Organized Chaos

At this very moment I am lying flat on my back on my loveseat with my feet up on the armrest; one of my most comfortable positions since I injured my back. Kevin woke me up by crawling into my bed at 0630. Dry! He was dry!!

Given my early start, I've been up and going hard for almost two hours, which really is nothing unusual for me.  I've officially started packing for our upcoming move; both exciting and intimidating. 

I've got lists and lists and lists and more lists of the things that I need to get done, and a list of items that we will be moving with us back to Winnipeg.  Life's demands don't just stop when you are packing, everyday items still need to be taken care of, ie. dishes, cooking, laundry, etc.

So far I've packed a clear plastic bin of cotton fabric, mostly sheets and pillowcases, for use in future rugs.  I have accumulated quite a bit in the past months and will continue to accept donations, but will not be making any trips to the thrift store or to garage sales in search of fabric until I have used up a substantial portion of what I have left. 

My oldest son's wedding is in just more than 48 hours and this is currently occupying the largest portion of my time and focus at this point.  Although, most everything is done, except for the appointments for hair and makeup, etc.  Arrangements for childcare are made, all clothing and accessories are purchased except for Kevin's clothing. And that I've put Jennifer in charge of doing, as she works in a shopping mall. 

Life never slows down to a crawl at our house, there is always more to do than there are hours in the day. I know it could be a lot busier and am confident that it will get more complicated when we are moved into the city. Kevin is eligible for nursery school this fall, and is already on a waiting list at a "school of choice" for Kindergarten 2013-2014. The school in question has a daycare program onsite, which is ideal. It is a school in a upper middle-class neighborhood and it is where my son's fiance spent her first nine years of education. Speaking of nine years, it is a Kindergarten to Grade 9 facility, which means only switching school for high school, and then he would be going to the same school that my two older children graduated from.

I'm aware that nursery school (or pre-school) is not mandatory, but was kind of hoping that he could get into one, but that would make my work schedule and child care arrangements so much more difficult to keep track of.  I'd love to be able to afford a nanny, not a live-in, but one who lived close by enough that she could be at my house or her house for the duration of my work day, which is usually 12 hours.

Sigh.  Time for another cup of coffee....

20 YEAR PLAN

Somewhere, not sure exactly where or when, I read or heard about making a 20 year plan for your life, and being goal oriented, thought this was an idea that I may follow up on in the future. I think that may have been a year ago.  Life hasn't been extremely kind the past year but its taught me some valuable lessons.  And here I am, telling you about the 20 year plan that I've been working on this morning.  (I wasn't kidding when I posted on Facebook that I was "lying on the deck, planning my life.")

Like everyone else, my life is split into categories which are not always easy to discern.  I've narrowed mine down to seven for the purpose of this plan.  Financial.  Figure.  Domestic.  Employment.  Business.  Family. Travel. Not necessarily listed in order of their priority, this is a generalized list.  The financial category needs to explanation, nor does employment, family, or travel.  Figure refers to my goal of someday competing in a figure competition, which I've been toying with since 2003, and almost realized that goal in 2007, which is when I was injured and spent 11 months off of work and out of commission.  Domestic refers to my home and its physical condition, ie neat, organized, welcoming, economical, etc.  Business refers to "The Motivated Hooker," my non-nurse source of income.

For those of you who are not yet aware, I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to spreadsheets, charts, graphs, etc.  Needless to say, my 20 year plan is now on a large sheet of paper and hand-made into a chart or spreadsheet.  And color coded.  So far the chart includes a plan to get competition ready for a figure competition, a snowball planto get me out of debt, the approximate months of when I think we should move back to Winnipeg and when I should return to HSC.  For easy reference, I also included my age, and my children's ages, and Kevin's grade in the future years.  This kind of helps keep it in context  and gives me a point of reference.  He will graduate in 2026, so I've got that long to come up with money for his post-secondary education.  And its a rather large amount!

My car is going to hit 250K in June of 2014, and I'm aiming to be able to replace it at that point.  Told you I was a nerd!