When Stress is a GOOD Thing...

**suebeehoney** · 07-27-2008, 10:36 PM

I hate feeling stressed. Absolutely hate it - like everyone else does. But when I get stressed, I find that I'm the most productive, because I'm trying to do something to take my mind off the stressors.

Usually it's housework or cooking. Or in today's case - both.

I couldn't sleep last night due to a recent health development that made it very difficult to fall asleep - so it was 2:30 before I finally went to sleep. Up at 5:00 to take DS16 to work, back home, dozed off and on until 9:00 to catch up on sleep, then up for the day. Sleeping that late is unusual for me, but so is not sleeping for most of the night. Needed to catch up.

Since then....

made rhubarb dessert for weekly church potluck dinner
attended church, made plate for DS16 when he gets home
thawed and parboiled 4 chicken leg quarters & bbq'd them for dinner
washed/dried/folded/put away 4 loads of laundry (DS16's work clothes have to be washed separately)
did 2 loads of dishes in dishwasher
found a new storage place for sheets/blankets/bedding - my cedar chest! (It's huge, I'll post pics when I post my house pics.)
spent time with DS when he came home from work
relisted a few items on Ebay, including a wedding dress for a co-worker's DD.

Tomorrow's plans:

Up by 6:00 (not working at 8-5 job tomorrow)
DS up by 9:00 - giving him a break, been working hard
All kitchen counters cleaned off, floor swept/mopped
Make oven-baked homefries for breakfast w/eggs to use up potatoes that are starting to get old
Harvest rest of rhubarb & freeze
Harvest raspberries that have ripened - reaching end of season, time to pull old canes and clean up the bed. Old house owners let them go too far, they need tending to produce properly next year.
Pull weeds out of flowerbeds
Have DS work on paver project by deck (pavers need to be leveled out, are uneven)
List ALL books on Ebay - still have at least 3 boxes left to list. Will only keep those I can't part with - being harshly realistic on that one.
Start listing clothing on Ebay, get as much listed as possible. Books are selling ok, but need to get higher dollar items on there to help pick up shortfall in budget from extra bills this month. (Attorney bill almost paid off, but had to pay $500 this month.)
Leftovers for lunch/dinner
Clean living room & my bedroom

Sometimes stress can be a gooooooood thing - especially when you need things done around the house and start working on those things to distract yourself!

**amanjud** · 07-27-2008, 10:49 PM

Sounds like you have a busy day ahead of you! Don't work too hard, take a break and enjoy your day.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 07-27-2008, 10:51 PM

Wow, that's a pretty good list of things to have gotten out of the way. I sort of had a day like that today and lately, it's been that way with both kids acting up. I figure that I need to take all that stress and anger and frustration, put it to work and get things done. Sadly the weather didn't cooperate ALL weekend so there went my plans to mow the yard before my inlaws come to visit on Tuesday.

Today's stress relievers:

Peeled, washed, chopped and blanched 10 lbs of carrots, bagged them into four large ziploc freezer bags (stockpile for winter).
Froze, vacuum-sealed and stored away 4lbs of blueberries.
Got my grocery shopping done for the next two weeks.
Rearranged my chest freezer.

Tomorrow's stress relievers:

Laundry
Vacuuming the rugs
Sweeping
Mopping
Dishes
Dusting
Taking inventory of both freezers
More to come...

**IntlMom** · 07-27-2008, 11:32 PM

WOW!! You guys are making me tired just reading your lists...... I agree, when I am under pressure or stress, I tend to get more done too. That's what I need, a good dose of stress!
jk

**cmdarlin** · 07-28-2008, 08:29 AM

Wow.... I think I need to go back to bed after reading those lists!

Debbie

**suebeehoney** · 07-28-2008, 09:02 PM

Whew...ok, here's what got done. Not exactly everything, but I feel pretty good about what got done.

Up by 6:00 (not working at 8-5 job tomorrow)

-ok, not quite - try 7:15

DS up by 9:00 - giving him a break, been working hard

-he was up by 9:30

All kitchen counters cleaned off, floor swept/mopped

-DONE!

Make oven-baked homefries for breakfast w/eggs to use up potatoes that are starting to get old

-DONE! Yum!

Harvest rest of rhubarb & freeze

-DS16 is going to harvest rest of it tomorrow, will freeze tomorrow night

Harvest raspberries that have ripened - reaching end of season, time to pull old canes and clean up the bed. Old house owners let them go too far, they need tending to produce properly next year.

-Got the berries harvested - not much left. Didn't get the bed cleaned out yet.

Pull weeds out of flowerbeds

-Didn't get done.

Have DS work on paver project by deck (pavers need to be leveled out, are uneven)

-Found out we didn't have the materials on hand that I thought we did - thinking maybe something disappeared out of the garage....

List ALL books on Ebay - still have at least 3 boxes left to list. Will only keep those I can't part with - being harshly realistic on that one.

-Worked on this for the bulk of the day - got a LOT of books listed, still have 2-1/2 more boxes to go. (SIGH)

Start listing clothing on Ebay, get as much listed as possible. Books are selling ok, but need to get higher dollar items on there to help pick up shortfall in budget from extra bills this month. (Attorney bill almost paid off, but had to pay $500 this month.)

-Didn't get to the clothing - books took up most of the day

Leftovers for lunch/dinner

-Neither DS16 or I were really hungry.

Clean living room & my bedroom

-Got quite a bit done towards this...still not complete, but getting there! (My definition of clean is having everything put away and organized, which is difficult when I'm in mad Ebay listing mode.)

All in all, I got quite a bit done today, and am TIRED of sitting in front of the computer at this point. Going to hop off here and head to bed soon - have to go back to work tomorrow. Ick.