Morning in Seattle

Vacation, day 2: I'm sitting in Seattle waiting for Starbucks to open, so I can get a cup of coffee.  I can't believe Seattle doesn't have 24-hour gourmet coffee shops; what were they thinking?  Isn't this supposed to be the caffeinated city?  I suppose this is the problem of a 2-hour time shift right after we switch to Daylight Savings Time: 4:30 a.m. just doesn't feel that early. (n.b. I collapsed into bed at 7.)

Day 1 was the longest day of my life.  DS had a GREAT time on the airplane (ear tubes rock!); we landed and he said MORE! lol. After that 4 hour flight, he was still great on the 45-minute train to the hotel.  We had lunch (finally, fresh fish!) and then walked to/around Pike's Place for a while. I just wish he would wear a hat; his ears got cold!  Grabbed dinner on the way back to the hotel: the 3 of us split a plate of Tikki Marsala. DS's first try of Indian food, his choice (we were in the food court, I said we'd get him some black beans and he walked over to the curry), and he loved it.  Even though the lady at the counter was pushing me to get him something less spicy.  Guess I'll have to learn to make curry now.  After a dip in the hotel pool, we both collapsed.  (I think 2 double beds in a hotel is the way to go with a toddler!)

Looking forward to a train ride today, and to seeing Grandpa and Oma this afternoon! (and maybe, just maybe, he'll nap today. Here's hoping.)

Dapper

And you should see him with the new haircut! (no pics yet, but will come ...)

Halloween

So I have abandoned this blog for a while, but I have some Halloween Party pics to share!  We went to the KKids Halloween Party last week.  This party started a few years ago, when the big kids (now about 3) were babies, and has grown exponentially. And it follows the same basic pattern.

Starting with the sugar:

 W. wasn't the only lion of the bunch -- but he and S. sure had fun eating!

Then we move on to the pictures:

 This is where the babies sit, right?

Gotta get dressed!

cuz, that's what it's all about!

Crisis Cleaning Sunday

My house has finally gotten to the point where I can no longer bear to look at it.  I must clean. MUST clean. NOW!!!!

Just a preview of my messes

 Actually, I look at this picture, and it doesn't look so bad ... it FEELS like everything is so much WORSE! At any rate, I need to clean today.

I'm not on here to goof off, but to plan -- what am I going to do today?  Here's a starter list:

• pick up -- in just about every room. (Tom is helping with this. W is helping mess this up.)
• vacuum
• cat litter
• trash
• laundry, so we have clothes to wear this week
• dusting
• sweeping and mopping
• pick up in the basement
• decluttering
• some office work to do today
• dishes and kitchen clean up
• decluttering
• START working on Hotspots

Wow, when I write down my list, it doesn't sound so bad. It feels so overwhelming though!  I'm going to make a plan and start with that.

This morning before lunch I'm going to:

• clean up the kitchen
• spend 5 minutes picking up in each of 3 rooms
• take out all the trash
• dust
• declutter for 15 minutes in the dining room

After that, I'm going to take a little break, plan the next round of tasks, and have lunch.  It's a start ...

Top Idea

Good morning,

I was trying to get started working this morning, unfocused, as I usually am when I haven't done my evening routine the night before. As I was moving from one thing to another (not all of them minimally productive), I was trying to get something to stick enough that I would get absorbed and focus my attention on it. But with no one thing grabbing my attention, I just seem to drift. As soon as I start to actually work on one thing, I get sidetracked!

Don't get me wrong … I have gotten some things done today. I paid some bills and decluttered some. But I have not worked as well as I would if I were focused today. And then I stumbled on this blog post from http://unclutterer.com. It discusses an essay by Paul Graham about the "Top Idea in your Mind." Interesting stuff – it suggests that the one or two things you spend the most energy on, that occupy most of your "thought space", are the things that will continue to get most of your unconscious energy.

Everyone who's worked on difficult problems is probably familiar with the phenomenon of working hard to figure something out, failing, and then suddenly seeing the answer a bit later while doing something else. There's a kind of thinking you do without trying to. I'm increasingly convinced this type of thinking is not merely helpful in solving hard problems, but necessary. The tricky part is, you can only control it indirectly.

So how do you control these thoughts? Especially if it's indirect?

You can't directly control where your thoughts drift. … But you can control them indirectly, by controlling what situations you let yourself get into. That has been the lesson for me: be careful what you let become critical to you. Try to get yourself into situations where the most urgent problems are ones you want think about.

So here's a thought: instead of letting my thoughts control my actions, I should let my actions control my thoughts.

I can do this! For today, I'm going to figure out my "top thoughts" and also my "top priorities", and focus on making these the same. Graham suggests you can find out what your "top thoughts" are by taking a shower. For me, computer games work pretty well for that.

My top thoughts right now:

• The dishes in the sink, from yesterday. (this is one of the hazards of working from home.)
  
• Monday's Weekly Home Blessing
  

My top priorities right now:

• Getting my netbook setup and ready for a meeting this afternoon
  
• Finalizing a document for a client.
  
• Call the bank
  

How will I merge these today?

First, the "out of sight, out of mind" doesn't seem to be working for my top priorities: I can't see the kitchen or my messy house, but they are nagging at me. So I will tackle that for the next 30 minutes, first.

Then, I will work on setting up my netbook, since I have that meeting at 12:30. If I can really focus on it, it won't be so bad.

Finally, I will work on that client document with what time I have left before the meeting. By not working on it, it goes to the back of my head, and I need it to be one of my "top thoughts" now, at least until it's done.