Over Time

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By:  Staci Stallings

I don’t know about you, but things that take time drive me crazy.  Especially things that take a really long time and don’t ever actually end.

One of the big reasons I started writing was because everything else in my life at the time fit that description:  It took a really long time and was never really finished.

There was my daughter, who was 1 at the time.  Kids.  They are never really finished.  Even when they leave home, sometimes they come back.  And you always are in the midst of something with them.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  It just isn’t something that you ever technically “finish.”

Then there was the housework.  Do I really have to tell you that no matter how much laundry you get done, wait two days and you’ve got more.

And don’t even get me started on cooking.  I know there are some people who love to cook.  I would like to hire one.  Seriously.  Me and cooking do not get along.  In fact, I’m probably the only person on the planet who buys cookbooks to read.  Again.  Seriously.  I love to look at the pictures and dream of cooking things that actually turned out to look like that.  Things that tasted like they look in the pictures.  Things that when my kids or my husband sat down to eat, they didn’t go, “Oh.  Can I have cereal tonight?”  Things that when supper is done, I don’t have to eat the leftovers for four days because other people actually ate some of it.

Even more, the hours I spend in the kitchen trying to make that “perfect meal” when I could have been doing something I actually enjoyed.  Oh, I see people who like to cook and who are really good at cooking.  I’m not one of them.

So, when I first started writing, I latched on because this, at last, was something I could do where there was a finish line.  Typing “The End” was a great feeling.  Finally, SOMETHING in my life was getting finished.

Unfortunately, I’m back into two “over time” projects.  Those that take a lot of time and are never really done.

One is the reading thing with my son.  Truthfully, he has done amazing over the last five weeks.  However, today I realized two things.  One, how very far we have to go, and two, how much reviewing we’re going to have to do to keep the progress that we’ve made.

Doing reading every day is a struggle for him, and for me… and I LIKE to read.

The second “over time” project I have right now is exercising.  I know.  Like eating, this should be a daily occurrence, and there are times in my life like right now when it is.  The problem is, something always comes along to thwart my progress.  I might work and work and even see some differences and then something happens.  I hurt something or just get really busy with other things.  And all that work goes, “Pflt.”

One area that I’m glad I’ve put in the “over time” is in my relationship with God.  That hasn’t been a straight shot.  Not even close.  But I really like where I am now in this area as opposed to where I was five years ago.  I’ve made real, measurable progress.  Okay.  GOD has made real, measurable progress with me.

I know my two “over time” projects will be the same if I can just stick to them.

But cooking, not so much…