Blog365: Day 28

This morning I did a little homework and then spent a couple hours working the book fair at Annabelle's school. At first I wasn't going to volunteer this time around (see my New Year's resolution to say no more often), but I really like working the book fair. So much so that I'm doing it again tomorrow.

I also cast on for my new scarf project. I LOVE the way that wool feels in my hands and definitely want to do a sweater after I finish the scarf.

Blog365: Day 7

Today is our official return to the grind. Fred is at work; the kids are at school. I've spent the day working on this and that--I paid my tuition for my spring classes and printed some reading materials that I'm going to need this semester. Now I'm working on my photos again. It cracks me up when I find a shot that I had forgotten about. Like this one, for example--Mike and his friend Scott wearing their big, furry hats:



This is the calm before the storm. The rest of the week is going to be a blur of getting kids to and from various practices, meetings, and lessons; getting them to 2 swim meets and attending a Swim Boosters meeting; going to a club luncheon and 2 board meetings; and starting my classes.

Resolved

Some people don't like New Year's resolutions, but I love them. I've got all the usual resolutions covered this year--lose a few pounds, hit the gym, be more organized, etc. I think my REAL resolution, however, is to be a lot more careful about what responsibilities I take on.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really lucky. There's nothing in my life that I don't want to do, or at least that I didn't want to do when I signed up to do it. It's just that I have a problem saying no, and there is so much out there to be done. It recently dawned on me, however, that there will never be a point where people will say, "Oh, heavens, no, let's not ask Bonnie to do that! She has enough on her plate already." So I am going to have to be a lot more hard-nosed about saying no.

I'm not dropping anything for the rest of this school year. I'll still be on the school board, and I'll still be the sophomore class parent. I'll still be the band boosters treasurer and the adviser for the welfare committee of my community club. I'm going to do the Run for the Gold one more time (Fred is out in the garage cutting out wooden horses as I type this). And I'm going to stay in school and keep on freelancing, so it's not like I'm going to be sitting around eating chocolate all day. I'll still be a contributing member of society, but I want more time to do for my family and for myself, so I'm done adding outside obligations, at least for a while.

One thing I want to do for myself and for my family is to take better care of my blog. I love it that sometimes I'll catch one of the kids going through the archives and remembering the good times. To that end, I have signed up to participate in Blog 365--blogging every day for 2008 (with a day off for February 29). Hey, it's just a lap around the sun, right?

The list

Saturday morning I made a list of "things to do today." I'm hoping to finish the list tomorrow.

Here's what I have done:

• Cleaned in my bedroom for 15 minutes (I find that I can get a lot done in 15 minutes, and if I set a timer and promise myself I can quit when it goes off, I'm a lot more likely to get started.)


• Cleaned in the kitchen for 15 minutes


• Returned plates that were left at the school after the Homecoming dance (2 weeks ago)


• Updated Quicken and my calendar


• Gone to the commissary


• Emptied boxes in the basement


• Transfered my photos from ImageStation, which is going out of business, to Shutterfly or Snapfish or something


• Finished an indexing project


• Bought Mike's ticket to Tucson


• Made a hair appointment for Mike (for tonight--that's where we're going right now)


• Boxed up a return to go back to Zappos.com (which is the BEST way to buy shoes!)

Here's what still remains:

• Clear off computer desk


• Clean up all the junk I have downloaded to my desktop


• Mail check for Band Boosters to pay for spirit pins

Maybe tomorrow . . .

Overextended

The past few weeks have been nuts. I think it all started the week before Halloween. I worked on the high school Homecoming, and I was a delegate for AFAP (this really cool organized gripe session that is the fastest way to get things DONE in the Army--I should blog about it). Then there was all the sewing and prep work for Halloween. At the same time, I'm taking 2 classes for my Master's and freelancing a bit as well. In fact, I have a project in right now for which I woefully underestimated the time requirements, and I'll be paying the price for that right up until deadline on Saturday.

The thing is, there's really nothing I'm doing that I don't want to do and that I didn't willingly sign up for. It's not like I'm trying to schedule my radiation treatments so that they don't conflict with meeting my kid's parole officer, you know?

But whatever the scheduling situation that is equivalent to one's eyes being bigger than one's stomach--that's what I've got!