Photos:

Top left – My latest photography job.

Top right – Taken on an excursion to the beautiful University of Georgia campus.

Bottom left – My budding gardener (pun intended).

Bottom right – A typewriter similar to what Margaret Mitchell would have used while writing a weekly column at the Atlanta Journal.  Since I’m reading Gone with the Wind, and this year is the book’s 75th anniversary, I visited the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta for their celebration event.  And it was a topic of one of my weekly columns, but unfortunately, they did not post it online, so I can’t share it with you.

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Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I think about all the personal goals that I have for myself:

~ Create a loving home. A house full of laughter and love, though not often clean or organized. Love is abundant, and at least there’s more laughter than otherwise.  Healthy meals? Well, my standards have sunk on that one, but we try. A garden that gives us pleasure. Yes, we get pleasure from gardening, even if it’s got weeds too.  Our yard is a work in progress.  Just like the house.  Just like our lives.  

~ Homeschool my children.  Teach them their letters and numbers.  Teach them to read.  Teach them how to be happy, healthy citizens in this crazy world.  Find more people to hang out with.  Take them places.  Play at home.  Yes, just go play.

~ Continue to work on my newspaper column.  Contribute to my family’s livelihood. Write ahead of myself.  Think of more topics.  Slow down and chose my words carefully.

~ Promote a part-time photography business.  Contribute to my family’s livelihood.  Market. Focus. Market. Photograph more.  Oh, the endless projects I have in mind. Photograph for pleasure.  Photograph for money.  Photograph because I love the tiny details and the light.  Oh, the light.  I am in love with my husband, my children and Light.

Those are just the main goals.  There’s always other, little goals popping up too.  Finish reading Gone with the Wind. Wipe the yogurt off his fingers and then take the milk cup back to the refrigerator.  Bathroom, shoes, then go outside.  Check e-mail to see if play date is happening tomorrow.  Read that book about the history of photography.  Work on a blog post.  Learn more about flash sync.  Do the laundry.  Fold the laundry.  Mop the kitchen floor.  Write those interview questions.  Look for new pants at Target.  Work on the Wildlife Habitat Project with four-year-old.  WHAT are we getting Daddy for Father’s Day?!

If I think about it all at once, I start to lose my cool.  Sometimes I do lose my cool.  Sometimes I get cranky with the kids.  Other times I ignore all the goals and live in the moment, and that’s what I try to do.  I think I’m pretty good at it.  Well, maybe not.  It depends on the day.

All I can do is work on one step at a time.  I may not have an organized house, but I have an organized “to do” list.  I use the desktop application “To Do Queue.” It allows me to keep a separate list for all my crazy goals.  And I just do what I can, when I can. Obviously, some things have more priority, like daily life and my newspaper column.  Those things just gotta get done.  Then I work on other stuff.  I have finally let the outcome go.  I don’t know if I can achieve all my goals, but if there’s one thing my children have taught me it’s that none of that is important.

What’s important is just learning A and then B and then C.  Keep learning.  Keep doing.  Keep going.  In that, I am happy.