On Saturday morning, I had the hardest time getting out of bed. It was 5:45. Maren was up (so were Isaac and Annie-- what is it with my kids?). Eddie was awake and willing to take her. But I did not want to get out of bed and run. I had fifteen miles on the schedule (my longest run so far) and I wasn't looking forward to it. At all. But somehow, somewhere, I summoned up the energy to put on my clothes and shoes (I had already frozen a water bottle and filled my amphipod the night before, which helped) and got out the door.
And you know what? It wasn't so bad. In fact, it felt great.
So as I was running, I was thinking about all of the tasks that I think I hate, but once I get started, I really don't hate that much after all. Here's what I came up with:
-picking up. I love how a neat house looks, and if I can just summon up the energy to tackle the big basket at the bottom of the stairs, it takes about two minutes to unload when I get it upstairs.
-doing dishes. The water feels good. I turn on some favorite tunes. I restore order to chaos. Love it.
-vacuuming, washing the floor, sweeping. For me, it's all about just getting the paraphernalia out. Once the cleaning supplies are out, I'm all over it, but for some reason, it seems to take a lot of energy to walk to the closet, open the door, pull out the vacuum and plug it in. But the results are so worth it.
-drying my hair. Once again, I think it's because I have to pull out an appliance. But I really like the chance to steal ten minutes to read under the hair dryer. And I look cuter.
-writing in Maren's calendar. I've kept a calendar for each of my kids for the first year of their lives. In theory, I write in it every day. In practice, I write in it every month or two and furiously try to wrack my brain thinking about the milestones she's reached and the things she's done during that time. But it honestly only takes 10 seconds to write in it for the day.
-reading the scriptures. Enough said.
Once I get over my inborn inertia (a body at rest tends to stay at rest, right?), I actually like doing a lot of the things I think I hate.
But folding laundry, ironing clothes and making dinner don't really improve once I get over that first step of getting off my butt. I still hate those.
What do you like to do once you get over your inertia? What do you still hate?
7 comments:
Exercise is definitely on that list... laundry as well. Scrubbing the shower/bathtub doesn't seem to improve for me.
I love your list! I'll copy that. Although I do love ironing. Usually takes me 2 weeks to get to it each time, but only because I won't do it until I can carve out a chunk of time to watch a "me" show and iron away.
And I'll ditto Lei on the shower/tub thing...ugh. Hate those jobs all the way to the end.
I totally get that. Once I get up and get going it really doesn't take that long to tackle a large chunk of 'stuff'. But it's the getting started that seems to kill me.
Making phone calls is one I put off. Takes me forever to 'do it' and once I do it's not that bad.
Yes! I love when I read blogs that complete thoughts that I didn't know I had. Totally inertia! I actually don't mind half of the stuff I feel like I hate, but it's the starting (and all of the interruptions) that have me feeling like I don't like them.
I love cleaning bathrooms. But I've completely given up ironing. I'm really hoping when the gravy train comes, I can justify taking everything to the cleaners...just so our clothes look good for once!
I hate ironing and it never gets better. Cleaning my house is fine once I get started. I've also developed the tendency to put off making lesson plans fo rmy class, but I usually enjoy doing it once I get started.
I thought of a few more this morning:
*putting away laundry (not bad once the laundry baskets are upstairs, but they're bound to stay downstairs for a day or two until I can manage to pull them up)
*cutting up fresh fruit. I'd be much more likely to just cut myself a piece of brownie.
*flossing
and #1 (I'm doing it right now): showering after a run. I can put this one off all day! I need to wait long enough that I'm not sweating buckets anymore, but not so long that I've already started work on a bunch of different things. I think I'll go put away some laundry and then I should be cool enough to shower.
I detest laundry. I like clean clothes, but I detest doing it. My kids and husband have to put their own clothes away. They also have to sort their clothes into the sorter. And the only thing I iron is the current sewing project I'm working on, and only when I know that in the long run it will make things easier for me. As soon as my kids hit middle school, they get to help do the laundry :). I'm so excited.
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