Let's start at the very beginning

A very good place to start......can you tell I watched the Sound of Music last week?   Since Mr. Wonderful and I have never been ones to party on New Year's Eve.....I mean why relegate it to one night; party all year I say.....but I digress.   My New Year's tradition starts in my kitchen and has for the last dozen or more years.   I remove everything from the cabinets - especially the spice/flour/sugar one, the pots and pans and tupperware closet!  I sort and match and purge.  Life is so hectic that it is easier when you are in that mad rush that things are where they belong.   I scour and streamline the countertops and after the clutter of the holidays this is alway so refreshing.  After the cabinets, I will move to my Hoosier.  All my bowls and cook books and serving dishes are in my Hoosier and I need to think of a better layout.   Right now, I need to remove everthing off the front to get in and either get something or put something away.....which is why bowls stay stacked up outside the Hoosier waiting for me to go through all the manuevers. 

I hope to get upstairs and sort out the room I used as my staging area for presents and wrapping.   This is the smaller bedroom and last one to be painted.   My DinL will be helping me paint on Martin Luther King Weekend.   Money being tight for my son and his wife, I told them helping me paint a room or helping me weed the garden in the spring would be present enough!   Seems like a double prize to me.   I get a room painted and I get to spend the day with them as well.

What no crafting?   I did put in two hours of stitching with 3 cups of coffee this morning.  Well, the thing with us OCD people is that hours of cross stitch in the evening can be enjoyed much more when you don't have all these other things hanging over your head to be done. 

To my New Year's Resolution. The new year is like when you get a new planner or journal. All is pristine, crisp and clean and full of promise. I will forego the ....I need to loose weight, I need to execise more, etc., etc. because they go without saying. My resolution is to be more spontaneous and to be more structured. Sounds convaluted hey? Well, I have never been on to be able to be spontaneous. Everything is planned, Every detail is obsessed over. I have missed out on things because they don't fit in my little 'schedule'. Every possible tangent is thought about. Exhausting! Boring! Something I need to change. So for the structured part......well it seems I have identified that I get into an obsessed mode and can only work on one thing at a time. I am not talking WIP's because heaven knows I have a ton. I mean I become obsessed with stitching that I block out all the other things I should or need to be doing. I find myself walking in the door, talking off the high heels and panty hose, donning the sweats or pjs and plopping on the couch to stitch. Yes, it's a great life but other things don't get done. Things like filing tax papers, laundry, letter writing, updating websites, minutes for my Board Meeting.......stitching has always been my sanity, my santuary, my escape and I think I have been using to hide from things I need to do. When I stitch I don't have to think about any unsavor task like changing the litter box.

I am thinking that all I need is a better balance. I hope my my need to be more diligent it going to overwhelm my desire to be more spontaneous! I am thinking to be diligent on my tasks will allow me the freedom to be spontaneous! Like those things you told your kids that have come back to haunt you.....I always told them you have to "do your have-to's before your want-to's". Yes, I have eaten those words over the years. It is all good and now after writing this all down and having the therapeutic benefits of the thoughts flowing out of my body and onto paper (so to speak), I resolve to take one day at a time!