So Much to Do!

Over the past years I've started and stopped multiple projects, put things on the back burner and just generally procrastinated about a lot of things due to my depression. Now that I'm feeling a bit better, I want to tackle all of these things, but it's a lot of work!!

Here are some things that I need to do around the house:

• Patch up the pothole in the driveway
• Repair/replace the roof
• Get the nasty rugs pulled up and replace, preferably with laminate
• Replace damaged linoleum in kitchen
• Sand and repaint the deck

Here are things that I want to do:

• Paint the bathrooms
• Organize the garage
• Finish my knitted blanket
• Finish the knitted blanket for my niece
• Use the pattern that I got a few Christmases ago and knit my new knitting bag so that everything isn't scattered around in a million small plastic bags
• Finish the mittens I promised to a coworker
• Lean French sign language
• Take a trip to Moscow to visit a dear friend
• Clean out the closets
• Start playing my musical instruments again
• Join a community band/orchestra
• Join a community chorus
• Attend weekly Buddhist practice and talks
• Take my dog to an agility class
• Hike every day
• Meditate every day
• Lose weight (20 lbs so far!)
• and the list goes on.

Looking at everything I need, and want, to do can be overwhelming. The first few times I visited my home before moving back in, all I could see were all the things that needed to be done, everything that had been neglected for years. It was daunting. It felt as if  were standing at the bottom of Mt. Everest, armed with only a day's worth of food and a hiking stick. What the hell was I thinking?!

The only way to approach everything, though, is to take it one step at a time. So, one of the first things I did was I cleaned out the foyer closet so I would have a place to put my knitting. From there, I started doing little things, like tossing out the old, mismatched plastic storage containers that filled my cupboards. The other day, I went to Lowes and bought new cabinets for my bathrooms and even hung one up. I also got paint samples and put a few shades on the wall to see how they looked.

With just one small step at a time, I'm sure I can get through my list. The only problem is that I keep finding more things to add to it!