Procrastination!

                       What's left of my homemade spaghetti sauce, apple butter and dehydrated eggplant.

                                      My homemade stevia powder               

Mother walks into my badly disheveled house, with her friend from Texas, and as she enters the kitchen, she questions, "Good Lord, Dawne Marie, what on earth are you doing?" "Hi Mama," I responded, as I pulled the last quart jar of newly canned spaghetti sauce out of the canner. "I'm canning spaghetti sauce, 11 quarts to be exact, with enough leftover for supper tonight, plus I canned apple butter yesterday, straight from our tree out front. I just couldn't let all these tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, eggplant, apples and dehydrated stevia plants go to waste before we move and I certainly wasn't going to lug them all with me to Kansas City in a freezer or ice chest, so I decided to can them," I said smiling. "You are crazy, Dawne, you're moving in two days," Mama responded, "you should be packing," as she glanced around at all I had yet to put into boxes, and piles of stuff everywhere.

She was right, I was moving in two days, and my house was upside down, so much so that I just wanted to sit down and cry, but I had done that repeatedly within the previous 2 weeks. Afterall, what woman enjoys having her nest completely torn up, especially one who is an artist and avid reader, and has literally dozens of bins of art supplies in every form that she just can't part with AND ONLY 42 boxes of books. :) But, how could I just let all this produce from my garden go to waste. So, as Julia Roberts said on "Pretty Woman," "No, I'm not a planner, I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-kind-of-gal." Yep, that's me. Well, one side of me. I do love to plan, and plan I do, but having inherited the fine quality of procrastination from my beloved father, my plans usually take form in the last minute. I'm finding out something about myself, which is, I always work best under pressure. Don't get me wrong, I am very much organized in several areas, where I don't like things messed up or out of place, but when it comes to getting a "planned" task done, it usually involves scurrying around, last minutes and late nights. haha Somehow, I'm just never quit as proud of accomplishing something that has been planned weeks or months in advanced. I make my husband a nervous wreck with this quality I have, but he admits, he's never been disappointed. For example: When I set out to paint a huge mural on a wall, I never do a "real" drawing of it first, but just a quick sketch, half finished. Then I approach the wall with reckless abandon, he would say. But I say, why draw it twice when it is already in my head. What a waste of time. One time I planned to create a "fake" waterfall, about 18 feet high, cascading down through "fake" boulders, on the stage of our church for our annual "campmeeting." Paul asked me," so where is your sketch, what is your plan?" "Aw, don't worry, it'll all come together," I replied. I remember as I was building the waterfall, a friend of mine, Della, walked up one day, mid way through the project, knowing what I was creating, and said, "I just don't see it yet, but I trust you." "What?  You can't see it?" I laughed. But when she returned a few hours later, all she could say was, "wow!"

So, here I am AGAIN, in the midst of a moving mess. If God would have told me I would have been moving two times in one year, I would have said, "Bury me now!" I now understand why He doesn't let us see the whole picture all at once. argh!

So, as I'm packing up my "cupboard" of canned goods(does anyone still can these days besides me?) I grabbed my homemade spaghetti sauce and was instantly taken back to that day, almost a year ago, when I was hurrying around to pack and can at the same time. This time, though, I am not canning, but I am having a garage sale, and I have to admit that chopping vegetables, peeling tomatoes, sterilizing jars, and cooking sauce all day long, is still easier than having a garage sale any day in my book.

So, as I prepare to sell furniture and things I do not want to sell, I have no time to sit down and cry. I just keep saying to myself, "His grace is sufficient for me, His grace is sufficient for me." There, I feel better already! Ok, I'm off to make my garage sale signs and do more packing.