FUN AT HOME ON A DANG' COLD DAY!

Unless you're descended from tribes that originated in the Far North and retain all the attributes that ensure your ability to thrive in cold-cold-cold temps, you are probably like us here in Northeast Indiana. We're content to stay inside on what we call a "Dang' Cold Day."

We've been steadily at work on household adjustments:

--moving furniture from one room to another

--moving furniture from one side of a room to another side

--moving everything in the path of the furniture so it can be relocated

--cleaning the place the furniture is going to

--cleaning the place the furniture has recently resided

[Already you can see that this is not for the faint-hearted. You will need regular encouragement. More on this below.]

Besides Moving and Cleaning, you will no doubt discover there is Sorting.

Sorting happens because furniture that has storage capabilities tends to have those storage places filled, sometimes to the brim, sometimes beyond. 

--As an aside: I don't think I've ever seen an empty drawer except in a piece of furniture newly delivered by the furniture store.

Sorting, if you're not extra vigilant, can take on a life of its own. As an example: suppose the drawer you're going to empty and re-purpose holds a number of old greeting cards (sent to you), letters from friends (hand-written, stamps that cost less than a quarter apiece), and a few odds and ends like ball-point pens (now defunct), pencils too small to save (but you did anyway), and possibly some unused postage stamps (really? stamps used to be that cheap?).

Okay--that's your assignment, sort the above drawer. Hint: Treat this like a story problem in math: how do you reduce the number of items in the drawer to (a) empty it entirely, or (b) make it usable for adding more items? Give your reasons for each possibility. [You have 15 minutes to solve this problem, then 10 minutes to actually do it. Go!]

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Encouragement - You can do some things ahead of time to help you succeed in your task(s). You can make signs--simple ones, handwritten, on scrap paper left from a printing project. Try these on for size:

     "You can do it!"

     "Remember--this was all your own idea!"

     "Well begun is half done." [Uh, maybe, maybe not.]

Rewards - Did I mention you'll need rewards? I didn't? Well! Try these:

     Coffee and a cookie at mid-morning.

     Lunch out - or have it delivered.

     Fruit, cheese, and crackers in late afternoon.

          [Wine with cheese NOT recommended before finishing the job.]

When you finally call a halt, call for dinner to be delivered, or whip something out of the freezer to be restored in the oven.

While you're waiting for dinner to appear (one way or another), take a shower or a bubble bath (with or without that glass of wine). Put on a clean outfit you like, just so long as you can't clean, move furniture, or store boxes in the attic in that attire.

Salute yourself--"Well done!"--and relegate all the rest to be done to Another Day.

Remember: Sufficient unto the day is the moving, cleaning, and sorting thereof. (paraphrased from The Sermon on the Mount)

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Now, wasn't that more fun than shivering and cussing the cold weather and watching Friends reruns for the 42nd time? Okay, even if it wasn't fun, it was certainly more productive and trust me, you'll be happier (sometime in the future) that you actually did the moving, cleaning, and sorting. Or whatever.

Stay in. Stay warm. Be kind. Be happy.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child