Can someone here please give me a kick in the ....(personal venting inside, sorry)

[Julie in CA]

Okay, so maybe one of you can give me the encouragement I need to get off my backside...
Today I went to the funeral of a sweet teenage girl who was killed last week in a head-on with a drunk driver. She was the niece of my dear best friend, and I wanted to be there for my friend, who is not only in grief, but was singing on her own during the service. The service left me....melancholy.

Today is also my birthday, and my sweet dh brought me home a dozen long-stemmed roses. It was thoughtful of him, and I love him dearly, but after 20 years of marriage, does he not know me well enough to know that I've been struggling to make my budget work lately? Am I a totally ungrateful wretch to have the thought flicker through my mind that I wish he'd just given me the money? Just yesterday I got a notice from our med. ins. company that I owe an additional $1400 from a small procedure done (get this) in October '06. I haven't a clue what an arrangement of a dozen long-stemmed roses costs nowadays...maybe I'd better not think about that.

(Here's the part where I need a big kick in the...)My problem now is that I have BIG things to get done in the next few hours, and absolutely zero motivation to carry me through. Here's my list. Am I hallucinating to believe that I can get this done if I just dig in with gusto?
Compile 10 pages of information and type it into the correct format to turn in for a big project due on Monday for my class at the cc.
Compose, print, and make copies of our church bulletin for tomorrow morning
Figure out something for dinner (and it has to be good because we had a throw-together dinner last night after I gave away our big dinner to my grieving friend)
Fold two loads of clean laundry
Make my bed, clear my dresser
Tidy up the main areas of my house so dh is happy to come home
Make banana muffins for tomorrow morning (to use up the bananas that are rotting on my counter)
Take care of a sinkful of dishes
Sweep up the floor

WELL? Can I do it? Am I able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Am I faster than a steaming locomotive? You catch my drift here, right? :rolleyes:
If you've read to the end of my complaining, whining post, I'm so sorry!
(but thanks for indulging my pathetic need to get this out):o

[LG Gone Wild]

Cancel everything and go to bed.

[Soph the vet]

I am so sorry to hear about your friend's niece. It sounds like you are just trying to keep above water today, I have many days like that:o. First of all, let the roses thing go and just tell dh that you love them. (I have a similar situation and dh buys flowers and I think "I'd rather have you wash the car") . Try to remember those women out there who never get flowers, maybe.
OK, the dinner thing. Let the kids make it tonight. If they are not old enough to make dinner then they will not care that you let them eat cereal. Let the kids make banana mush with the over ripe things and call it pudding! They can eat it with the cereal. Put them to bed an hour earlier than normal so you can finish your paper and bulletin. Forget making your bed as you will be climbing into it as soon as the paper is done, right?
If all else fails, go outside and scream at the top of your lungs (just once, you don't want anyone to call the police) and you'll feel better. :D At least you are possibly in a state where you can see the grass unlike here.

[Melinda in VT]

Don't complain about the roses!! Did that once when we were engaged and I was stressing about money for the wedding. Didn't get flowers for years, even when we could easily afford it.

As for your list, I would enlist the kids to clean up and fold the laundry, if they're old enough. I'd throw something together for dinner. (It sounds like you feel you need to make it up to them for last night. You can do that another day.) Forget about the muffins for now. You can freeze the bananas to use later, if you would feel guilty about wasting them. Do the church thing, and the school thing if you still have energy. (If not, get up early on Monday and do it.)

Hugs. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

[Julie in CA]

I needed the encouragement so very much. Thank you for being my friends (even though we've never met!):)
My kitchen sink is empty & clean
The church bulletin has been composed and is just waiting to be printed, copied, & folded
My bed is made & my nightstand (first view from bedroom doorway) is clear.
I figured out an easy(tho not necessarily healthy!) dinner that my family loves: chicken & cheese quesadillas, refried beans (from a can this time :(), tortilla chips, and nacho cheese dip.
The kids will help me polish off the clean laundry in about 10 mins.
Another kid is really responsible for the sweeping, and they WILL do it!
The schoolwork may have to wait until tomorrow, I just hate the feeling of putting work off till the day before it's due.
In other words, Superwoman doesn't really live here, but it's gonna be okay anyway.;)
Thanks again, more than I can say...
Julie