Finish

I am not a finisher.

My mother is smiling and shaking her head right now. You know this is true mama! See, my mom is a finisher. I am a starter! Simon is a finisher. I am a starter. Are you getting a handle on it?

I wasn't always aware that I struggled with finishing. I'm not talking about a race, although that mile and a half I had to do in high school was torture! I'm talking about regular stuff around my house. I'm not finished with whole entire project--I get done what needs to get done. I do finish some things, but. . . .

Let me give you an example and I'll use my mother once again. (Thanks mom!) It was the first time I discovered that I was not a finisher. After my brother Kevin got married to the fabulous Gretchen, they went off on a honeymoon and I traveled back to Michigan to stay with my folks for awhile. Mom said that since K & G were now married and would be coming to the house every once in awhile (they lived in Chicago), they should probably have a room to stay in. I jumped all over that. I was painting before Mom could put away her mother-of-the-groom dress and we were all over it. The painting got done, sheets, curtains. . .blah blah blah. The room looked great to me. Beautiful. Clean. Nice. A far cry from the bunk beds and blue paint that had been in there before. I was done. See ya later. Mom left the bedroom and came back with a rag, bucket, and warm pine-sol water. "I need to wash the baseboards. Then the room will be finished." I never noticed the baseboards. Not at all. I still don't notice baseboards unless company is coming over and then I hope that they don't get on the floor. I realized then that I don't finish. I don't wipe down the counters. I don't do the hand-wash dishes every day. I don't put everything where it belongs (often because I don't know where it goes--there are just some things that don't have a good home in my house!) I fold the laundry (sometimes the same day) and find one of the kids' shirts in my laundry and then I set it somewhere rather that BRING IT AWAY AND BE FINISHED!

So, I need to work on being a better finisher. Finish. It is a word that I'll try and repeat to myself. I've been doing better. I finished cleaning the kitchen after supper last night: all the dishes and even wiping everything down. I want to finish losing my weight. I want to finish my scrapbooks. I want to finish the basket project in my room. I have an un-finished craft that I began last spring. It'll be cute I promise.