First Things First

First Things First is my mantra this fall and winter. No matter what happens going forward, we are going to be under enormous stress, and I need to get a grip. 

That first week after the revelation of my partner's illness, I was able to extract myself from a few responsibilities, but, as the initial shock wore off, some have crept back - because I feel guilty for not helping where help is needed, and also I feel out-of-the-loop and cut off from my familiar inner circle. I need to re-focus each week on my top priorities - Serving my Family, and Leading on Earthcare, and find ways to gracefully release most everything else.

Agenda:

1. Simple goals for earthcare

2. The Simple Project List

3. Read "The Power of Less"
4. Fall cleaning and gardening

1. Simple goals for earthcare:

My intentions for Earthcare are pretty daunting. How can I organize them so I feel like I am making progress, but not stressing myself out?

My daily goal is to stay in touch with my fall ecosystem with a moment to look around at my garden and notice the flora and wildlife, and continue to improve my soil and clean-up my wild garden in a way that honors and invites nature. - I've set a reminder on my phone so I don't forget this top priority. 

My weekly October goals for earthcare are top-loaded, because of a scheduled surgery mid-month:

This week: Write a blog post, send updates and reports, connect with the Interfaith group, post artwork on my website, dig a spot for a new native plant, and finish my appliqué project.

Week 3: Write a blog post, set some fall plastic-reducing goals for myself, start a plastic craftivism project, plant some new natives in my garden, and volunteer at a plastics round-up event.

Week 4: Write a blog post, make felt bees.

 

Week 5: Write a blog post, post plastics craftivism on my website, make felt bees.

  

2. Simple Projects List:

Lat week I initiated Babauta's "Simple Projects List" - with my top three projects only, which I need to finish before starting any others. (A "project" is something that has several steps, and takes only a week or two.)

"The top three projects on your Simple Projects List will be your entire focus until you finish all three ... This ensures that you aren't spreading your focus too thin, and that you are completing your projects." 

It's been great! I have actually been able to chip away at these three projects much more effectively than ever before.

Tips: You can't actually do projects - you can only do tasks. Make a list of tasks for each project, and focus on doing one at a time. Each day, choose three tasks to complete.

My simple projects list this week:

1. Kids: Make pumpkin paintings with my grandsons, exploring orange and black. (First task: Clear paint table and floorspace, mix orange paint.)
2. House: Paint and re-glaze the kitchen windows. (First task: Clean the dirt and dust off the first window.)
3. Art: Finish sewing the Small Forest appliqué and find a frame and backing. (First task: Finish sewing the forest.)
4. Garden: Remove the lilac roots and prepare the bed for a native flowering red current.

3. Read "The Power of Less":

Continuing with this little book by Leo Babauta, who hosts the Zen Habits blog. I bought it because simplifying is a favorite topic of mine, one I long for and keep trying to perfect.

I'm reading to Chapter Eight: Simple Tasks. I've made headway on simplifying my goals, so what's next?

"You're not doing anything until you are doing tasks. ... simplifying your tasks can be the most important step you take. ... We do that with limitations, by focusing on one thing at a time, and by focusing on small things rather than large ones."

Ways to practice:

1. Each morning, choose three Most Important Tasks to be the focus of each day, preferably related to my weekly goal and my simple projects list.
2. Make sure each task is small, and can be finished in 1 hour or less. 
3. Do these first each day.

4. Fall cleaning and gardening:

Fall cleaning has an entirely different feel and focus than spring cleaning. In the fall we finish up, pack away, and "batten the hatches" -- we put away all the outdoor stuff, air out the sweaters, and prepare for winter.

This next week I will start my fall cleaning in the kitchen, studio and driveway. I plan to:

• Clean and repaint the window frames outside the kitchen, and reglaze the windows
• Sort and pare down the clutter on the kitchen and laundry room surfaces.

  

  Massive lilac. stump - now almost gone!

• Haul out some of the junk that has accumulated on the studio floor.
• Clear the studio table, and set up Grandson projects.

I'm doing the same kind of hatch-battening in the garden:

• Clean up beds, mulch with leaves and straw
• Plant winter rye and fava beans
• Dig out the lilac roots and prepare the bed for a native flowering red current.