Lessons on overcoming procrastination

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I've learned a bit about procrastination this week - for both me and members of my family.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am a list-lover from way back.  Over the last few years I have lost my list-loving ways and have been floundering about just doing the next urgent thing.  Yesterday I found a beautiful daily list template from Ann Voscamp called "The Day's Draft" and thought maybe I should try a little bit of goal-setting.  A little bit of list-writing.  A little bit of doing what I wrote down.

Did you know that writing things down can motivate you to get things done?  I wrote down all the things.  I planned when I would do all the things.  And you know what?  I got all the things done.  It's amazing what a little list-writing can accomplish.  Today I'm still on track.

One of the things on my list was to wash my whites.  Dh is the laundry guru man around here.  He gets twitchy if he doesn't get to wash stuff so I have learned not to get in his way.  He starts washing clean stuff and becomes a bit unreasonable about the whole thing about doing laundry.  But I don't let him loose on my whites.  We don't sort much around here.  I never did and he certainly doesn't.  But I don't want my whites with the blacks (which is like 99% of his wardrobe, thank you coffee industry).  I don't want new greys!  So I tend to end up with a small little load every now and then and I do it myself.

Yesterday when I was in the laundry overcoming my procrastinating ways I discovered a whole bunch of empty bottles.  You know, things like bleach and stain remover spray.  Stuff like that.  Stuff that looks a lot like other people's procrastination.

I have learned something about my boys and their laundry-ignorant ways.  Neither one of them cleans up after themselves in there.  Dh uses the washing machine but that's it.  The linen is piled up in a basket because he doesn't put it away after he's washed, hung, brought in and folded it.  Mr Busy doesn't deal with used-up bottles of things to clean toilets with.  So I gave Mr Busy a little demonstration that went like this:

Me:  When you use up the last of something you pick it up like this *demonstrated picking up bottle* and you take it to the bin like this *walked the container to the bin - about 10 steps*.  You put it in the bin like this *you get the idea*.  At some point we will ask you to empty those bins and you'll take the whole bunch out to the bins outside and then you'll take them to the curb.  The bin men will come along and voila - it will all vanish never to dealt with again.  Go it?

Mr Busy:  *grunt*

Because, you know, 14yo boys pretty much grunt when there is no answer they are prepared to offer.  I'm taking it mean acquiescence.  He probably thought "If I don't answer one way or the other she'll forget we had this conversation and I won't have to put other bottles in the bin".

He would be wrong.

So my son is a seasoned procrastinator and apparently it is my job to teach him the merits of efficiency.

Pray for me.

Tamar Valley Tourists

Low Head Lighthouse

While we were in Tasmania last month we spent a lot of time being, dare I say it, t-t-t-tourists.  We have a slight bias against tourists in this house, because we live in an area where tourists like to visit.  I'm more than happy to share this beautiful corner of the world with visitors, but just please drive at the speed limit and we'll all be happy.  Our roads do not cater for things like overtaking people who don't know where they are going and who are driving at 50kph in an 80kph zone.  I'm sorry...we want to be hospitable, but we need to get on with our day in a timely manner.

While we stayed in Launceston our time was mostly to do with my graduation.  But after that we had a few days of doing some things we had on our list.  One day we travelled up the east side of the Tamar River to the north coast, and then came back down the other side, in a bit of a loop.

We picked strawberries

We visited a dairy

The fruits of these two stops became our lunch

We visited the lighthouse and museum village at Low Head (first picture) and then we crossed the Tamar River and visited some platypuses and echidnas.

This cute little guy and his mates wandered around licking our ankles and snuffling about to see who all the strange visitors were.  We were able to stroke their backs as they waddled past - making sure you stroke in the right direction, of course.  Tasmanian echidnas, we discovered, have more fur than the mainland version.  It seemed to me they were a little bigger as well.  We often have to stop and let an echidna cross the road around here and ours just seem quite a bit smaller.

If you ever find yourself in the beautiful state of Tasmania, make sure you get out and take a leisurely wander about the place.  Your efforts will more than be rewarded.  And as you drive along you'll see plenty of poppy fields.  Apparently the poppy industry is pretty big in Tasmania - something I didn't know til we started seeing so many fields of beautiful white/blue poppies bobbing their heads at us.

Anti-Procrastination...Or...Taking Myself By the Scruff of the Neck

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I seem to have developed a little procrastination problem.  This isn't my usual MO.  I am normally an incredibly organised, planned, goal-oriented and perhaps even driven kind of gal.  I get stuff done.  I get it done before it's due as an insulator from added and unnecessary stress when life takes an unexpected turn and everything falls apart.  Or your friends invite you to do something super fun with them at the last minute.  I determined early in life I would not be the person who said "no" to being with my people because the ironing needed to be done.  OK, so I don't iron anything, but you know what I mean!

Since the middle of November, when I completed my teaching rounds, my desk has been a bomb site.  I have looked at it for no less than seven weeks and thought "I need to deal with that pig sty".  The fact that it is the first thing people see when I open the front door has contributed to the layers of guilt that go with having left that hot mess to multiply and grow.  Today I took myself in hand and dealt with it.

