So my deadline of August 17th has come and gone and, as predicted, now that I am back at work for the first time since the birth of my daughter (and as a first year teacher no less) I am too busy to give any thought to the parts of my to do list that didn't quite get finished. I am, however, very proud of myself for having accomplished my goal of 30 items in the 45 days that I had left to me (including getting a job!) and many things got taken care of that would otherwise still be languishing undone otherwise. So, a big thank you to Laura and Lori for inspiring me to get off my rear and get moving! :) Also, although I did not set up a specific reward for myself at the beginning of my list, I have since decided that I deserve another massage for my hard work. Since Laura also gave me a pedicure as a graduation gift, perhaps I can get both of them at the same time. Now, when to go... ;-)
Instead of my crazy to do list, my life has shifted to other pursuits. Specifically, work, but also, now, finding balance between work and family and, even some private personal time. How will I do this? Well, I have some ideas! Stay tuned to find out what I am cooking up for the future of my blog...
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
#30 and beyond...
Well, now that noone is reading this blog anymore since I have sort of dropoed off the face of the earth, I wanted to write an update of my task list. My goal, when I started this list and blog, was to complete at least 30 things before I started my teaching career. I knew that I was going to be drowning as a first year teacher and that there were things that needed to get done around my house that I had just never gotten around to. Thus, the list was born. Unfortunately, it grew way over 30 items as I continued to find things that I wanted to get done or have done and it started to go beyond what I had originally meant for the list to be, that is, items I would take responsibility for and could do on my own. This was supposed to keep me from nagging my husband so much about stuff he needs to do around the house. But, as my list grew, he became an essential part of it.
Here are the last things I accomplished on my list:
#30 - Put door knob covers on everything! With my 15-month old daughter who is the height and weight of a 3 year old, she can easily reach door knobs. Learning how to turn them is not far behind.
#31 - Go on another date with my husband - we managed (finally!) to get out to see Harry Potter 5.
#32 - Get Katie's 1-year pictures taken - We used a local photographer that we liked very much and are mostly happy with the pictures. These were taken awhile ago but I didn't originally list it as finished because I wasn't really happy with the pics to start off with. I have a long and annoying history with bad pictures. This particular day was one of the 103 degree days this summer and poor Katie was hot and miserable and unhappy the whole time which made it impossible to get a good family picture (one of the main reasons I wanted to do this). Plus, she looks like her head was dumped in a mop bucket because it was so hot. Anyway, there are some good ones so I am listing it as done and I am just dealing with my annoyance at yet another bad picture day. I have very mixed emotions about it and it's just a very personal thing.
#33 - Put together Katie's one year panorama - I ended up not being able to do this at all. We had a frame from JC Penney that had a spot for a picture for each month from birth through 1 year that we bought way back when I was pregnant. At the time, I had never seen anything like it before and bought it on the spot. Later, when I found that there were other frames available that I liked much better, I wanted to buy something different but they were $50-$75 and that was out of our price range. The othe picture frames used pictures that were more like wallet sized but the JC Penney frame used small oval pictures, closer to what you would see in a locket. This required Jim's skills. He scanned the frame and edited some pictures and put them all on one 8x10 sheet that would fit into the frame properly. It took some working but it turned out fantastically in the end. We need to get another print of it in matte because the glossy is sticking to the front of the frame but otherwise this is done.
#30 - Put door knob covers on everything! With my 15-month old daughter who is the height and weight of a 3 year old, she can easily reach door knobs. Learning how to turn them is not far behind.
#31 - Go on another date with my husband - we managed (finally!) to get out to see Harry Potter 5.
#32 - Get Katie's 1-year pictures taken - We used a local photographer that we liked very much and are mostly happy with the pictures. These were taken awhile ago but I didn't originally list it as finished because I wasn't really happy with the pics to start off with. I have a long and annoying history with bad pictures. This particular day was one of the 103 degree days this summer and poor Katie was hot and miserable and unhappy the whole time which made it impossible to get a good family picture (one of the main reasons I wanted to do this). Plus, she looks like her head was dumped in a mop bucket because it was so hot. Anyway, there are some good ones so I am listing it as done and I am just dealing with my annoyance at yet another bad picture day. I have very mixed emotions about it and it's just a very personal thing.
