I have been cooking and cleaning all. Day. And I still have more to do. When all is said and done, we will have a great big pot of Chili, Mac and cheese with artichoke hearts, tofu curry, broccoli and carrot salad, and baked potato soup. The laundry is done, the kitchen is clean, my room is organized, and the living room will be tidied. Earlier today, I finally got new tires for the car, so I can stop having to refill the tire with the slow leak every other day or so, and I can stop worrying that it’s going to go flat in an extremely inconvenient location. I have rides arranged for the kids’ activities this week.

It’s great to have a productive day after such a long period of weird schedule shifts and general malaise. Especially when the fruit of that day’s labor includes actual food that can be eaten for the remainder of the week, making time for less productive, but equally important pursuits.

My work schedule changes next month, and I’m already planning for that shift. I’ll be starting and ending my day 2 hours later, so I want to make sure I don’t start sleeping in. Instead, I’d like to try to wake up around the time I start work now, take a walk in what I hope will be cool, fresh, autumn/winter breezes, and enjoy breakfast on the porch. Reading daily is a ritual I have very much grown attached to, and I’d like to continue. I have read a TON of great books lately: The Jungle, Grapes of Wrath, Wendell Berry’s essays, Ecology of Commerce, Fledgling…to name a few. I’ve talked about how the plotlines and details all intermingle to form a kind of 4th dimension of reading. These things are essential. The walking to provide meditative time and movement; the reading to take in new ideas and explore new worlds; the writing to process what I’m experiencing.

On top of that, there are projects.

My paper-based project grid includes Household Repairs, Art Retreat, Zine/Zine Library, Activist, Car Repairs (which should probably just be included in the House Repairs column), Reorganization (again, arguably a House Repair item), Education, and Fitness Plan. It seems a bit much, but once I get down to setting goals and timeframes for all of this, it will be less overwhelming. And once I set goals, I can also set rewards for achieving those goals. 🙂 Though SOMETIMES just accomplishing the goal is a reward in and of itself.