TAKING CHARGE 3 Apr 06

You didn't get the hailstones yesterday then?

Winter tomorrow! ...but that's to be expected here on the north coast! I completely made the most of our week in South Carolina, though : it was sunny most of the time and although the temperatures hovered in the mid 60 to low 70 degrees...it still felt SO good to be warm outdoors!

I'd like to grab a few minutes outside this afternoon and get some cleaning-out done in my front flowerbed...before it snows (expected tomorrow!) I'm battling a headache, though and have a dentist appointment at 5:00 pm so the gardening may wait for another day/week.

My Monday chores are pretty much done, and I did get most of the grocery shopping done yesterday. My DDDDDH did ALL the laundry...but his "doing" of the laundry consists of washing, dryng and leaving on the diningroom table so I have a mountain of things to put away. Still, at least it's clean!

I picked up the mail from the post office and have already read, filed and/or shredded last week's mail.

This evening I need to complete an application, write a cover letter, and assemble all the assorted papers that need to go with it. Tomorrow I'll submit that to the school...the position is for a middle school Family and Consumer Sciences teacher and I would LOVE it.

I haven't put out one single piece of my Spring/Easter decorations yet...hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow...I'm with you, Kerri...I'm READY for spring!

We've got Girl Scouts tonight with DD15.5 and crew. they're already working on the beginning steps of the Gold Award. Lucky for me, all I really have to do is "advise" and drive! The rest is completely up to them!

Happy Monday, friends!

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

if there was snow on my forecast for tomorrow!! It is supposed to drop to freezing overnight, but it's the sun I care most about, because there's been more of it and the plants are sprouting out all over.

I've FINALLY washed my bedding. It has been waiting so long I couldn't even telly ou how long it has been. I have a REALLY bad feeling it might have been closer to Christmas than Easter! Still, it's dne now, and dry... all without detergents! And DS has offered up a new challenge for my detergent-free laundry ball. He came home covered in red and yellow paint, all over his sweater and trousers. On a Monday. So I've actually done three loads of washing today - all without the extra rinse since there's no detergent. I'm feeling quite good about how much water and electricity that must have saved in just one day. I'm afraid I will never be at the level where I can handwash everything, and I think my bedding has contributed enough to saving water in the last few months. So I'm just happy if I can make substantial cutbacks. Especially since the stupid water company goes round overcharging everyone by estimating about 5 times what the actual bills should be. They're going back on my list of people to *deal with* and there will be tears before bedtime if they don't get it fixed to my satisfaction this time.

I have also bullied a few other people today - the warehousing agent for a start. He was supposed to call me back on Friday and didn't, and from what I've heard he's pretty pathetic, so when I got his reception this morning I said this would be the last time I ever made contact about a property under their company if I didn't get this sorted today. I was speaking to him a few moments later. Then I told him to go and negotiate with the owners for a lower price and get back to me today or tomorrow. I'll be callng him by lunchtime so he'd better not plan on calling me too late!

All this sunshine has me back in a seriously kick-a$$ mood. Whose a$$ do you need to kick this week?? Ready, aim, KICK! Go on, you'll feel so much better for it!!

kicking your own a$$ counts too I reckon.

tax registration here I come! Whoopee!!!

Kerri.

There have been a number deaths from a tornado in Tennessee last night. http://wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=4715490

that Spring weather was predictable or consistent!! We had a very brief flurry of hailstones last night, and we've definitely had some beastly cold winds. The temperatures quite low this morning because it dropped overnight, but at least the sun's back out again! That sun makes all the difference, along with the green stuff!

I'm trying to do my Morning Pages at least every Monday morning at the moment. The difficulty is that by the time I get working at 9am the Singapore contingent is reaching the end of their working day and it gets increasingly difficult to get things done. If I then leave it another 45mins while I write it gets worse. I do need to do it on a Monday morning though to get my head in gear - it helps too much to ignore it all week. Unfortunately, the other thing is that by the time I get working they've already dumped a ruck of work on me that is invariably urgent!

I have a couple of things out of the way already so I came on here and did the Hunger site stuff - I dropped that habit ages ago then bumped back into it recently, so I'm trying to fit that in with checking personal emails and checking in here. Again, if I can attach a new habit to an existing one I have a better chance. I wish I could get it going with the meds - it's still more miss than hit on that.

