Thankful & Things

Hi Everyone, the last few days I have been thinking about things. Things I am thankful for, things I need to do, things I should do, things I have to do …you get it, right?

I get asked a lot.. do you ever sleep?> I think, I get asked that because I seem to accomplish a lot of things. Do you know what I see when I look at my to-do list? all of thing things I didn’t get done. I know we all have our priorities.

So let’s talk sleep. Yes, I do sleep. Do I sleep like everyone else? probably not. I don’t sleep enough hours and I get very little uninterrupted sleep. I am not a light sleeper…once I am asleep I don’t hear every little thing except crying babies and puppies. In fact I think a bomb could go off and I would sleep through it. However, I suffer from night terrors. So I have learned how to shut my mind off but once I fall asleep staying asleep is an issue for me. I still walk and talk in my sleep. I still suffer from night terrors. It takes awhile for me to calm myself down and get back to bed. So often times I just get up in the middle of the night and work on something that will distract me and take my mind off of the terror. This is something I have delt with this my whole life. I have prayed and asked God to take it from me. But I think it’s the “thorn in my side” …the thing I have to accept and live with. Paul refers to that in his life as well. So yes I do sleep. As much as I can but I have also accepted I am not like everyone else. I do know how important it is as a few years back I had an episode that made that very clear. I now will take an aid if needed if I get to long without good sleep. I take that very rarely, a couple times a year maybe….simply because I don’t like taking meds. I would rather use any other strategy and use medications as a last resort.

So another thing that I think is maybe a little different that how other people might do things when it comes to my work and quilting? Is probably that I don’t “enjoy” the process in the ways which other people do. I don’t mean that I don’t like quilting, I do. But as a mom of 6 kids everything in my mind is an assembly line. In order to accomplish anything when I had kids at home is that there was an assembly line for me. I do/did this with cooking, bathing, cleaning, serving ect. If I needed to dish up dinner there were 6 plates lined up and I went in a row serving everything. I never dished up one plate at a time. When it was bath time there was a definite system put into place and we conquered it to make sure all of the ears were wiped and nails cleaned. When kids were loaded into the car Rob would say “Count Off” and they each had an assigned number and they would count off so we would know if everyone made it into the car…of course that happened after a few times of us driving away with out someone. Nobody was hurt or injured…Thank God. But it scared us so much we started the “Count OFF.” So I see everything as a task. I make list and I work at getting them done. It’s how I do everything.

When I sew there is a definite assembly line. I don’t ever just cut out one block at a time and take my time “enjoying the process.” There is a purpose and a plan and everything is going to get done. I think, I get more enjoyment from the sense of accomplishment than I do of the cutting, the sewing, the ripping…lol ect. Not to say that I don’t like doing any of those things…I really do ( except the ripping out part!). it’s relaxing, it’s a distraction ect….but it’s just a part of the “process” if you will. Now one area that I do enjoy the process is my hand embroidery. There is no way to turn that into an assembly line. As I work on that it’s enjoyment. I have to take it slow. I have to think about each color, or movement and stitch. So I think that is why I enjoy that so much at night when I am trying to wind down and relax. I get to see those elements brought to life with each stich. Kind of like my longarm quilting. It’s a completely different way of looking at things.

So I do accomplish a lot as far as how many quilts I make and how much work I get done but it’s all because I think differently than the average quilter, maybe? Also I get a lot accomplished because I treat my job as a full time job. I work from home and I work more hours than if I worked for another company. I take my job seriously and I make sure that I get my work done. If I slack in the morning and get a late start, I know I will be working late. If I am having a difficult time focusing, I will make myself work until I get it done. It is that simple. I am my own boss and I can’t fire myself….so I just get the job done. I have to rely on myself to pay the bills so I do it. The other thing is that I don’t really have much of a life. Quilting is my life. Most of my kids are living out of town. I still have one at home and I am her chauffer ect. I have my husband who works long hours for 7 months out of the year. I have my dogs. I have some set weekly plans with my friends. But most of my life is my work. I don’t think I am unlike most people in that way…..it’s just that my work also happens to be something that I love so it takes up more time than the average person gives to their work. So I am constantly having to leave something that I love to immerse myself in to join the real world…..and sometimes I don’t want to do that willingly. my work and hobby is safe and natural and easy. The real world isn’t. So why leave? lol

Now don’t ask me about housework because I suck. enough said. LOL

So that is how & why I probably get more accomplished that the average bear. It’s a combination of things. I think it’s amazing when I look back at my life at how one thing leads to another and bleeds into other parts of your life. If I had not been a mom of 6 would I be this way? Who knows? But it did certainly help shape who I am today in all sorts of ways, obviously.

I wanted to share a picture while I was posting. This is Holiday Homecoming. It’s an embroidery pattern featuring several of our favorite things, trees, a VW bug, a dog and presents. haha! The pattern is listed inmy ETSY shop.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!