It took me all of a whole five minutes to toss the rubbish and return all the stuff to all the places.  Really.  Five minutes. Now instead of feeling guilty I'm feeling a little bit dumb.  I spent seven weeks looking at that stuff thinking it was too much to deal with.  Rather than getting on with it I had to deal with the emotions involved when procrastination happens.

And that's the thing with procrastination, isn't it?  We put stuff off because we think it will be too hard, too time consuming, too overwhelming or we won't have time to do it perfectly.  When we finally get around to doing the whatever-it-is-we-are-putting-off we discover it was none of those things and we had made it all bigger in our heads than it ever needed to be.  We rob ourselves of joy and contentment and we live paralysed by guilt and unworthiness.  I don't know about you but I don't want my life to be defined like that!

With that in mind I'm off to re-write my selection criteria responses for non-graduate positions.  Because although this job will take some time, it won't take as long as leaving it and feeling guilty that I haven't done it yet.

Maybe once that is done I will be able to deal with cleaning the windows, mopping the floor and getting that Christmas tree out of my living room.  I know it's only 7 January, but it's driving me insane!

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Summer Salads and New Favourites for Breakfast

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I discovered a summer dinner gold mine this morning.  See, this is what happens when your hubby leaves for work ridiculously early and you're lying in bed wide awake.  The iPad beckons and you end up delving into little known corners from your own blog list.

This morning I was clicking my way through "The Pioneer Woman" site and came across a post of some favourite summer salads.  Her Chicken Taco Salad is a firm favourite in this house, so I was certain I would probably appreciate anything that included salad ingredients and combinations that we like, in our house.  Because that's to some degree what family meals are all about.  You may come across the best recipe, but inevitably a competent, confident cook will tweak it to suit what they have and what their family will eat.  Not all of the salads on Ree's list will make it here at the Picket Fence, but many will.  I've printed off a few already:

• Panzanella
• Sesame Chicken Salad
• Quinoa with Tomato, Basil and Mozarella
• Apple, Pecan and Blue Cheese Salad with Dried Cherries

Already I can see a major overhaul coming my way with the last salad.  I love the idea of fresh fruit in a savoury salad.  But I hate blue cheese.  I want to like it.  I've tried to like it.  It just tastes like vomit to me and I can't make myself push through that.  I'll be looking to see what else I could use in its place.  I'm not sure I've ever seen dried cherries, but I think dried cranberries might work for both colour and flavour.

If you're interested in summer meal salads go here and peruse at will.  I'm sure there will be something there you will enjoy.

My other recent discovery is gourmet jams from The Richmond Jam Maker in Tasmania, who happens to be Dh's cousin.  I am in jam-love.  As a jam-on-toast breakfast kind of person I'm always happy to try different jams, although raspberry is always my go-to standard.  We came home with a significant amount of jam tucked away in my suitcase from TRJM.  Thank you, Jetstar, for weighing our luggage as a family instead of individuals.  Overall we were underweight even though my case full of jam was over the individual limit.  We had tried most of different jams while we were staying with Dh's aunt and uncle, in Hobart.  I loved every single one I tasted, but I didn't taste the blackberry and fig - there were more jams than days of the week and we were only there for five mornings.  Until this morning.  I don't know what possessed Dh to pick that one up, but it is my new favourite.  It is fresh and moody and its sweetness is earthy and resiny.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  I'm pushing that jar to the back of the fridge and hoping "fig" on the label will put everyone else in the family off trying it.  If you're ever in Tasmania you will be able to pick up TRJM jams and relishes from lots of different places around the State.  If not, she ships all over the world.  Do yourself a favour - order some!  The raspberry is to-die-for.  The whiskey marmalade is incredibly good.  I imagine that could go down well when you feel you need to bolster yourself for the day ahead.  She does a pineapple and melon marmalade - just amazing.  Seriously.  Pick anything.  She does more than what is listed on her website so email her and ask.  The store on the website only lists Australia as a shipping destination.  Email her and ask if you want it shipped elsewhere in the world.  And then order some.  You will not be sorry.   

Happy New Year...Dreams and Possibilities

Happy New Year!!!

Can you believe we are into a new year already?  It feels like 2014 started just three minutes ago and now all of a sudden here we are into 2015.

At the moment this year seems to stretch before me with no plans and no certainties.  While others have declared that to be an exciting adventure and assure me a teaching position will undoubtedly be forthcoming I'm not so certain about either proclamation. Anxious uncertainty seems to be a frequent visitor and that annoys me no end.  I'd much rather have some direction and be organising myself for the year ahead.  Having said that I do have somewhat of a laundry-list of things I'd love to do around the house....all of which requires an income which allows for space to save up for such things, but if I were to dream of the possibilities this is what I would do:

• Repaint the house, inside and out
• Re-varnish the floorboards
• Remove the half-wall between the meals and family room area.  It's a dumb, inconvenient thing!
• Redo the kids bathroom and toilet.  Tiles were made for these areas - not floating floorboards or plaster walls!
• Give the kitchen a facelift with a new facade and benchtop.  And switch the kitchen sink so it works in the opposite direction
• Put a wood heater insert into the fireplace

Lots of dreams and possibilities there.  Mostly though, I'm dreaming of teaching in my own classroom.

