Spring comes round and I don’t know if you’re like me, but I see all the jobs that need to be done in the house and garden! I make a list and don’t know where to start.
This year, there seems to be more than usual, as during last year lots didn’t get done for various reasons! (All very legitimate reasons I must say!)
Anyway – I have been known, sadly, to bemoan the fact that there are loads of jobs to make things look and feel better. To “sort out” clutter, to get rid of unnecessary stuff, to paint walls and freshen up rooms… you know how it is. Mark also makes lists of things he wants (needs) to do, and sometimes we have the same items on our lists!
Mark is very good at not being troubled at the huge lists and begins to work on various jobs to shorten that list!
He does outdoor stuff when the weather is good and lots of admin when the weather is not so good. This season there’s been a lot of admin done! And that gets to me! Because I have a list of indoor jobs that include him but don’t include admin!
So it seems to me that things take a VERY. LONG. TIME to complete!
Today, on my list was a lot of regular housey-type things… shopping, a few loads of laundry, ironing, planning meals as well as work I needed to do for Church and our Coffee Shop! Pretty mundane and none of the “big” JOBS THAT NEEDED DOING!
Anyway, I was hanging out my second lot of laundry when I had a sudden “moment” of happiness that stopped me in my pegging! I thought, “How lovely is this- a sunny day and the pleasure of hanging out laundry and getting it dried in the sunshine!” I had a flashback to when I used to hang terry nappies out when my babies were wee (disposables were a luxury). I was really overwhelmed with a sense of achievement and gratitude that I could actually do this- hang the laundry outside, as I realised this actually constituted arm workouts and leg stretches ( I know I’m stretching it- bad pun!)
In all this mundaneness, I was grateful that I had accomplished something and it made me see that it is so easy to gripe about jobs not done and the long list still waiting, instead of taking joy in the moment of a job ( albeit a small one) well done.
I hope I’ve learned this lesson… to be grateful for small achievements as well as bigger ones… Life is full of the “little and often” and I forget… they are still worth doing!