It’s hard to believe in less than a week hubby and I will be gathered with our kids and their families celebrating Thanksgiving. I’m personally looking forward to time away from caregiving (thankful for my sister who will care for mom while we take a little break), time with my grandkids, a little uninterrupted sleep, good food cooked by my kids and a few of their kids with a little help from me (When did THAT happen? Used to be the other way around!), and everything else that goes with spending time with family reflecting on God’s goodness to all of us.
I’m linking up for the first time with Kate Motaung and the Five Minute Friday community. Five minutes of free write on a weekly word prompt. Today’s word is one. Here’s the first thing that came to my mind.
Just ONE thing
I have so many things on my always growing “to-do list”. In my world of being a full-time caregiver for a mother with Alzheimer’s, there are days when I may as well throw my to-do list in the trash, as Momma’s needs trump my would-like-to-get-done checklist.
One thing has helped. Simply focusing on one thing at a time.
“One bucket of weeds” is doable. I can certainly grab a 5-gallon pail during one of mom’s catnaps and do a quick cleanup of one area of my garden. That one bucket often leads to two…or maybe even more.
“One load of laundry” is much more attainable than devoting an entire day to the job. It’s an on-going job that is never truly accomplished anyway…so just do ONE load now. The rest will follow.
Sometimes it does help to break my big job up into lots of little “ones”. Spending time in the garden is one of those things I love to do, but also one of the things that is HARD to do while taking care of my sweet Mom. But, truth be told, even on the worst of days, I can get ONE thing done if I create a few bite-size chunks.
- Trim back the red peony and bag the leaves
- Dig out the aggressive lamium
- Divide the red iris
- Plant a piece of the red iris on the other end of the flower bed
- Trim back the clematis to 1 foot
- Spread compost
- Plant the tulip bulbs
- Mulch
- Repaint the birdhouse (a rainy day project)
Very few of those jobs take longer than 10 minutes to accomplish. A little here and a little there. One small bite at a time. Each little job accomplished leads to the satisfaction of being able to cross the big job off the list.
There you have it. My ONE contribution.
Now, I’m going to fold ONE load of laundry before a much needed night out with my ONE guy.
Barefoot Lily Lady 
Barefootlilylady, first, I like your name! Second, your flower photo is beautiful. And third, this is a timely reminder, to do just ONE thing at a time. It’s helpful to think of it this way; thank you! Finally, I hope it is an amazing Thanksgiving celebration with your kids and grandkids!
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Why, thanks very much, Prasanta! I wrote a bit about why I chose that name in my ‘Meet Cindie’ section of my blog. Suffice to say, try as I might, my shoes rarely stay on when I’m in my garden. Daylilies really are such lovely flowers to photograph. I’m glad you like the photo. YOUR photos are absolutely stunning (I just poked around on your blog).
I used my own “just one thing” advice today. I have a collection of family photos that I’m determined to get into albums over the winter months. I bought the albums last Friday, but couldn’t seem to carve out time to begin the project. Yesterday I went rifling through the loose photos in search of some I’d like to use in a blog post next week. I found them, had my hubby scan them, then started to put them away. Then I asked myself, “Why are you putting these away? Why don’t you make a page for your album?”
And so I did. ONE page. And so the project has begun.
I hope your Thanksgiving is spent surrounded by the ones you love in praise of the One you love.
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Cindie, good for you on getting that ONE page done. 🙂 I just read your “Meet Cindie” page… I can’t believe it – but you live in Wisconsin– and so do I! (I’m in Milwaukee, where are you?) That is amazing; based on your gardening interest I thought you lived somewhere warm! Well, so nice to meet you!
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Small world! I was born and raised in Milwaukee…in fact, raised my family there too. We moved about 80 miles west to Fitchburg in 1999 and moved my mom here in 2015 after 52+ years in her home on the corner of 106th and Stark. Lovely to meet you too!
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Amazing! I’m actually not from here but moved to Milwaukee from the south over 20 years ago. All my kids were born here and am raising them here in Mke, too. 🙂 Well, we’re next door neighbors at the FMF linkup but we’re practically neighbors in real life, too!
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My parents are from West Virginia, but moved to Milwaukee before I was born. Dad moved first to attend MSOE and mom joined him after they were married. They both obtained jobs in Milwaukee, dad as a mechanical engineer and mom as a nurse, staying with their employers for the vast majority of their careers. They built the house at 10534 W. Stark Street and we moved in when I was in kindergarten. Lots of good Milwaukee memories.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving, Prasanta!
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Lovely photographs and a useful strategy for making progress on a big task or with multiple smaller ones. Thanks. Visiting from FMF.
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