Today's Goals

We have another snow day here in NWA.  Lovely.  I'm not sure how I'm feeling about these.  I am one that likes to go-and-do.  But I also enjoy a good day at home.  So today, I'm a bit torn.  There's nothing I can do to change the fact that the schools are out today (and will likely be tomorrow as well), so I'm going to make the most of my day at home.

Tomorrow is Rachel's 6th birthday and Saturday is her party.  There is a massive amount of cleaning that needs to be done at this house before we have company this weekend.  So today, I will be beginning that process.  My goals today are as follows:

• Wash every article of clothing in this house save those on our bodies.  I'm so over laundry.  I feel like it's all I do sometimes.  But when you have 5 people who wear clothes, what's a mother to do?
• Put up the party decorations.  Since Rachel's birthday is tomorrow, we might as well go ahead and celebrate, right?!
• Clean most of, if not all of, my house.  I know there are some touch up things that will have to be done last minute, but if I can get the majority done today, that will relieve some of my stress.
• Clip and organize my coupons from the past couple of weeks and plan out a menu for next week.  I've got my menu done for the rest of this week and it's such a stress reliever to be able to look at my list and know what I'm cooking tonight and not have to wonder or worry.  I want to be able to plan a menu for a month and just get groceries each week, or every other week, for the month.  We'll see if that actually comes to pass...
• Read for at least 1 hour.  There is a book that I've been trying to read for about the past 2 weeks that I just can't get through.  That's one thing that frustrates the daylights out of me about myself is my lack of speed in reading.  I love to read, but I can't seem to read very fast.  If anyone has any speed-reading tips they'd like to share, I'm all for it.  There are so many books on my list of ones that I'd like to read, but at the rate I'm going, I'll be 80 before I can get to all of them.

Now, if I can get all of that stuff done before Hollywood Week on American Idol tonight at 7pm on FOX... (I'm just a teensy bit excited about that), then I will feel like I've accomplished something for the day.  I've got my first load of laundry folded on my bed ready to be put away and the next load is almost ready to come out of the dryer.  One load at a time.  Wonder how many I'll have today?  My guess is about 7.  Of course, there could be more...

One last blessing of the day - my sweet Copper is finally finished being in heat.  Lord help us all, that was the worst timing of all the world for her to have been in heat for the past couple of weeks!  She and Kramer are now allowed to be in the same area with each other without fear of...well....you know.  There was one time about a week ago when Rachel let them outside together without thinking.  I didn't see anything, but I suspect they....well....you know.  I'm praying that they didn't really....well...you know.... and even if they did that nothing 'took' and we won't have puppies in about 55 more days.  And if we do, I guess it's God's way of telling us we needed an extra couple hundred dollars. :)