Today is September 24th and I am in the pool, spending Saturday afternoon much like I have spent at least a few hours every Saturday (and Sunday) afternoon since May. This will undoubtedly be the last pool weekend, so I did allow myself a couple hours even though I think at this point it is not the best idea for me to be killing time in the pool. I have too much to do.
I love my weekend pool time, but I have to say, standing in the pool, looking at magazines, with pumpkins on the cover, reading about roasting vegetables and enjoying hot soup seems so weird to me right now. It is a week away from October, 93 degrees and this is the latest I have ever been able to get into the pool since we have had a pool, at least nine years.
Even Bruno is over the heat and bored of hanging out with me in the pool.
Last weekend I realized that I have been moaning and complaining about being tired, uninspired and in a creative funk for more than a month now. Who wants to listen to that? To be fair, it seems to be a malaise that everyone, especially the people at my office seem to be suffering from as well. Everyone is hot, overworked and tired. But here I sat, waiting to feel creative again. Not much happens when you just sit there waiting for things to happen.
You have to do something.
During my daily problem solving, "Disturbed" blaring, commute sessions home, I asked myself why I was not shaking this funk off. Hummm, probably because I was not really trying to. What am I doing now that is causing this stagnation? Nothing, I am doing nothing. Pool, football games, errands, house chores, work, flipping mindlessly through pinterest and squeezing in the very minimum of hammering to build stock up. Doing nothing is causing the stagnation and killing my inspiration.
I am my own worst enemy.
Thankfully I am also the one that can fix that!
So, what have I done this week to change things? Well, I realized I had stopped making
"to do" lists, planning my weekends and evenings, even jotting ideas down in my notebook. I LIVE by lists. I always say, "If it does not get written down, it does not happen" very true for me. I am a die hard, very productive list maker. So, I made a list of what I needed to do for every night of the week like I used to do.
It helped, I got a lot done. Including some crafting and hammering. I even did some yoga! I have missed doing yoga!
I also stopped spending an hour and a half each night before going to sleep with my face in my iPad. Instead, I picked up two books that have been sitting on my nightstand since Spring. I love Julia Child, and I will read at least two letters between her and Avis Devoto before pulling out "American Ghost" and reading a least one chapter. Honestly both books are so interesting, I have been knocking out a couple letters and two chapters a night.
I started actually thinking about being creative with food again and not just throwing something on the table just to feed everyone.
My daughter and I even did one of our "girls night" dinners last Saturday night. Soup, good bread and decadent desserts. So good!
I did little things that I love like buying flowers and lighting my insulators up in the evenings.
And paying a bit more attention to my neglected garden flowers.
And you know what happened? I started to feel better. I started to feel more productive, inspired and actually wanted to get out there and start DOING something.
Ideas for new Fall spoons!
And I started working on a sign to use in my booth/tent at some Holiday craft shows that I am excited to be involved with this holiday season!
This is still a work in progress, and I am excited to finish it. I think it will look great with my aluminum sunflowers sitting on display next to it!
As a matter of fact, it gave me a couple ideas of things to do to spruce up my front porch decorations as well! Inspiration always inspires more inspiration!
It was still hot this week, work was still miserable, but getting off my butt and just doing something really helped!
It actually really surprised me when I realized how many of the "little things" that had always been such a regular part of my day to day life, had fallen out of my regular daily habits, and how much it impacted me.
So you will excuse me, but I have to get up and get some stuff done!
Hope you are having a productive weekend!
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