To Do !

Lot's to attempt to accomplish during the upcoming weekend. Haircut. Art Supply Store. Finish packaging prints for upcoming art show events. Get started on a couple of Christmas gift projects. Finally declutter the dining room ..... after cleaning out the linen closet to empty a shelf to house the clutter in the dining room. [deep breath]. Clean up my studio. Laundry. Grocery store. Health food store. Sam's to pick up stuff for Lindsay's 18th birthday party/cookout/ football game! Clean up my closet, after tying myself to a safety harness first! Flea drops on the dogs and the cats. Fabric store for buttons. Finish replacing broken buttons on TK's shirts. There! That oughta do it! But, first, I'll kick off the weekend by joining some girlfriends for an early dinner to celebrate one of their birthdays!

Am I being a little unrealistic? I always am! I tend to shoot for the moon and only reach the outter layer of Earth's atmosphere. One thing's for sure, even though I might often let myself down with my high aspirations, I won't let anyone else down. I try desperately not to do that. My aunt taught me that. She told me to think long and hard before making a commitment cause you can't take it back when someone else is depending on you. So, that's what I do. You will always know if I say I'm gonna do it, I will. Unfortunately, the older I get, the less I commit. I have more self-imposed limits than I used to. Perhaps I'm a little wiser knowing how far I can stretch my resources of time, money and energy level! I guess I've always know that.

I think a lot of the reasons I overextended myself for years was cause I was always afraid that if I didn't do what was asked I would lose the love of the person asking. I think I confused things a bit growing up when I was told I did things for others because they love you and you love them. I suppose the "because they love you" got a little twisted into 'if you don't do things for others, they won't love you' and I was afraid of losing that relationship if I said 'no'. So I always said 'yes' to teachers, to co-employees, to family members, etc. I finally told myself it was time to finish the 'Nancy Reagan Correspondence School of Just Say No' and slow down. It took some time and it was painful at times, but I finally stopped agreeing and volunteering. You know what? Things still got done! And the friendships remained intact. Amazing!

Now, if I could just tell myself 'no' more often! Where's that to-do list? Thing I'll scratch a couple of things off!