Priorities

     What are your priorities?  This is a question I ask myself not only on a daily basis but also sometimes every minute of the day.  This time of the year is especially difficult for me to get my priorities straight.  As I walk around Voyageur  both my workplace and home, I am continually distracted by everything that needs to be done. 

     I have written about setting out to find something or to do something only to find myself forgetting all about what I was suppose to be doing and doing something else in the meantime.  What’s your priority? This morning has been one of those days from the beginning.  It began with a simple question from the kids, "Are we going to tennis today?" 

     Yes or no would be a logical answer for most people but not for me.  "We’ll see." was my response today. Thank goodness my children are somewhat flexible, I should say very flexible.  It’s not unusual for them to get a phone call while in school telling them to come home on the bus because a meeting was cancelled and we don’t want to drive all of the way to town just to pick them up after practice.  Today as I pondered the question I thought about a meeting I have at 4:30pm.  My mind whirled, "If I don’t go in then I can get this done and that done. If I do go in then I need to do this and that. But I really need to stay home to finish x."  And on it went with no answer to the priority question.

     I was going to sit down to write my blog much earlier today but then I remembered I had wanted to get the blankets and linens from Riverside Cabin. I had planned to wash them yesterday and never got around to it. So I went downstairs to tell Mike something and was distracted by the laundry left in my dryer from the day before and knew I would need it out before I could do Riverside laundry so I started to fold it.  When I was done I noticed some cleaning supplies I had wanted to bring up to outfitting yesterday or the day before, or maybe even the day before that, but hadn’t gotten around to it.  So, I started getting the cleaning supplies together to bring up to outfitting.  On my way Sheri asked where we should put the plants and flowers I had purchased.  As I walked around with her I remembered I had wanted to make a planter on the backside of the lodge so I grabbed a shovel and started digging.  Remembering some potting soil underneath the deck I went to see how much was there and on my way I passed Elsa with her laundry which reminded me I was on my way to Riverside to get the laundry.  Needless to say I was wandering aimlessly with no priority in mind.

     Then I thought… What is the most urgent thing at this moment?  Oh yeah, my blog.  I still don’t have my blog done. But as I write this blog I think about the shovel I left out, the laundry that isn’t done, the clothes in the store that need to be put away, the cleaning supplies and the flowers that need to be put into the ground along with 10,000 other tasks that need to be done.  I remember an invitation to a field trip tomorrow for Josh’s class and I wonder how on earth I could spend an entire day in town on a field trip when there are so many things to do here.  Then I ask, what is the priority?

     The answer to that question is easy.  My kids are my main priority.  Sorry if you are my guest and that makes you feel badly but my children come first.  So, keep that in mind when you visit this summer and my house is a mess, the flowers aren’t planted and there’s a shovel leaning against the lodge.  I have to keep reminding myself what my priority is because sometimes it’s easy to forget.

     Ooops, almost did it again. I just had a wood tick on me and Rugby is sitting next to me so I started checking him for more wood ticks and almost got up to give him a bath before I realized I hadn’t finished my blog.  Here I go again.  What’s my priority?