FRESH START MONDAY

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back from errands. Off to bed now.

[OKay]

We have lived in this 48 year old home for 18 years. I think I might have painted the closets once in that time. So painting every 10 years is probably the bare minimum.
I just googled it and found most recommend painting every 3-5 years. Hum....I'm two coats of paint behind.

LO was a happy fella when I picked him up. He had a good day at school YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Rate your day results......
DGS6 = 10 (his first day attending public school)
DGS15 = 8
DGS17 = 9

[Emptynester]

DPC and email out of the way. Mail and meds sent to DD#1 for next week and email to Financial Adviser since I didn't make arrangements to meet with him.

I am panic-ing as I just realized this is our last week here. I should be sewing but I twisted the old knees getting up and down off the ladder to clean off the shelves and am not moving the rest of the afternoon.

I'll just make myself stay there and sew like crazy tomorrow. I have thought everything out and most of it is measured and cut - just need to put it together.

The thinking part is the hardest when I'm designing things without a pattern. Lucky I have done this before.

The first year we were on the road I was here and another gal and I made about 20 cushions for some benches and chairs. So I learned how to do them then and I'm doing basically the same thing now except I'm adding a skirt on it.

OKay - I love bright white closets - but DH doesn't think it is important. I think ours was done only once in the 30 + years we lived in our house.

[mamapiano]

Just starting to read posts & saw something I wanted to respond to already. School started here for all but kindergarten last week. Our little kindergartner went this morning to meet her teacher & loved her. She is just as excited this year as she was about pre-school last year. Dggs/H.S. senior is sitting at the table doing homework and in a while 3 elementary ggchildren will come trooping in & take over the the rest of the table doing theirs. Grades 2, 4 and 6. Ddil keeps a strong eye on them and insists that they stay on task. And when they come in I am going to take my book & retire to a recliner in the living room. My computer desk is right next to the table & I would be trapped right here if I stayed!

Okay, is LO in kindergarten now? From what you were saying it sounds that way. I think ddil needs some cards to help her track all these kids' schedules. The 4th & 6th grade boys have football practice - don't ask me what I think about that!!! They both love it so what can I say? Some days those three don't come here at all - depends on their mom's days off. Sp one way or another ddil needs some cards or a written schedule to keep track of everything.

Addendum: I think from looking at Okay's last post that LO is in first grade. Is this POSSIBLE????

[helia]

My inbox has only. .. . . 30 emails in it!! It used to have more than 4K. I'm leaving some of those in there b/c they all have info related to things I need to do or events that are still to happen. I made a TODO sub-folder, but I'm afraid that if I put the emails into that folder, I'll forget about them. Kind of out of sight, out of mind. What do others of you do? I guess I could train myself to go through that folder once a week or something.

My sent box is now below 1K. There were over 6K messages in there when I first started this. This means I have decluttered over 9,000 email messages so far! Oh my goodness! Just writing that makes my literally laugh out loud! WHAT on earth have I been thinking?? Maybe this news will make some of you laugh as well.

All I can say about having had multiple school-aged kids is that everything, including what might be considered silly details, was written down on my large wall calendar. I like MoreTimeMoms calendars -- nice large squares to record lots of info. Each person in the family had (and still has) a different colored pen for their activities, and the kids were pretty good about letting me know what they had going on and sometimes would write activities on the calendar themselves. Though I am disorganized in some ways - as in dealing with my email, I have always been very good with schedules and details re: things my kids needed. Again, my kids have always been pretty good about communicating deadlines and items needed to me. Of course, I only have 3 kids. Some of you had more in school at the same time than that.

Well, I never made it to the groc. store or to the gym. I am going to run a couple quick errands here, and then I'll whip up one of ds' favorite meals: jambalaya and cornbread.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Re: Closets: Spare bedroom was done (I remember.) Exercise room, probably but not sure. The two rooms were painted about the same time, about 10 years ago. Our bedroom never, so that's 27 years - I just went up and looked and sure enough the inside of the closet is a different colour than the walls of the room. The only other closets in the house are a broom closet and a coat closet in the foyer. They were done when they were built, 20 years ago. I guess I'm way behind on this! (And am not feeling any pressure to catch up.)

MamaP: LO is just entering kindergarten but it is all day where OKay lives.

Re: email organization Mine is still at 400, I hope to have it to 300 by the end of the week. I sort stuff into subfolders. And then sub-sub folders (i.e. church, then each committee I'm on, and things like photos are in two sub folders within the photo folder within the church folder.) I'm bad about putting my sent mail into the same folders so just keep it all together unless I remember. I only have 1800 emails in there but that's because I archive my mail every couple of years. Still need to archive up to the end of 2012 now that we are this much into the new year.

Dh started dinner and I'm working on the veggies.

I'm up from my 1 hour rest/nap (I dozed.)

[OKay]

Helia - BWTG on organizing your emails.

MamaP - it is SO very good to see you posting. LO is in preschool. They go all day here. I would have preferred him to start with 1/2 days, but they do take naps in the afternoon. This school is small so LO has a good teacher/student ratio.

[Dove]

Peeking into the village from dh's computer. Brought computer in for charging problem & figured it might take a few days or a week to fix (while secretly hoping they could repair it on the spot ). They have to send it out & it will take 2 to 3 weeks to come back, & probably closer to 3 weeks since they have been very busy with back to school business. The look of shock was not for the time it will take to repair, but the amount of time I'll be without my laptop, which has become such a part of my daily routine. I remember years ago giving up TV for a week & it was not hard at all. This will be a little more difficult . I'm going to try not to use dh computer more than once a week.

Ran errands all AM, stopped for lunch out & then finished up the last three errands. There was a B&N near our last stop so we went in so I could browse books & dh the magazines. Had to come here to tell Harriet that the Aug/Sept issue of Mary Jane's Farm has two of your favorite things listed on the cover: an article on quilting, & one on aprons . The little blurb below the word apron said "Every Apron Has a Story" & I immediately thought of you. I wanted to let you know so you could watch for it.

I'm going to cuop for today, & since this is my last time on the computer for a week, think I'll make another cup of tea first .

Waving ~~~~~ to everyone, & hope you all are having a wonderful day.

[OKay]

Helia - you do an awesome job staying up with a very busy family.

Dove - I'm glad you let us know why you will be missing. Doing without a computer for 3 weeks is more than I can comprehend. I start having withdraws after about 3 hours. I think I could give the TV away and not miss it.....although i have no intention of trying that theory out. Who knows.....you might find a whole new world of things to do.

going through Monday folder.....
Decision......do I want to do a marathon with LO? I think I could do it the way they have it designed for little ones. Walk/run 25 miles before the event and document it. Then on the race day, they only need to walk/run 1.2 miles to complete the "marathon". I'm thinking yes.....

[Harriet]

mamapiano, LO is going to a pre-K class. I believe he has shortened hours from what the elementary students will expect. editing to say I notice Kathryn and I have two different ideas about LO's days!!!

Didn't realize mamapiano had such a busy household! Sounds very well-ordered.

Dd13 says to say she rates her day a 10. She's been all but giddy. She made friends with the new German exchange student and is very happy about that, because she really knew no one in that first-period class and now has a pal. Engineering teacher had her hold her binder up as an example. 2 friends in World History. She wants to start taking her lunch because the lunch line is so impossible. She says she was barely able to grab a slice of pizza and went to sit with her friend who had a very nice lunch spread out. This does concern me a little because she will be carrying so much already.

Filled out papers, papers, papers.

I was interrupted and came back to find a lot of posts - will read later.