Week 50 - Going Much Better

I started the week on an up note, having successfully plowed through my to do list after losing time with the whole car in the ditch episode. Happy dance! I was heading into the home stretch on my pre-Christmas to do list and was feeling good about making progress on it. I had plenty to do but not as much as some people and I wasn’t feeling too stressed about it. All good. A couple of things made that even better.

First off, my cleaning lady called to postpone coming, which wasn’t a problem because Thanksgiving had thrown the schedule off so my house only had 8 days of dirt. When I pointed out that Christmas would throw us off again, she agreed to skip a week so wouldn’t be coming until the 15^th, which meant I had another weekend of productivity before having to worry about picking up. Nice. 

Then I had an epiphany. I always like to ship my sister’s stocking by the Monday 2 weeks before Christmas. You know – the busiest shipping day of the year. I had made my to do list with that in mind, which meant wrapping was prioritized. Then I realized (slaps hand to forehead) that my sister would be in Rhode Island for Christmas so I didn’t need to ship it at all! After that revelation (duh!), the stress level dropped even lower. Yay!

With my list rearranged for the better, I got busy. I had scraped as much mud as I could off my car on Monday afternoon when it was in the 60’s outside (pleasant but worrisome – not normal!) so on Tuesday I was ready for the final demudding. Andrea had given me a coupon for a free carwash on the north side of Lincoln so after dropping my glass for recycling, I hit the carwash. I’d gotten a late start for lunch which meant there were no lines anywhere so I was able to hit Jiffy Lube for an oil change and scrape the last of the now wet mud off my mud flaps in the parking lot. All that in an hour. Nice. I took another lunch hour to stock up on scrapbooking supplies for my calendar pages, which had been bumped up once shipping was off the list. Add in some thrifting and food shopping on Friday and I was ready for the weekend.

It was a rainy one, which worked for me. I had all my usual chores plus the calendar pages (9 each of 4 months) and wanted to do some cooking too. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 on Saturday and after failing to fall back asleep, was up at 4:45 and had my 4^th load of laundry going before the sun was even up. Talk about progress! I kept going on the chores, interspersed with knitting on some colorwork mittens that needed to be done before Christmas. I wasn’t enjoying the knitting because you have to pay attention to EVERY SINGLE STITCH. By the afternoon, I started on the calendar pages. I had ideas and materials for all 4 designs but it still took me until 10:30 that night to finish them. But finish I did, going to bed with all my scrapbooking supplies strewn across the bar area. I’d deal in the morning.

Sunday was another early morning (WTF!) but that meant I had all the scrapbooking put away, the entire house neatized and my chores done by noon. I had a lovely afternoon of knitting. I had gotten into the groove on the mittens so finished the first and started the 2^nd. Late in the afternoon I started cooking. I made a batch of turkey tetrazzini to share with a friend who was coming home from the hospital with a newborn and prune bread for general eating/sharing. I cut up a pineapple and cleaned the fridge, adding more scraps to the chicken bag.

By the end of the weekend, I had met my major goals for the week and weekend. I was happy with my progress and I couldn’t ask for more at this time of year – productivity, no stress and enough relaxation to not start the next week lacking energy. All good. I hope your holiday prep is going as well as mine is. Ho ho ho!