Down in the Doldrums

I get pretty hard on myself when I feel a little depressed, lack the energy I want to have and can't seem to accomplish anything that makes me feel good. I've been in such a period lately and can't seem to talk myself out of acting and feeling so poopy.

There's no good reason for my malaise. I live such a good life with so many choices (too many choices?) compared to other folks who are having a truly rough time these difficult days. Sure there are those irritating few things to deal with that I'd rather weren't part of my life at all, but who doesn't at certain times have to struggle a bit to find a bridge over the troubled waters?

So in an attempt to get a jump start back to my more normal, eager-beaver, hard-working, goal oriented, content self, I am hereby holding myself accountable to you, dear readers, by setting forth in this blog post my list of tasks I need and/or want to get done tomorrow.

At the end of the day, I'll report back to you and be honest about what I did/didn't do and decide whether using you as an impetus helped to bring my lagging, flagging, drooping energy level back up to paar. (Yes, I am heaping a LOT of responsibility on you but somebody's gotta be big and strong for me.)

Here's my list for tomorrow:

MAKE BLOG POST - Duh, I think this is gonna be easy. I'm doing that right here and now if you'll be generous enough to consider it my post for tomorrow morning.

GET INFO TO CHICKEN MAMA - There have been several changes I've been wanting to make on my blog sidebars, etc., and my dear daughter, being my Computer/Blog/Website Guru, needs to have a list of the work I'd like her to do. She may not have time to do it immediately, but she sure can't get it done until I get my wants and desires to her. (I've been going to do this for at least a month now.)

MAKE A COUPLE PHONE CALLS - These are time-sensitive phone calls and won't take that much time (I hope), but I dislike talking on the phone so have, again, been putting them off. Too long.

ORDER SUPPLEMENTS - We take some vitamin/mineral supplements and I need to put in about three orders to three different companies. Something tells me they are never going to ship the products unless I order them.

GO THRU TWO MAGAZINES AND ONE CATALOG - I have a baaad habit of letting magazines and catalogs (that I say I'm interested in - do I need to re-evaluate here?) collect on a corner of my desk and avoid going through them until the stack reaches epic proportions. The couple/few nights I've been awake in the middle of the night lately have been put to good use. I'm down to the last couple of magazines and one catalog. Geesh, just sit down and look through them, for heaven's sake, and be done with it! (And don't pick up anymore mail for a month or so.)

VACUUM - I can see the dust bunnies are breeding up a storm under the kitchen table and behind doors again. I blame the dog on bringing in so many leaves this time of year, but in reality I think anybody who comes through a door drags some in. (If I kept the front deck and back porch swept free and clean that would no doubt help, too.)

CLEAN BATHROOM - We have only one, but it's always in need of cleaning. Ugh.

REPOT ALOE PLANTS - We have two huge, over-crowded, over-grown aloe vera plants upstairs in hubby's office. I've been going to replant them for months. (Years? Nah, couldn't be that long. Could it?) The other day dear husband asked me how to do it so he could do the job himself. Now that's an indication of how badly it needs to be done. (He's never repotted a plant in his life.) I need to do it now while the weather is still decent so it can be done on the table outside on the deck. (Anybody want an aloe vera? I will have somewhere around 2,108 of them if I save them all.)

MAKE EGG SALAD - I got the eggs boiled today, but that was it.

HANG FALL SHOWER CURTAIN - No wonder I feel so wonky. Here it is mid-October and I still have the "summer" shower curtain up. (How many days has this task been on my daily list?)

CHARGE CAMERA BATTERY - Now there's one that shouldn't be too hard or time-consuming.

MANICURE - Well, not a real manicure. I just have to cut and file my fingernails. They grow so fast that they soon have a talon-like appearance if I don't take the time to cut them. (I used to have lovely, always painted fingernails. I will someday again. When I find the time. Sigh.)

HAIRCUT AND BEARD TRIM FOR HUBBY - There is an old, scruffy looking gentlemen who is well-known in our town and whenever hubby's beard and hair get too long, I start calling him by that old guy's name. It's definitely time for a salon appointment for hubby. The whole operation takes only about 30 minutes and I've cut his hair all the years we've been married . . . but I hate the job. (How's that for being negative? Bad, Mama Pea, bad.)

WORK ON WALL HANGING - Shortly after our daughter took her small office in town, she asked me if I would make quilted seasonal wall hangings to go on her outer door. Hers is a very, very nice office space but kinda tucked in a dark corner off a large lobby so she thought having a colorful wall hanging on the door would make it more noticeable. I've been working on the one for fall that will be appropriate right up through Thanksgiving. I just haven't found what I consider enough time to put in on it. If I had a whole day, I could get it done. Can't devote the day to it right now, but by working on it a little each day, I'll get it done that much sooner.

PAINT SIDING - This week we got the exterior siding up on the pantry addition to the house. Now I need to find a warm enough day to caulk the seams and then get at least one coat of paint on it before winter. If it doesn't rain (possible precipitation predicted), the temps look favorable for the job tomorrow.

HARVEST SQUASH - The Red Kuri squash is still out in the garden. I need to harvest it and get it inside in a 50-55 degree storage space (somewhere - where?) until I can give some away and cook and freeze a lot for winter usage. We've had no hard frost yet but I don't want to be unpleasantly surprised when it does hit and I have failed to get the squash in. I know I'm pushing my luck here already.

Okay, that's it. These are (nearly) all tasks that have been on my list day after day for waaay too many days. They're not getting done and they're dragging me down.

Tomorrow is a new day. A new, wonderful day. I'm gonna put on my big girl panties and hit it. Are y'all watchin' me?