eating my elephants

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time!

Many times when I over-commit to things, then regular life (laundry, housework, etc) gets thrown on the back burner. By the time I've fulfilled my obligations, I'm not only tired, but I'm also a tad overwhelmed with conquering the jungle that surrounds me.

One of the local quilt shops has a quote they put on their monthly newsletter and weekly e-flyer: Quilt thirty minutes a day and you'll not only get your projects done, but you'll be healthier and happier!

I don't know about the healthier part, but I am finding if I tackle things in small increments I am more willing to face them and seem to get a lot more accomplished. Sometimes I wind up working much longer than my allotted one hour or thirty minutes, but that's okay. It's nice to see things slowly coming together (or in the case of my ironing pile, slowly shrinking!) or becoming more organized. 

And, I'm learning to take things one bite at a time. :) While cleaning my art/sewing room, which requires re-organizing since stuff got tossed/pulled/shoved during my frantic 3-month sewing craze, I found myself wanting to drop everything and start working on a project. You know, like "Oh, if I go ahead and cut out this pattern then it'll be ready to sew as soon as I finish the other six projects in the process of being sewed!" I refrained. That makes about as much sense as using every fork in the drawer, filling each one with a bite of food, and lining them up to be eaten in turn. I couldn't help but thinking if I died this week and my mother and mother-in-law had to come sort through this room, they would die. I even thought about moving my little cork board from the computer room to the sewing room and designating a project a month until the end of the year, but we all know I'll simply work on a different project or get side-tracked with life. My husband also likes to remind me that I have no concept of time. And all of those things are true.

So I'll keep plodding a little a day, eating one bite of this elephant at a time. The questions is: How many elephants can I eat this year?