Whoever coined that phrase has my undying gratitude. It has become my mantra. It's sort of like the old saying, "a stitch in time saves nine," except not as fluffy. It's more like something my mother would say to me.Do you remember the story about the cobbler and the elves? The one where the old cobbler would go to bed at night and a couple of elves would come in and make up his shoes for him? Whatever happened to those elves? I want to know. I really need some. Elves, that is, not shoes. And I don't need them for making shoes, of course, but for everything else. Well, maybe some shoes too.
I have a horrendous list of things to do, and they're all past due. I would have never considered myself a procrastinator, and I'm still not really sure that's the appropriate description, but I'll have to get back to you on that later. I really think it's just more a matter of too many things to do on my to-do list, and me not being the greatest at prioritizing. So I want some elves.
One of the worst by-products of my poor management is "piles" all around the house. Piles of things that I'm "going to get to one of these days." And I sincerely have every intention of doing exactly that, it's just that "one of these days" is not on my calendar. So piles become more piles.
And piles cause me stress. Because in spite of being really good at making them, I really don't like them. And I don't like things on my to-do list forever either. So with my new mantra repeating in my head, I'm willing myself to do those piles one at a time. Because I haven't been able to find any elves.
Or perhaps they simply aren't coming because they're afraid of being crushed by a falling pile.
My "do-it now" for now was to separate and transplant a pot of African violet leaf propagations that I did too long ago to remember. So I put down some newsprint, opened my bag of potting soil and got to work.
After removing the clump from the single pot, I gently separated each plant, keeping as much root intact as possible. Then I pruned as necessary, planted each plant in an appropriately-sized pot, and watered them in. Initially, it appeared a bit like a violet massacre. But honestly, it's all part of the process and no violets were harmed in the making of this post.This process always results in a few leaf trimmings, either because they were trimmed off on purpose or they were broken off in the handling. Check back later and I'll show you how to propagate from just a leaf.
Meanwhile, my task is done, and when I stand at the kitchen sink, I can view my grandma's violets without being distracted by the nagging task on my to-do list. "Now" really was a good time!
