It's Friday.

I rejoice that I have today to do lesson prep. And my hair. But there won't be much house cleaning today. I have to study while they are away. I study way more than my students do. I am slow.

I am depressed today. Poor sleep, and the diet soda thing. I am very depressed about the diet soda thing. Can I not have any psychological dependencies? Am I going to have to start exercising, too? This is hard to think of when you have never been a regular exerciser. I am already on a diet. again. and now, no diet soda and exercise are the prescription. I know I shouldn't resist, but, like I said, I am depressed.

Here are some dustball updates:

Sometimes I have sad dreams. Often they involve a beach with a terminus. Either the land ends or there is a wall or barrier of some kind. Last nights dream the beach ended in a wall. It was a short beach and there were shadows on most of it. I wanted to go and lie on the beach, but everyone was leaving. I was alone and it looked like a storm was coming.

Last week I dreamed I was in a high rise hotel with David and there were high stormy winds outside. So high that the hotel began to sway. I had to get out, and as I was trying to, the hotel began to retract underground. That was a bad dream that became a good dream.

I sometimes dream about my ex-boyfriend. It is always sad. I don't do anything to invite these dreams, my daytime thoughts are never there. But, in spite of years of happiness with my family, the dreams come again. I must have been traumatized.

Once I dreamed that I was going down a long beach looking for my children, a little worried. It was a gorgeous beach that went on for miles down south Florida-ish. It was a thin strip of land that kind of spiraled out toward the Atlantic with breaks that you had to walk across through the water. It had a road and some few shops and palms down the middle. Always, when I get to the end, there is a wall of rocks or some impediment. And there is always a storm coming.

This entry took 20 min. I could have a clean shower by now. But I feel better.

Thursday was a wash...

No not really.  No washing got done.  The pig blankets are dry and in the dryer and this morning I rewashed the tablecloths.  I sorted the laundry in the bedroom, put some whites away, picked up dirty clothes distributed throughout the upstairs by my children.  I am posting a "before" photos.

This is what happened to Thursday.  Snow delay, friends children over before school.  Walk all kids to school, stay to do my 1 hour weekly volunteer journal marking.  Get waylaid by the teacher, put to more work.  Finally, I got home at 12:30.  Ate lunch, applied for job, worked on Monday's class presentation until 3:30.  Time to get the kids!  Picked up one kid at 3:30, back at 5 for the other after clubs.  Made Chicken Divan with cauliflower (fresh-yum) instead of broccoli, because I had none.  I am having the leftovers for breakfast and it came out great by the way!  Wednesday I made white chili and cooked double chicken, so it was easy.  Did some computer stuff while the children did homework, awaited family dinner... which did not occur.  The man was half and hour late (not bad) but we were starving and couldn't wait.  He arrived 5 min. later!
Other projects awaiting my attention:  By Sunday, collate and assemble 20 cookbooks for the young women.  The first grade teacher sent me home with 25 math workbooks to pull sections from and collate for distribution.  I am not sure why they don't just get to keep their own workbooks.   Surely they are mature enough for that?  Color a "keys to safe hallway behavior" poster, cut and paste 80+ bookmarks.  Don't get me wrong.. I love doing volunteer work.  Just doesn't leave much time for my favorite hobby:  cleaning my house.

It is 10:25 a.m.  1.5 hours of housework today(including this post) with more to come.

In the shower...

It occurred to me today, as I was standing in my grime encrusted shower, that cleaning my house could be a full time job.  And by that I mean 8 hours a day.  With no pay but self satisfaction.  It also occurred to me that I am not sufficiently motivated to keep my shower clean, or the rest of my house, for that matter.  I just watched Julie & Julia on Netflix and I thought that perhaps, I could keep a record of my daily efforts.  Just for accountability.
Maybe it will morph into some sort of journal, which is more than I do now.

So here is what I did today, and how long it took:  Folded one load of laundry, rewashed the whites that sat in the washer for 3 days.  Put the whites in the dryer.  Cleaned the guinea pigs' cage and washed the blankets.  Put away all the pig supplies.  Picked up the basement floor of toys so I could vacuum all the pig poo and hay from the childrens' play area.  But there were Lego bricks all over.  I did not vacuum.  But I emptied the vacuum cannister.  Took out two bags of trash form the basement, and one from the kitchen.  Took the recycling cardboard and cans to the bin in the garage.  Folded and recycled  the pizza boxes in the garage, including the one with week old pizza in it.  Unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it with yesterday's leavings and this morning's egg pan and dishes.  Filled two five gallon water containers with emergency water and stored them in the basement.  Wiped down the counters.   I started at about 9:30 and started making lunch at 12:30, so that is 3 hours.  The sad thing is you can't tell I did anything!  Especially in the basement.