I totally agree with you - our brains are a funny thing. When you're feeling blue - trying to do anything is like moving a mountain. You have a great idea ! I'm glad you're taking baby steps to get back to your crafts. I know 'all too well ' how you feel. I'm in the exact same spot you are . In my case ,the clutter and cleaning has gotten so backed up in my house - I feel guilty if I want to craft - then ,because I have no room to do it - I feel even worse. For the past week .... I've been a "bag lady"
.....got myself a box of huge garbage bags and I've been just going through the house , the closets,the basement , the attic ... - throwing stuff away. I'm not even sorting it out - if I haven't used it or looked at it in a year - out it goes. It feels so good. I have a long way to go - and like you Kathy - some days I just have to push myself. As of today - I have 5 HUGE trash bags for the garbage tomorrow. I think I'm going to make your commitment -- at least 10 minutes a day . Good luck in your goal and thank you for the inspiration (((HUGS)))

GOOD FOR YOU Kathy!!! I realized years ago, that if we ignore the things that make us happy...whether it be gardening, writing, sewing, spending time with someone you love, or anything else, that we will always be unhappy. After being in that state of mind for a while, it's hard to see past it. I think it's a great idea that you have aloted a set amount of time to do what makes you happy every day! I applaud your efforts...and yours too Kathy #2! For me...it's being outside...finding time every week to garden...even if it's just for a few minutes. It's amazing how much clearer your mind is and how good it is for your soul! So ladies...and gents...keep up the good work....your families will certainly thank you too! I have a favorite quote that I keep on my refrigerator...."Love what you love, and don't be shy about it!"

Good for both of you, kathy's!

But 2much, I hope your 5 big bags can be dropped at Good Will or somewhere...not end up in the garbage dump! You know how we all find something "wonderful" at GW or TS or GS's ... and turn someone's trash into our garden treasure!

I like your 10 min. timeslot, crete...and then turning that time into longer, if possible. Computer time takes a 2 hr. slot easily...and I try not to let that get away from me!

Resting & relaxin' & headin' home tomorrow after 10 days in MN. by a beautiful lake! Jeanne S.

Kathy, and Toomuch, WAY TO GO GIRLS! I had read an article a long time ago about doing a 'task' for only 15 min. Said to set a Timer and know that's when you could stop. Anyone can find 15 min. to do something. Guess it fools the old Brain into STARTING, thinking you can quit so soon. LOL.
Also, once you get started you seldom want to quit that quickly. So you do more because you've given yourself permission NOT to. (do we have weird brains or what!!)

Funny, I also read something just this morning about Happiness.
Its "having something to do, something to love, and something to look forward to". I like that.

hugs, Karen

Thank you for the support!
Karen sometimes I use the timer idea to do the dishes. Dh finally admitted that a dishwasher is a good idea but who knows when that will happen.
Marlene, thank you for the saying. I think I'll put it on my fridge too.
Oh Toomuch, I was thinking of the same thing but I would get rid of stuff I hadn't touched for 10 years, rotfl! Good for you!
By the way, I decided to fill the plastic bird bath with cement including the bowl which makes it a table so I did that yesterday and made some other cement objects including a new mushroom stem idea. When its hardened enough, Im going to put the birdbath table back together and mosaic it.
Today I'm going to start making a dress to wear to a wedding on October 1, if I can find fabric that I like. Going to Joann's at lunch time.
I'm taking yet another spanish class. I think i may do the 10 of studying spanish per day as well.
kp

What a GREAT plan!It ia amazing how much you can get done in 10 minute chunks. That is what I do with my knitting. I've just started it back up to finish a red solid blanket I'm making for us....(But I usually do that just watching TV) PLugging away at it little by little. OK, so here's something crazy for me.....I'm starting Karate on Thursday! Yep, (what am I thinking?). Yes, I'm scared..and yes it's goign to kick my butt. My butt needs kicking anyways). Nathans Sensei Jack teaches an adult class directly after Nathans class Thursday nights. And I think I have one more friend that is goign to do it with me. Regardless if anyone else does I will...at least for one session. I never did sports growing up. Was in marching band for 3 years...and that's my extent....Walking has been my thing the last 4 mos. or so....So, what is 40 minutes a week, eh? I'm gonna be sore....but I'm sure I'll feel great after awhile...maybe...

I've still got to bite off the 10 minutes of time to do this or that too until it gets done....Thanks for the encouragemetn.

Love, Jules

Good for you Jules. I would love to take a self defense or karate course sometime. I'd like to hear how it goes for you.
kathy

I think that's right, Karen .... that your mind is tricked when you set a small goal like the 10 minutes. It reminds me of when I started losing weight finally .... I kept saying/thinking that I needed to lose 50 lbs. Sounds too difficult that way. When I started thinking of it in 10 lb increments, I finally have gotten 40 lbs off. Now I actually want to lose about 40 more. But I'm focusing on the "next 10".

