10 Things I Would Like To Do But...

I'm following through on the new "10 Things" kick I started with my last blog post. I really believe we make time for the things we truly want to do. But what happens when the things you want to do are more than the time you have available? Oh, yeah. A priority list might help...unless you hate making lists and being confined to schedules. Am I the only person who desires to do lots of good things but never does them? I seem to have lots of good intentions but I never follow through on about half of them. So here's a list of confessions, things I want to do, have started to do, but never made the time to finish.

1. Stained glass-This one is easy. I never have the money to start this kind of project because of the plethora of other projects I always have going. I love the art of stained glass, though. So this is on my mental list of 'things to do before I die'.

2. Make stuff for all my friends-I always get some kind of compliment on the work I do. And I like to share. Currently, there are 5 projects in the works for friends. Are any of them finished? No. How many are actually started? Two, both just barely.

3. Keep my desk clean and organized-This is a hard one. I spend the most time at my desk. It gathers the most clutter. I tried the Fly Lady thing but the emails were so overwhelming, I felt unable to comply. Besides, I work better under pressure...well, that's what I tell myself anyway. Right now, my desk looks like an F-5 tornado swept through, followed by Hurricane Katrina, followed by a tidal wave of epic proportions. There's barely enough space for my water glass. I've tried organizing it. I bought great little drawer boxes and labeled them. Those are still functioning as described. It's mainly the paperwork that gets out of hand. I even simplified that but it's still like a paperwork swamp! (sigh)

4. Keep my house dust free-This one is practically impossible unless I walk around with dust rags or Swiffer mitts surgically fixed on my hands, feet and head. We live next to a dirt road and there are fields all around us. I'm beginning to think the dust rhinoceri are my pets and am getting quite attached. This is a sad thing, though, when I'm allergic to them. :(

5. Keep up with dishes and laundry-Well, in a family of five, I guess I'd be doing dishes and laundry non-stop. Not gonna happen. I have no desire to constantly stand at the sink or in front of the washer. I do love hanging laundry on the line but there's only so much room out there. I've come to the conclusion that I just need to accept the fact that there will always be some laundry in the laundry baskets and some dishes in the sink.

6. Indulge my budding inner artist-I love art in all forms. I see beauty in so many things. In fact, I see beauty in many areas most people turn away from in disgust. However, putting this down on a piece of sketchbook paper seems to be beyond me. At least, I can't seem to do it on a regular basis. I seem to do things in ragged lumps. For example: 1 week of sewing non-stop, 2 weeks of chainmail jewelry non-stop, 4 days of calligraphy non-stop, etc. As a result, I usually finish a couple of the projects I have going and get started on others so they can sit in a box for a couple of months before I get back to completing them.

7. Exercise-I'm not a sporty person. In fact, I hate sports. I realize the importance of staying fit. But I do not believe people should be paid more to play games than to make a building safe for thousands of the workers inside. That makes no logical sense to me. Anyway, I love the idea of a regular workout routine. I do well for about a week, then the novelty wears off. I'm not getting any younger and my metabolism will be changing before too long. But I can't seem to stick with it for long enough to make it a habit.

8. Eating a good breakfast-I used to eat breakfast every day. Now my breakfast usually consists of 2.5 cups of coffee. I know that's not a healthy breakfast but I can't seem to desire a good breakfast. Not only that, if I eat too early in the morning, I feel kinda yucky. If I do wait to eat breakfast, I'm usually sidetracked by something else that needs doing.

9. Writing a book-One day, I'd like to write a book. I can't really decide on subject matter, though. I thought a book of my blog posts might be interesting. But then I thought it might just be a bit redundant. I did take a course on writing books for children. And I wrote a book...and was told there was too much information in it for the target age. That was interesting since my little cousin didn't seem to have too much trouble with it. Anyway, I haven't tried again and that was years ago. It's not that the critic was dissing my attempt. It's more about me not being sure of what I really want to say.

10. Jam with some of my favorite musicians-I'd love to just sit in on a jam session with some of my favorite artists. There's nothing more comforting to me than sitting in a small, intimate setting with friends and just having fun with music. Sadly, I never seem to be in a position to make this happen. Ah, well...

So there are my ten things for this go round. I hope you find them interesting, funny or helpful in some way. Feel free to comment. I'm not looking for help or guidance. I know what I need to do to 'make' these things happen. I also know that some are more probable than others. I'm a realist, after all. ;) Have a great day!

Time For A Change

I can't keep the same things in the same places for very long unless they are strictly functional. Every now and again, I need a change of scenery. The only room in our house that stays pretty much the same is our music/reading room. I know it sounds grand but it's a pretty humble 12' x 12' room. It doesn't change much because it's the only room that I have been able to decorate exactly like I planned. I said all that to say this: I decided it was time to change the background on my blog.

Have any of you ever gone through the myriad pages of blogger backgrounds at a place like www.pimp-my-profile.com ? It's a time consuming process. Unless you know exactly what you're looking for, plan to spend a couple of hours looking for just the right background. (And if you have dial-up, don't even bother.) I finally figured out it was best to keep a pen and some paper handy to write down the titles I liked and the pages I found them on. Today I listed a total of 11 and went through "I don't know how many" pages to find them. The elements won because it's a simple layout in colors I like and you can see the words. I realized my old background was just too difficult to decipher.

We did have a pretty good weekend. We shared supper with friends on Friday night and had some more friends over to share supper with us on Saturday night. It was nice to be able to do that. Anything that you already enjoy is better if it's shared with a friend, don't you think? I think I might try to do some more scrapbooking today. I have a nasty headache and the weather is chilly and I just want to crash. But if I do that, I won't be able to sleep well tonight. And we have school tomorrow. Hmmm, speaking of school...I need to get lesson plans done and graded work needs to be listed in the book. I guess a woman's work really isn't ever done. :) Talk to you guys later.
Laugh a lot!

What In the World?

Where did my weekend go?? Oh, yeah. Now I remember. I sacrificed my weekend for one of my children. It was worth it. It was worth it. It was worth it. I'll just keep telling myself that. I'm sure I'll believe it enough to go through with it again next year at some point. I'm still wiped out from Friday night! I sure hope tonight is a good sleep night. We have school tomorrow and I need to be awake for that. I've been known to talk in my sleep from time to time but I'm pretty sure teaching in my sleep is a bit far-fetched, even for me.

The sky is a lovely shade of dark grey-blue tonight. I'm wondering if the stars will make an appearance. The cool air of last night was so awesome! It's good to be heading into autumn. I really do think autumn is my favorite time of year. School is getting started again. The holidays are coming around again...well, the fun ones, anyway. I don't know how fun they'll be this year since we don't live in town anymore. We'll just have to see, I suppose. I'll look forward to them until such a time as I don't have to look forward anymore.

My kids played outside for most of the afternoon and, I have to say, the quiet of the house was most enjoyable. I love that quiet part of the day when the kids are still asleep or they are outside. Then I can hear myself think. It's really important for me to hear those random rumbly thoughts that roll around in my head. Some of you know what I mean. Thoughts like "boy, I wish I had some chocolate chip cookies" or "gosh! I think I'll turn the AC back on" or "shucks! I clicked the wrong icon and my player died!" Yeah, those kind of important thoughts.

Well, I better get off of here. I am going to put the wee bairns to bed and then go crash in my own bed.
Laugh a Lot!