With life so busy I’ve been resorting to self-defeating lists. My Burkholder side LOVES lists and the Hatton side loves buying Christmas reindeer slippers. It’s a conundrum. Chris’ lists are all in his head and sometimes they overwhelm him. He likes to talk about the things putting pressure on us while I like to make a list of them, thinking that by itemizing them, it will somehow diminish their stress-inducing abilities.
I’m just looking around the table and I have two lists on the go and I know my daytimer has one in it too. (O.K. the daytimer may be the crux of the problem.) The compulsion to find a fresh sheet of paper and consolidate my lists is almost overwhelming.
But it’s really not about the details on the list. I have to remember what the priorities are and let the rest fall where they may.
I can’t help myself though. Here’s a list of my priorities.
- The kids’ education and our family’s health, mental and otherwise. This includes eating better (always at the top of the list), completely healing from my summer injuries, choosing a physical challenge to aim for in the next year (for all of us) and keeping the kids interested in life (and calling it school and education, as it should be).
- Juggling paid employment to accomplish #1.
- Contemplating paid employment and how it looks to us in the future. (This is where our work with Javan Bernakevitch is helping).
- Clearing the #*$*&* permit. We are so close!
- Getting the permaculture design in place and implementing it, including the greywater planters in the earthship. And, enjoying the process! Again, a nod to Javan!
- Making my way leisurely through a bottle of rum this holiday season. Friends may help!
- Once permit cleared, make list of priorities for finishing jobs on the inside of the earthship.
- Finish at least one bathroom.
- Final plaster of all inside walls. Colour!
- Make cob benches for living room and get rid of old couches
- all the rest of the jobs.
- 8. Finish building gasifier (o.k. this is Chris’ and he may put this up higher or lower, but I just remembered how many times this appears on my lists and it’s time to check it off!) Plus, he likes this stuff and I like him to like stuff, so it gets to appear on my list!
- 9. Hug my dad. I haven’t done that in a while. Maybe I can combine #5 with that.
- 10. Get a dog. We miss Josie but it may be time to get another friend.
- 11. Finish the re-design of the website. I forgot about this, but it is important to me (really!)…so it stays here.
- 12. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Lists are the small stuff. No more lists! Yeah, right!
- 13. Learn how to count!!!
- Do lists dominate your life?
I need to make lists otherwise I may not get stuff done. We live 10 miles from town. We when we make a run we like to get everything done. Making a list helps to make sure I don’t forget. Those that make lists also think ahead. We have been doing that a lot lately with building our own EarthShip. We have to think ahead of the build so we don’t forget something as well. Like, we put in 2 inch PVC pipe in between the 2nd and 3rd row of tires. One is for water from cisterns and the other is for solar wiring from the solar panels. We just thought of putting another PVC pip in for the vent fan for the batteries. This will have to go on top of the third row of tires since we just thought of it. This way we can vent the batteries outside without going through the roof. One less hole in our roof is always a plus.
Hi VineOf the two I hae direct knewlodge, the Councils (2 different Councils) approved the development. We both approached the Councils in advance and included them in the planning and development. In this way they had no surprises in the final application and they went through smoothly. Admittedly both these are in rural or semi rural areas.