Contemplation

I have 8 1/4 more free days until we all go back to school. I know I'm very lucky to have a job that allows me to be off in the summer with my kids, but it just NEVER seems like enough time to get everything done.

I get to this point every summer, and I just kinda "FREAK OUT!"

I know my to-do list has not been completed...

1. Organize photo CD's into containers AWAY from pictures (cause come on, if something destroys one of these things....they will ALL be destroyed.)

2. Catch up on kid's school scrapbooks. (PLEASE. My goal this summer was to scrapbook PERIOD, and guess what, hasn't happened as much as I'd of liked, let alone school scrapbooks)

3. Make oilcloth liners for baskets and put in pantry for boxed items (I got TWO new patterns of oilcloth fabric, and haven't done a darn thing with either one.)

4. Organize pantry. (This has been HAUNTING me all summer, and hasn't been done. I don't know if it's lack of desire to do it, or lack of the above #3 baskets with adorable liners. One can't happen without the other I guess)

5. Spray paint cabinet knobs in kitchen and blue bathroom. (Kitchen ones just need touched up, bathroom ones have never been done. THIS is cheaper than buying all new hardware. Brass just isn't my "look")

6. Get more large hangers (this might sound silly, but the kids clothes no longer fit on kid sized hangers. The necks of shirts are bigger, and just fall right off!)

7. Make extra meals to freeze when nights are hectic during school (kinda happened, but not to my satisfaction)

8. Finish canning/freezing of all the garden produce (STILL happening....doing more tomatoes now as I write)

Maybe I set my expectations WAY too high every summer....I don't know, but it's officially nose to the grindstone time. My husband, who is not organized at all (I'm not being mean, he will freely admit he isn't, and that is why he married me, because I AM) tells me all the time I make too many lists. This is probably true, but it totally makes me feel better to cross something off.

Those people who are always saying to me....people I don't get together with on a regular basis, people who think they are being funny and say..."WHAT will you do with yourself all summer?" Are you serious? I know I am getting a FREE PASS with no work in the summer, but come on...household work doesn't take the summer off...softball season doesn't end till the 3rd week in June (which means between the two of them, sometimes 3 games a week), we go on a short vacation between softball season and the fair, our garden needs tending, and then the produce needs froze/canned, 4-H projects need completed, etc. I'm not just sitting around on my duff eating bon bons and reading (although THAT sounds WONDERFUL!) (Seriously, do people do that?)

Anyway, our summer has been full, and with all the rules and regulations for school, our year, starts so much earlier than I ever remember as a kid. I'm sad, and I'm frantic!

I'm glad my kids are going back so they won't fight as much, but I'm not looking forward to all the homework.

I guess I'll just BUCK UP like my dear old husband likes to tell me when I complain about something. Oh come on, I just needed to vent....