Abe Lincoln, OCD, and Egbert.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

~Abraham Lincoln 

Probably the greatest example of persistence is Abraham Lincoln. If you want to learn about somebody who didn't quit, look no further.
Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.
He could have quit many times - but he didn't and because he didn't quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the history of our country.
Lincoln was a champion and he never gave up. Here is a sketch of Lincoln's road to the White House:

• 1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.
• 1818 His mother died. (He was nine years old)
• 1831 Failed in business.
• 1832 Ran for state legislature - lost.
• l832 Also lost his job - wanted to go to law school but couldn't get in.
• 1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.
• 1834 Ran for state legislature again - won.
• 1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.
• 1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
• 1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature - defeated.
• 1840 Sought to become elector - defeated.
• 1842 Married Marry Todd
• 1843 Ran for Congress - lost.
• 1843 Son Robert Todd was born.
• 1846 Ran for Congress again - this time he won - went to Washington and did a good job.
• 1846 Son Edward Baker was born.
• 1848 Ran for re-election to Congress - lost.
• 1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state - rejected.
• 1850 Son Edward Baker died.
• 1850 Son Willie was born.
• 1854 Ran for Senate of the United States - lost.
• 1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party's national convention - get less than 100 votes.
• 1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again - again he lost.
• 1860 Elected president of the United States.

 Lincoln went to about two years worth of school, was self taught mostly.  His life impresses Me greatly.  He lived a life of adversity and yet never gave up his dream.  Whether or not you peg him as a good president or not you cannot deny the fact that his tenacity, his perseverance was astonishing and inspiring.

    I live My life this way, well now I do.  I had given up for about 10 years.... forgot that I had a drive in Me... replaced it with the drive of another... blah what a dark time that was.  I learned lessons in that time, however, that I find useful today (and I have My babies) so all is worth it.   I encourage others to live this way as well.  Strive strive strive... 'Reach for the Moon and at the very least you'll land among the stars'.   No dream is too big nor too small.  No one is too young, too old, too poor, too anything.... a dream is a dream.  The only failure is to never try.  

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       So today, I woke up and decided to spring clean.... See, I have this weird OCD thing.  One of the many crazy aspects of it is that when I'm upset, stressed, angry, or disappointed.... I clean.  If it's nice I will take a walk (but with a gazillion kids and Michigan's crappy weather it rarely works out) if I can but otherwise I clean.  Not just your everyday picking up cleaning either... I mean, pull EVERYTHING out of the closets, drawers, cupboards, etc.   Reorganize, clean, minimize, and put away.  Rearrange furniture, wash down walls, go through every little thing....
      So today, I cleaned.  I rearranged furniture. The whole works.   Woke up at 5 a.m. took a shower and got to work.  By Noon I was 90 percent of the way done and needed another shower.... I now need a long day at the spa, My back is killing Me but that won't happen. lol.  
        No one likes when I do this... I don't like the kids to help much because I don't want to hear 'don't throw that away'  or 'I neeed that blue piece of paper' (I swear I live with a bunch of hoarders).  Nor do I want to go back behind anyone and redo something when I can just do it right the first time.  I will let the boys 'help' Me move the furniture (though they really aren't help... but hey they like to think they are strong and tough).  
       Now that it's all clean and organized again it should, I say SHOULD, be easy for everyone to keep it that way this summer.  There have been new rules set down.... if you don't have your chores done... you don't get the password for the router (yup I'm changing the router password every day all summer... damn I'm a mean mom).
        There were two reasons I woke up today with this task of things to do. One because I needed to work through some frustration I've had the last week that's been building up as it was added on.  Two. because I am getting a new addition to the family tomorrow and I wanted to prepare for him, set a place for him and his stuff.  I was asked by a friend of a friend (acquaintance) to take in a hedgehog.  -palmface-  Like all I needed was a pet on top of the gazillion million kids... BUUUTTTT I saw him, held him, and fell in love.  That's all she wrote... he's coming home tomorrow.  For the time being I will simply put him in a Tupperware bin, we dug the one out we used to have hamsters in and cleaned it up really well.  I want to build a really nice looking cage, something that will look good with My furniture and suit his needs much better but that will happen slowly over the next few weeks.

 This is My Egbert.

       

                    (the one on the far left)