Life Is A Whirlwind

Whew, seems like things are all awhirl. Seems like everyone is extra busy these days.

Jess has a manic-depressive job. For days and days he’ll have nothing to do. Depressive phase.

Then all of a sudden half a dozen people will all want something done yesterday. MANIC PHASE! He says he’s “busy as a one-armed paper hanger” or another one of his little sayings (some of which are probably better not to repeat).

Jonathan has been working over 40 hours a week. One good thing is he keeps relatively the same schedule week to week. He doesn't know the exact hours, but he does know what days he has off each week, when he’ll be opening and when he’ll be closing. Makes it a lot easier to plan.

Me, well, for instance last night we were going to do just a HALF hour meeting. Yeah, right. How about more like two hours!?! Which isn’t bad, just kind of funny. Wonder how long the meeting will be Thursday night?

Otherwise it’s the same old thing of trying to do too many things. With the time change, I’m doing all the outside critter chores by myself now. Cooking, laundry, whatever. Trying to get more internet work done. Updating older sites while thinking up new ideas, and creating new sites. It’s all a balancing act.

And wishing I could figure out what I’m doing wrong with networking computers. My laptop sees Jonathan’s computer, which is hard wired. But it won’t see MY desktop, which is also hardwired. I really, really, need to figure this out to get optimum use out of my laptop. I need to be able to tap into the stored files on the desktop. I’ve got two hard drives in active use there (one for documents, one for graphics). I’ve got to figure out how to access them from my laptop, but none of the info I find helps any. I do everything, step by step, and it still doesn’t work. I know I’m missing something, but I don’t know what I’m missing!

Of course, we’re not the only busy ones in the family. Dad will be going to Pigeon Forge next week so probably thinking about getting ready for that. My niece, Bobbi, was at Duke University Hospital with her youngest today. Ava needed eye surgery because of glaucoma.

I suspect I could poll everyone in the whole extended family, and probably everyone is busy with one thing or another. Thanksgiving is coming up fast, as is Jess’s birthday, and Christmas, and then all of a sudden, it’s going to be another new year!

Whew. I get tired just thinking about it.

A Family Classic

When I was hunting for a picture of me as a little girl for the previous post, I came across this picture:

It's definitely a family classic.

That's a year and a half old Jonathan under that blanket. We were camping near Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. It was Richard's 5th birthday (I believe he had a ship cake with little Lego men on it), and we were enjoying a family vacation.

At the time the picture was taken, the boys were supposed to be sleeping. Dale had just got after Jonathan, telling him to settle down. Jonathan immediately went perfectly still.

It was obvious he thought that if he couldn't see us, well, we couldn't see him either if he just held nice and still, and then maybe he wouldn't be in trouble.

His ploy worked. Not because we couldn't see him of course, but because it was so funny, we couldn't help laughing.

And it's hard to be stern when you're laughing so hard.

Think These Little Girls Are Related?

So what do you think? Do these little girls look related? I'm sure I'm more than a tad biased, but I think they do!

Of course, the right half of the picture is a recent vintage photo of our sweet Miss Ellie. But once in a while I see a picture of her, and it reminds me of another little girl from long, LONG ago (okay, you can quit snickering and making wisecracks about the Stone Age).

Cause yeah, the little girl in the left half of the photo is Ellie's Grandma. Both photos taken at around 4-years of age.

Put a pair of glasses on one little girl, and bangs on the other, and I think they'd look even more alike.

And I think that's pretty cool.

Life Is A Roller Coaster

Saying life has its ups and downs may sound pretty trite, but the fact remains, it happens to be true. Just looking at my last few posts, I see in one I'm discouraged, then I'm encouraged, then I'm discouraged, then . . . you get the drift.

And here I am this morning, at 11a.m., just now FINALLY in here to sit down at my computer and get to work. But first I need to decompress a little, vent, and get a little more "zen" in my thinking. Ready to focus. Because right now I'm anything but. I'm frustrated and discouraged. It's the middle of the day almost, and I haven't even started work.

