Wednesday, July 22, 2009

How Are We Doing?

I thought the other day about the list I made way back when (ok, in May) when July was a distant memory. Now that we've been out of school for a month, I want to take stock and remind myself about fun stuff yet to be done and "fun" projects yet to be completed around the house. Summer days can slip by into weeks so quickly, and this leisurely pace of life is so lovely, but seriously, how are we doing?
  • 5/19 edit: Our school secretary reminded me about Storybook Land. Then there's Jelly Bean Jungle. And Pump It Up is supposed to be great. Um, maybe. Storybook Land is a possibility. The other places seem overly expensive for what they are, especially when we have a whole back yard to play in.
  • 5/18 Edit: Guest room needs to function as an actual guest room. With a walkable floor. Done and done. Very cozy down there, now with two beds because we're turning the upstairs guest room into Maddie's room slowly but surely.
  • Go to the zoo. Done, Philly zoo was awesome (as long as you don't ask Bob) and we're going to the Cape May zoo with some friends and their kids next week.
  • Go to library toddler time. Gloucester Township's is very nice, but the don't run it every week. Pitman's is good too, but most of the concerts and kiddie shows Camden County parks run happen to fall at the same time. Maddie did go today with Nana, though. It was "Puppet Day".
  • Clean out the laundry room, for Heaven's sake. Done. Now nobody go in there and do laundry, so it'll stay nice.
  • Paint the bedroom furniture, finally. Um, no. I'm voting for just getting new bedroom furniture some day.
  • Put away toys that are just too young for Maddie. Will do, after the great room switch of '09.
  • Read read read all the books on my nightstand plus the one we have to read for school and then find some tasty "summer books". You know the ones I'm talking about. Think Gigi Levangie Grazer. Read a couple good ones so far, mired in The Daring Book for Girls (looooong read, but worthwhile), and I still have two more on the nightstand.
  • Keep nails pretty and stop biting them because I may or may not be 12 anymore. Oops.
  • Potty train Maddie. HAHAHA! I'm such a fool.
  • Send the beloved paci to the "babies who need one" and perhaps see Maddie's front teeth go back to their natural configuration? Ah, the Paci Fairy solution. This was the easy part (the potty training I thought would be easier, the paci give-up I thought would be torture. Other way around).
  • Swim and keep losing weight. Well being that I'm pregnant and wasn't at the time I wrote this, I'd say maintaining my current weight through 10 weeks is pretty good. No more Chinese food, though.
  • Do calendar, artsy craftsy stuff every day. Calendar slips by us sometimes. We do "school" (those alphabet/shapes/colors/numbers workbooks), color, or make stuff a lot of days. More than half. Because come on, I'm still a teacher!
  • Have the Related Arts people over for a BBQ. Friday, baby. BYO bathing suit.
  • Help Bob's folks make the play area in the back yard. Done and awesome, as of Monday. Which means it was rainy all day Tuesday. But we'll get out there.
  • Go down the shore every 2-3 weeks, visit Laura and do beach days and board walk nights. Ok, we've been down there twice for beach days, so that's pretty good in 4 weeks. I'd like to aim for more, plus we haven't hit the boards yet.
  • Take Maddie to county park concerts. Done, and we're slated to go to more. This is basically where we sit on a blanket and Maddie runs around "dancing with the other kids" down in front. I wasn't wowed by them so far, but I guess have higher standards, being a "professional" musician/kid-entertainer-who-uses-music. So I just be a kiddie concert snob. But Maddie dug.
  • Go to church every Sunday (give or take), to keep us active and to give Maddie her "little church" fix. Um, mostly, and Maddie had a ball being an honorary 3 year-old at VBS. I may have to go back and bitch-slap a certain "crafts lady" who delivered my big girl to me at the music station on the last day with a harsh and very audible, "too young!" (I'm assuming 'too young' to do the craft that day? Was that it, Psycho?) but she had an amazing time, and whenever she would just hop in line behind all those taller kids and they'd all toddle off to their classroom every morning, I'd just swell with pride. Not to mention her tearing it up at Music time.
  • Digital scrapbook more years of our lives, we're caught up to 2004. Yeah, we'll get there. Bigger fish to fry still.
  • Continue the recorder method book writing. Gah! School stuff! No!
  • Completely ignore any school work until late August. At this, I excel every summer.
  • Go to Paws Farm. Got to call Stacey and see when we're doing that. I can smell the goat pellets already.
  • "Detail Clean" (as we like to call it...probably how the rest of the world just "cleans") every room once. Taking a break from the kitchen cleaning as we speak. Several rooms are already done though. Again, this is probably everyone else's idea of "regular clean", but I am not Merry Maids.
  • Go to the "Please Touch" Museum. Maybe. We're cheap, and we get into the zoo for free, so...
  • Bob's hoping to get all the stars on Mario 64. Nope, right now he's re-reading Harry Potter 6 &7 and writing curriculum. "..cause I'm all white and nerdy..." ~ Weird Al
  • Try to teach Maddie to ride her trike. Now that we haven't done. Gotta get on that.
  • Paint touch-ups all through the house. Last step after detail cleaning. This pretty much takes care of all the spots that I couldn't scrub off previously. Cover it up with paint, it's gone.
  • Go to Ikea. It's fun. And I've been jonesing. But then, maybe the Ikea junky in me is the reason that:
  • We have too much junk, that attic is full. Seriously evaluate knick-knacks and clothing for a Godwill run. I bagged a lot of stuff to donate. Of course, it is STILL sitting in the back of the car from a week and a half ago, but it's on its way, I swear.
  • Go to Wegman's. That's fun too. Oh! Yes please! Samples! Organic stuff that doesn't ever need to be organic! The little train!
  • Visit G-burg & family there. Went in June.
  • Go to the *gasp* movies and see Star Trek, Angels & Demons, assuming they're actually still in theaters somewhere. Saw Star Trek, awesome. A&D will have to wait for the DVD to come out. Must go see Half-Blood Prince of course. Again, see previous Weird Al reference.
  • Buy & stock up on birthday cards for all year long. I did at least make the list, haven't done the shopping yet though. Maybe this weekend?
  • Lose this feeling of being just slightly behind on everything. Done, I'm good now. It's to a feeling of "better hop to, it's going to be August before you know it!" But I don't miss that catch-up feeling. Half the stuff we do in summer is because we don't get to it September through June. Like the cleaning. Why do I spend summer cleaning stuff? Because I honestly don't really clean a thing beyond the DYFUS-worthy situations for the entire school year. That's just how I roll. Dirt? No, it's called "antibodies". Ask the dust bunnies, they'll vouch for me.
  • Pretend that September never comes. WAAAAAY ahead of ya.

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