Bills and Banking....UGH!!!

 Each morning, Jade likes to have the opportunity to go out on the deck and have her "sniffs". On occasion, the chasing of a red squirrel away from the bird feeders might be involved.

The picture might not truly show you, but the light skiff of snow we got last night is really sparkling this morning.

Once Jade decided to come back in, I dug out today's advent calendar pick. The package had a very interesting raised shape to it. My guess....maybe small scissors???

Lucky guess! Although....I did not expect it to be gator-style snips. The timing of this is perfect! my small scissors for snipping threads somehow managed to get a bend in one blade, and so they're not clipping very well.

Not only is the sun glistening on the snow, but it is shining very enticingly into my sewing room, making wish I could spend some time there today. Alas...I have too many other jobs demanding my time today :(

Related to my jobs, the best thing I have ever come across (that is...for me, who likes to make lists) is this flip book I discovered when working at Coles.

Inside, I record the things I need to try to accomplish each day. In the past, I found that I would get to the end of the day and not have done anything for myself or for my craft. So now, I divide the page into 3 sections of "to do" tasks: For me....For the house....For my craft. As I work through the list each day, I try to rotate through the 3 sections. Once a task is completed, I check off and colour in the box beside the task. The is something so very satisfying about seeing just how much you DID get done in a day :)

Unfortunately, my daily list was not keeping me or SW up to speed on the myriad jobs that need to get done on a weekly basis to keep the house in good order. I needed a plan to ensure that each element of the housework gets done each week (with SWs help on the days he's home; alone on the days he's not). But how could I do that??? Well...lists have ALWAYS helped keep me organized....as a person, a wife, a mother, and a teacher. So, it would stand to reason that the same might help with this conundrum. I decided to brainstorm all the larger household chores that should be completed each week. Then, I decided which days of the week I would work on getting these chores accomplished (once upon a time, when working, they all seemed to get pushed to the weekend). With my brainstorming complete, I created a weekly checklist. Sunday's are what I call "myiwanna" day...a day where I do only what I want to do (maybe some work; often not), and Wednesday's are solely for quilting....someday it will be back with a quilting group at a local Community Centre.

Once I had completed this task, I spent the remainder of the day working away on things that I had gotten quite behind on: banking, bills, record keeping, making up a bedroom, organizing my clothing closet for winter clothes, putting away laundry....and so on.

And, as usually happens, the day has reached the night time. And on that note, I wish you all a very good night!

TTFN