So Close I Can Taste It

I've had flashbacks to November and NaNo today. It comes from pushing through and feeling that satisfaction that comes with it.

I would hit these walls (in the tax preparation process) and think, "If I look at ONE MORE receipt, have to squint any harder at ONE MORE pale ink number, have to decide ONE MORE time if it's a receipt for cleaning & maintenance or repair, I will melt like margarine on corn on the cob fresh off the grill. And before you think that's a yummy analogy, remember this: the corn would be woody. :)

So I'd let myself get up and wander around a bit. Maybe get something healthy to snack on. "Allow" myself to run a sink full of hot water and do some dishes, or fold a load of laundry. You know things are bad when dishes and laundry are a highlight of the day. Then I'd tell myself, "five minutes more and if you're dying by then you can quit. For a while." Inevitably when I started back again, I'd get in the groove and sail on awhile. I now have everything in it's place, and it's a matter of tallying up the numbers and typing them in the right spot. And coming up with a good bottom line, of course.

I'm eager for this to be over. I'm ready to move on to other projects. I have a friend coming Monday to look at books and see what she wants. After that I'll cart the remainder to Uptown Thrift as I go get my hair cut. I can't believe the 24th--the most important day of the year for us--is nipping at my heels again. I had so much time just a few days ago.

I can also feel myself coming down with something. Cough and general aches. I need to get on the silver and vitamin C and whatever else might help me last through next weekend.

I have a zillion other projects going. Asher starts his electronic school on Monday and I'm eager to encourage him through that. This has to work. It lifts so much of the planning and guesswork off my shoulders and generates the trail I need to prove the work he's doing. Not to mention he can work through at his own pace. If we follow the calendar and lessons set out for us he'll be ready for his eighth grade work on time. I can't believe it's already time to start thinking about his high school record-keeping.

I'm digging out the school room. I started on that trail with the book give-away earlier. I've contented myself with the fact that this process will be slow. But I look at the shelves I've done and the bags of shredded trash that have gone out and I know that there is more going out than is coming in. If I can just keep it up. I'm doing two different rooms, switching off on alternate days. "My" room and Asher's. I want to get him in the habit of devoting a period of time every day--a short period of time--so that when we get to the maintenance phase he'll have the routine down. There is so much junk. Sometimes I think we live at a disadvantage simply because we can own so much stuff. It clouds the brain. It makes us lazy--mentally and otherwise. I am ready to pare down to the minimum. After those two rooms are done come the laundry room and the office. I am going to stop drowning in papers.

Then there's containers to plant with flowers. Still have to decide how I'm going to go on that front.

Okay, so that was an enjoyable break. Everyone has gone to bed and I'm going to work with numbers in the uninterrupted quiet....