My Not To Do List

My inbox, once again, has grown to monumental capacity. It's become almost overwhelming. I've developed something of a plan to prevent this from happening, but if you don't get to your inbox everyday, even a great plan won't work. So yesterday I began weeding out the uninteresting and apparent unimportant e-mails. And this morning my finger even hovered over the "delete all" button. But there were a few that the little voice inside my head urged me to keep and read. That little voice is brilliant sometimes.

One e-mail I kept to read was a very recent edition of Christine Kane's "Live Creative" e-zine. The featured article, How to Create a Powerful Morning Ritual, included some great suggestions. (Part of my fondness for Christine's e-zine is that her featured article is always done as a list. Yay for lists!) One in particular lit a little light bulb up in the space where my little voice resides. "Be Prepared: Create a Not-to-Do List." Christine's suggestion here is specifically aimed at your morning ritual, but I loved the idea of a Not-to-Do List on a grander scale. So, for example, my list for today . . .

Not To Do:

Let the rainy afternoon go by without spending a while on the glider on the patio.

Give in and eat meat because I feel guilty that the hubby cooked it.

(I haven't eaten meat for over a week and want to continue that way. I've bought

and prepared foods for both of us - with meat for him and without for me.)

Leave the laundry for one more day. It will bug me more tomorrow.

So here's my new note pad.

What will you put on your list?

Peace,

List Lovers' Thursday

Way back when, when I was very much a newbie blogger, my Thursdays for a while were devoted to lists, and, in fact, I called them List Lovers Thursdays (even though once I did it on a Friday, and once it was about a Friday).

So, today being Thursday and all, I am in the mood for a list. (Besides, Liz did a list today and now I want to too!) Tomorrow is my every-other-Friday-off Friday, (YAY!) and there are some things I should do and some things I could do.

Could do:

** make (or find) templates for envelopes for mailing tags and ATC's, and then make a couple envelopes so I can mail a tag to Mari.

** send some snail mail to Diva Kreszl and Jeanette. I don't know yet what it'll be, but must be something special!

** and i must come up with something wonderful to send the The Fragrant Muse as it's her birthday tomorrow!

** hunt for treasure (aka taking a trip to the second hand store). Did I tell you that the last time I went I bought a poker chip holder? It's a nice wooden one that spins, and it's perfect for holding my small bottles of craft paints on my craft desk.

** I found some turkey meatballs at the grocery store last weekend and I'm in the mood for some spaghetti.

** Find a Michael's coupon and buy another ink pad.

** Take a new photo of my front porch with my scarecrow on the front door and a pumpkin and marigolds out front and replace the photo currently in my sidebar.

** Nap. (one of my personal favorites)

Should do:

** make hotel reservations for our trip to see Phantom of the Opera in two weeks.

** send haiku to a postcrossing friend that I sent a postcard to earlier this week.

** pull up the bermuda grass and bird seed that's sprouted to get ready to plant tomatoes and radishes and nasturtiums.

** clean out some old magazines to make room for my new Craft Spinner.

Of course there will be coffee in the morning on the patio while I contemplate the possibilities that the day holds. And maybe even a cup in the afternoon (after the nap of course).

I hope your Friday is beautiful.

List Lover's Thursday - 5 Minutes

What a difference five minutes can make!

A few mornings ago, I was a few minutes late getting out the door to go to work. Not enough at all to make me late to work; I always arrive early. But what a difference it made in the traffic! It's usually very light in the morning, but not this day. And I remember saying to myself, "But it's not even five minutes later than I normally leave!"

That got me thinking - what a difference five minutes can make in other situations.

• making or missing a flight


• getting to the post office (or bank or . . .) before the doors close


• giving birth on December 31st or January 1st


• waiting for your nails to dry


• a perfect piece of bacon or a house full of smoke


• a tie score in a basketball game (more like 5 seconds really!)


• a successful surprise (or not) party


• nabbing the last PS3 (or Wii or Xbox) on Black Friday


• the choice between pancakes and a hamburger
  
• saying "good morning" or "good afternoon"