Should or Not to Should
The Things You Do
Are you doing what you should be doing, or are you doing the things that you are called to do?
I was never cut out to keep my house clean, but I occasionally institute a Three-Thing Rule. I don’t do this every day, just when I am moved to do it. Usually, a cat sits on a pile of something, usually, papers or books, and the pile goes all over the floor. Sometimes three things picked up and put away is not enough to clean that mess up, so the Three-Thing Rule might stretch to 15 things.
There is no Saturday morning cleaning for us. It’s just when either of us, my husband or I are moved to do something about it. So, cleaning is apparently never on my should do list of things to do. It also helps that I don’t notice dirt anymore. Unless the sun is shining on it. Also, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, sort of like my selective hearing.
My mother kept a spotless house. We helped out by doing our part with whatever she needed help with. I can remember cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, and scouring the oven on a regular basis. She had enough on her plate, and I seem to remember helping her whenever I could. However, when I got married, I also figured that was how I should keep our house.
The problem is that my husband did not see life that way. I remember you could always find out where Dennis was when he got home from work by following the trail of clothes. First, you’d see the shoes. Then came the socks, and, of course, they were balled up. Then you’d see his shirt and his pants until finally, you’d see Dennis resplendent in his comfy at-home clothes. Do you think the man could pick up after himself? No. So, I did it, and each time got more frustrated and angry because my house was not the house my mother kept.
Do you know how I solved that? I became a slob, too. Forty-six years later, I’m a good slob. It saved our marriage. It was a lesson to the earlier me that things just did not have to be a certain way and that it was okay to adjust and move with the flow.
During the course of the day, I will read a few articles on Medium. We are all pretty good with our writing, and I find it interesting to hear what everybody has to say. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of us. You just can’t read everything. I allow my psychic fingers to do the walking and come upon the stories I am going to read in that way. It’s what sticks to my fingers is the method. I will also pick at least a few of the writers I am subscribed to with the stories they write that arrive in my email inbox.
I will, though, schedule the activities that need my best focus early in the day, like writing. Now that I am writing on my books, I tend to go to them first. I have also had the experience of writing an article for Medium that supports whatever is going on in my book. In that case, the article came first and the book afterward.
My energy levels tend to start dipping later in the afternoon. Some days, I like to take a two-hour nap. Sometimes, that two-hour nap ends up being longer, and that night, I might go to bed later than I normally do.
It is all easier to do because I am retired and am not required to be anywhere at specific times. Life flows easily.
I can save doing the laundry or washing my hair for the afternoon in order to do my writing earlier. For the last year or so, I’ve been washing our clothes in the kitchen sink and line-drying them on a portable, collapsible drying rack. I hang stuff like my husband’s shirts in the bathroom. Granted, it takes longer to dry that way, but I also can’t make it up and down our steps easily, much less with a basket of clothes.
My husband does our shopping, and sometimes I order from Amazon Fresh. I haven’t been out to do grocery shopping in a couple of years. Maybe longer.
So, there aren’t that many should things I do anymore. There are more of the What do I feel like doing now activities. I always keep in mind what my energy level is.
It also appears that I’m eating two meals a day now. When I get writing early in the morning, it might be 1 pm before I look up and realize that I have not had breakfast. I’ve done it often enough that it doesn’t bother me. I am also not losing any weight, but I think I heard somewhere that as you age, you also don’t need the calories you need as a younger person.
I am also somebody who used to cram for tests and wait until the last minute to write papers. It was hard then. It is easier now.
For instance, I’ve got a should thing I need to do coming up in the next week or so. That is to take care of our household finances in Quickbooks. It shouldn’t be all that hard. We didn’t earn a lot of money, which is why I am writing my books now.