Made-to-order Monday

[OKay]

If you could design your perfect Monday, what would it include?

[OKay]

I like to start Monday with a plan for the week. It is never a "set in concrete" type of plan because I know life happens. However, having a loose plan more along the lines of being "set in jello" helps me start the week with high motivation and energy.

My plan for the week includes knowing
** hard appointments (it impacts others if I am not somewhere at a particular time)
** list of meals that have been requested recently
** my deep cleaning focus area for this week
** mini goals for several categories that are important to me

then I can start breaking down each of these into actionable items and putting them into potential time slots. Do I always do what I plan? NO WAY! However, having a hourly plan does help keep me moving forward with the activities I have chosen.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Freedom of movement is what I'd include.

(Ds got asked to work a second shift 7 hours into his first shift so just got home from work. Will need to keep the house as quiet as possible so he can sleep, sleep, sleep. This is the second time in 5 days he's had to work 16 hours in a row. At least this time he doesn't have to go back to work right away, his next scheduled shift is Friday.)

I'm up. I electric-broomed the main floor (over top of ds's room) before he got home and will have to stick to quiet chores for the rest of the day.

Dfs and his wife aren't coming for dinner (a good thing now that ds is sleeping all day.) So I just have to clear off the kitchen table, not both the kitchen and dining room tables. And I don't have to do things like dust or damp mop unless I feel like it.

I have tons of paperwork things to do, we are out doing another Christmas in July (we think, it might be a regular set of songs) over lunch, and there's also yard work so there is no shortage of 'quiet' things to do.

Busy week coming up. At the end of it is two services for me and one for dh. I'm preaching about 20 minutes from here, plus the retirement home and dh is providing music at our church. So I have two services to write, one of which has to be done by Tuesday so I can send it to the church secretary.

I have to work on getting out of hiring a supply minister for the fall (I need to do the work on defining the role but then get someone else to do the hiring due to potential conflict.)

I have a church survey tomorrow night about 40 minutes from here. I do feel strong enough to drive myself to that.

Dentist as well tomorrow.

Surgeon follow up appointment on Wednesday.

I guess my Sabbath will be Thursday or Friday this week.

In theory, ds is home all week although last pay period he was only scheduled for 5 shifts and ended up working the full ten so he may get called in through the week. I might put him to work on sorting through his stuff some more to get rid of things or helping me sort through my stuff. I need to put things up for sale that have value and make a garage sale decision. Part of me wants to have one, part of me recognizes that it isn't worth my time.

Ds is out tomorrow night with friends so I don't have to cook for him then. We will go ahead and have steak and corn on the cob tonight. He got home from work and was in the kitchen talking to me and suddenly said "You've had corn on the cob without me!" The corn cob holders were in the dishwasher so I asked how he knew. He saw the plate of butter with the dent in it from rolling the cobs and that's how he knew!

[Lynlee]

News from Sensational Sunday - Our Cook Islander family/s were fronting the choir on Sunday so that was a special pacific tone the hymns followed. The organist played a flute while one of the men played guitar.
splendid to my ear

my monday
h ome as sist man came today. I now have a grab rail over the end of my bath - towards hand basin. I still need to see if it can also double as a long defunct towel rail. Someone will come to quote on the real shower cubical - that leaks - or would if I used it.
OT brought me an anti slip in bath mat. It will go on the bill. She had no idea on the home help.

I'm on yet another version of sling aka sarong in its other life. I could not tolerate the foam round neck or round back model due to bruising near my elbow, or my neck - fell off its hinges on the train trip home from bris. Its not so bad today after a few worse days. Good news - my wrist is less tingly without the previous sling. My elbow and hand are the more fussy things when I try to sleep. So I figure there is still something up there. My left hand is doing a little more. helping with socks, pot scrapping. I did get to the pool on Saturday - I wanted to help my neck there as well. My left arm was more happy at the end the 35 min session that at the beginning. I bought a 10 session pass to be uses in 3mths so need to plan to get there weekly. I am hoping to get back to yoga too and just do what I can.


I had another hickup with elder sister. If push comes to shove I choose my children. We don't have to agree with one another all the time, but mostly we have respect , and know when its time to shut our mouth and let "each" learn the lesson that they set up for themselves, or change their mind as it suits them. And sometimes we hope for a change of mind. But really. We all like to make our own mistakes. And they aren't essentially bad stuff. Talked some irritation stuff out today re sis. Settled me down.

Need to go and catch up on my dishes.

waving to OKay and Kathryn and all who call in today.

[Harriet]

Appreciating the planning emphasis this morning, OKay. I was going over my 5x5 as I clicked on our PWYC, so was "on the same page". I had also just glanced at the 2011-2012 school year "What I want to track daily" page I'd made for start of that year and was thinking that out. That was the last year that our household enjoyed a 9:00 school drop-off time, and school was only a mile away, so my 8:00 to 10:00 space was super-productive then, with the school run hardly a blip. I would already have laundry in and just walk back into the house continuing chores, rather than seeing it as a divide of any kind. Morning Dailies, decluttering and a Round Robin cleaning including Focus was done during that exact space, which kept me on track.

If it is interesting to anyone to know the school-days "What I want to track" page from that year, it says...

Hour Morning Dailies - what was laundry?

