Just had to sit down and try to get my act together. For whatever reason, I didn't make myself a "to do" list for the day...and I think it's thrown me out of whack. Or maybe it's the annoying headache that kept waking me up throughout the night. Not a killer headache or anything, just annoying.
The alarm went of at 4:53. The time it's set for each day there's something worth taping on Assignment Discovery. (This week is all Language Arts programming...great stuff for school next year.) Anyway, since then I've checked e-mail and caught up on my daily blog reads. The kids have been fed, breakfast dishes cleaned up, lunch packed, pitcher of tea made. Annie's bedding is in the dryer (can't wait till Rich gets my clothesline up!) and a load of clothes is in the washer. Bed made. Kids dressed (okay, only 2 out of 3 are...Maxidoodle is sitting naked in the living room refusing to put his clothes on). Baker's been out, fed (though he's on a feeding strike...we're wondering if his medication needs adjusted), and had his morning pill. I've gathered up what we need for today's schooling.
In other words, it's taken me three hours to do what should have taken one. Just an off day, I guess. Not really a day I can afford to be having an off day (okay, that's a bit melodramatic...the world will not come to an end if I don't accomplish what I have planned). Annie and I have a big day today with school. I need to clean the bathroom and vacuum the house. I'd hoped to give the stove a baking soda rub-down. Need to gather up the books we've put in the garage to take to the library for their library sale. Need to make curtains for my craft room. Need to sweep out craft room. Need to start putting everything back into craft room. The 30 Day Organizational Challenge ends tomorrow at 11:59pm...and I've got a ways to go. Though I did finally get it painted...hooray! Tonight is McCare Night (the teacher's at Gray's school work at McDonalds this evening for charity), so we'll be heading out for that.
I don't know...my head's just not in it. Maybe I should just give up now.
Showing posts with label housework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housework. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
don't I wish...
As I was reading comments a few moments ago, I simply had to burst out laughing! Stacy jokingly called me Wonder Woman. It made me wonder about how I portray myself as I blog though. Am I somehow being dishonest? I don't mean to be. But if so, here's the real scoop...
I feel like a consummate underachiever. I never seem to be "caught up" with anything...
1. Homeschooling, by far, takes up most of my time. Not so much the time actually spent "teaching". The time I spend directly engaged with Annie on a daily basis with school stuff probably only averages 2-3 hours a day (the discussions, the explaining, the watching of videos, etc.). But the amount of time spent in preparing far surpasses that. We don't use any kind of pre-packaged curriculum. Annie's abilities are all over the place, so a grade-level package simply wouldn't work. Besides that, they are generally ridiculously expensive. So I put things together from a variety of sources...library resources, the Internet, workbooks, shows taped from TV, etc. And so far anyway, it seems to be working very well. We believe Annie's getting an appropriate education "for her". But it is so time-consuming for me "putting it all together". Half the time, I have to learn everything first. But here comes the drowning underachiever part...today is the last day of our 3rd quarter. And I have next to nothing ready for the 4th quarter. I will need to spend an unbelievable amount of time over spring break just trying to make sure we have enough to do for the first couple weeks. And then I will be struggling for the rest of the quarter just to stay a day or two ahead of where we need to be.
2. There was a time I would never worry about someone just dropping in. I would be confident that the house looked good at any given time. Those days are gone. Yes, I keep the bathroom clean. And do a halfway decent job at keeping the place vacuumed. But there is an embarrassing layer of dust on everything! I simply can't keep up with the clutter that seems to invade every last nook and cranny. I've nearly given up completely on the boys' room...we're planning on redecorating it this summer (actually you could drop the "re", we've never really decorated it at all since we moved in here). I got so tired of fighting with all their "crap", that I just gave up. Hoping that we'll come up with some great storage ideas when we decorate this summer. And aside from their room, there are other major disaster areas...my little craft room and the laundry area in the basement as well as the garage (it looks like a bomb went off in there!).
3. I used to make all my cards. I never, ever was late in sending off cards or gifts. Usually had things ready weeks, if not months, ahead of time. No more. Already this year I've been late with birthdays twice! There's just no excuse for that! Geez--Annie's birthday is Sunday and I haven't yet made her a card or wrapped her gifts. I didn't get around to making Easter cards (though I did mail Easter packages) and I haven't yet filled Easter baskets or eggs for the egg hunt.
4. I want to read more for pleasure. And I'm trying. Hence the reading challenges I've joined. (The Spring Reading Thing and The Once Upon a Time Challenge)But I'm really not doing all that well, and can already predict that I won't actually meet either challenge (despite the fact that I tried to keep each list small).
5. I wish I could make more time to create. I know I talk about it enough, but I seem to get very little done. There was a time when I made a good percentage of our Christmas gifts each year. Can't even imagine that anymore. I've got thousands upon thousands of photos I'd like to scrap. Yeah, right, like that's ever gonna happen.
6. Our yard is a disaster as well. We had a week's worth of nice weather there. I should have been cleaning out the flower beds! But I didn't get to it (aside from pulling out about 500 maple seedlings, that is). And now I can't do it, because they're covered in snow again.
Wonder Woman I will never be. I can accept that, but I do wish I could accomplish something once in a while aside from laundry and cooking and child care. Anyway, in case I was somehow making it sound like I was some kind of Wonder Woman, I hope I have now set the record straight. Yep, Undeniable Underachiever...that's a much more fitting title.
