The Muddle is Normal

I have a loyalty card for the grocery store where I usually shop for healthy stuff like broccoli, and other things such as shampoo, exercise pants (which rarely see the light of day), and new small appliances that  I don't buy because my counter space is already full—of other small appliances. I can redeem my accumulated points for any of these delights and more: make-up, snow shovels, baby clothes, bacon, taco chips, and live lobsters.

I also have a loyalty card for a drugstore chain that gives me points, like the other card does, that I can redeem for cool stuff like more lipsticks than a mega-church ladies group needs, magazines, or canned soups. This store has some of the same stuff as the grocery store, minus the lobsters (thank goodness).

Recently, these two stores amalgamated their loyalty programs, which required visits to both stores, a new card to replace the previous two, and registering online so I can be informed of all the deals. My previous sign-in information didn't work, so new password, new login, a lot of frowning and resetting...you know the drill.

In the meantime, I visited the drugstore and forgot new my card at home on my desk, while it was waiting to be registered. Now I have to go back and see if what I spent yesterday can now be counted as points. I'm so close to getting something fabulous with my amalgamated points.

Life is full of little details like this and as a creative person running a business, the details seem endless. Not only are there lists of must-do tasks every day, but the lists of would-love-to do projects looms large. New ideas are all so enticing that no matter what I'm currently working on, when a new concept pops into view, I want to add it to my stack of projects. Believe me, it takes serious discipline to make those ideas wait until I finish something.

Which brings me to this:

The Letter Box is taking on a new life. For most of last year, as you'll recall, I published a twice monthly illustrated letter written for my sweet subscribers. I loved creating it and illustrating with my watercolours, but as time went on, it became clear that the year was a difficult one on many fronts. I couldn't keep it and a host of other business and personal responsibilities all up at the same time. I had to drop it before I collapsed myself.

However, joy of joys, the story doesn't end there. I am so excited to let you know that I will soon be coming out with an entire book with all the letters, plus a couple of new ones that no one has ever seen before!

The book will be in full colour and in a large format so it is easy to read and the images are nice a clear. I have everything almost ready but then...

My forward progress was interrupted when my husband booked a week off work with the intention that we go away for a few days break. Lovely, I thought. But only days before our departure, our daughter and her two wee ones took sick, too sick for her to recover while nursing a baby and caring for a sick three-year-old.

So being the good parents we are, we scooped them all up and brought them to our little house for the week. As an aside, I also caught the cough bug, but not nearly to the degree that my kids got it. To top off the week, my computer coughed up its graphics card and went into a coma.

Life can get so muddled.

It was great fun having my two little g-babies here for the week. After all, who could resist a face like this?

Getting back to my original thought, don't you find that life is often a muddled mess? Things don't always go as planned, no matter how tight the plan. Our vacation getaway got postponed for another time; our house became a jumble of scattered toys, spit-up cloths, and bouncing children.

By the weekend, my daughter and her children went home, much improved. My computer issues are in the process of being resolved, mainly because I'm muddling through figuring out more new things. It is important to remember that the muddle is normal. Sometimes, things go swimmingly. Sometimes they don't, and no matter how much we fret and fuss, it won't help.

The only way to handle it is to, as my late father-in-law used to say, "Bash on, regardless."

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