hobbies

I thought I had my gloves in my purse. Apparently I didn't. Thank the good Lord I had some of Ryan's... 'cause, baby, it's cold outside in the hills of Pennsylvania. 

That really doesn't have anything to do with this post, but I thought I'd give you a little insight into my week. What this post is really about is all the things I'm going to do when I finally hand this manuscript over to the copy editor... 

I'm going to: 

Read

I'm not even going to start listing the things I want to read. It will quickly reach toward 50 books and I don't want to overwhelm myself. If I had my druthers, I'd probably read 2-3 books a week. But I don't have my druthers. Believe me, I've looked and can't find them anywhere. So for now, I'm reading.... well, I'm embarrassed to say I'm lucky to get 1-2 books a month! Yikes. (I'm using a lot of willpower not to delete that last sentence.) 

Try some new recipes

Ohmygosh, I just ordered a gazillion recipes books from the library to browse through.... mostly on putting up garden vegetables, but man oh man, I have enough recipes here at home to get me started. My family is going to LOVE me when this book is done!

Clean my house

My sister-in-law just cleaned this microwave. Then some tomatoes I was thawing out overflowed and I forgot to wipe it up right away. Now my microwave is a disaster zone again. Oh, and look, there's a Target bag that needs put away.  

Organize my closets, pantry, storage room and garage 

(I make this sound so easy, but I'll be lucky to have all that checked off the list by this time next year! And I'm going to stop saying how embarrassing all these pictures are. And look at all those chairs. Why does one need so many extra chairs?)

I recently read that some wonderful organizer said the place to start is closets because a messy house is a sign of messy closets (and thus no where to put things away). She's sooooo right..... 

Plan a vegetable garden

We grew cucumbers and tomatoes last year. I'm hoping to have a bit more this year (a is for asparagus!). So excited for this one to come to fruition... get it?  Fruition? 

Finish Downton Abbey

I only have a few episodes of this last season to go. No spoilers please! I'm chomping at the bit to catch up, but haven't had the mental space to do it. Soon, though, very soon. 

Relax

I'm a little iffy on this last one and obviously don't have any pictures. I tried to take the day off yesterday. Like really off. I dropped Ryan off at preschool (I even scheduled him to be there all afternoon) and planned to head downtown to the art museum. It's the only one in the Carnegie system I haven't been to and our membership expires on Saturday. (I'm actually in a little bit of mourning over this fact because we decided not to re-up this year and do other stuff, like go to the zoo and the Children's Museum. While these things sound fun, I'm really going to miss having our Carnegie and Phipps passes. Boo!) Anyway, I ran a few errands on the way (post office - Sarah B. - your stuff is on it's way... again, dropped off fundraising basket at school, headed to the library (time warp!), and returned some things to Target.) I went from thinking, "So this is what people do that don't write a book while their son's at school" to "Ohmygosh, I have to go back and WRITE!" Like seriously, I don't think I can handle having a clear head and free time. I drive myself crazy!  

So instead of going downtown, I came home and starting writing. I knew with the things swarming around in my head I wouldn't enjoy browsing the museum.  The only time I can relax is when I'm out of my house on a vacation that doesn't have me wanting to explore.... so like at the beach or on a cruise. That happens pretty rarely around these parts. I sound like a big ball of fun, don't I?  All is not lost though. I plan to head down this morning with Ryan in tow. 

What pastimes do you keep thinking you'll get to, but don't?