#33 - Put together Katie's one year panorama - I ended up not being able to do this at all. We had a frame from JC Penney that had a spot for a picture for each month from birth through 1 year that we bought way back when I was pregnant. At the time, I had never seen anything like it before and bought it on the spot. Later, when I found that there were other frames available that I liked much better, I wanted to buy something different but they were $50-$75 and that was out of our price range. The othe picture frames used pictures that were more like wallet sized but the JC Penney frame used small oval pictures, closer to what you would see in a locket. This required Jim's skills. He scanned the frame and edited some pictures and put them all on one 8x10 sheet that would fit into the frame properly. It took some working but it turned out fantastically in the end. We need to get another print of it in matte because the glossy is sticking to the front of the frame but otherwise this is done.
#34 - Fix the bonus room door and the pantry door - These were two doors in our house that wouldn't shut properly. Since the bonus room is not babyproofed and the pantry can be climbed, it was important to fix those doors so that the doorknob covers would be useful in preventing Katie's entrance. Jim has now fixed them. Hurray! Years of broken doors and he fixed them both in under an hour. Little did I know or I should have made him do it years ago... ;)
#35 - Declutter and babyproof the den and the living room - Okay, so these have sort-of been done for awhile. But not really. And the den is sort of a redo since Katie has been playing inthe den forever. it was more of a higher level of babyproofing for the den. At some point this summer, I decided that we needed to babyproof the whole downstairs to accomodate our growing active toddler and to keep her whininess to a minimum. That meant getting rid of a whole lot of stuff in our living room that was not babyproofed. When we first needed to do it, we didn't have time to do it properly so we took a page from Laura's playbook and just sealed off the dining room on the main floor by buying a huge gate to separate our open living room/dining room combo. Then, we put everything that wasn't babyproofed or that didn't need to be in the new and improved living room and den in the dining room. Great! Except that the dining room was now filled to capacity with JUNK! So, Jim took 2 days off before I started work after Katie started daycare and we emptied the whole place. It's great. And definitely done.
#35.5 - Okay, so I only accomplished half of the original listed item but it took me a lot of work so it should be considered an item that did get accomplished. The item was to remove the alphabet form Katie's wall, move it to where she could reach it and then put pictures up on the wall higher up. I did remove the alphabet (which required repainting a few spots, removing a bookshelf we decided not to keep in her room, etc...) and I did put it back up on the wall where she could reach it but I never got around to putting pictures up. That may have to wait until next summer. Or at least spring break. :)
#35 - Declutter and babyproof the den and the living room - Okay, so these have sort-of been done for awhile. But not really. And the den is sort of a redo since Katie has been playing inthe den forever. it was more of a higher level of babyproofing for the den. At some point this summer, I decided that we needed to babyproof the whole downstairs to accomodate our growing active toddler and to keep her whininess to a minimum. That meant getting rid of a whole lot of stuff in our living room that was not babyproofed. When we first needed to do it, we didn't have time to do it properly so we took a page from Laura's playbook and just sealed off the dining room on the main floor by buying a huge gate to separate our open living room/dining room combo. Then, we put everything that wasn't babyproofed or that didn't need to be in the new and improved living room and den in the dining room. Great! Except that the dining room was now filled to capacity with JUNK! So, Jim took 2 days off before I started work after Katie started daycare and we emptied the whole place. It's great. And definitely done.
#35.5 - Okay, so I only accomplished half of the original listed item but it took me a lot of work so it should be considered an item that did get accomplished. The item was to remove the alphabet form Katie's wall, move it to where she could reach it and then put pictures up on the wall higher up. I did remove the alphabet (which required repainting a few spots, removing a bookshelf we decided not to keep in her room, etc...) and I did put it back up on the wall where she could reach it but I never got around to putting pictures up. That may have to wait until next summer. Or at least spring break. :)
Okay, I realize this post is really long so I will finish up with thoughts tomorrow. :)
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