45 cleaning Round Robin (Focus first) - where?
15 declutter - where?

30 Afternoon Dailies
30 Evening Dailies

Healthy habits - record
Exercise - which?



Eventually that kind of thinking led to my laundry card with red dates recording when each load was done. I still really like that.

My job now is to figure out why the change to the 6:45 drop-off, rather than helping at all with productive mornings, seemed to backfire. I need to adapt.

Today my Desk Day begins with redoing the fitness notebook, which is another form of getting myself back on track. I've been without it for weeks - just couldn't wrap my mind around it. So far I've printed 2 weeks of daily fitness journal forms and need to hole-punch those and get started.

Today begins Outdoor emphsis for Focus cleaning, Kitchen for declutter. BookSaver has already got the Focus thread up for the week.

my 5x5 at this point

Desk Day (remember bday card)
Organize in dd's closet
Vitamin store
extra laundry
Houseplants

[Nancy]

Today I'm excited to hear that Royals are awaiting the birth and Kate is in labour saw that on the news!

No kids today need to do a bit of shopping for some capri's or shorts that fit my wardrobe needs help send kind thoughts in that direction would be appreciated! Might even try sewing...

[Harmony]

Hello everyone.

I'm not doing much planning these days. As this dragged on I quit making elaborate lists or plans (mostly in my head) because I was either pushing myself too hard or being upset that none of the plans were getting done! For now I'm just doing what i can and taking it easy on myself. 3D's. That's enough to keep things going around here till this passes.

Yesterday I did not even attempt to go to church. I can guarantee if I'd done that I'd probably have napped most of the afternoon. Taking it easy, though, meant I didn't sleep all day!

So far today, I've got dailies done and my desk chores done. Long time trying to understand medical bill, reconciling with insurance papers received. That's always a puzzle. Kinda bummed how much this recent batch of stuff has cost. Even with insurance.

On that subject, thinking of Sadie, hoping you find affordable insurance. Not easy. Everything has gone up since OC came on the picture. I had to up my deductibles and still am paying more while getting less. Are you retiring? You wrote that 'last day' post in such a minimalist way, but wow if you're retiring, that's a huge change!

More thunder above. I'm grateful for all the rain we've been having.

[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~

It's a good thing that I was running a few minutes late this morning. As I was grabbing the tote bag to leave for meeting, the person I was to meet called to cancel. Her husband put the box we need to mail in his truck instead of her car, and he is at a boy scout camp until tomorrow night.

So ... since I'm dressed in outside clothes and shoes, I will start bringing my sewing stuff in from the car.

I opened the box for the new printer and saw that it is much larger than my old one. Must clear space on the desk, might as well clean off the whole left side. Who knows what I'll find in the archeological dig today.

As usual, "But First" --
* I used my rolling file box to transport tools and fabric to sewing camp.
* The files I took out of the box are stacked in the spot where I need to put the old printer.
* I need to bring the rolling box in from the car.
* Take everything out of it and put that stuff away based on sorting out the things I need this week vs. the tools I won't need again for awhile.
* Put the files back in the rolling box.
* Move the old printer over to the empty space that only stayed empty for a few seconds. (sigh)
* Declutter half of the desk to make space for the new printer, even if it means putting things into a sorting box for later.
* Unpack new printer and install.
* Test printer.

I think we'll be having tacos for supper tonight. If the local diner is doing their all-you-can-eat special for $5.95, we'll go there. Otherwise I have the fixin's here at home.

Oops, I stopped to check Email, had to answer a few, and then got sidetracked by a fashion blog. OK, I'm going out to the car now ...

[lucylee]

SOS!!! HELP NEEDED!!!

What is wrong with my printer??? &(_(*@!$#+)(

I tried to print a page on excel last night, and it came out all spotty & faded looking, so I put all new ink cartridges in. I had received a message that the blue cartridge was low already, but no messages on the others. However, the ink indicator showed that they were pretty low. First I replaced the black cartridge (b/c I was only printing in black anyway) but that made no difference, so then I replaced them all.

Still no difference.

I have printed a few test pages on Word, and they came out just very gray and faded looking also -- even though I had one of them set on bold/black.

* sheesh *

Any suggestions?

My made-to-order Monday would include no printer problems and I would find out that tires are available.

[Ivy]

Good Morning, Everybody!

So far I've done these items:
X d2s, fixed hair
X had coffee
X emptied the DW
X had breakfast, meds/supplements & vitamins
X Did my QVAR inhaler
X Did my peak flow meter, which was 370 this a.m.! Yeah!
X Did my eye antibiotic ointment
X Made the bed
X Called the pharmacy for a renewal
X Added the "pharmacy" to DH's grocery/errands list for Tues.
X Rinsed my yogurt dish & coffee cup
X Put dirty laundry in the utility room basket
X Played around with my calendar
X Changed items in my office desk drawer. (Feel like somebody's been "snooping".)
X Prayed, wrote in my journal, and am getting ready to write a story by hand.

It's nearly impossible to log stories now, with dgrsons visiting because I can't put the time into it I need to. Plan on writing by hand, they leave the 28th, and can log from the 28th - 3rd of Aug., when 3 grandsons come. I have until Aug. 16 to get stories in.