Friday!

Or an alternate title could have been "Back in the Blogosphere," since it has been over a month since I blogged. I really wish that I had blogged more, as there is a lot of catching up to do here.

Well, the Friday of Summer began a while ago, on June 1, which seems like months ago. The last few weeks of school are generally very stressful. Even as I spent my last minutes there on Wednesday, I was stressing to get everything done. I am going to need to take a day in August just to unpack and organize, since I was pretty much just shoved everything in the drawers of my desk, since I was supposed to be out of the building by 4 (I didn't leave till 5).

All-in-all, it was a good school year. I think the change in administration helped a lot, as my feelings about work were not as good earlier this year. I am excited, and actually looking forward to next school year. I still made sure to pack up and take home everything I own from my classroom, since maybe that dream job will open up this summer.

Well, there is only 72 days, 8 hours, 26 minutes, and 20 seconds left in this summer. I am going to make a goal to keep myself busy and not waste a second.

As far as what's on the schedule, there isn't a whole lot this summer. Here is what I've got:

• 6/23 to 6/25 - Visit Meg's family in Gettysburg (in progress right now)
• 6/30 to 7/6 - Week in OCNJ
• 7/16 to 7/20 - Working with VBS at church
• 7/21 - Julie's Wedding in Gettysburg (friend of Meg's from HS)

Not a whole lot... which leaves a lot of free time. Free time is wonderful, but it can also lead to a lot of wasted time. When I think back to last summer, I have a lot of pleasant memories. I would like this summer to be the same, if not better. So below, I have a list of all of the things I would like to do/accomplish this summer:

House Projects:

• Lattice around the deck
• Repairs throughout the house (e.g., no toilet paper holders in either bathroom right now)
• Beautify the gardens
• Clean out the shed (again!) and find a way to keep it more organized
• Clean an organize some of the messier areas of the house
• Make weekly and monthly cleaning checklists and stick to them!
  

School Projects:

• Write my own recorder method book
• Make 'Elements of Music' posters for my classroom
• Figure out and plan a better way to structure my middle school general music curriculum
• Start the school year with the 1st marking period planned and ready to go.
• Actually prepare scores for the band (instead of winging it, like I usually do)
• Get into school a couple of days during the end of the summer and clean and organize my room, and find out a classroom arrangement that works better.

Family/Personal Stuff:

• Bond with Maddie, and take lots of videos.
• Go fun places with Meg and Maddie
• Eat better (despite the fact that in the last year I have gone from a 44 waste to a 40!)
• Exercise in the pool with Meg
• Ride my bike
• Take walks as a family
• Have Scamp over to play with Max
• Have friends from school over
• Have my parents/brother/sister over more

Computer Stuff:

• Pick a new theme for the blog (may even do that tonight)
• Blog as much as possible.
• Set up my sister's old computer in the 'office' as a file server and guest computer
• Finish tagging all of our photos (9,000 and counting!) with the names of the subjects of the pictures
• Clean up, archive, and reorganize files on my laptop
• Keep Maddie's blog regularly updated with pictures and videos (we've been really lazy about that lately)

Hobby Stuff:

• Attempt to write an original piece of music for my band to play at school.
• Refer to everything above. Most of the stuff on the list I genuinely enjoy doing!

Okay, so those 72 days (7 hours, 57 minutes, and 34 seconds now) don't seem like enough. In order not to waste any of that time, I need to have a good plan to get all of this done. Not that I HAVE to get it all done, but that I WANT to get it all done. I am going to relax until we get back from the shore. But after that, I am going to spend the rest of July and the first half of August working on all of this stuff. Then, hopefully, I can spend the last few weeks of summer relaxing, and enjoying everything I have accomplished.

Off to tackle that list! Oh, I guess I should sleep first...