Last spring Didi lent me her copy of Simple Steps. In ten short weeks, if I followed their guidelines, I would have a neater, thinner, more orgainized life. I read the book, cover to cover, in two days. Basically, your make a few (maybe 4, if I remember correctly) changes each week and in the end you are a new "thinner" person. That said, I made a valient effort for a few weeks and then quickly fell off the bandwagon.

Maybe it was the chaos of the addition (new kitchen, roof, siding, and all that goes with it), that way laid my intentions. Maybe it was just laziness. Whatever it was, I am trying again to bring order into my life, and to loss these extra pounds I seem to have collected over the years.

So I drink plenty of water, take a multivitamin, walk on our dusty treadmill for 20 minutes a day, try to clean up some extra clutter for 10 minutes each day, make a to-do list for each day and make my bed. The bed making is key. Supposedly, when you make your bed, before doing anything in the morning, you have already accomplished something. The pressure is off. A task has been brought to completion and you should feel fullfilled. I try to tell myself that as I pull up the sheets and covers. But still I find myself stressed about getting "things" done.

That said, today I started to tackle the lack of filing that has been taking place for the last 8 years. Three hours later, I had gone through two mountains of papers, and a good size box of papers. I can actually see the dust that blankets the top of my desk. This in itself is a miracle.

Maybe tomorrow I'll dust.