It's Got A Hold of Me!

Cue music:

"Procrastination's got a hold of me"

It's in quotes because Michael McLean is the author of those words, not your's truly. It's part of his, no doubt, mountain of unpublished songs.

But, though I didn't pen the words, they describe exactly where I am in my life.

Here is my top ten list of favorite things to procrastinate:

10. Sweeping my kitchen floor. Thankfully, my floor hides a multitude of dirt!

9. Making visiting teaching appointments. I adore visiting with my sisters, but actually making the phone call is, for some reason, not something I want to do right now.

8. Putting away folded towels. I have insufficient towel storage space. So it's a struggle every time and I'll do it later.

7. Requesting medical flexible spending reimbursement. The paperwork; dotting every i or their gonna reject it; makes me tired.

6. Returning neighbor's dishes. When my family is in need and a neighbor or ward member brings dinner in, I am always grateful. But, I confess that I groan inwardly when I see real dishes, knowing they will sit on my counter for days (or weeks) and be washed several times before finding their way back to their rightful owner. (which will make me feel guilt and who needs THAT?)

5. Folding laundry. I'm getting a smidge better about this one, less attitude and more just get' er done!

4. Responding to event invitations on facebook. Don't know why, but I put it off until the last minute.

3. Eating and exercising. This one important to me, and yet, I've been in the, I'll start tomorrow mode for three solid weeks, pudging right up!

2. Mating socks. I know, I know, I already listed folding laundry, but mating socks is in a league by itself. I will NEVER have good attitude about mating socks.

1. Entering receipts into Quicken. The more I put it off, the more motivated I am to do everything but! This happens to be the thing I'm procrastinating at the moment.

What do you procrastinate?

Snippets of my life

No time for profound thoughts or beautiful prose today but I wanted to post a few things. So here they are:

1. Holding my first grandchild for hours on end was one of the sweetest things I've ever done. Mom and Dad don't want pictures of her on the internet yet, so no pics, but in time honored grandma fashion, I think she's the most beautiful baby on the planet!


2. My son told me about this article in Salon magazine about feminist, atheist women addicted to Mormon Mommy blogs; a very interesting read. However, I had two beefs: 1. The notion that a majority of mormon women are stay-at-home moms because of societal pressures. It says a lot about our world that the assumption is that women would never freely choose this lifestyle for themselves. 2. Many of the comments and a smidge of the article were skeptical that these "ideal" lives, without trial or struggle are real ("arranging flowers all day" etc). One of the four blogs mentioned in the article, of which I am an avid follower, NieNie Dialogues, catalogues Stefanie Nielson's life as a mom. Far from a life without trial, this woman was burned over most of her body in a plane crash, almost died and still struggles daily with physical limitations as a result. And yet, she chooses to focus on the beauty. It doesn't get more real than this.

3. Being in the east to visit family, I did not clean a thing, cook a meal, or scold a single child for five whole days. It was bliss. I also did not receive a single kid's kiss, snuggle any sleepy seven year olds, or giggle and play with with my twelve and fifteen year olds. It was a pit!
It's good to be home!

Thppbbppptt!

I am supposed to be holding my granddaughter right now, but nature had other ideas. Today, flights that I was scheduled to sit my keister on have been delayed more than a dozen times and cancelled at least six times. As my youngest sister would say, "THAT WHOMPS!"

I'm pinning my hopes on tomorrow and the weather had better cooperate if it knows what's good for it!

Recent Accomplishments (in which I brag shamelessly)

1. Christmas is about 1/2 down, which means the place looks a shambles (impressive, huh?)

2. We made it through the wedding and Christmas without the bother of bankruptcy! (which actually IS impressive)

And now for the big announcement..... drum roll please....

3. I am a grandma!!!

It's not my story to tell, but getting that babe here was one wild ride (my son told me near the end of the five hour drive to the hospital, through a blizzard, behind the ambulance in which his sweet wife was laboring, that he'd never driven through snow like that--and that's just one small part of the saga!) but she's here!!! Yes, it's a girl!! A beautiful, petite, precious, pinkaliscious, brings tears to my eyes just thinking about her, girl!!!

They are very far away and so I've not yet had the privilege of holding my one and only grandchild. I haven't smelled her new baby smell, or kissed her softer than soft neck. I haven't counted her little toes and or run my fingers through her full set of dark hair. I haven't felt her tight grip around my finger or seen the wrinkles on her forehead when she stretches. I haven't heard those new baby squeaks (my VERY favorite!) and I haven't looked into her big as the moon eyes and started to get to know this little one, so fresh from God, who made me a grandma.

I gotta be honest, it's hard!! So I'm planning and scheming and working it out. Next week, I'm gonna meet my granddaughter and do every single last one of those things, savoring every second of it, 'cuz it's gonna have to last me a while.

In the meantime, just call me granny!