Okay, "focus...focus...focus", is what I kept telling myself all morning.  I purposely kept trying to refocus back on the working of the magazine project, yet found myself focusing on finishing laundry, changing out toilet paper dispenser, and picking up used scented dryer sheets off the floor from folding laundry.  I focused on making my super food bone marrow broth for the week, and while looking in fridge for ingredients became side-tracked by the overwhelming sight of a squishy mysterious food item shoved in the back wall of fridge, and my OCD kicked in and began cleaning out fridge.  Then I noticed ingredients that I had purchased at the Farmer's market a few weeks ago that needed to be cooked before they went bad....and I began a cooking frenzy.  So far I have a ginormous pot of snap beans cooking, made ground turkey with chard and bell peppers for tacos later, another crock pot full of broth stewing, and made some guacamole salsa.  In between this I have taken phone calls for the magazine, answered a few emails, order supplies, worked on grammar with my homeschooling son for nearly 3 hours, swept floors, made bed, washed dishes, unloaded dishwasher, handled parakeets for a bit, watched the finches play in their bath, hung up clothes from doorknobs, got Hubby's Voter Registration application set to mail,  balanced checkbook, sanitized my kitchen table, and counters, cut up apples for my birds, orally tested son on his science project of frogs, chased my runaway bandit of birds as they were coasting across the ceramic tile in living room being chased by one of our cats, as the construction crew showed up to work on sealing of our doors, but I did not write, design or work on MAGAZINE!  UGH!  Now understand I have been up since 5:30 a.m. and it is now 2:02 p.m., and I am just now beginning to write on the blog.  I expected it to be a busy day, but I think I put the "busy" in it all alone.  There isn't someone with a bull horn shouting at me cook, clean, or do laundry.  Yet, the voice in my head screams at me with Memorex levels, "Get it done"! "If you don't do it, then it won't be done right, and you will be just as irritated anyway"...See what I mean...the OCD of it all.  It is a time stealer!  Things don't have to always be tidy and neat in perfect place.  It's okay to go a day without making up a bed.  So what if there are a few dishes in the sink unwashed.  The floor is going to get dirty once again after all the afternoon traffic.  And so what if there is a piece food growing legs and arms in my fridge, as long as the door stays shut, no one will get hurt.  So why do I do this to myself?  Is this from my mother's OCD?  Or my perfectionist father?  Am I just insane?  Why can't I live with dust bunnies in the corner, or a picture handing slightly off balance?  Why is it every time I go to the kitchen cabinet to get something, I have the sudden urge to realign every single item in the cabinet even though I know that once my children touch anything in that cabinet it will all be undone within seconds?  This is insanity!  I've got to stop.  I wonder if there is a support group for Mom's who suffer from disorganized anxiety (MWDA)?  There probably is, but Lord knows I wouldn't make it to one meeting, as I would probably get into my vehicle and noticed the torn up styrofoam cup on the passenger floor board from my son, and begin a cleaning spasm inspecting the entire vehicle. Then as I would walk to my trash container to toss the cup... would notice a paper wrapper on the lawn and then make my rounds across the grass inspecting for other objects, then I would stroll over to mail box and gather all the junk mail and start sorting right there by the trashcan.  Before I would realize it, the sun would be rising and the morning alarm would sound just in time for me to do it all over again.  It's no wonder it takes me forever to make it past my bedroom door as I find unsightly items such as dirty socks, muddy shoes, snack wrappers thrown on the floor along with my child's chewed up action figures (the dogs snack), and then there are the extension cords scattered out from my daughter's cell phone marathons where she has to stay charged. "Put them back PLEASE!" Well, tomorrow is another day God-willing and I will just have to bridle my focus and put blinders on and head straight to computer when I get up, no making up beds, no worrying about the floors, and I'll just toss the dishes and buy disposable....there that's the answer...I wonder if they make disposable clothing?  That sure would save me some laundry time.  Tune in tomorrow for more Graffiti.

