A new month and a plan for balance

Yes, I'm a bad blogger. Whatever my original thoughts about using this blog, things changed. I spent most of the winter sick and now . . . well, I'm sick of being ill and franctic to get my life back in some sort of order.

I need a new blog header. I need to figure out what's wrong with the blogroll. I have kits to upload to my stores, need to do some respondig in my groups, yada yada.

Then there's housekeeping to catch up. The usual laundry, kitchen chores, dinners to cook, bathrooms to clean, dusting, and so on. And the major tasks like undoing the mess I've made of the back bedroom and decluttering and on and on. I made a plan that I' to start this month. It's aimed at achieving some balance. I shared it with the designers at Scrappers Zone recently and many thought it a good plan. Here's what I wrote:

1) Fight procrastination: for each day list the 3 most important things to do and do those first.
2) Clean the house: start using a timer and set it up in room after room. For 20 minutes, do whatever I can in that room. Then take a 15 minute break. After break, move to next room for 20 minutes and so on.
3) Decrease anxiety/depression: keep daily list of what I do.On bad days even thigs like getting out of bed and getting dressed go on the list because that can be a real effort. At the end of the day, read the list and see what I've accomplished. Why? Because some days I look around and can't see that I've done anything and that's depressing. The list lets me know Ive done what I could on any particular day. When dealing with chronic pain conditions, it's easy to feel overwhelemed and depressed because I'm not able to do the things I used to do, things other people think of as normal.
4) Exercise: start going back to aqua therapy. First week for 2 days, 30 minutes in the pool. Work up to hour three times a week. Then add the few floor exercises I can do when I'm feeling my best.
5) Improve the house: For April, it's a declutter plan. Set aside a box for removable clutter. That is, as I go room by room, find at least one thing I no longer use or want and put it in the box or bag - unless it needs to go in the trash. At the end of the month, I'll sort the items into those to give away to friends and those that will go to the thrift store that benefits the local children's hospital.
6) Keep the mind active. Learn something new each day. For April this will be doing a lesson in my Photoshop CS3 book.
7) Nurture the creative spirit. Set a weekly artist's date as Julia Cameron suggested in her book The Artist's Way. This will be a time to get out of the house, go somewhere and tune into whatever is beautiful around me.
8) Maintain relationships. Set aside a day each week to communicate with family and friends. Probably sounds silly to you, but I don't care to talk on the phone much and am no longer the letter writer I once was. But once a week, at least, I'll make a point to call someone or send a note.
9) Nurture the soul. Set aside time each day for meditation/relaxation/prayer. I tend to be an on-the-run sort of prayer person. I typically pray like I'm simply having a conversation with God. However, it's good to take time to be still and quiet. I'm beginning to use Sharon Salzburg's meditation CDs called "UnPlug."
10) Do something just for me. Create something every day just because it feels good. Not necessarily digital art. I'm eager to get back to doing some small crazy quilting projects. And today I realized I hadn't mentioned writing. Writing a little something every day is good on so many levels.

At the end of the month, I'll re-evaluate and see what needs adjusting.

Near the end of week one now and here's how I'm doing:
1) Fight procrastination. I'm listing alright but still procrastinating. Monday set the tone when the first thing on my list was dealing with the health insurance company and trying to figure out why I've got denied claims I never knew about and why I've gotten a collections letter. This did not go well and set the tone for the rest of my day. Hasn't helped the week either.
2) Clean house. I don't like carrying around a timer! It does help me in the morning when I sit down with my breakfast and a novel. Setting the timer for 30 minutes keeps me from losig track of time if the novel is good. I have accomplished some household things I wanted to this week although not as much as I'd like. Have had a couple of bad pain days and a couple days I ran errands that wore me out. The plan could be helpful so I'll continue to try it.
3) Decrease anxiety/depression. The lists do help as they have before.
4) Exercise. Dismal failure here. I have not been to the pool. I need a new bathing suit so will try to go to Catherine's tomorrow and find one. Have a coupon, might as well use it.
5) Improve the house. Did a little decluttering but haven't been consistent. Will try to be the rest of the week. I did go through and collect books I finished, sort them, and bag them to go to friends.
6) Keep the mind active. Only did one CS3 lesson but have been reading a lot - fiction and non-fiction.
7) Nurture the creative spirt. It's been raining this week and kind of gloomy with weather moving from 75 degrees on day to 30's the next. So no artist's date so far this week.
8) Maintain relationships. Had breakfast with our friend, Brenda, Sunday morning. Called my brother for his birthday on Sunday and talked to my sister-in-law too. Made a cake for Dad's birthday yesterday and took it over. Ran into my cousin by marriage, Becky, and chatted with her awhile. It's been years since I've seen her. Have been chatting with my friend, Cherrie, on-line and commenting on her new kits. Have plans to call my friend, Wanda, in Keysville and catch up. Haven't talked to her since before Christmas. That is planned for tomorrow.
9) Nurture the soul. I like Salzburg's CDs - actually I've only listened to the first one so far. Since I've had a lot of neck and back pain this week, I've been lying down to listen. Very simple program really. And I confess that each time, I've relaxed enough to fall asleep before the end of the CD. That's a good thing for me.
10) Do something just for me. This is an easy one. So I managed to finsih 3 kits I'd started and work on some other things too.

All in all, I guess it's not too bad. And my neck feels much better so I'm hoping to get some things done around the house before the week is over. I want at least 10 items in my de-clutter box. I want all the laundry caught up before Sunday. By Saturday, I want to have a box of books and stuff ready to mail off to my brother. I intend to find a bathing suit before Monday so I can do aqua therapy. Yada yada.