Yes, I am a slacker. My 27 thing fling verve and vigor have evaporated. I can talk the talk, but walking the walk—well, it is a hard row to hoe.

Mini-vacation time is popping up here with regularity. A quick weekend here, a few days there, add a holiday gathering out of state, and my days off seem to be travel days, not stay at home and putter days. Then, when  I do have some free time, it’s used editing photos, or reading a book, or doing basic household chores and simply NOT keeping up with my flinging.

Part of the reason is very obvious to me. The easy parts are semi-done. It is all hard from here on in. We are talking studio flinging time! Uugh.  I can see possibilities in almost everything that sits in this room.  There is even a sign–

• “I am not a squanderer. I have what I have because I keep it and not because I save it. Why should I throw away that which was kind enough to reach my hands?” (Pablo Picasso).

And to me, it is true. I think I mentioned once before, how when my cousin lived with me, he loved that he could ask for anything, and I could go into my craft closet and pull it out, or pull something that could do the job. It saved me many a late night trip to the craft store when my daughter needed a project for school. But there are no children here, and no grandchildren on the horizon that would benefit from the overflow of things in this room. I have to own this stuff. It is MINE.

And I want it. All of it. So therefore the thought of flinging this room, abandoning the possibilities of so much– it has paralyzed me. I think that is why I have glossed over the actual counting in the last few flings. I have been subconsciously trying to forget I need to keep flinging! (Do I need to or just want to?? Why do I want to?)

I guess now is when I need you, the reader, to stay on top of me! Make me accountable! Tell me of your success stories, give me some encouragement and make me do this!!!

I do know that one thing I think I will try to do is also add a 27 minute clean to my routine. That’s less time than I get for my lunch hour, and it goes by fast enough then! In those 27 minutes I think that re-enforcing the previously flung areas, clearing surfaces, returning things to their homes– the kind of busy work that just has stopped being a part of my normal routine. Once upon a time, when I lived in a two-story home, the rule was don’t go up or down the stairs without taking something with you. Being in a ranch for 7 years, I have lost that habit. I am trying consciously to keep my hands full.

I believe that 27 minutes will be an amazing amount of time—if I don’t get sidetracked. I  don’t think I can do it while cooking dinner, for example. Unless it’s already in the oven and can be walked away from for 27 minutes. I guess I will have to set my stopwatch on my phone to keep me honest. That and the shuffle on the Ipod….