I needed to get away from my desk today, so I drove out to Metro’s Killen Wetlands near Banks. I’d never been there and sort of stumbled across it by accident. Usually I drive south on my lunch break, but today I decided to go west. Washington County is some of the most beautiful countryside anywhere, dotted with farms and nurseries and awesome vistas. It made me wish I had $5 million to buy a couple acres. The upside and downside of the UGB is the high price of land.

Today started off pretty slow. While my wife was out for a workout this morning, I stayed home with the kids, and we watched The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Not bad! My son liked it a lot, but my daughter was a little scared by the robots at times. For lunch, we finished off some leftover tacos from last night’s dinner.

After lunch, I tackled decluttering our bedroom/office. One of my goals for 2025 was to get our house in order, and this was as good of a place as any to start. Both of us work part time from home and our desk tends to accumulate everything—papers, books, random notes and other stuff. It was covered in dust and completely overrun with cables and clutter.

I started by cleaning out my nightstand and organizing our books. I got rid of a bunch of unneeded work papers and other junk, like power cables and random guitar paraphernalia from my recent projects.

Unfortunately, while I was finishing up my cleaning I took a pretty big spill down the stairs. It really scared the hell out of me. I was running down the stairs with some trash and a bunch of other stuff in my hands when I slipped on the third or fourth stair from the bottom and landed right on my back between my shoulder blades. For a few minutes I was really worried I might’ve broken a rib or something, but I feel mostly better with just some slight pain. I’m hoping it’s gone over the next few days, but I really need to be more careful. 

Anyway, I’m hoping to tackle some other problem areas soon, like the fully stocked and disastrous craft cabinet, our unorganized filing cabinet, and the sometimes terrifying mail area. My goal is to have everything sorted and organized by the end of January. I’ve schedule some days in February to clean up the garage, too, which has slowly become light chaos in the aftermath of the holidays.

Lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed, like I never take the lead on plans. I’ve noticed that the weekends just come and go, and I often haven’t thought about what I’d like to do with them. At the same time, I felt myself getting snippy and frustrated when I forgot about days being booked up with things I’d forgotten about or missed. I think my ADHD plays a role in this, as my executive functioning is not great and tends to take an even deeper nosedive in the winter. The short days make it hard to stay motivated, especially after 5 PM, and the post-holiday clutter in the house only adds to the mental load. So I decided to try and get a handle on it. 

My wife took the kids to the park this afternoon to hang out with her friend and their kids. While they were out, I took the opportunity to grab some groceries and stopped by Powell’s to pick up a new yearly planner. I spent a little time at a coffee shop looking over the year ahead and thinking about plans for vacations, time off, and trips—both for myself and with the family. After laying it all out, I’m feeling much more settled and positive about the year ahead now that I’ve got a rough idea about how the year might look.

In addition to life just being life, and busy as hell at that, my son now being in kindergarten has thrown all sorts of wrenches into our normal routine and we’re still adjusting. In particular, the kid has so many days off school now and we have to make arrangements for all of that. While not unexpected, it just adds a whole new layer of complexity to planning, PTO, vacations, everything. 

I’ve also been feeling off physically and wondering if something more than seasonal depression is at play. I’m planning to schedule an appointment with my doctor and get some lab work done, just to check if my medications or something with my metabolism might be contributing. Depending on the results, I may need to reassess my treatment plan.

For now, I’m trying to stay focused on what I can control. Cleaning up the house and creating a better environment is a good start. I know things will improve as the days get longer, and having a plan for the months ahead will help. Still, I’ve been thinking about how much I’d benefit from a weekend away on my own—a chance to recharge and clear my head.

One step at a time. Today was productive, and that’s a win.