Goals and Frustrations

Just a fair warning that this post is going to be really boring. It is just for me. And just for me to kinda vent or just get my thoughts out of my head. But since it has to do with daily life and also finishing the basement I thought maybe it justified being posted. Who knows, maybe I'll end up deleting it in the end and never post it....

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with my to do list today. And to make matters worse, I've got a sick kid that I may or may not take to the doctor. Garrett started with a little cough on Saturday but he has had no other obvious symptoms. Yesterday evening he had a little bit of a fever so I am a little more concerned. I wouldn't normally be concerned about a cough if it was in association with a cold but the cough started first. Anyway, not knowing what virus this could be makes me feel a little more inclined to have him checked out. So that may be on my list of to-do's today.

Tonight someone from our ward that is a plumber is coming over to take a look downstairs to see what we might need to have done and (I think) give us an estimated price for the work. This is giving me the most anxiety. I'm totally excited to have him come over and hopefully make some progress on this, BUT the basement is a disaster (and not construction-related) and the kitchen island has a lot of clutter on it right now. The kitchen clutter is important since you face the kitchen as you head down the stairs.

A lot of, if not most of, what is bugging me about the messiness downstairs comes from the toys. This has been an ongoing project for the last 3-4 years. We get the toys sized down and organized, then they make it a disaster. We go through the toys and get them cleaned up and then another mess. Then a birthday or Christmas rolls around. And so on. We have gotten rid of a ton of toys and yet there still seems like too much. But anyway, we really need to get what we have downstairs boxed up and in the garage. Which leads me to my next anxiety....

Ah, the garage. It's a lovely 2 car garage with a really high ceiling. Jon installed 4 loft-like shelves in each corner of the garage. They hang 4 feet down from the ceiling. You still have to use at least a six-foot ladder to get anything off from them. And if it's heavy, I can't or shouldn't get it down. It's perfect for once-a-year-use kind of stuff. Most of them are being used to almost-capacity. Still, there isn't enough room to park a second car. (Not that that is the goal, but the space of a car is!) The frustrating part? We could if we wanted to IF we would get the bikes and bike-trailer hung up and add another shelf unit to help organize garden items. The next frustration? I was hoping Jon would do this (since I'm not very good at installing screws into the wall and have a tiny terroristic shadow 7/8 of my day) and he just hasn't found the time to do it.

Another anxiety I have at the moment is taxes. Ugh. I have always done our taxes since we got married but things have gotten a lot trickier for this since Jon started working his side jobs. This means, I have to get income numbers (since only he knows this 'cuz the side jobs aren't on any W-2's) and tithing numbers from him, find all of our utility statements for write-offs, and find out from him if there's anything else that he can use as a write-off. I also have to track down the tax stuff that actually did come in the mail. It wouldn't seem like such a chore if we didn't owe taxes every year that we had to do it this way. He didn't make nearly as much $$ last year as the year before so hopefully the damage won't be too painful. One of the things holding me back on this (other than just plain dreading it) is the amount of paperwork (mostly old bills) sitting on my tiny computer desk. I have no where to put them since we moved our filing cabinet out of our bedroom a couple years ago. Jon also changed the way things were filed to where it made sense to him and so I gave him the responsibility of filing things. 'Nough said.

The last thing that is just bugging me is the state of my bedroom. It is just cluttered. The top of my dresser is covered, the walk-in closet is totally cluttered and that's also where the cluttered computer desk is. It does not make for a very relaxing environment. Our bedroom is also known as the family room. The kids play on the computer and play the GameCube on the t.v. in our room. I love it when they make all kinds of messes in my room, including eating and leaving crumbs on and in my bed. This makes me especially happy when they bring their friends into my messy room to show them the games they're playing and want them to play with them. I'm hoping that when the basement is finished a lot of this clutter will go away into my "craft room". :)It will sure be nice when my bedroom is simply a bedroom and doesn't double (or quadruple) as the office, the family room, and the craft room.

Well, I think that's about it. Of course, there's all the day to day stuff to get in the way like laundry and dishes and eating and cleaning up from eating and changing diapers and picking up all the little messes the little people make. What's truly amazing is that even after mentioning all of those things I DON'T feel like taking a nap!!! This is a very good thing and I better get up and get going before that feeling sets in. :D