Focus? What is that?

fo-cus (n): a point of concentration
ran-dom (adj): lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern

Click here to see a larger image (while you probably can't tell, that's me on all those stairs!).

Yes, there are other definitions for focus and random (click to read them), but these two stood out the most to me. Focus would be something that I lack far too often. On the other hand, being random comes quite naturally to me. Sometimes I kind of scare myself by my randomness. So we had salads for lunch today. Oops, sorry, where was I?

It's no wonder that I have earned the moniker "The Queen of Unfinished Projects." Oh yes, and then there's my FBTSOMP*ing. At any given time in my day, I am doing two or ten or twenty-seven different things almost simultaneously. Whoever came up with the term "multi-tasking" was just attempting to put a nice-sounding label on utter insanity. Nice try!

* - Flying By The Seat Of My Pants (aka severely random and spontaneous)

I think it got worse when I passed four decades here on earth. I live in a house that's twice as big as our last house and that has definitely contributed to the lunacy. The last house we lived in was 1127 square feet on two floors. I really didn't have room to get too far off track as I traversed from one small room to the next. We were blessed to move into a 2200 square foot house, on one level, nicely spread out, with plenty of room for the four us and our dog. The problem is that it's a looooong ways from my kitchen to the bedroom or the computer or the bathroom or where ever else I may be headed. That also means it's a loooooong time for me to completely lose track of why I was going there. We'd better never move into anything bigger. I'll be wandering around like Rainman or something, never knowing what I was doing or where I was going.

I can pretty much be summed up with the quote on a t-shirt we bought my husband last year.

"I'm not as random as you think I salad." - Riley Armstrong

I love Riley's sense of humor! Oh, I need to send an email to Lisa.

And on and on it goes. I'm at the computer in the middle of posting a blog, reading email, organizing photos, shopping for books, washing the laundry when I remember that I need to make a phone call. I try to locate my planner to get the phone number - oh, I left half a green pepper on the counter. I'd better put that in the fridge. While there, I see a science project jar that was spaghetti sauce in its former life. I suppose I should dump that. Now that the jar's empty and rinsed, I ought to put it in the dishwasher. Oh, I'd better put the clean dishes away and run another load. After all, the kids had to use plastic spoons for their Cocoa Puffs this morning. Is it trash day?

About half way through unloading the dishwasher, I need to stop for a potty break. While en route to the kitchen from the bathroom, I wonder if the mailman has been by yet. Out the front door to the mailbox I go. Did I take my vitamins this morning? Oh, look, one of those coupon magazines that has my favorite coupons in it! You know, like $2 off at Fatburger. I'd better cut them out and put them in the coupon envelope in my purse. Otherwise I'll get to Fatburger with NO coupon! Now I'm sitting at the dining room table, ready to cut out coupons. Oops, where are the scissors? Who knows? One of the boys probably has them in his room. Fine, I'll get the scissors from the desk. Oh, look - I was working on a blog post! I ought to finish this. After all, I haven't posted anything in a couple of days. Oh yeah, I better be sure to make that phone call, too.

This is what my family gets to live with. I wonder why the boys can't focus better during homeschool?