Hi, my name is Brenda Graff.  I am one of the Editors/Writers for Food For Soul Magazine.  I am fairly new to this blog thing, well sort of. I've been writing most of my life, which is a form of blogging just in different formats.  I knew I would have to jump on the bandwagon of bloggers if I were to ever get my magazine out there.  Plus Hubby will hear one of my stories of the day while cracking up and immediately say, "You have got to get a blog going".  Personally, I see my day to day routines and interruptions as normal living...sometimes overly frustrating at times, but normal.  However, others who know me, beg to differ.  There is just something about the Graff household.  It would be almost impossible to become bored in our atmosphere.  There is always an adventure, or drama going on.  Being a mother of six ages 29-11, and homeschooling the youngest keeps me busy.  I have two grandchildren ages 5 & 7.  Good sleep is not always an option around the tiny home front with no hallways to really separate our space.  We have one bathroom...I know...I know..I can hear the "Whats?", crazy I know!  We fell in love with the house because it backed into a farm and had this whole ranch style look thing going, kind of like a tiny cabin.  It was very private, and had plenty of room for our dogs to run, and the children to play.  Yet, in retrospect...kind of wished we had chosen a two bathroom place.  My youngest daughter is always making comments like, "Why is it every time I'm in the shower, we have to have a family reunion in the bathroom?"  My answer, "Well, dear...we can't hold it for the 45 minutes it takes for you to complete your bathing process". Is she digging a well for water? We truly have to be mindful of bathroom time.  Which is why I occasionally have to remove reading material on days that I know we have to be somewhere, otherwise we would arrive at family celebrations in our pajamas, bedhead hair, and un-brushed teeth!  Chaos of the day started for me bright an early this morning before the roosters crowed...ugh!  My husband has been working for the past 4 weeks at 12 hours a day with only one day off. His schedule greatly affects mine as well, so our nights have been much longer then usual trying to squeeze in some conversation of our day, and morning still comes the same time to race up out of bed and get 'er done!  Well, last night he said that he didn't have to be at work till 10am the next day.  Excited, he said...we'll have time to snuggle and sleep in together.  I hesitated on the glad tidings.  In reality it meant he gets to sleep in.  I still have to get my daughter up at 5:30 a.m. for her school, 6:30 a.m. take to bus, 6:40 a.m. let dogs out, 6:50 feed the cats and let dogs back in, 7 a.m. think about crawling back into bed before our 4 finches start their ritual chirping for an hour..sleep in..are you crazy?  Okay, I thought don't be too pessimistic over it.  I went to bed late, woke up at 4 a.m. to the roaring snores of Hubby in my face, 4:15 a.m. convinced Hubby to roll over PLEASE!  Fell back to sleep at 4:30 a.m. abruptly woke up by alarm at 5:30 a.m. and went through the routine of school, bus, let pets in and out through the ever revolving door, feed pets, birds stayed fairly quiet...I snuck back into bed exasperated trying to quickly get snuggled when our dog with itching allergy came and planted herself by our bed so we could hear the obnoxious scratching of it all.  Poor pooch, she's on allergy med, skin conditioner, and well has scratched much of her hair off!  None the less, her collar with tag kept clinking with every brush of her paw...scratching....scratching...scratching!  UGH!  Hubby finally arose up and led her out of the bedroom shutting door behind him.  We get comfortable back into bed. I swear it wasn't but another 15 minutes before Hubby's phone rang from some employee who didn't realize it was a be at work later in morning kind of work day...UGH!  I am becoming exasperated at this point.  I lay there once again trying to decide do I dare close my eyes?..do I dare fall into REM sleep? I had to...I was tired, after all it had been such a busy month and this was the first time Hubby and I would get to sleep in together.  Well, no such luck!  Hubby's boss calls within minutes...errr!!!!  After Hubby gets off phone with much apologies...he crawls back into bed so we can at least hug for awhile...we actually did fall back to sleep for oh...maybe 30 minutes together.  I was thankful!  Yet, am so groggy now.  I've been trying to work on articles and templates for the November issue of "Food For Soul", but got sidetracked with walking dogs to park and digging through paperwork to find itchy-pooch shot records for her surgery this week to get fixed...still haven't found the papers...err!  I need 48 hours in a day.  12 just isn't enough it seems.  Oh, look at the time I have to go get my daughter from school.  Here's the magazine link for now. Tune in tomorrow for more Graffiti in the Graff house.  http://issuu.com/brendagraff