Making a dent.

For the most part the housework is done. Done for now anyway. The ceiling fans and lamp shades will just have to wait 'til another day, or five. The studio, however, gets my attention again later this evening. I made the mistake of venturing in there this afternoon and had an attack of the neat freak issues. This was not good considering there is a month of Sundays' worth of cleaning and straightening to do in there. It's appalling. It's housed stacks of magazines and whatnot over the past few months. Whatever I couldn't stand looking at stacked up in the other rooms of the house got shuffled back to the void of the studio, piled on the drafting table, piled on the light table, piled on the floor ... you get the picture.

For some inexplicable reason the urge to start weeding through the piles overtook me around lunchtime. Maybe it's a subconscious nudge to make me get back to some painting. Maybe it's the realization that unless there is room to work no work will get done. Maybe it was an avoidance tactic. I'm inclined, I shamefully admit, to avoiding doing some of my To Do list for the past couple of days. I just needed time off. Down time. Non-work related. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my store, my part of running the business and all that goes with it. I love being there even if nothing is going on and no customers or clients are there. It's a nice place and I'm proud of it. But it is true owning a business is virtually a 24-7 kind of job. Sometimes you just have to say 'when' and take a breather.

Not that spending most of the time breathing has been devoted to housekeeping, as I've done for the past couple of days, could technically be called an official breather. Work is work no matter what form it takes. Although, housework, while physical, can be a meditation if you let it. A "wax on, wax off" with the polish kind of thing. The physicality of it is good for you, too. It feels productive and there is the instant gratification of a nice clean glass-topped coffee table with just a swipe of a lint free rag and some custom-made vinegar cleaner. Yep, I make my own cleaning solution = White vinegar, hot water and some essential oils. This, too, gives the instant gratification of making the house smell fresh and clean even with the heat pump running and the windows closed against the winter weather outside. I love fresh air, having the windows open, and the house smelling clean helps a lot through the cold weather months.

I can't say I've made much of a dent on the To Do list, but a dent in my level of frustration and aggravation was achieved. I feel more relaxed and less overwhelmed by so many things needing to be done ... and feeling so overwhelmed that I didn't feel like I was getting anything done. That's a miserable place to be.

For the next hour or so I'll work on those piles in the studio. I don't see much getting done past that for the next several days. Maybe this coming weekend will grant me some more time to be the Domestic Goddess of Clean. I'd like to get in an hour on the sweater knitting if possible this evening, too. Then, it's off to bed. Tomorrow is another day for attacking the To Do list.

I'll leave you with a perfect picture of Zen ...



Namaste, y'all ...