Here We Go Again
Thursday 
just before lunchtime 
Mystie
So, the last few days I’ve come to the point *again* where I remember that I can’t handle flying by the seat of my pants. So, of course, that means reevaluating the lists and schedules and printing them off once more and telling myself, “No, REALLY, you’re going to do it this time.”
And then this morning, on a whim, I grabbed Educating the Wholehearted Child
“If you are a Shaper mom, you probably are busier rethinking and redesigning your systems than you are making use of them.”
Um, yes. Guilty. But how can I make use of it when I get a better idea?! Sigh.
So, I flipped back to the chapter on personality and quickly saw, yes, INTJ would be equivalent to their Reflective Shaper (Insight + Logic), and their description was pretty good.
So, anyway, upcoming is a post wherein I will speak to myself. Establishing the habits and routines I want takes a lot of energy. And I feel low on energy lately. I blame it on pregnancy, and I know it’s only going to get worse. I’m not even 30 weeks yet. However, “just doing what needs to be done” sounds so good and yet translates very quickly into stress, which drains energy even faster — without even doing what needs to be done! I see so many, many things that need to be done, and if I have to think through them all each and every time I start to get to work, I end up exhausted and drained before I’ve started anything, and then I’d rather just escape by mindlessly browsing links or Facebook.
When I did my series on scriptural motivation to keep an orderly home this spring, I printed off those posts and reread a section every morning. I need another such set focused on reminding myself that the energy put into kicking off and establishing habits and routines (beginning to *do* them and not just *make* them), is worth it. So, that’s what I’ll be working on this weekend. Now the question is, will I do that before or after I type and reprint my revamped lists? :)
I need this, too. That is why I haven’t written you back. I am unburying my kitchen.
And my living room.
And also my office.
I am an INTJ also, which is why I totally get you. My schedule looks so perfect on paper, you know?
I think I need that book. I will have to put it on my wishlist.
Sigh.
We have only been in this house a year, but then again I thought it would only take me a year to “get it” as far as how to take care of it thoroughly…
Oh, Brandy, boy do I know! Have you *seen* my beautiful schedule? :)
I was foolish and thought I could work it all out in my head and on my paper before moving and have a totally smooth transition into a new place. I then realized that wasn’t working, then I simply ditched it, and now I’m going crazy because I have very little structure.
So, I’ll set something up, and just as it starts kicking in, we’ll have the holidays, and then as I get back into it again I’ll have a baby and it’ll be all out the window again…. Sigh.
I’ll have to dig out my copy and see if NFPers are in the list of “Shapers,” cause I pulled my old schedules and tweaked this week … and the kids & I promptly got sick and haven’t done anything on my schedule for 2 days (tomorrow isn’t looking good either).
This probably won’t work for you (and it’s not like I should be giving advice, of all people), but perhaps, rather than getting stressed trying to think of what’s next, you could just always start with the kitchen. Then, while you’re doing that you have time to think of your other priorities. By the time you’ve figured it out, you’re kitchen’s clean! Well, it sounds like a nice idea, anyway. And if you’re like me, somehow, the kitchen ALWAYS needs work. *sigh*
Yes. The kitchen ALWAYS needs work….so I can always go there and feel productive while I ignore the laundry, ignore the children, ignore the school…. :)
Elly, remember our talks of little tasks v. big projects? I am coming to the point of being ready to give up on the big-push gigantic-endeavor model. I get too many half-done projects and that just means everything — my mind, most importantly — is in chaos. I’m starting to think the real wisdom really is in “picking up not passing up,” “leave the room a little better than you found it,” “clean up the bathroom a bit when you’re in it,” “don’t put it down, put it away,” etc.
Mostly I just have this nagging suspicion that a mostly orderly (not perfectly clean, not uber-organized, just a plainly smooth-running) house is not impossible, but it’s just my attitude and current habits that keep it out of reach. The more I align those, the more smoothly life will run. Really, I want to overcome my tendency to make lovely (and realistic!) plans and never follow through. In the back of my mind I know I’m not going to follow through, because it’s what I do. I make a plan, work it for a few weeks, think it’s great, then stop because I get bored with it, or I think I should be above it, or some other lame excuse. Usually it is the lame excuses that derail me, while the real excuses make me want to rise to the occasion. I’m just frustrated with me and my lack of self-discipline more than with the housework.
And now I’m going to go to bed and try not to whine anymore — until tomorrow, anyway. :)
Yeah, you’re absolutely right - working on the kitchen is an example of letting the urgent overwhelm the important or whatever the expression is. At least it gets SOMETHING accomplished… but not necessarily the important things. At least you always follow through on making schedules - I scratch them out on a piece of paper, think “I’ll type that up later” and never do. :-) And never follow them. Alas.