To-do list...

I am seriously behind on my housework, and in desperate need of some kind of motivation to get it done. I make a start, but after a while I just lose focus.

SO. I'm gonna make a list of the jobs that need doing, and hopefully I'll be able to tick them off tomorrow.

Kitchen:

Cook chicken dinner

Wash dishes - existing dishes washed, jury's out whether I'll do a second load when lunch/tea is over...

Laundry - still ongoing, but done a couple of loads, at least!

Deep-clean surfaces - mostly completed

Take out rubbish/recycling

Clean floor

Living room:

De-clutter coffee table, sidetable, desk and bookcases

Dust surfaces

Clear away stuff dumped on chairs and floor

Hoover and Fabreeze sofa

Hoover and Fabreeze carpet

Bathroom:

De-clutter

Clean surfaces

Clean floors

Hallway:

De-clutter

Clean floor

Phew... I feel knackered just looking at that list! Wish me luck!

Ring the bell, school's back in!

Well, next week anyway!

We're approaching the seventh and final week of the school holidays, and Rowan starts Year Four next week. We called it Standard Two when I was in Primary School. Three more years then he goes up to High School! Iesu Grist....

I've taken next week off work, because summer camps only usually run until the last Friday of August - which would have been yesterday, this year. School then starts back up the first Monday of September, but the calendar this year is such that there's a whole week between the two. You can imagine I was slightly gutted to hear on Tuesday that the camp I've been sending him to this year has actually made arrangements to stay open next week to allow for this, but I'd already booked this week off months back and could really do with the break anyway.

Rowan's been counting the weeks till it's 'Rowan and Mammy Week' as well, bless him :-)

My next course starts up in October; it's an interdisciplinary course intended as an introduction to Arts subjects. I struggled with the course I did last, 'cause it was far more academic than the previous courses I'd done. So I'm swallowing my pride and stepping back a level to get me closer to where I'm supposed to be.

My course materials arrived yesterday, and I spent most of the evening flicking through it all to try and get a feel for what to expect. There's a great deal being crammed in, but hopefully I'll cope. The first module is looking at reputation, what it means and how people develop one. The examples we're studying are Cleopatra, Christopher Marlow, Michael Faraday, Stalin, The Dalai Llama, and musical divas in general (but using Madonna, Maria Callas and a few others as examples).

I'm gonna make a start on it next week, even though there's a whole month to go before the course starts. My reason for this is that I can't study when Rowan's around, and I'm always too brain-melty once he's in bed, so I only tend to do any productive studying on a Friday when I can go to the library. Now, this isn't enough time to do everything the course requires, so I figure I need to get an early lead so that I don't find myself falling behind the way I usually do.

I just hope I can keep my focus. Never been a fan of art, poetry or religion... hopefully the literature, history and music modules will be fun though!