Friday Five by Five

[Harriet]

What will you accomplish by five o'clock today?

Maybe you have your 5 priorities written last evening, as Pam and Peggy suggested.

As soon as we start prioritizing, we find that there are a few most important items for our day, and that's the beginning of dividing and conquering!

Wanna here something sad? My first two are Dreaded Phone Calls. Ugh.

helia, I thought you would be interested in this newly created college ranking service/system.

[Twins' Mom]

Just five? I'm so all over the place that I can't even prioritize.

I know I need dog food and potting soil so I'll start with those as my first using "Errands" as my task.

Right now need to get moving. Gal is coming at 10 re ddogs for tomorrow night while we're in ATL, and dcleaning lady is running later today, may be noon or so before she gets here.

-breakfast
-meds/vitamins
-clear kitchen counters
-print off written instructions re: ddogs
-straighten GR

[RunKitty]

Good morning.
My five priorities will be determined by whatever I'm faced with when I get to work. I think we will be extremely busy. After work I have another commitment and won't be home until quite late.
I'm sad for you, Harriet. DPC's are the worst. Hope your day improves afterward and that they are surprisingly un-dreadful.
Lilac, I read about your haircut. I'm so sorry. How frustrating! Hope you can relax and get some peace about your DH's surgery.
Hi, Twins.
Be well, everyone.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Lilac: there may be a plus side to the hair cut. I had one that I didn't think was good just before ending up in hospital. After I showered in the hospital we discovered they didn't have hair dryers there (this is cold Canada, I was lucky it was summer!) so my hair had to air dry. It did so perfectly. The cut was easy to maintain when I had no way of maintaining it. And as I recovered from being in the hospital, and was too tired to fuss, it remained an easy cut. I still didn't like it but it was easy.

Alternatively, you could become an older Jewish lady and buy a wig. I have to say that all the older Jewish ladies I know have fabulous hair because they all have wigs. They look great all the time - wonderful advertising for the wig industry and I'm beginning to dream of the day when I have the nerve to do it for myself. Also just learned that the Ladies on Downtown Abbey have wigs, that isn't the actresses real hair. Makes sense, they already spend ages in hair and makeup plus the time to get them into their costumes. In the documentary I was watching, "Lady Edith" was saying she can now get into her own corset but still needs someone to help her do it up. At the beginning of the series, the historically correct corset was a 2 person job (much like my shapewear!)

Oh, that reminds me of a church member who was going to loose her hair to cancer treatments. She had chin length hair but the wig she bought was long, blonde, hair. She figured everyone would know she had a wig on anyway, so she may as well have a hair style she always dreamed off!

I'm up. Having caffeinated tea this morning (I had switched to decaf in the hopes I'd start sleeping better but it isn't working and I want to have energy today.)

Bed is made, room tidied, kitchen tidied. Will have breakfast in a moment and then start in on the day.

I too am having trouble prioritizing but had written down 6 paperwork items to do this morning so they will be the basis of my 5 x 5.

Ds will be here shortly. He and dh and starting their training with a 13 mile walk. Hope they have the good sense to shorten it a bit. It will be a nice walk along the river, from here to Parliament Hill. I love our neighbourhood because there are so many great walk and bike routes. Last night we walked along the riverbank until we got to the next access our neighbourhood and then walked back to the building through the residential and then light industry (government building and boarding school.) Must remember to always walk on a Thursday night because Friday is garbage day around here and the pickings were good!

[Harriet]

DPCs did not work out as RunKitty and I hoped! I wanted to touch base with a cousin before making the first call, to make sure I understood a flurry of emails yesterday, and yipes! Her housekeeper answered and says she's in the hospital! She felt it would be okay to call the cell phone but there was no answer, so I am stymied. I must admit, housekeeper does not speak clearly. Did she say "in" hospital or "at" hospital...hmmm. Cousin could be at a hospital for follow-up on a recent mishap of her dh's, but her own health has had ups and downs lately and she was hospitalized at Christmas. Hope she calls soon and there's no big deal.

School run and Morning Daily Card are done. I can't say "done well" because dd was tardy.

She had to have her driver's license to go on an engineering field trip today and had left it in the tiny purse she carried to prom. Sigh. So we had to rush back home for it and she was late. They are going to an amusement park to view the inner workings of roller coasters. I hope this is a well thought-out field trip. Yes, it's mechanical engineering, but also a great excuse to just take the kids to the park.

Grandma Brag - (sorry, I know I am using up my bragging allotment ) - DangerBoy and WonderBoy both got blue ribbons in science fair. Each got first place for their grade, and DangerBoy also got a trophy (my goodness). DangerBoy on phone to me last night: "Grandma, is it possible to be TOO happy?" (I assured him he was just happy enough.)

Kathryn, what "pickings" did you pick?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: Dh picked up some wood to make an adjustment to our warning system in the parking lot (when the driveway marker in the spot wiggles, we have entered the space enough to protect the back of the car, while leaving enough room to get the bikes in/out while the car is in the spot.) And I scored three nice planter pots, large, for the balcony. They are heavy duty plastic, so should last a few seasons but are light so won't add to my concerns about weight on the balcony. I also scored gallon plant pots for the church plant sale.

With half the garage emptied out for repairs, the pickings from the garage giveaway shelf aren't as good these days although I note that everything I drop there is picked up quickly - those who still can park on the east side of the building have to exit through our west door now so everyone still in the underground parking walks by the same giveaway shelf now. (There are 3 giveaway shelves in total and last summer we had to drive by all of them to get to our parking spot so scored a lot of stuff that we normally wouldn't have spotted because it wasn't on 'our' shelf.)

[CathyS]

Hi everyone!

Dinner is in the crock pot... or is it a slow cooker? I don't know. Chicken, potatoes and carrots. It has already done an hour on high and is now one the 5 or 6 or however many hours until Wayne gets home.

We have a busy weekend planned. Fishing followed by naps and more fishing. We will also stop by very close to our hope-new-home to grab some more leeks. They are so tiny compared to what is sold in stores.

I have been reading a book that my sister actually recommended. The author's last name is K ondo. Her clutter-clearing methods are over the top and I can't see myself being able to follow any of her suggestions.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

For those intrigued by Cathy's post, here's a link to the book:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Life-Changing- ... 1607747308

The reviews are interesting. I'm now #605 on the waiting list at my library (there are 44 copies, I might get it in time for Christmas!) In theory it should be sooner, but in the past library copies of organizing books seem to get lost more frequently than other titles! I remember some SHE looking for Happiness File only to discover the book was lost at her library. In my case, I didn't lose the book, but when I finally got back to it, discovered an about-to-expire gift card that I had given up for lost was being used as a bookmark!

[Harriet]

It's not as scary as that book, but here's

Where dd is sitting at the moment.

[Harmony]

Hi everybody. I've been at work until now, running all the outside-the-house errands. Glad to have that all done. 6 stops today.

Here's my 5:
1. sweep / mop floors
2. finish laundry (last LOL now hanging up)
3. dust furniture and wipe counters
4. water houseplants
5. blow off the leaves on the front porches and wipe furniture.

I could expand the above to 10 things if I put each thing seperately. We'll see what I get done.

Looked at the book. Remember, this is a Japanese method. They have rice paper walls and virtually no space to keep much. I can see where their method would be extreme. Wish I could do it! I like the subtitle, "the life-changing magic of tidying up". Yep, it is life-changing.

I can't do roller coasters. But I can sit and watch a video of it...which I've seen once before from FB. Yep, quite high, that thing.

Ok, gotta get busy around here.