nap. Ds isn't coming for dinner which is good because choir got moved up 30 minutes and my nap ran later than I intended. Boy was I stiff when I first got out of bed!

Dh started his supper prep and it was going fast so I started mine (scheduled to take on 5 minutes.) That was 15 minutes ago and I'll have to reheat everything once he's actually finished. He tried to upgrade his flight on Friday, no luck with the website so had to call in. Now he's making a salad. I had known he wanted a salad, I could have done it while he was on the phone. Instead, I put the dirty dishes in a sink of hot soapy water to soak while we eat. Hopefully, I'll have time to wash them all up before choir so will come home to a clean kitchen (but sticky kitchen floor.)

[Twins' Mom]

Home from work - had a busy day there, lots to get done this week, including our own tax return. Even tho it was on the calendar correctly, I somehow managed to mix up the time I was supposed to meet the handyman guy at the old house, and missed him. Thankfully, he was able to get in and is going to call or email us later about the repairs.

I ordered myself a pizza for supper - had figured on having leftover chili from last night but I had forgotten that today was our "Chili cookoff" at work. I also managed to forget to make the brownies I had signed up to bring, and then this morning I meant to go by a grocery to get an additional dessert and I forgot that until I got to work. Turned out that a lot of people had forgotten stuff so office mgr made a grocery trip.

Low tonight is supposed to be down to 43 degrees - I turned our heat on when I got home thinking it wasn't absolutely necessary, but would be good to be sure it works, and it won't come on. I also need to report a repair to the gas fireplace - the switch that is supposed to control it doesn't.

I did a lot of reading over the weekend and will read some more tonight. I still need to take the ddogs for their walk, but they are frantic over the pizza right now.

[CathyS]

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadian SHEs.

Kathryn, I can absolutely picture you and your yard right now.

Dh cooked all day while I worked. Turkey is out of the oven, but the veggies aren't quite ready.

My dd came over yesterday. We were supposed to see the inlaws on Saturday, but MIL wasn't up to it and called on Friday night to let us know. They are both 83 now and I wish they still had the energy to drive here and back, but I don't think they will get back here. (It's about an hour drive from their place to ours.) They only got here once in the past year. FIL won't drive in the dark, the snow or the rain any more. Dh does go there at least once a week.