I have to figure out all the things we need to do when DH gets back tomorrow night and there are loads. Unfortunately he needs me to sign something that's down in London and that won't be possible for me this week or next. Shame really, since it's the bank loan that's getting the business started! My dad's off to France for most of this week and next, so I can't leave babysitting to Mum because it's just too much, even if she wasn't still rcovering very slowly from the bug that she had. The after school thing only runs till 6pm which wouldn't give us enough time, even if we sent them in at 7:30am for the breakfast club thing too. We'd hit traffic, we're horrible at negotiating our way round London and we're just too far away. So that's another problem I need to find a solution for.

I'm afraid I'm just not as chirpy this morning as I was yesterday. Partly because DS woke me up at 6am with a wet bed again, and once it has happened a couple of times I know it keeps happening a few times, though I rarely figure out why. Once I woke up again at 7am I was very grouchy and easily irritated, so when DH asked how I was this morning I simply told him I was 'a bit grouchy so watch out'!

Still expecting a call from the police to arrange an appointment, though goodness only knows when they can come because I'm stuck after today. I will keep Friday clear because I've either got to sign this thing somewhere in the country or I'm going to the garden centre with my mother! Thursday afternoon I suppose.

Youd' think that the list would get smaller after you keep chopping loads of things off it, but somehow it just keeps refilling like housework, only it's not the same things over and over - there are always new things to learn and new problems to solve. I think I may have to retire soon!!!

Kerri.

That's out weather all the time! It's cold this morning, but like you, Kerri, the sun is shining and that makes ALL the difference!

I'm getting ready to take a teaching application, resume, and all the related "required documents" to a nearby (20 min) school district that has a middle school FCS position posted for next year. The posting is internal right now but a friend of my mother works at the administration office, saw it, and called my parents last week. Conections are good!

After that I'm going to my mom's for lunch and to do a "couple of things" on the computer for her...travel reservations, etc.

Kerri, I never even think about having "nothing" on my list of stuff to do! As long as the stuff is cycling from "needs done" to "done,"
I just expect that something else will come along to fill the space! I hope something else comes along!

My organizational mantra?
"NEXT!"

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Let's say I have 10 things on my list (I have more but let's say for now)... I do half of what's on my list, but before I get to cross them off I find I now have 20 things on my list. I know my maths is dodgy but something isn't quite right!!

Kerri.

I know someone who has been taking charge in her garden, so I think it's probably time to boast about that achievement. I still need a boat to get out to my borders, but I'm hopeful that it will improve soon. I need to take a rubbish sack into the greenhouse and just scrape all the previous owners' stuff into it, rather than bothering to sort through or it will never get cleared. Some of it is very icky and some bits just disintegrate on contact.

But that's not going to happen this weekend. We have a ruck of paperwork to complete including an entire sub-franchise conact from scratch almost; and then there are DD's new school shoes to get, which is ALWAYS a nightmare. I spent a fortune on the last pair in September and I'd like to say they lasted this long but they were scuffed horribly in the first week. Lovely pair of shoes, quite old-fashioned but not heavy or ugly. Just right for someone with long narrow feet, long skinny legs and not much overall height. If I put her in big clumpy shoes she looks like a clown, and most of them don't fit round her skinny ankles. Having kids will actually make it easier for her to buy shoes in future, just like me!

Right, I've checked all my personal and work emails, popped in on here, so now we need to get out and do that shopping. If I can get the kids out of their pjs.

Kerri.

Yes, I have tidied up the garden quite a bit. I didn't 'put the garden to bed' at the end of last year as I like to do, so had an awful mess of dead annuals etc in the beds and numerous containers. It looks nice out the back now, I just have to finish sorting out the front garden.

Meanwhile the house is a wreck. Today's jobs are to tidy and clean kitchen and living room, and iron.

No gardening happening here. My poor spring blooms were covered with snow on Thursday morning...the crocus blooms didn't last but my mini daffodils and hyacinth weathered it ( ) just fine! Yesterday it rained non-stop all morning...cleared out just in time for our home opener ball game, then rained/stormed for most of the evening.

