From doing a Joy Jig to Praying for Jim

As I approached the wooden box, visions of my boys’ toys of all sizes and shapes jammed into it filled my heart with dread. The chest has sat untouched since we moved into this house almost eleven years ago, so there was no telling if "jack might jump out of the box."

The wooden chest holds memories near and dear to my heart. My husband designed it to store our camping gear inside and serve as our new baby boy’s bed on top. As our first son grew and a second one joined the family, the box became a jumble of trucks, balls, Legos, transformers, and more. 

Illusions of Innovative ideas

 I begin each day with illusions of innovative ideas of being industries. My imagination runs wild as I imagine each room packed and ready for the movers. The energetic initiative to invent illusive plans soon fails when unexpected issues arise.

Interruptions like phone calls, emails; even needing to give my diabetic cat her insulin stops my incentive to complete the tasks.

Incidentals like sorting through my kids’ school papers, vacation pictures, random notes…make my mind drift of course.

Idleness like Facebook, television, playing solitaire on this laptop, breaks my steps toward reaching my goals.

Hassles of Living Between Two Places

Hassle: aggravation, annoyance, bother, disruption, frustration, inconvenience, stressor

In February, as I hurried to clean out our huge office desk we were about to sell, the organized me hung folders in a portable file cabinet, packed away envelopes, staples, paper clips, and misplaced securely hid our boxes of checks. I don’t know how many years I stored the checks in the same desk drawer along with a file system for bill paying. Now, the desk was sold…taken away…and my system was scattered among several boxes.

Gear-switching (this was supposed to be “F”lexibility but…)

(continued from Friday) …simple, logical solutions.

Simple is an understatement, but sometimes the brain just doesn’t go where it should. We don’t see the forest for the trees. Fast and furious, racing against the clock makes things fuzzy.

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Via cell phones, we put our heads together, me in Nebraska, and my husband in Montana.

Family, Friends, Files, and Focus

Okay, I apologize for leaving you waiting for the “rest of the story,” but I must ask you to wait another day. Yesterday, one of my many nephews also came with his pickup and a two-wheel dolly to remove the 6-foot credenza we needed hauled to the Salvation Army. Also, a wonderful friend—whom I met last September in bell choir—came and lent me her moving and packing expertise. And, then my husband, who is in Montana became responsible for filing an income tax extension and the legwork for securing a loan to purchase our next home, called me several times for passwords and directions with my filing system. You see, I’m the family bookkeeper and all of my tools—PC and files—are not here but there.

I greatly appreciate all of my family and friends who have helped us with this move in s-o-o many fantastic ways. I also greatly appreciate my husband stepping out of his comfort zone to do the bookkeeping tasks. But once again, I lost focus with my writing. Losing focus is a regular occurrence around here with all the boxes, clutter, piles of this-n-that, and nothing where I’m used to it being. Moving is not the greatest atmosphere for stimulating the creative writing side of my brain.

I promise I’ll finish the rest of the story.