Any dreams and possibilities in your outlook?

Productivity Breeds Contentment

Lemons from my tree

If you've read here for a little while you might remember me mentioning my prosperous lemon tree.  Yesterday it was citrus tree day here at the Picket Fence.  We trimmed some suckers off the base of the trunk of my kumquat tree.  That poor thing hasn't fruited for a couple of years now.  I've time for marmalade making so I'm hoping all the little flowers will now have the energy to produce fruit.

Dh then went for the lemon tree.  He's a very heavy pruner and has gotten himself into miles of trouble of the years for being a little to enthusiastic.  Like the time he pruned the kumquat tree when it was flowering.  The children wisely warned him but he went ahead with his heavy-handed ways, and the poor man hasn't lived it down yet.  In any case, the lemon tree has been dragging its branches all winter and autumn with the weight of fruit so Dh thought a little trim might help it.  He brought me a bucket of fruit he'd gathered from the trimmed branches last night.  This afternoon I finally braved a look at the tree.  Even at half the height there is still a mountain of fruit out there.  The tree doesn't look too nude either.  Relief for us all!

What to do with a bucket of lemons?

"Maggie's Harvest" comes to the rescue

 

I'll take some to the friends will be New Year's Eve'ing with tonight.  The rest I might just preserve.  Maggie Beer's "Maggie's Harvest" book is the place to go for such a recipe.  I'll need some nice large preserving jars, which I think I can get up the street here in Our Town, and some salt.  That's it.  Easy peasy.  

Since tonight has been designated a dessert night, by our NYE hosts, I made a lemon polenta cake (thank you, Nigella) to take with us...more lemon usage.  Miss Sunshine was a bit stroppy because the cake has almonds and she can't eat nuts.  But there'll be other desserts to be enjoyed and one cannot live completely nut free if it isn't necessary.

As well as dealing with the lemon bounty I also needed to use some leftover pork today before it was headed for the bin.  I'm in the process of making Asian pork buns, which will reside in the freezer to be reheated as desired.  The dough requires a three-hour rise.  I'm sure that's a little over the top, but who am I to argue?  I've made a cake and now get to sit with my recipe books and computer while my foot has a rest (plantar faciitis, I think).

 

With lemon curd, onion chutney, fruit mince and pork buns stashed away and preserved lemons on the horizon I'm feeling quite content.  And the children are keeping up with my dishes.  Because that is why we have children...to clean up after us.

Post Christmas Entertaining and Cleansing

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It seems that, with Christmas, additional entertaining tends to be the way things go.  For us it comes in the form of family members who travel down from interstate.  In our desperation to eke out a extra little time with people we love and rarely get to see, we invite them over for an impromptu meal with very little notice.

Enter Nigella.

I knew that with only a couple of hours to shop and cook Nigella would have some kind of answer for me.  Actually, it was Miss Sunshine who suggested fajitas, and I knew Nigella had a great recipe.  So we sat down to a meal which, apart from the colour of the dishes, looked exactly like the one pictured above.  Simple, easy and not too time-consuming.  Two children hate capsicum.  Three children love it.  One child didn't care.  There was some picking out and some gobbling up, in equal measure, on that score.

For dessert we had watermelon and nectarine slices.

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Today I decided it was time to find out what lies beyond my kitchen window.  Four years of build up meant a dusty, somewhat moldy view.  This morning I took out the fly screen and hosed it down, and then cleaned the windows.  Wow - there are really pretty trees, and rosemary, and chives out there.  And now I can see it all very clearly.

I could be persuaded to do a little window cleaning here and there and find out what lies beyond all the other windows too.  It might take some time.  Between reading.  And sleeping.

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Do you get to the end of all your Christmas celebrations and find yourself unable to digest a single morsel more?  I didn't quite get to that this year, but a day at my parents saw me nibble my way through more sugar than I eat in a month.  Well....my pavlova, my Mum's apple pie and a mango twist on a tiramisu...what's a girl to do?  And sugar coated peanuts embody my childhood and I simply cannot leave them in the bowl.  It wouldn't be right.  And homemade shortbread.  You can see how the day went.  

I'm finding it very easy to nibble on small tidbits rather than sit down to a full meal.  Unfortunately the boys in the house don't quite agree.  I'm sitting here trying to figure out a menu plan so I can go grocery shopping (in the Aldi store that opened in Our Town just before Christmas.  Hallelujah and Praise the Lord!).  You know what?  I can't think of a single thing I feel like eating.  Because I don't feel like eating at all.  And then my tummy rumbles and I know something has to keep it quiet.  But what?

It will be 37C and 39C (around the 100F mark) on Friday and Saturday so I image something cold will need to happen.  Who wants to cook on days like that?!

What do you eat after Christmas when your tummy is tired of digesting food?