My weekly obstacle course

Monday morning: I sit at the breakfast table with my second cup of coffee, the week stretching ahead. There are the usual things to do – laundry, shopping, appointments, errands; and then there are the goals I want to achieve – start eating more healthily, go through another closet or bookcase or storage area to see what can be cleared out, get back to my long-neglected blog, put away the remaining Christmas decorations that I keep walking past, start preparing paperwork for taxes, check the Christmas card list against cards received, see who we missed, whose address needs updating, etc., so that it is ready for next year.

Oh yes, and exercise.

A week later I look back and see what I managed to achieve. Laundry got done, shopping got done (but how did I not notice we were almost out of milk?), appointments were kept, and errands were run. I purchased a bag of kale salad at Costco that saw me through a few suppers, but when we went out one evening I had a burger and shamelessly ate all the fries that mistakenly came with it instead of the salad I had ordered. I worked on a couple of pieces for my blog (having been pleasantly surprised to see how many people are now following it!!!), forced myself to sit down and go through the Christmas cards, and finally put away the remaining decorations (although I noticed yesterday that the wreath is still on the front door – problem solved: I will leave it up until after Winter Carnival). Ice on the pathways was a feeble enough excuse not to go for a walk, though we did spend some time one afternoon on chipping a bit more away on the driveway. Tax work was not even attempted – I’m looking at some bank and credit card statements that need to be checked before I can start on that.

Then there were the unexpected things that cropped up, some that I did manage to deal with – a sympathy card that needed to be sent, a birthday present that needed to be purchased, a sick family member whose cold misery could be greatly helped with a large bowl of chicken noodle soup (Costco here we come again!), a child with a problem: and some that pushed other goals aside – a PTA colleague who needed help with a project, that sick family member, houseguests, an unexpected dinner invitation, an internet issue that had to be dealt with before anything else could happen.

In other words, it was a week that was pretty much like any other week!

Now, please excuse me while I go put this week’s laundry into the dryer and get down to those bank statements.