Today I am . . .
Taking care of bidness business.
- Organizing the drawers in my built-in buffet.
- Decluttering the inside of my piano bench. It had been filled with hard copies of interviews I’ve given over the years, but multiple copies of newspapers and magazines was getting out of hand. The newspapers went into the recycling and the magazines will get brought to the waiting room at work. (It was hard to get rid of the extra copies of the NY Times Interview I gave way back in 2009, but holding onto yellowing piles of newspapers is perilously close to hoarding for my comfort.)
- Continuing to winnow down a big pile of financial and household papers from the dresser in my dining room. This involves following up on general annoying tasks such as scheduling the mini-van for a recall-related repair and calling the high school about a $100 graphing calculator that my son misplaced. However, I did come across a $218 check from our mortgage company that I hadn’t even known about. (Apparently they over estimated how much escrow money to withhold.)
- Running errands to pick up prescriptions from various doctors.
- Writing a letter to my best friend in response to one she sent me a few weeks ago.
- Looking forward to taking my mother to see the original version of The Miracle on 34th Street tomorrow.
- Taking a broken TV to Goodwill to take advantage of their free e-cycling program.
- Getting that wonderful feeling of lightness and accomplishment one achieves from motoring through a horrifically long to-do list.
Now your turn. What are you doing today?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow you had a busy day!
Today I decluttered one drawer, and that’s about the only productive thing I got around to doing.
Today I started hemming some curtains for my son’s best buddy’s new attic bedroom. Another friend had the curtains lying around, I have a sewing machine lying around, and by the end of the weekend, son’s buddy should have curtains hanging around! I also bought a bushel of apples and have my second pot of applesauce simmering right now. They had macintosh for a dollar less than the cortlands I usually prefer, so I bought half a bushel of each and got peeling. No fancy applesauce gear here, just me and a hardware store paring knife. 😛
Must smell wonderful!
Today it smells even better – homemade granola and another batch of applesauce. Yum!
I stopped at SAM’S Club for a few things they have on markdown this month (individual pot pies for less than a dollar are cheaper than takeout/eating out). I also stopped a couple of places to do returns and bought a card at Dollar Tree ($.50 for a card for someone having twins).
I walked to yoga despite the cold and the wind. I bundled up and was fine. On the way home I went a little out of my way to pick up this week’s free (after rebate) Saving Star deal.
I used the last of the spinach I bought last week with fruit from the freezer (that I froze so it wouldn’t go bad) in a smoothie following dental work. I also made a pureed soup with sweet potatoes, carrots and apples in it. I love my immersion blender.
My husband and I will stream a show tonight that played during the week. I don’t know what yet but we like watching when we want.
Today I am FINALLY sitting at home with my dog. This was a long, terrible week and I need a few hours of respite. So sitting in front of the TV not having thoughts, drinking a beer, and doing a bunch of stuff on Swagbucks.com. I couldn’t be happier.
Tomorrow I have a 12 hour work day. But for now….ahhh…..
Sorry to hear that you had a long a terrible week. TV and beer sound like a great idea!
Just bought some blank notecards and I’m going to make my own Christmas cards this year, using recycled cards and other items I’ve gathered around the house. Getting ready to make a homemade iced mocha…..who needs Starbucks? 🙂
Yum!
I took out the last of the tomato plants this morning (in northern California they don’t freeze, they just stop producing). The green tomatoes went into the carport in newspaper wrapping. They’ll slowly, slowly ripen – faster if I bring them inside. The ripe tomatoes will get eaten or go into the dehydrator. By mid-December, they’ll be done. By February, I’ll be starting new seeds. In the meantime, kale season!
Went to my safe deposit box when the bank opened to retrieve an item, packed it for shipping, and sent it out. This is the last of the items from a loved one’s home that I helped clean out last month.
I made a virtue of necessity by reading old magazines/newsletters while I was sick. One more pile of paper taken care of.
Katy, I’m totally in sympathy with you about the disproportionate amount of work it takes to “winnow down a pile of financial and household papers.” Sometimes it feels like one page = one hour.
Or longer. One of my items from my equivalent pile is getting the ceiling repatched from a leak that happened … I’m embarassed to say how long. I called my usual handiman. He’s already blown the hour-long window by 10 minutes. So either I deal with this delinquint guy or I have to go through the work to find another one. :-{
Dealing with stuff from the pile is rarely a single task, as it’s making a phone call, waiting for a return call, missing that phone call because I’m in the shower, making another phone call and then finally making an appointment. Then going to the appointment.
It never ends, and it’s why that task got put in the pile to begin with!
Today I am
Writing as much as I can to chip away at this paper that will be a part of my thesis
Stressing that I will have nothing useful to say in said paper
Taking a walk with my husband and boys. Despite the cold, the sun is shining and we all need fresh air
Eating too much warm food and drink because it is cold outside
Planning the tea my mama is throwing for our neighbor’s daughter who is getting married next year
Dreaming with my husband of a time when we are no longer getting up in the middle of the night with kids and sweating through classes instead of earning paychecks when we can linger over long meals reminiscing about the good old days 🙂
I’m guessing $218 was an all time high for your found money! thx for this post, it was the nudge I needed to get started. (now I’ll get up & accomplish one thing, then sit and read one thing. works for me)