Jeanne, I was also hoping the bags of stuff were going to charity also lol. And am glad to know that you are vacationing in beautiful MN, as I have missed your posts here also.

I need to clean out my closets, drawers, etc, and dread it, so I need to start thinking of it as only 10 minutes. Wish me luck. There's always something more fun to do than organizing closets, but once it's done I'd feel so much better. Great thread, Kathy. ~tenderlee

Tenderlee, CONGRATULATIONS on such a big weight loss! I need to lose 50lbs myself, and its just so overwhelming to think about that I don't. I'm not able to do serious exercising, even walking which I love. I don't have will-power to seriously diet. I tend to tell myself that food is one of the FEW pleasures I have left these days. LOL, bad idea. My metabolism is probably slower than a turtle's now too, which doesn't help. So I admire your determination to get the weight off.

hugs, Karen

Kathy I love your 10 minute idea. I bet it will work for all of us for all different kind of goals. I know that a while back I was on the Fly Lady web. It is a web set up to help you organize and clean your home as well as keep it clean and organized. She said the same thing. Take ten minutes a day to work on cleaning something...an junk drawer, a closet shelf...do just a small portion of a job for ten minutes. Then leave it alone. It really makes a huge difference. I no longer have a junk drawer and my house and studio tend to stay a lot cleaner and more organized.

I bet it will also work for getting more of my art finished. I started on a gnome home tonight for my garden with this kind of idea. The whole project was feeling very overwhelming so I decided to start with just cutting the wood for the framing. Tomorrow after work I will work on putting that part together...I think it will take me most of the winter to finish it and get it completely decorated. But maybe by spring I can put it into the gnome garden I have also started.

Thank you for starting this post. I think it will be an inspirating way of getting things done when we are dreading them or intimidated by them.

~Micki~

OK, so Kathy wanted to know about my Karate..So yeah, I started tonight. My friend showed up as well. YEp, it was kicking me in the butt. Before class started she kept saying , "You know we can just leave and go to Starbucks." It's funny because I'm WAY outta shape and she looks GREAT! Mind you the Sensei is 20 (could be my kid) and all the rest of the "adults" to me still are kids! Learning the moves isn't too difficult...practice practice practice...but those darn stretches and all are killing me. When we switch it up (from one side to another) I get all discombobulated! Coordiantion is the very last thing I'm good at. So, it's challenging me in a very good way! :-) I feel it--but now I don't "feel' sore. I'll see in the morning. thursday or Friday MAY become my Aleve nights. So, we had about 45 minutes total (4 1/2 of the "10 Minutes a Day" resolve, but that is only once a week).
Thanks for listening.
Love, Jules

Hubby and I disussed the 10 min a day project, and he likes the idea. We both going to try it. We want to sell our place and buy something with a flat yard, and a house with no stairs. Problem is that we can't show our home until we do lots of organizing, and painting, etc.

Karen, the weight loss has been a long process really. For about 3 or 4 years, I'd lose 20 lbs, and find 5 or 6 lbs back again. It was this cycle until:

#1 the 2nd grandson was born only a year after the 1st one and since DD was sick, I had to help a lot, including getting up and down a lot at night. (bad way to lose it)
#2 I went for physical therapy for 3 months last winter in a heated pool and worked out for a full hour 3 days a week with a 1-on-1 therapist. By the end of that I'd lost 15 lbs. Your insurance might pay for a few sessions, see if your doctors could arrange it in your town, you'd love it because you can move without pain in the water.
#3 I cut out sweet tea .... something that most people in the South are addicted to, and I ain't kiddin' LOL
#4 I got used to eating a little bit less, like omitting bread at many meals, but still eat all the foods I like when I really want them. Hubby has to make himself a sandwich sometimes now, because I usually just eat one full meal with no seconds, and a snack or two each day. He's a diabetic and can't skip meals like that, but I wait until I'm "starving" sorta, and find I can wait longer and eat less. This way, I never feel like I'm dieting.

So the weight loss has been a combination of things, the thing to stress about the success here, is that I didn't go on a diet that felt restricting. I just started slowly modifying behaviours, kinda like the 10 minutes thing, and after a while it starts falling in place. Took a while also to get my metabolism to actually "change gears" and start burning the calories better, the water therapy really escalated that plus I enjoyed it so much. Oh and the last 20 lbs lost has helped with the arthritis quite a bit.

Took a long time to gain that much, gonna take a long time to lose it. Unless I "crash diet" and I can't do that any more like my younger days.

Now .... If I only watch it carefully through the Christmas Season. I love to bake cookies etc during this time, and will have to be careful. If not, the cookies will be really good, LOL, I didn't just say that, did I? :-) ~tenderlee

Jules
Good for you and thanks for reporting. I know what you mean about discombobulated. Thats why I stopped taking dance and never do aerobics.
Still it sounds good!
kathy