Thursday, September 04, 2014

Days 2-4 of 30 Days of Writing

Um, yeah.

I wrote every day, but I forgot to blog every day. But in the spirit of fighting perfectionism, I will neither quit nor beat myself up over this. I'll "keep moving forward."

So, prompts #2 and #3, and something else for #4.

2. Share one goal you want to achieve this month:

I am still finishing up with the Pre-PCS purging I began this summer. I went through both personal (my dresser and clothes) and common-area items (kitchen and buffet), as did my children and husband, and I've consigned about as much as I can at this point. I've made more doing that than I did when I tried having garage sales, so I know it's a good choice (donating the rest that is useful but not overtly valuable, of course).

But now, however, I'm into the paper stuff. I've already completed the sorting, purging, and organizing of my teaching files, with a stack of papers over 12 inches high that I've been shredding. Yesterday I hit a wall, though, with the girls' school stuff. It's going to take time to sort through and organize report cards and transcripts, old school projects and childhood drawings. I had at one time figured I'd scrapbook much of these, but it hasn't happened yet. Since they are teenagers, I plan to recruit their help with the art part of it. I am also considering the designation of a box for each child for now. Or file cabinet drawer, perhaps.

I also found old cards and notes. I've sorted boxes before, but this is a new collection. Not sure what's in there. It feels a bit like Pandora's box--open only if you dare.

3. Have you traced your family tree?

No, but my dad has traced his (which is half of mine). His family is in the United States, with the exception of his mom who is from Canada, all the way back to the mid-1600s. So I suppose I could begin the process of joining Daughters of the American Revolution, if I wanted to.

4. Freewrite:

Writing is not really hard for me, once I sit down to do it. Editing is, however. Getting words on paper is not the issue; it's wondering how to structure the random freewriting I come up with. Organization. Making sense of it. Turning thoughts into essays, devotionals, perhaps a book someday. That is the part that gets me every time.

Give me someone else's work, however, and I can usually make it better (unless it's already great, in which case I'll give praise where praise is due!).

1 comment:

Beth said...

Fun post Pattie! One idea for the art, if you love it, is to make into real art and put it on the wall for display.