How it's going

I noticed a shift in my mindset when I found used found time to catch up on some recreational reading instead of work tasks. It's also been coming easier to do something for me or for my family on a daily basis. In fact, I stopped tracking the ways I said no to overworking on the right hand column because tracking it was getting tedious. So many things to type each day! I will keep an eye on that, though, in case it starts to fall again. Many, many organization projects are complete. (Yes, there are more on the to do list than on the done list, but I'm focusing on the feeling of done rather than on the feeling of not done. This is also a big shift in mindset.)

This week will be a difficult week for me with jam packed work and school activity schedules. A couple special pressure items are on the list this week--state budget hearing and a regular board meeting--while the Assistant has been out for a week. However, I am going to take a deep breath and do what needs to be done to get out alive, as they say. This does mean I am going to work a bit at home today, but it's to keep me out of the office when I need to be at one of three exercise classes or picking our daughter up from one of her many activities, or when the family is going out to dinner and the theatre to see South Pacific one city away. These kinds of weeks will come. Planning will keep them from overtaking my life and going back to the old routine of work, work, work.

A couple more items done at work despite the rough week:
4. Organize/fill in/archive (one year) the financial reports
6. Weed/file/delegate/prioritize every item on the inbox on the filing cabinet outside my door.

To catch up on the projects for the month in the organized life/work life in a year:
1. clean out my closet leaving only clothes
2. Clean out the drawers in my desk at work (already on the list, so not adding any pressure)

I'm using the laundry organizer and just love it. Although it holds only 3 loads of laundry, once I get one in the washer and one in the dryer, that means all the laundry is downstairs instead of sorted on my bedroom floor! Victory is ours! I don't think my mother and father know how happy this particular Christmas gift makes me feel. Yes, I am easily amused byt he little things.

I've stuck to my guns on exercising three times per week. It hasn't been easy, but I've seen progress in two months on the program. I've lost 10 pounds, greatly increased my stamina in the crazy aerobics class I take on Saturdays, and my clothes are looser or I am fitting into ones I had outgrown last year with the 20 pounds added on. With a total of 30 to lose, I'm 1/3 of the way there and by June 30 I can be at my goal in that area. Why do I want to focus on this area? I want to be able to water ski this summer without hurting myself and without struggling to get up. I also want to be able to wear my engagement ring and wedding band again. And it's almost gardening time! That will keep me active outside the classes.

Time to buckle down and get some things done today so I can enjoy the week despite the challenges.

1. Laundry all washed and dried, folded, and then PUT IT AWAY! (Yes, I am yelling. Putting it away after it's folded is my downfall.)
2. Dishes (I timed it last week and found out that it takes one hour to go from a disaster are to a clean and picked up kitchen, so why put it off? Do it and reap the emotional rewards of a clean kitchen!)
3. Start dinner
BREAK--cup of decaf and read a chapter or two in Galileo's Daughter
4. Director's Report outline
5. State budget hearing testimony outline
BREAK--Just Dance with our daughter

And away I go!