Finishing stuff: a presidential mission

A son died from getting a blister on his toe while playing tennis.
One was caught skinny dipping before going to work.
One would throw a napkin over his wife's face when she would have a seizure during a dinner party.
His wife ran his business after he was permanently disabled by a stroke.
He slept in a pink bedroom.
A son was hit and killed by a train.
His kids brought a pony into the house.

What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the President of the United States.

A few days ago I wrote a post about my quest to "finish stuff."  Well, a number of years ago I began the arduous task of reading a biography about each one of our 44 U.S. Presidents (actually there weren't that many when I started this endeavor).  I don't know how long ago it's been, but it all started because I read "John Adams" by David McCollough which was published in 2002. I think it was a pretty recent book when I read it, so I'll say I started in 2003.  David McCollough is a fabulous writer-- apparently quite inspiring actually!  Not all of the other biographies I've read have been quite that good.

After John Adams (our second President), I went back and read one about George Washington then worked my way forward through presidential biographies which I checked out of our local library.  Oddly enough, they don't have a biography for every president.  Some were missing, so I just read short pieces about those presidents from books that had write-ups on all the presidents.

The trivia I shared at the beginning of the blog is all true.  Calvin Coolidge's 16-year-old son didn't wear socks when playing on the White House tennis courts, developed a blister which got infected and he died because antibiotics were not available then.  The Coolidge's were never the same after that.

Apparently several presidents were known to skinny dip in the Potomac.  There were some embarrassing situations that came about as a result.  John Quincy Adams was the first.

William McKinley's wife, Ida, had epilepsy.  If she had a seizure during state dinners, the president would just drop a napkin over her face and when the seizure subsided, he would remove the napkin and just keep going as though nothing happened.

Woodrow Wilson had a severe stroke while in office, and his wife essentially ran the country while concealing the fact that he was completely incapacitated.  The whole story of Woodrow and his women is fascinating.  And yes, I do read about the history and politics too.  But the human interest stories are very engaging!

Mamie Eisenhower's favorite color was pink, so Ike got to sleep in a pink bedroom, not only at the White House but also at their home in Gettysburg.

Dwight and Mamie's bedroom in Gettysburg

In 1853, Franklin Pierce's last surviving child, 11-year-old Benny, was crushed by a train which rolled down an embankment-- after Pierce was elected but before his inauguration.  Mrs. Pierce became a recluse and President Pierce struggled with the presidency.

The Teddy Roosevelt family had quite a menagerie of children and pets.  The pony, Algonquin was allowed free reign of the children's bedroom and was often brought upstairs on an elevator.

Well, I digress.  You see why I like reading biographies!  Truth is stranger than fiction.  I have digressed quite frequently when reading presidential biographies because sometimes I feel the need to read a biography of the first lady too:  the Adams wives, Dolley Madison, Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant... to name a few.  Fascinating!

I had gotten the whole way from George Washington up to John F. Kennedy.  I never thought I'd bog down in his biography, but I did.  A couple of years ago.  I kept renewing the book at the library and just couldn't finish it.  But now that I'm "finishing stuff," I decided to get back to it.  I chose a JFK biography by a different author and just started over.  There's nothing boring about JFKs life, so I must have gotten stuck on the Cuban Missile Crisis or something before.  But I am going to finish this one.  Then it's on to LBJ!

And by the way, speaking of finishing stuff, isn't it great that God always finishes stuff?  Including the work He's doing on me!

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Finish Stuff

I really like closure.  I like things to be wrapped up.  Completed.  Spick and span. (Guess what?  Here's the definition of "spick and span" from Wikipedia:

A spick was a spike or nail, a span was a very fresh wood chip, and thus the phrase meant clean and neat and all in place, as in being nailed down.

See?  Nailed down!  That's what I like.  This is easier said than done however.  I will cook and clean up-- to a certain extent.  I might just let a few dishes soak or drain in the sink.  Who wants to actually dry stuff and put it away?  If I leave those dishes there, I can go fold 3/4 of a load of laundry.  Or go through half the mail.  Or answer a couple of emails.  

I'm trying to be more cognizant of finishing one activity before I start another.  




This is how far I had gotten with folding three loads of laundry when I suddenly felt like I MUST move on to something else.  I wanted to take a walk (for exercise) and do something fun like blog.  And I was burnin' daylight just folding all those silly clothes.  But, I sucked it up and finished before I left the house.  Future Lisa was very happy with past Lisa for finishing something.

I have two theories about this.  1.  I intend to finish something, but don't because I get bored or distracted.  2.  I never did intend to finish something-- I just wanted to start it to make it look like I was accomplishing the task.  Did you ever leave a vacuum cleaner sitting out just so people would think you were in the middle of cleaning-- that's why things look dirty-- not because I'm less than diligent.

It's decidedly disheartening to start six projects in one day and not finish any of them.  Then things start to get crazy.  My new resolution for the next couple of weeks is simply "Finish stuff."  It's short and easy to remember which is crucial for an easily-distracted person such as myself.  And by "stuff" I am referring to even a small segment of a larger project.  After all, Rome wasn't built in a day.

I thought it would be a good idea to keep some sage advice in mind to help me in my quest to Finish Stuff.  Here's a helpful one:  "My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start.  So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake.  I feel better already."  --Dave Barry

Oh wait.  Maybe this one is better:  "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  --James 1:4

That works for me! 

Hey, I gotta go.  I have stuff to finish...

The Simple Closet

I like order.  Simplicity.  Serenity.  However, life tends to hand us chaos, complication and distress.  A lot of that is outside my realm of control.  But there is one place I can reign supreme!  Yes, it's my closet.

I just ate a frog

Actually, I ate three frogs.  A month or two ago, I was reading a book about... oh... home organization or to-do lists or minimalist living or something like that and I can across this concept of eating your frog first.  Apparently this concept comes originally from a guy named Brian Tracy. He says that, “If the first thing you do when you wake up each morning is eat a live frog, nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day,” and therefore the first thing you should do is the “worst” thing on your To Do list.  You can even watch a clip about it:  Eat That Frog clip. 

Now, frogs aren't my favorite.  They are slimy, they live in ponds, and they don't taste like chicken, even when they're cooked.  My in-laws made frog legs once and tried to convince me that I would like them and that they really would "taste like chicken." That would only be true if the chicken had grown up in an algae-infested pond!  So, I never even consider eating frogs.


Until this morning, when I followed Brian Tracy's advice and ate three in quick succession.  I called and scheduled a mammogram.  Gulp!  They aren't even as terrible as some people say, but seriously.  Who wants to go have one of those done?  Then before my phone even cooled down, I quickly punched in the number to schedule a multiphasic blood screening.  Again, even less traumatic than a mammogram, and they even give you juice and an artery-clogging treat afterwards.  I just don't do it.  I hate to just pick up the phone and make simple phone calls.

It doesn't make any sense, I know.  However, I have found that there's a LOT of people out there who have even worse phone-phobia than I do!  (Looks like I should schedule a manicure too, but that's not gonna happen.  Maybe I'll just buy some decent hand cream and try to remember to use it.)

The third frog I am eating is to order a new battery charger for my camera.  As you may know, I lost a few crucial things when we moved recently.  The battery charger was one of them.  I have put off ordering one, still hoping that it would show up.  It hasn't, my battery still lives on amazingly, but it can't last forever.  So, Amazon, here I come!

There you have it.  Three easy frogs which I had been procrastinating about for about a month.  But I'm full now-- I have a whole pond-full of frogs waiting, but tomorrow is another day.  A baby card, a birthday card, a thank you card... I can hardly wait (that's a joke!).