Ali "The Organizer" or Thanksgiving Was Great

I love Thanksgiving! I love the food, especially the leftovers! (Apple pie for breakfast is delicious!) I love the time spent with family and sometimes friends. I love the smell of food being prepared. I love time spent reflecting on blessings and gratitude. (I haven't made my gratitude list yet, but one of these days . . .) I love tasting all the food and doughs while preparing them so that when I sit down to eat I am almost already stuffed. I love the relaxed nature of the day - I feel like I can do anything I want without regret. I love looking through the ads in the paper and cutting out the pictures/prices of the things I want. Basically, I just love Thanksgiving!

In other news, I feel like all I do is organize lately. I don't feel overly creative (which is sad) so instead I organize.

• I organize my music and videos on itunes. It's amazing how many copies I have of the same song! Not only do I have to have all of the information correct I also want an album picture to go with it, so that my itunes is pretty.



• I organize all of the sister's info for Relief Society. I spent over 2 hours on Wednesday dividing the sisters up into lists: sisters who've come to church at least once; sisters who have never come, but who we have some sort of contact info; and sisters on our roles that have never come and who we have absolutely no contact info for. (As a side note: I love google docs! It's awesome for sharing info easily and quickly!)



• I organize the family photos. Every day I'm trying to scan a few pictures so that we have a digital copy of them all. Then, in Picasa I tag them all. I have to say tagging is addictive!



• I organize my piano students into recitals and try not to have the same songs repeated.



• I organize the Relief Society Christmas gift. I get ideas and people to help make them and people to pass them out.



• Heck, I even organized this list!

Anyway, right now I feel like there is this tiny burning ember of creativity being squashed by my organizational flame. I have been able to pin point why this is happening, but it doesn't necessarily stop it or solve it.

When I organize I am in control. I decide what goes when and where I want to do it. There are never any unanswerable questions. Everything has it's place. I become extra organized when I feel I have very little control on the things around me.

Therefore, when I feel super creative I have more control of the world I live in. It's ok to have abstracts and questions without answers.

Neither my creative self nor my organizational self are good in abundance. I like a balance of the two. So the question I ask myself is: how do I swing the pendulum back and stop it in the middle?