You May Not Say "Project" To Me, Got It?
I dislike projects. I rebel against structure. I want to do my own thing, according to my own spontaneous, random whims, and the only deadlines I can handle are the ones I set for myself (not even those).
So it drains my creative energy and sometimes even joy measure when I have to do a report with my kids for school, or when the hall closet becomes so packed with items that it barely shuts.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge the way the world works, which is why I have posted on my fridge a long but realistic to-do list. Item #1: my son's Earth Day report.
We have to travel to four regions; desert, mountain, ocean, and river valley to observe, photograph, and describe in paragraph form 20 indigenous plants and animals. We've known about this since last September. We're (almost) halfway done with it now (Earth Day is on April 22nd). I guess we have to apply some structure for the next few days, some focused intention, and ignore any whims that dare creep into our time accounted for days.
Damn.
But I accepted it, I did. I plotted out the next week in my day planner, I embraced the projects with gratefulness and an "I'll feel so good when it's done!" attitude, even though I waited until the kids went to bed before complaining to my husband, "WHY do they have so much homework, do the teachers think we have nothing else to do?" Poor little me.
Then the report got postponed....by 3 weeks!
I am so self-absorbed I thought I was being rewarded for maturely encouraging academic diligence. Truth is, I despise projects as much as my kids. What kind of Mom am I, excited that I get to avoid the hard stuff for three more weeks? What kind of Mom am I, I have preferences?
I guess I am who I am. I guess I've stopped beating myself up about it. I think, we all get along just fine, and I submit as often as I look a gift horse in the mouth.
About the only project I like right now is my life. I don't mark it my day planner because it just has a way of happening...and it's probably the only project that holds my interest.
So it drains my creative energy and sometimes even joy measure when I have to do a report with my kids for school, or when the hall closet becomes so packed with items that it barely shuts.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge the way the world works, which is why I have posted on my fridge a long but realistic to-do list. Item #1: my son's Earth Day report.
We have to travel to four regions; desert, mountain, ocean, and river valley to observe, photograph, and describe in paragraph form 20 indigenous plants and animals. We've known about this since last September. We're (almost) halfway done with it now (Earth Day is on April 22nd). I guess we have to apply some structure for the next few days, some focused intention, and ignore any whims that dare creep into our time accounted for days.
Damn.
But I accepted it, I did. I plotted out the next week in my day planner, I embraced the projects with gratefulness and an "I'll feel so good when it's done!" attitude, even though I waited until the kids went to bed before complaining to my husband, "WHY do they have so much homework, do the teachers think we have nothing else to do?" Poor little me.
Then the report got postponed....by 3 weeks!
I am so self-absorbed I thought I was being rewarded for maturely encouraging academic diligence. Truth is, I despise projects as much as my kids. What kind of Mom am I, excited that I get to avoid the hard stuff for three more weeks? What kind of Mom am I, I have preferences?
I guess I am who I am. I guess I've stopped beating myself up about it. I think, we all get along just fine, and I submit as often as I look a gift horse in the mouth.
About the only project I like right now is my life. I don't mark it my day planner because it just has a way of happening...and it's probably the only project that holds my interest.
