Monday, February 6

Notes from a Busy Household

I must have started half a dozen posts in the last month and a half. Not a one of them made it far enough along to bother with the bright orange "Publish" button that mocks me from the top of the page.

Life moves so fast sometimes. Do you suppose I've seen that Matthew Broderick Super Bowl commercial too many times? It's one of the few I really liked. As I watched most of them, I felt like I must be outside the targeted demographic because of my age. Or my gender. Or maybe my species.

It seems like I've hardly had a moment to myself since before Christmas, with the exception of a few that were very carefully carved out under heavy guard. Extra special thanks go to Adam for helping carve and guard! I'm sure I'd have gone completely round the bend without them, rather than just most of the way, holding on for dear life.

So what have I been busy doing, you ask? Well, I put 17 items on my Big To-Do list last month. As of this morning, 11 of them are done.

For the last several weeks, I've been:
  • Finishing mittens for Ian, just in time for the weather to get all warmish again. On the plus side, they're adorable, even if all they're doing right now is dangling from the sleeves of his coat. I did make notes while I was working on it, so I'm going to try making a pair for Rosi as well and actually writing up the pattern before the end of winter. (Mental note: update list)
  • Writing out three grocery lists and bought enough food to keep us all fed.
  • Doing our taxes and submitted them online. Hooray for Free File at irs.gov!
  • Developing a lesson plan on the history of Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program
  • Writing a scientifically accurate story of how a snowflake grows and practiced making snow paint out of various ingredients. (For the record, I thought the shaving cream version had the best effect given the cost and effort involved in making the paint.)
  • Updating my resume. Again. I think I've finally got it the way I want it now.
  • Revising my professional profile. If you're not familiar with the term, that's a one-page overview of my career history, skills and qualifications, and what I'm looking for in a new job situation. It's sort of like a mini-resume, but is specifically designed for networking purposes.
  • Becoming a member of a new church. Well, the church isn't that new, but we've only been going there for about 6 months. It's nice to have a church home again, but it's really not helping at all with the being-less-busy thing. It's a good busy, I know, but sometimes I just want a day off or three. (Another mental note: Don't forget to send that e-mail about the VBS planning meeting next week)
  • Figuring out where to donate a batch of recycled heart crayons so that the next project we're doing with the Roots & Shoots group will actually be useful to some kids other than ours. We're donating them to the local Ronald McDonald House.
Add to that all the normal everyday stuff like cooking and cleaning and making sure the kids bathe regularly, learn some new stuff, and don't kill one another. Or their father. Or me.

And, hey, what's going on with my blog design? I didn't authorize a blue stripe down the middle of my sidebar! Now I'm going to have to mess with that again (attempting to make yet another mental note).

***ERROR: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT SYSTEM MEMORY AVAILABLE IN RESOURCE POOL 'MIND' TO COMPLETE ACTION.***

Oh, dear.

4 comments:

  1. Oh, Amy, I hear you about the starting blog posts but never publishing them! At least you started them on the computer. I only start them in my brain. WHen will they invent the interface that allows us to do things by just thinking about it?!

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    Replies
    1. I'm not sure I want an interface that does what I just think about. On the one hand, it would be a great way to clean the house. On the other hand, I can't help but think of all the people I'd insult when I'm having a bad day!

      Delete
  2. I’m lost ... having not watched the Super Bowl. In fact, the night before, I mentioned to Naomi that I did not even know who was playing. And I don’t even know who Matthew Broderick is!

    I’ve not done my own taxes since I lived in Texas, but I’m considering trying this year.

    The professional profile is something new since I’ve been job searching.

    What are heart crayons?

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    Replies
    1. Matthew Broderick is the guy who starred in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Honda did a commercial that was a parody of the movie. They posted it on YouTube here.

      I've done our taxes most years. We don't itemize our deductions (we just don't make enough to come up with more than $11,000 in deductions!) so I've just got the self employment stuff and the earned income credit. This year there was a new form for Health Savings Accounts, but that was pretty simple.

      I'm not sure how new a professional profile really is. Mostly the "new" part is probably the intentional networking, which I've never done before.

      As for heart crayons, they're basically just old broken crayons melted down in a muffin tin to make new crayons. You can see the basic process here. Since it's Valentine's Day, we're using heart-shaped muffin cups and we'll be packaging the crayons with some small slips of paper (for coloring on) in an origami heart pouch.

      Delete

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