Oh, it's not that I haven't been working. So far today I've:

• Fixed Jess's lunch for him to take to work,
• Baked some pepperoni mini-calzones for Jonathan to put in his lunch,
• Fed the turtle and bird on the inside,
• Put feed out on the front porch for the cat,
• Fixed feed for the chicks in the birdcage on the back porch,
• Put feed in the peafowl and rooster pens,
• Threw out feed for the chickens and guineas,
• And gave both dogs some treat bones.

But that didn't finish my outside chores. The good news is that it's beautiful outside today and we finally have sunshine. The bad news is after all that rain numerous buckets and the three wading pools holding water for the animals were full not only of water, but leaves. It is FALL after all.

The critters aren't that fond of leaf tea. I needed to dump those buckets and pools and refill them with fresh, clean water. Well, dumping full pools is hard work for me. Yeah, okay, I'm a wuss. But here I was hoping to have a less painful week since it's not supposed to rain, making it easier to focus on internet work, but dumping pools and dragging hoses means at some point there will be a payback. I'm gonna hurt.

I try to remember to use my left side as much as possible, but I'm right handed, and sometimes I forget and find myself dragging hoses with my right arm/hand. Not good. And I had to do a lot of hose dragging this morning because the hose to the sheep pen and for the birdbath in the front yard was busted. That meant I needed to haul it in and roll it up out of the way, and get another hose hooked up and pulled out where I needed it. And the hose I found was too short, so I had to move the concrete birdbath so it would reach it. . .

Then also some time during this morning, I was on the phone with Jess, trying to figure out how to email files from Microsoft Project. I didn't do very well at that, and that also is frustrating. We never did get it to work, and the only thing I could think to do was tell him to bring the program disks and manual home, and I'll install it on my desktop and check it out.

Poor Richard. How many zillion times have I asked him for tech support long distance? I know it's tough when you can't SEE the problem.

We were also having troubles with the phones. That's what I get for buying the cheapest cordless phones I could find. They kept going dead, so I'd have to switch phones, and Jess had to call back about three times.

Have I mentioned it's been a frustrating morning???

I had big expectations of really being able to charge into my internet work this week, but there are so many other things every day that I have to do first. And of course Mondays seem to be the worst, with getting things set up, like the week's humor mailings, and getting one done and mailed out.

Working at home may sound cool, but it's difficult. There are so many distractions, with things all around that need done, and nobody's there to do them but you. And a lot of people don't "get" the fact you are working. You're at home after all! You can do what you want! And you don't get away from the office. . . with all the interruptions it usually means you're working in the evenings too, trying to make up for lost time.

But having said all that, I still prefer working at home to going to an office. Which is just as well, because I can't survive in an office environment any more. No way I could sit at a desk 8 hours at a stretch. That's why the laptop is such a big help, because I can change my seating arrangements and give my body a little bit of a break.

And speaking of breaks, I've had mine now, so it's time to get to "work work" and see how much I can accomplish. It's not going to do itself, and nobody is going to help me, sooooo... time to woman up and get 'er done!

Encouragement

encourage tr.v. , -aged , -aging , -ages . To inspire with hope, courage, or confidence; hearten. To give support to.

I've been encouraged lately.

Getting my first commission check helped greatly. Finally, a sign all my work is heading somewhere!

Then one of the co-owners of the company where I take classes, etc., mentioned my accomplishment in the membership-wide call last week. I think there were about 80 people on the call. That may sound like a lot, but it's really a pittance compared with how many actually have membership.

The trouble is, more people like the idea of making a living on line than actually want to do the work it entails. So they join / buy a lot of memberships / products, but never do anything with them.

But it was encouraging for him to congratulate me, and hand out some praise!

And I'm encouraged because it's supposed to be DRY this coming week. No rain pain! I'm hoping to be able to get a lot done. It's easier to feel encouraged when the pain levels are down to normal.

So I'm hoping for a great week here. Hope you have one too!