Grandma Knows Best

This lady is my Grandma. She is exactly fifty years older than me and a hundred times wiser. When I was a kid, my mother told me that my grandmother only did one extra thing each day. So if it was laundry day, she didn't try to, say, paint a bathroom and remodel the kitchen at the same time, something that I myself attempted last week. 

I thought I could handle everything by scheduling my priorities. I took a pass on the laundry and cooking, and focused my attention on the bathroom, stopping every so often to obsess about the repairs and remodeling I wanted to do to the rest of my house. But, as happens whenever I feel sort of on top of things, everything fell apart. It reminds me of a Rubric's cube I bought as a kid. Every time I thought I had solved the puzzle on one side, I turned it to discover that all the other sides were a mess. I resorted to trying to pry off the colored stickers. When that didn't work, I tried to dismantle the whole thing. That's what my life and my house feels like right now. A dismantled disaster.

Things looked great until Friday. While making an extravagant birthday cake for my husband, I nibbled a Lindt dark chocolate bar all morning, then threw down a couple handfuls of bittersweet chocolate chips. By the afternoon, the cake was in the fridge for its requisite overnight chill and I was in bed, incapacitated by nausea. I guess that herbalist I went to a couple years ago was right when she got a vibe that I was allergic to chocolate. "Whatever," I said to myself. "Seems like a bunch of hooey to me." But she should have qualified that large amounts of chocolate would send me reeling. Now I believe her. What's worse, I can't even look at the chocolate cake that I spent two days making. 

So this is my long explanation of why my bathroom is not completely done. Yes, the walls are all one color now (and the ceiling too!). But the tub is full of painting supplies and the floor is still spattered with paint drops. The contents of my kitchen cabinets sit on my counters, waiting for me to decide where to put them. I've got one kid home sick with a cold. There's a weird smell in my house--I'm hoping it's just paint--and the laundry just growled at me. Grandma was right. One thing at a time is more than enough for one person to handle. 

Comments

[chizuko]

My horroble experience, I burned pans 3 times a day in winter. I felt miserable!!
Tomorrow will be the perfect day!!
Grandma, looks great!!You have her blood. your will be fine!!

[kayla]

CUTE!!

[michelle]

My 13 year old nephew has mastered the rubics cube... his comment, "Well, once I understood the algorithyms, I was able to solve it quite easily." Whatever!

I cannot seem to figure out one thing at a time. Right now I have laundry baskets sprawled everywhere - looking like I am attempting to fold it. I have Christmas decor boxes everywhere... I want to decorate, but it makes such a mess and it is a LOT of work! I also cannot decide what to put where. I also have pictures leaning on walls that I want to hang.

BUT, but three year old needs someone to play with, so all of that will have to wait.... again! Thanks for the post. It makes me feel so normal. : )

[shelby]

Rubrics cubes were always so frustrating to me, I won't even attempt one now. But good for you, for getting started on that bathroom! It'll eventually get done! I often find myself tackling too many things at once too....I may need to tag this post as one to read over and over again....those grandmas-always so wise!