Done and doner

K. is back to work today after just over a week off. He’s got 2 weeks left now before the fun really begins. We’ve had our weekend away and he got to be home for Monkey’s birthday–two things that we weren’t sure were going to happen if his training schedule had gone the way we thought it would. For once Army Shenanigans worked in our favor. I was afraid our combined addictions were going to foil us in the preparations area–me with the Sookie Stackhouse novels and he with his new Civilization game–but we pulled off a fairly good goofing off to productivity ratio.

As I mentioned, I did get my desk(s) organized and I set up a laptop for the kids to use to email their Dad while he’s away (no grubby fingerprints on my computer, thank you very much!). I cleaned up my closet for a change too. I spent Sunday going through piles of paper and old bills and tossed a grove of trees worth of paper and filed the rest. I’m paper pile free for the moment and with a fair amount of self discipline I might keep the piles away all together. Ha! Right. Going through a year’s worth of paid bills only took me a half a day–that’s not too bad, right? I do all the bill paying and I am the one responsible for the accumulation and I know I do this, but at least once a year, the pile gets to that point where it falls over with just a thought of looking at it so I just toss more on the pile and look away and shut the door that hides it. It’s a filing system that works though–everything is definitely in one place.

Yesterday was a beautiful, warm Fall day, so I spent part of it outside clearing out the garden and turning over all the soil for next year. I have more to do out there, but for now, it’s in a good place in case I just don’t get to it again until spring. Now we just have to call for a fall leaf clean up and I’ll be set. K. took down the large screen tent I put up back in the Spring on the back deck and put away all the summer lawn furniture. I was sorry to see it go, but happy to get more light in the kitchen now that the green structure was gone. The light is getting short enough as it is and I’d like to be able to see what is there. Plus, I have no doubt the screen tent wouldn’t last the winter and I am not inclined to deal with a broken tent in 6 feet of snow (that’s a conservative estimate). I am happy to be able to enjoy the view of my big back yard again. I also did a quick round of dog poop pick up in the yard, but I have to say, I didn’t mind. First, it wasn’t so hot out that anything smelled. Secondly, there just wasn’t much there. Since the dogs are on the best food they could be on, the stuff disintegrates pretty quick when left for the elements to deal with. It’s just one of the many perks of a raw diet for dogs.

I also finally finished a painting I’ve been working on in my water color class for 2 semesters (of 8 weeks each).  Here’s a sneak preview:

I am extra super slow and ridiculously hesitant, but I was so close and I want to move on at class tonight, so finish it I did. I put my headphones on and listened to book 6 of the Sookie series and just wrapped it right up. I work so much better when my brain is occupied with music or books. I think it came out pretty good for a newbie painter and I just need to go mat and frame it after I add a few minor details and it’ll be complete. I’ll get to that this weekend though and then I can finally give it over to Mom (who, like any good Mom, enjoys doodles from her kids) for her Mother’s Day/Birthday present combo only about 5 months late. I’m horrible with giving gifts on time. Sometimes I wish I could just give thoughts, because I have those early. Now that I’m done with this painting though, I plan on writing up the experience on my other blog for my business. I definitely learned quite a bit including patience for myself which should come in handy this year.

I think there were some other small projects I finished, but my brain has now moved on to future projects, so I’m blanking on what they were. As I mentioned before, I’m at that point of moving forward and planning all the time. Hopefully by the time the end of the month rolls around, I’ll have wrapped up a lot of these little things. Snow will be upon us soon enough, and I want to make sure we’re ready. I’m hoping we’ll have several good weekends to wrap up some of the outdoor things and weather proofing. It’s almost time to hibernate.

All in all, it was a nicely balanced week. I’m hoping to continue the trend for this week. We’ve got a few projects that are probably going to take me more than a day that I want to start chipping away at and then when they are done, I can just work on maintenance around here and not have big things hanging over my head. I look forward to that sense of accomplishment and having the option to feel like I can relax (although, in reality, I’m not much good at relaxing for long).Winters here are long and with K. away, I’ll have enough on my plate without my OCD-lite nagging at me to deal with these projects.