I feel like a consummate underachiever. I never seem to be "caught up" with anything...
1. Homeschooling, by far, takes up most of my time. Not so much the time actually spent "teaching". The time I spend directly engaged with Annie on a daily basis with school stuff probably only averages 2-3 hours a day (the discussions, the explaining, the watching of videos, etc.). But the amount of time spent in preparing far surpasses that. We don't use any kind of pre-packaged curriculum. Annie's abilities are all over the place, so a grade-level package simply wouldn't work. Besides that, they are generally ridiculously expensive. So I put things together from a variety of sources...library resources, the Internet, workbooks, shows taped from TV, etc. And so far anyway, it seems to be working very well. We believe Annie's getting an appropriate education "for her". But it is so time-consuming for me "putting it all together". Half the time, I have to learn everything first. But here comes the drowning underachiever part...today is the last day of our 3rd quarter. And I have next to nothing ready for the 4th quarter. I will need to spend an unbelievable amount of time over spring break just trying to make sure we have enough to do for the first couple weeks. And then I will be struggling for the rest of the quarter just to stay a day or two ahead of where we need to be.
2. There was a time I would never worry about someone just dropping in. I would be confident that the house looked good at any given time. Those days are gone. Yes, I keep the bathroom clean. And do a halfway decent job at keeping the place vacuumed. But there is an embarrassing layer of dust on everything! I simply can't keep up with the clutter that seems to invade every last nook and cranny. I've nearly given up completely on the boys' room...we're planning on redecorating it this summer (actually you could drop the "re", we've never really decorated it at all since we moved in here). I got so tired of fighting with all their "crap", that I just gave up. Hoping that we'll come up with some great storage ideas when we decorate this summer. And aside from their room, there are other major disaster areas...my little craft room and the laundry area in the basement as well as the garage (it looks like a bomb went off in there!).
3. I used to make all my cards. I never, ever was late in sending off cards or gifts. Usually had things ready weeks, if not months, ahead of time. No more. Already this year I've been late with birthdays twice! There's just no excuse for that! Geez--Annie's birthday is Sunday and I haven't yet made her a card or wrapped her gifts. I didn't get around to making Easter cards (though I did mail Easter packages) and I haven't yet filled Easter baskets or eggs for the egg hunt.
4. I want to read more for pleasure. And I'm trying. Hence the reading challenges I've joined. (The Spring Reading Thing and The Once Upon a Time Challenge)But I'm really not doing all that well, and can already predict that I won't actually meet either challenge (despite the fact that I tried to keep each list small).
5. I wish I could make more time to create. I know I talk about it enough, but I seem to get very little done. There was a time when I made a good percentage of our Christmas gifts each year. Can't even imagine that anymore. I've got thousands upon thousands of photos I'd like to scrap. Yeah, right, like that's ever gonna happen.
6. Our yard is a disaster as well. We had a week's worth of nice weather there. I should have been cleaning out the flower beds! But I didn't get to it (aside from pulling out about 500 maple seedlings, that is). And now I can't do it, because they're covered in snow again.
Wonder Woman I will never be. I can accept that, but I do wish I could accomplish something once in a while aside from laundry and cooking and child care. Anyway, in case I was somehow making it sound like I was some kind of Wonder Woman, I hope I have now set the record straight. Yep, Undeniable Underachiever...that's a much more fitting title.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
my own worst enemy
So much for my intentions of relaxing my morning away.
I did go and put on water for hot chocolate. But I figured while it was heating I should go throw in a load of laundry. No big deal. When I got back upstairs, the water was ready. I sat down on the couch with my cocoa and a scrapbook idea book I'd received for Christmas. That lasted all of 8 minutes. My obnoxious brain wouldn't leave me alone..."you should really clean the bathroom, you should really clean the bathroom". I decided I would go clean the bathroom, and then get back to relaxing. But one thing led to another...I had the vacuum out after cleaning the bathroom, so I decided I should just give the living room a quick going over (despite the fact that I'd vacuumed it yesterday). Then I figured it was probably time to move the laundry to the dryer. By then, my hot chocolate was cool, so I took it out to heat it in the microwave. Where I noticed that Max hadn't finished his milk at breakfast, so I went to stick it in the fridge. Then realized that I'd been meaning to clean out the fridge for the past week and a half. Needless to say, it was time to go pick up Max from preschool before I knew it.
But you know what...those 8 minutes were really nice!
I did go and put on water for hot chocolate. But I figured while it was heating I should go throw in a load of laundry. No big deal. When I got back upstairs, the water was ready. I sat down on the couch with my cocoa and a scrapbook idea book I'd received for Christmas. That lasted all of 8 minutes. My obnoxious brain wouldn't leave me alone..."you should really clean the bathroom, you should really clean the bathroom". I decided I would go clean the bathroom, and then get back to relaxing. But one thing led to another...I had the vacuum out after cleaning the bathroom, so I decided I should just give the living room a quick going over (despite the fact that I'd vacuumed it yesterday). Then I figured it was probably time to move the laundry to the dryer. By then, my hot chocolate was cool, so I took it out to heat it in the microwave. Where I noticed that Max hadn't finished his milk at breakfast, so I went to stick it in the fridge. Then realized that I'd been meaning to clean out the fridge for the past week and a half. Needless to say, it was time to go pick up Max from preschool before I knew it.
But you know what...those 8 minutes were really nice!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
