Desire vs. Reality......

I discovered (long ago) that wanting something does not equal having something. Wanting your children to get along will not make it so. Wanting a job will not get you hired. Wanting to be good at something will not mean that you will be good at something.

For instance, I want very much to be 'crafty'. I want to cross-stitch and quilt and sew. I want people to come into my cozy home and exclaim "Oh, did you make that?!" and be able to glance humbly at the wall-hanging, or quilt, or tapestry and say "Oh, that? It was nothing."

I want to be an amazing photographer. Oh, I've taken some good pictures in my lifetime, but I want to take the kind that people will pay hundreds of dollars for and be amazed at how I captured the light or the mood or the expression on a child's face.

I want to scrapbook. I want each of my children to have an amazing book (or several) to look at and remember all the fun times they had growing up. The vacations, the school plays, the Christmas mornings. It's not going to happen.

I also want very much to be able to play a musical instrument. I'm thinking maybe the piano....or the guitar....or maybe the drums. (Rock Band on the Wii is giving me a false sense of hope for my budding musical aspirations.)

Unfortunately, simply wanting these things will not make them happen. Procrastination is my constant companion. I am forever considering projects, dreaming of projects, even starting projects....but they never get finished.

I give you exhibit A: I started this project when I was a Beehive in MIA. MIA stood for Mutual Improvement Association. It was the youth group at my church consisting of the boys and girls between 12 an 18. The Beehives were the 12-13 year old girls. (This organization still exists today, but it's simply called 'Mutual' now) This means that I started this project sometime around 1970. I take it out every once in a while, and think how nice it will look when it's framed and hanging in a place of honor in my home.....then I pack it back up again for another 5-10 years. But I never give up hope. I still believe that 'someday' I will finish it.

Exhibit B:

Here is my quilt project. I bought this 'quilt-block-of-the-month' kit back in 1997. I was convinced that I would find time to do just one block a month! I actually started the first block, but the pieces didn't line up the way I wanted them to (ie: perfectly) so I packed it up again. It's also on the 'someday' list.

As far as the scrapbooking goes, well, let's just say it's on the back burner. When Mary was about 5 (she just turned 21) she came to me asking where she was in the scant photo albums that I had patched together. I told her that she wasn't in there because those pictures were taken before she was born. (At the time I had 6 children under 10, I barely had time to shower in those days!) She gave me her most horrified expression and replied: "You took pictures before I was born!!" I ended up buying her a 4 X 6 photo album at the dollar store, handing her a shoebox full of pictures and telling her to make her own photo book. (a testament to the fabulous mother that I am!) She did make her own, and still has it today and continues to add pictures. Maybe I should just get her the rest of the supplies and put her to work!!

I could go on and on, but it seems that blogs are about the only things that I have learned how to finish!