Not much else happening here, either! DH ended up working late yesterday and missing the last plane home. He'll be in about 7:00 tonight.

I'm doing laundry today...and the cleaning that I didn't do yesterday.

I have to get out in a bit. I have film to get developed and need a special gift for my young "secret Lenten pal" at church tomorrow. Every year, adults in our congregation are matched up with children and every Sunday during Lent we write a letter on a Bible verse/story sharing our own thoughts and experiences and include a small themed gift. On Palm Sunday we "reveal" our identity and have a party during Sunday School.

Other than that...I'm just hanging out.

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

seems like ages ago as I read through my first post! I think a lot has been achieved this week, but we don't have time to rest on our laurels yet or in the foreseeable future. Big, expensive decisions have been made (computer and phone/Blackberry/PDA), things have been moved further on (legal mostly), and groundwork has been prepared for more steps to be taken (financial, more legal, warehousing...).

I've also initiated a war on junk in this house. Well okay, just the excess papers and recyclables mostly. I haven't yet thrown the kids out, although it's been a close run thing the last few days.

Between an impending visit from Flo and two of the most incredibly annoying children on the planet at their worst I am really not a fun person to be around. DH started to ask me something, listened to me screeching at the kids and thought better of asking me anything. He obviously decided, and quite crrectly, that he'd be taking his life into his own hands!

no bike rides today thanks to the intermittent rain showers and hailstorms which continued throughout the day, so I promised the kids a family game this evening. Not a lot of fun really since DS was babbling like maniac, but anyway.

Maybe tomorrow will be an improvement (HAH!).

Kerri.

Is everyone out enjoying the Spring weather? Or too busy 'taking charge' to post?

I have thoroughly tidied up the gardens now, front and back, and am busy planning what to plant this year. As for the house, well I tided and organised the living room yesterday and am planning to work my way through the rest of the house over the weekend.

Anyone else?

...and YES! It's been gorgeous here today! Much getting done...much going on...will have to post it all later!

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

and I was waiting for someone else to wake up and notice for once. If there's only three of us and one goes away it gets a bit pathetic really. And I'm away for most of next week. This week was a test and everyone failed miserably!!

everything that could've gone wrong this week has gone wrong, pretty nearly anyway. I've either been working to fix things or sleeping. Or waking up to change a wet bed. Maye DS' problems are related to worries over my changing status rather than us going away without them for a few days next week. He's having a wet phase - evey night and sometimes twice. Thank goodness it got warmer because I'm giving up on his duvet for now. Fleece blankets keep him quite warm and are easier to handle when they get wet.

I'm still hoping to do my morning pages this morning, since I haven't touched them in a couple of weeks. And I'm taking a pad and pen next week too.

Kerri.

I've been working quite a bit (substitute teaching...and loving it ) MIL is hospitalized...again...multiple bypass surgery next Wednesday. HOly week and Easter kept us quite busy and now BIL is here to spend a bit of time with MIL...as he was in Ireland the past few years and couldn't be here last summer when she was so sick.

All else is good...including the weather so today I came home from school, gathered up the kids, went to visit MIL, then came home and weeded a bit and watered my plants/flowers.

The family is just now eating dinner...and it's 8:15 We have to exploit beautiful spring weather when we get it!

Love and miss you all

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Even the sun is sleeping in. I'm thinking the universe recognizes that I am incapable of doing housework when the spring sun is shining and is granting me a reprive to get a few "must do's" done indoors!

Last Monday was spent with the older scouts, and I subbed Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, so my long standing houskeeping routines are quickly going by the wayside! Last fall I had the DDS handling a good bit of the routine housekeeping tasks on a pretty good schedule, so I guess if I'm going to finish out the school year as a substitute we better get back to that.

We've had just an incredibly beautiful week, weather wise, though, so "drop-the-books, change-the-clothes, and get-back-outside" has been the afterschool mantra!

Today I need to do some laundry, run by the dry cleaners, visit MIL (I just cut a vasefull of pink-and-cream tulips to take her) and fix a decent dinner. I also need to get the flannel sheets off the beds, washed, and put up until next year...of course, if I combine that with taking the winter coats to the cleaners we'll surely get snow next week!

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon