The To Do List

What's on your To Do list? When I was in school I was big into keeping a list of the things I needed to attend to. I suppose if I were trying to juggle school, work and family now, I'd probably have some sort of electronic assistance to keep things straight. I do have a calendar, with my schedule, CB's travel dates, and when I am slated to watch Mr W. Otherwise, it's occasional notes to myself and the rest is in my head.

I have a kid free weekend coming up. Mr W's dad and I switch off weekends, and so far the schedule suits everyone. I imagine as he gets older, Mr W will have more of an opinion and we'll try to accommodate him. I used to get kind of squirrely (the word I've always used to describe it) when the kid would be with his dad. I felt unanchored, and when left to my own devices too long I tended to start to worry about all sorts of things that didn't need worrying about.

There is certainly no shortage of things to do around the house. I'm starting to reclaim my basement, which over the span of time I've lived here (3.5 years) has served as the "hmmm, don't know what to do with that, let's put it in the basement" place. About half of it needs to be put away neatly and the other half is going to Goodwill. I hope to turn the space back into guest space and a little sitting area. And of course there is the usual housework stuff I try to avoid.

What else is on my list of things To Do? There are those things that I'd rather do than the list of chores and maintenance/improvement stuff. I'd like to stroll downtown and go people watching. I'm knitting a pair of socks and one part has been a real challenge. Gotta exercise the dog - that's good for both of us.

Back when CB and I started dating, I burned through all of my vacation really quickly and had to work practically every weekend that I wasn't watching Mr W to generate enough time off for visits. Looking back, it was hard! The same amount of time off each month, just allocated differently. Now, I try to look ahead a bit and work just one of the weekend days. I also work a lot of the holidays, and have used my vacation time more wisely. Things feel more balanced.

So, I have Saturday off! I will meet up with friend D to work on knitting and drink wine and chit chat. I'll work Sunday, and try to get my housework done at some point. I'll work on my knitting, pay attention to the dog and work in the basement. It's hard to do it sometimes, but when I'm being objective, I feel like all the things on my list are important.

Now, where were those socks I was working on?