To catch up is Divine!

So I'm selling all this stuff on eBay and burning out quick, but we've made 2K so it's all good. I have these three books that I poke out now and then to see if they are still alive, they jiggle, convincing me of their non-DOA status and I ignore them again because I haven't decided which one to obsess over. But amid all those BIG things, I've had all these little things biting the back of my ankles and making me nuts. You know the type of thing, right, the little things you put off because you know they will only take a little while, and that little while is just around the corner, and you're not really in the mood right now, and heaven knows you can't do this stuff if you're not in the mood. Yeah, you got it.

So, last night I laid in bed and one by one these things paraded in front of my clenched-shut eyes

• A workshop presentation on authors voice

• A young women's presentaion on Divine Nature

• A bio and blub for my authors voice presentation

• Do I know what author's voice is?

• three 10 page critiques

• 1 partially finished edit for a full manuscript for a freind

• 1 as of yet unstarted full manuscript edit for a freind

• An article on the grocery game for LDSneighborhood

• Author notes for Her Good Name (assuming it gets accepted)

• Acknowledgment, dedication and about the author for Her Good Name (assuming it gets accepted)
• Visiting teaching, two of my sisters are going to a new ward on Sunday because of a split and I haven't taken cookies yet. Everyone knows you can't leave on non-cookie terms.
  

This is all in addition to that regular driving kids, feeding kids, yelling at kids, apologizing to kids, washing kids clothes, kissing kids husband hello, kissing kids husband goodbye, cleaning up after kids, yelling at kids again and driving kids some more. But all these little things writing-related things were just niggling at me. I've been telling several of them to sit down and shut up for a few weeks, but they were running out a patience and conspiring to completely undo me. For some reason, a lot of little projects are usually far more overwhelming than one big project for me. I hate to admit it, but I think it's because I'm horribly task oriented. I was raised to think this was a negative thing, that it showed you lacked the ability to self-motivate yourself and only sought for the completion--well, I took my kids sledding the other day on the lids to the rubbermaid containers down stairs and I've shared my shower stall with 8 barbies for over a week--it's time to shake off the pretenses of pride and self-motivation and admit that I just like getting things DONE.

I like my kitchen to be DONE, even though I know it will be messy again in 10.8 seconds. I like my laundry DONE, even though I know I'll just throw another load in in the morning. I like my grocery shopping DONE, and my lesson DONE, and my hair DONE. Whoever it was that said the journey was half the fun was baboon-butt-crazy. The joy for me is getting it DONE, and then I admit that it wasn't so bad, that it was cool figuring out the right way to put the bobby pins or that thegrocerygame is a bit of a high, but I see none of this until the task is DONE.

So this morning I woke up and amid all the heavy discouragement of the piled up tasks, I did something remarkable--I just did it. Well, most of it. I focused on the smaller tasks, the ones I knew I could complete and I dove right in.

I wrote out the notes, I finished the critiques, I wrote the blurb, compiled the presentation notes, did a rough draft of one presentations, wrote a particularly funny about the author. I submitted the articles, packaged a few eBay sales, took a shower, did my hair AND makeup (is it my husband's birthday?) And here I am about to take my kindergartener to school with all these DONE things to my credit. I am truly basking!

I still have the two full manuscript edits, but I'm making progress. I'm reminded of a quote from a former president and prophet of my church, Spencer W. Kimball

Do it
Do it right
Do it right now!