On the First Day of Winter break, My To-do List Said to Me...

One of the true joys of being a teacher is the time off. I'm off for winter break this year from Saturday the 22nd through Sunday the 6th, 16 days in all. I'm determined to get at least some little projects done in that time.

I'll won't do work on the house on:

• The 22nd just because it's my first week of break and I need to be a slug.
• Christmas eve since V will also be off work that day and we'll probably choose to be lazy slugs together.
• Christmas day since we'll hopefully be seeing our grandchildren, when we're not being slugs, that is!
• New Years Eve, though I won't really be taking off since I'll be running around getting stuff for our Quiet Romantic Evening at Home (which is going to include an obscene amount of carry-out sushi and other Japanese food -- yummmmm!)
• New Year's Day since isn't it the law that you have to slug on that day? Besides some friends who just had their brand new house built are having an open house/brunch and we want to go see them.
• And the 6th just because I need to go back to work the next day, and so some last minute serious slugging is in order.

That leaves me 10 days to do stuff. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not one of you super-heroes out there who remodel entire rooms in a day, build whole additions in a week. Nope, I'm just going to plan on getting at least 10 projects that should be easily done in a day (or much less) cranked out, projects that need to be done but that I've been avoiding.

I'll probably modify this as the time gets closer, but for now the list is going to be:

1. Get all of the stuff we have set aside for the local domestic violence shelter delivered over there. Toss in a handful of $25 Wal-Mart gift certificates.
2. Get the new shelves put up in the linen closet and organize that plus the cabinet stuffed full of way out of date toiletries.
3. Build two shelves for the cedar cabinet, and get it moved back into place and stuff put in there that belongs there.
4. Organize the pantry cupboard (it's scary; we have no idea what might be lurking under the layers of plastic grocery bags and reusable TJ's bags.
5. Clean off and organize my desk and associated paperwork crammed in its drawers and the filing cabinet next to it.
6. Go back through the attic, pull out things that can be recycled (boxes for stuff we've had past its warranty, for example), convince V to get rid of some of the crap that we do NOT need to be keeping, and add it to the shelter run pile. Done! 12/16: Boxes broken down and ready for the recycle run, we're getting rid of three of the extra chairs (two dining room, one office) that were stashed in the attic, and I listed a buttload of stuff on freecycle this weekend.
7. Identify two dressers that we can get rid of, and get rid of them (DV shelter again). Actually we ended up finding a use for both of them - one now helps keep my office organized, the other is going to hold extra blankets.
8. Get the 3rd floor better organized once there's room created by disappearing the empty unused dressers. Spent several hours yesterday (12/16) getting the 3rd floor a LOT better organized even with the dressers there. Put shelves in one of the closets to take some of the overflow from the attic. Went through the last of the moving boxes. Listed a bunch of stuff on Freeycycle. Got my sewing room much better organized - I'd call it 90% done, now! Found the parts (with one still missing - can I improvise? we'll see) needed to reassemble the futon couch.
9. Paint the bottom part of the old enamel-topped table and bring it to the dining room with some baskets/bins for mail sorting.
10. Uh... do one of the above tasks that still needs to be done because I blew off at least one more day to be a total slug.

I think I can do this. Or at least make a good dent in this list. We'll see.

Edited to add in a few more tasks that I can either substitute for items in the above list if I'm lazy, or add to the list if I'm ambitious:

1. Get hanging chain attached to stained glass piece in kitchen
2. Sharpen all my knives
3. Get rid of all the recycling stuff
4. Mail long overdue package to friend
5. If we get a relatively warm day, do some garden cleanup and hack back some of the privet.
6. Sort through old computer stuff, back up and wipe clean all old hard drives, get rid of most of it and organize what I'm keeping.
   
7. I'll keep adding more things as I think of them.