Busy day yesterday, such ups and downs! Worked on satin flowers, ready to put them together. Went shopping and to lunch with Phyllis to find baskets for our Birthday Basket project. Ended up with plastic ones from the Dollars Store, Goodwill was too expensive! Phyllis showed me the back room of the Game House with a big roll-up door that will be perfect for the cookie delivery in February. Yay! Main cookie chair job done! Phyllis is so good and so generous. I'm trying to be more like her when I grow up.

The girls had so much fun putting the baskets together. We have about 45 made with lots of cake mix left over. Probably will put together a few simple ones for the older kids. Just enough time to come home and eat, then off to basketball practice. Helen is so clueless. I can't believe she's made it to 11 and never played. I guess my hip has kept me from things like that for so long it's almost ridiculous. Planning to get out tomorrow to practice dribbling- one handed. She was dribbling two handed, as high as her head last night. Cracked me up. They were practicing layups, and she made a few (out of about 50). Like I told Paula, at least she's tall.....

THEN, I went looking for the envelope with the checks for the Nut and Candy orders and couldn't find it. Still can't find it. I'm sure I took it down to the truck, but when Helen gets in, she just throws my stuff around without regard to its importance. I didn't see it in the truck, will look again this morning. It could have fallen out, she's so careless. I get so upset with myself when I do things like this. Feel like I have it all under control, getting 37 things done in a day, busy from sunup to sundown, and then I go and do something like this. It just makes me feel so incompetent and down about myself. It would be really nice to have support and encouragement from my family, but I'm figuring out that that's never going to happen. All I get from Fransie and my mother is criticism or indifference. What I wouldn't give for a kind word once in awhile.

Free day today. I want to finish up some flowers so that I can get them on etsy. Also want to spiff up a couple of Wendy's layouts and see if I can get them sold. Do people really need a photo mat to show them where to put their photos in order to buy a layout? Sure seems like it.

Day Two of the 21 Day Challenge - Get it Done. Another easy one today, since it's Helen's Birthday and we have to get the house cleaned up. Running low on time and energy, only two hours left. I guess I can leave them running around while I finish cleaning the upstairs bathroom, lol. Great time to start this challenge, since it will feel like getting a head start. Fransie is fixing up a bunch of things that have been sitting for months. Silly how we both put things off and then when you HAVE to do them, it takes all of five minutes. Hence this goal! If I just kick my own butt into gear and do things, they don't hang over my head like a lead balloon. Even though I realize these unfinished things are an invisible weight, I still don't get them done. No more! Now that I have two good legs again, I'm determined to keep my house and my head full of positive energy instead of procrastinating until the brown meanies take over. Back to work, art journal will have to wait until after skating tonight!

I have accepted Rhonna Farrer's 21 Day Challenge. The goal is to add or delete a behavior, habit, thought, etc. After thinking on it quite a bit, and naturally, down to the wire, I settled on my procrastination problem. But the actual challenge is "Get Things Done". Which is a little more positive than saying "stop procrastinating" because, of course, I would procrastinate about stopping procrastinating. SO. To that end, I have made a list of about 20 things I'd like to get done. Some involve cleaning, finishing projects, both house related and creative, and some purely creative. Paint the edges of the living room ceiling, clean out the pantry, paint a chicken, design a card (need those Christmas cards!). I also give myself permission to NOT do anything on the list on those days when I'm running around crazy, or at least I'll try a small one, like making a scrapbook page. With Helen's birthday tomorrow, today will be all about finishing up the cleaning that I've been putting off all week, and tomorrow will be about getting ready for her party. Sunday Haley will be here, so we'll try to do something fun that day.

I'm feeling pretty good about the challenge. Mostly, I think it gives me hope of changing something that really bothers me. Procrastination sounds innocuous enough, but it has been pretty debilitating for me. I blame my hip issues for the past couple years, but really, I could sit on my but and edit photos and type poems, but I didn't. My modus operandi is to think about a creative project I want to do, come into my house, see the messes (and we aren't talking Hoarders or anything, just clutter and undone things), feel guilty about the messes, look at the project, look at the mess, then sit down at the computer and do neither. Very unproductive! THEN, because I wasted a perfectly good day doing nothing, I get down on myself, feel lazy, stupid, incapable, yada, yada, yada. So you can see how this challenge could truly change my life and my way of thinking about myself. With all the items on my list, I'm really hoping to continue to challenge myself past the 21 days, but I'll deal with that AFTER I've completed the first 21 days.

Today: Clean 3 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 playroom. Seems like more than enough for one day! Oh yeah, and frost 40 cupcakes to take to school for lunch. I'm really looking forward to working in my art journal (which I've kept small to keep it from intimidating me), since it may be the most creative thing I do today.