TRAFfic August 28, 2008

Some day I would like to know why I can’t seem to control papers.  I get into a groove that seems to work, and then it falls apart.  You would think with all of the office supplies and organizing gadgets I’ve purchased over the years that I could keep clutter to a minimum, but it never seems to be the case.

I’ve been blessed to have very nice furniture made for my office.  When I started working for our church, a member who builds houses and does woodwork built it for me.  So when he asked about what I wanted, I specifically limited the amount of surface area.  I have a tiny computer desk (almost too tiny, but that’s ok) built in between two bookcases.  Then I have a writing desk, and that’s it.  Yet even with that, the shelves on my bookcases, the tops of the filing cabinets across the room, and my writing desk get covered with papers.  I just know that more surface area will only mean more clutter, since the amount of paper multiplies exponentially to cover the amount of surface available.

I was doing well for a while, after a professor introduced the TRAF technique.  Basically, you take five minutes at the end of the day to TRAF:  Trash, Refer, Action, File.  When I stuck to this basic idea, it seemed to work ok.  I still need some sort of vertical paper storage near my desk, since the filing cabinets are across the room, which I should probably just get a small file holder.  This is just for items that need action, the stuff that tends to pile up on my desk and get mixed in with things that need to be filed or trashed or referred to someone else.

Of course, having the action file will only work if I use it.  That’s always been my problem.

Snakes August 22, 2008

I have an intense fear of all things creepy-crawly.  I can sort-of handle flies and ants, but only if they stay away from me.  I don’t mind it if a spider stays motionless on his web.  But pretty much if the thing is moving or disgusting, I don’t want to see it or know it’s around.

I do have a knack for convincing myself that the things I fear don’t exist unless I see them, and even creating elaborate rules for when they will and won’t appear.  For instance, in my last job I had a basement office in the movie theater building in our town.  I found evidence that a mouse had been on my desk (little tiny teeth marks on some candy) one day.  Well, I concocted a ruse for myself that the mice only came into my office in search of food on the one night that the theater was closed – Monday (because there wouldn’t be any popcorn in the theater).  And since the not-for-profit where I worked was closed on Tuesdays, I would never have to fear seeing a mouse during my working hours.  Ok, I know it’s lame, but it worked for me.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to sit still and get anything done.

Our newish house has all kinds of pest issues.  We have had mice in the attic, spiders in the basement, and snakes in the yard.  I could deal with the snakes in the yard ok, I didn’t like it but I dealt with it.  But this past week my husband discovered a snake in the stairwell leading down to the basement.  YUCK!!!!!

It doesn’t help that my husband, normally my hero with the things that scare me, is also afraid of snakes.  My dad was at our house, and took the thing out with a pair of barbecue tongs (which I put into the dishwasher immediately after).  The “snake” guy from our exterminator company came to the house this morning, and he is pretty sure the snake came in through our garage, when we left the door open.  I HOPE that is the case, rather than it coming in through some hole.  Then, after the snake guy left, we got ready for work and discovered yet ANOTHER snake in the driveway.  Travis killed that one.

I keep telling myself (and him) that it isn’t possible to move so soon after buying this house.  We haven’t even been in it a year!  At the same time, I think I would rather not live with knowing there are snakes all around us.  We will be plugging up every possible hole with steel wool and cutting back plants around the house (which I don’t want to do, simply because I might run into yet another snake in the process).  Someone remind me why I wanted to buy a house?

Counting my blessings August 21, 2008

Most days I take for granted all of the stuff that I have.  I even reason with myself as to why I really must keep this item or that trinket.  Then there are the days when I have just had it, when the overwhelming sense of stuff just makes me want to throw it all away.

Mostly I lean towards the first one.  I have a theory that the need-to-keep-stuff tendency gets diluted with each generation, where my grandparents (who lived through the Depression) keep almost everything, and my mother keeps a lot of things, and I only keep some things.  My kids will probably throw everything away (though I suppose that’s not good either).  I know the mindset of my mom and grandparents is just-in-case:  it might be needed someday.  For me, I would rather not store things for the sake of “someday.”

