Sarah's Summer Holiday List, 2017

So, reporting on the first day...

As well as the usual daily/Saturday stuff that I do, plus some laundry, I did the following:

• Paid my credit card bill
• Dealt with a couple of other things on my desk
• Sent a message to someone at work regarding an audit project I need to start (OK, now I have logged out for the rest of the week )
• Wrote the report on my son's homeschooling for this term, and sent it to the Council*
  
• Wrote a blog post (which was basically pretty much my post at the start of this thread; decided I'd get a blog post out of it
  
• Finished this week's BMJ the same day it arrived
• Worked through one unit's worth of CPD and threw out the BMJ it was from

And just relaxed for part of the day and read my library book and some on-line stuff.

Not bad. Will aim to keep it up tomorrow. Still can't quite believe I won't have to spend Sunday despairingly trying to come up with lessons to teach...

*Which isn't a usual requirement for homeschoolers in this country, in case anyone was wondering; it applies in our case since we had a personal budget from the council for homeschooling Jamie.

Today, apart from normal daily/Monday stuff:

• More laundry
• Made a phone call
• Got an e-mail posted
• Did another CPD credit
• Read the first couple of pages of the 'Spanish for Beginners' book I just bought.
• Ironed a pair of trousers, five tops, my daughter's school cardigan, and four nametags that needed to be ironed in.

Had bad case of the dowannas this morning - partly because I'd found my missing library book and got caught up in finishing it, and partly, I suspect, through being more tired than I realised (flaked out on the sofa later and felt quite a bit better when I woke up).

However, have now managed the following:

• 1 more CPD credit completed (actually, could probably get away with counting it as 1.5)
• Confirmed my tax payment had gone through
  
• Found a few more things on my desk to file - and a few things in my filing drawer that could be shredded
• Got a blog post posted (actually, that was part of the CPD credit, so that was a two-fer) and some other writing done.
• Went through the next couple of pages in the Spanish For Beginners book.
  

So I'm satisfied with what I got done - although I'll aim to get a bit more done tomorrow.

Phew! Didn't mean to go for so long without updating, but I was away for the weekend, had a couple of really busy days when I got back followed by a couple of bloody-hell-can't-be-arsed days, and by that time I'd just lost the flow as far as updating went. Fortunately, I kept things up as far as doing stuff went.

Things I've done this holiday:

• Caught up with my CPD. This is huge - I was something like twelve credits behind at the start of the holiday, so I had to catch up on all of those as well as the ones I should be doing week by week.
• Largely related to the above - got rid of nearly all of the huge pile of journals that was on the little chest next to my computer table. Good grief, it's nice not having to worry about accidentally knocking into those and sending them toppling.
• Sorted out tutors for my son
• Worked out at least the outline of what I'm going to teach him this coming term
• Cleared and sorted my inbox at work (another huge deal) as well as catching up with some other bits & bobs
• Did quite a lot of decluttering; I've been doing a daily decluttering project, described here.
  
• As well as the above, have also done some decluttering of the stacks of junk at the back of my study, the kitchen counters, and the table at the back of the kitchen.
• Got round to ordering a display holder for the silver tray I found a year ago when decluttering boxes, and put it on the shelf
• Dealt with some incoming desk stuff
• Learned some more Spanish
  

But there is much still to be done. Stuff I would ideally like to get done before Monday rolls around, as roll around it must:

• Catch up on work letters from last week, plus any other incoming stuff that's come in since I was last logged on on Friday
• Work out what lessons I'm teaching my son next week (or, at a bare minimum, Monday)
• Write out a list for my son of who's teaching him when (ideally today so that he can read it tomorrow morning)
  
• Put away the rest of the children's laundry that I washed today
• Do a huge pile of ironing. Or at least some ironing.
• Cut the turkey for tonight's dinner (non-negotiable; it's my share of the work for Saturday's dinner)
• Do whatever my decluttering task for tomorrow's Clutter Challenge turns out to be
• Exercise
  
• Do at least one more of the Duolingo modules in Spanish on both today and tomorrow (they're only a few minutes each)
• Get another CPD module done, or at least half of one.

Which is a lot of stuff even before you allow for the fact that I've probably forgotten something crucial.

Let's see. I think I'll do the Duolingo now as it's pretty quick, then cut the turkey, then do a bit more work on my son's lessons, then exercise and shower. Hasta la vista, baby...

And order school trousers for my son.

OK. Let's update the list for things I forgot to add and things I've completed:

• Put laundry into dryer
• Get laundry out of dryer when completed
  
• Catch up on work letters from last week, plus any other incoming stuff that's come in since I was last logged on on Friday
• Work out what lessons I'm teaching my son next week (or, at a bare minimum, Monday)
• Write out a list for my son of who's teaching him when (ideally today so that he can read it tomorrow morning)
• Put away the rest of the children's laundry that I washed today
• Do a huge pile of ironing. Or at least some ironing.
• Do whatever my decluttering task for today's Clutter Challenge turns out to be
• Do at least one more of the Duolingo modules in Spanish both Saturday and Sunday (they're only a few minutes each)
• Get another CPD module done, or at least half of one.
• Sort out pension forms
• Check payment I'm missing went through, and record it
• Order meds for me and my son for next month
• Enter yesterday's receipts into my account
• Empty house bins
• Order son's new school trousers
• Order groceries

Also, progress made on the two main things on that list:

• Work - have done the blood results, though still have the letters to do
• Lessons for son - have got Science and Spanish for Mon and Wed and know approximately what I'm covering in French Mon - now need to update vocabulary list I used last year so we can use it for this lesson, and put details on written schedule I make for him.

Need to do house bins now, then need to make lunch for children so will do that next. Then will get laundry out of dryer as that's the quickest one, and then do decluttering challenge as don't want to miss that one. See you soon...

I'm back! Exercised. Showered. Threw son's school trousers (the two pairs we have got) into the wash on horrified realisation that they'd been mouldering in the laundry basket for two weeks waiting for me to give them an initial wash. Phoned my mother, got answerphone. Got pension forms done and ready for posting, as quite a quick job.

I will now have one more go at phoning my mother, and then log onto work again and spend whatever remaining time I've got seeing what I can get done there. In the unlikely event of me actually getting that finished before dinner, I'll work on the CPD; if not, it's OK, I now know what I'm going to do for this week's credit and it should be reasonably quick, so I can get it done in the next few days and still be up to speed. The ironing is just not going to get done today, and that's OK; I knew at the start of this holiday that I wasn't going to get everything done that I wanted to get done, and I have done plenty. Off I go for the final run at the tape.