Baby steps

I used to run through our little house doing 12 things at a time, feeling very powerful and accomplished. But I think when there's so much more to do I tell myself, "take it easy, you're not going to get it all done today." So I walk slowly through this house and take deep breaths and just do a little at a time between all the normal mothering jobs. Should I devote Lola's nap time and the girls' movie time to scraping wall paper or fixing dinner (or blogging. haha)? Nathan's got more work to do than I do. We finally wrote on paper last night, the enormous list that has been floating in our heads the past week. The list grows. We were standing in the kitchen discussing what should come first.
1. Prep walls for paint (it's plaster, with many cracks and nail holes, and some wall paper to scrape).
2. Put lights in the kitchen so we can take the fan out of the kitchen and put it in the living room, which has no fixture at all (that's how they rolled in the 50's).
3. Paint all rooms in the house.
4. Put up 4 other light fixtures.
5. Gut and completely redo master bath and half bath. I don't even go into the half bath. I pretend it doesn't exist. It's pretty bad.
Oh, but this house has such potential. As we were discussing this potential in the kitchen I looked up and saw a crack separating the kitchen cabinet from the ceiling and asked Nathan if he could caulk it. He said sure, then looked inside the cabinet and saw that it was being held up by 2 nails. He did a little pushing up on the cabinet and found that it was a little wiggly. I took all the heavy dishes out of it. *sigh* Nathan doesn't like it when I sigh, but sometimes I just have to when I realize I've nearly stopped breathing and my shoulders are up to my earlobes. I've got to make myself relax.
But we are really happy here, though stressed sometimes. I just need to decide to enjoy the process. We need to have a house warming party. It will have to be before everything is perfect, because it could be a while before we're there.
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I have to edit this post just to say, I'm so thankful for Nathan who is hard working, handy, thorough, and Mr. Maintenance. He won't let me paint the walls until they're perectly smooth and he'll make them that way. He'll fix the falling cabinet and make the house well lit, and fix doors that don't close well. He's pretty great.