So I had a garage sale yesterday.  It was highly satisfying to get my basement cleared out from all of the excess stuff that didn’t fit into our new house.  When we moved last year in October, the point was to save money by being in a smaller house.  However, that means downsizing the stuff, too, and we definitely did that.

But there was a sense of disappointment, too, as I experienced hagglers working their angles and convincing me to part with a set of bowls that were probably worth $50 a piece for the low price of $10 for the pair, and a hand-made piece of wooden furniture for $19.  It was also disappointing to see items (like the full-sized bedding that we no longer needed) that I was sure someone could use just sit on the tables until it was 4pm.  Then I loaded them up and dropped them off at Salvation Army, just to avoid taking them back into my house.

Here’s the biggest kicker of all:  someone COULD HAVE used them.  We had a family from church who had a house fire last night (please pray for them), losing everything (but not each other, thank the Lord!).  I wish I would have been less proactive post-garage sale and just sat on that stuff for a day.  Half of it were things they could have used.  Maybe my family was right after all.

Office Supplies August 13, 2008

I could keep office supply stores in business.  For whatever reason, I have a fascination with all things paper-and-pencil.  While I stink at keeping up a filing system, I love to set them up, color-coding and printing labels.  I buy sheet protectors and binders and would probably wear out a label maker if I had one.  I have a lot of trouble this time of year with all of the school supplies in the stores, where the idea of a fresh box of crayons or markers is intriguing enough to tempt me, though I would probably not find any use for coloring once I would get them home.  And index cards!  I have bought many packages of index cards in my lifetime, certain I would find some use for them, only to have them take up valuable storage space in my home.  When we moved back in October, I finally threw them all out, and I now have to fight the itch to buy more.

As for post-it notes, I have them stuck to the wall behind my computer monitor, with little reminders, thoughts, confirmation numbers from orders, passwords for programs, and a couple of pictures drawn by the daughters of a woman I met with two weeks ago (her kids were with her at the time and I only had the post-its to draw on).

In the movie You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks email back and forth (good old AOL!) about the fall and “bouquets of newly-sharpened pencils” and the smell of scotch tape.  I can appreciate that sentiment.  It’s one of the millions of reasons I love that movie, though to watch it now as the computers drone through the dial-up tones, it seems dated.

Most of all, my love of office supplies reminds me of the big-haired office supply manager that was in a commercial a few years back.  Remember him?  Now there is a great example of someone who loves his job and finds joy in the little things of life (even if it is a fictional character)!

Ministry to “such as these” August 5, 2008

(Matthew 19:13-15)

I have been paying attention to preparation lately. Ever since Spoke Folk and VBS finished, I have been thinking ahead to September and all of the education ministries that will kick off: First communion instruction (for 5th grade), confirmation classes (junior high), and Sunday school (2-year-olds through high school). What’s really cool is that I’ve been compiling lists of names & addresses to send out information, and I did a count: over the past 12 months our congregation reached 87 children and youth through Sunday school and VBS. That’s not counting those who only attended church, which is probably another dozen or two. It’s hard to imagine that we really did reach that many, when we averaged 30 kids a week at Sunday school, and less than that per night of VBS.

The coolest thing is the reactions of our congregation to some of this. See, we do a hot dog ministry for the community on Wednesday nights, including during our evening VBS. We got a bunch of kids who signed up for VBS when they came for hot dogs (they are free). One family with six boys (God bless them!) came for hot dogs, then stayed for VBS and has been to church at every service we have held since then! One of our members asked about that, was told the story, and replied, “this mission stuff really works!” Yes, it does!

As I continue with my busy work of putting together mailings, I am praying for the young people who will come and be touched by the gospel this year. Yes, I am nervous about finding enough teachers for them, but I know that God has the right people in mind for it. Me getting anxious will solve nothing. I am determined to put my faith in God, not in my own abilities. That would be a foolish place to place my faith, believe me. But knowing my limitations is a good thing.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).