Just me and the Kids

And t5he traveling has begun... Matt left yesterday for 11 days. This will be first of many trips in the next year. It honestly isn't too bad except I feel like I am running in 50 different directions most of the time. Honestly, with a husband that travels as much as Matt has the past year the hardest part is when he comes home. The kids and I get a routine and system down and him coming home throws all that out the window.

So this is the first marathon trip he has taken since we moved here. His travel has pretty limited to a few days here and a few days there the past 5 months. I am going to use this time to my advantage and try to get a bunch of things done. We'll see how that works out.

1. Organize all my pictures. I have pictures from college and before we went digital that are in no order and just thrown in boxes. I bought some photo boxes and I want to organize them by subject and year if possible. Problem is that I didn't write dates on the back so some will be a guessing game.
   
2. Organize all my tax receipts and papers and get what I can plugged into my software so as soon as we get all the final items we need in the mail I can file. I always get really anxious about taxes so the sooner I get them done the better.
   
3. Choose and print out pictures for the frames that I have for different rooms. If feeling daring, maybe even hang them.
   
4. Go through the kids drawers and pull out clothes that are too small.
   
5. Reorganize all my books. I have acquired quite a few since moving here and first unpacking my books. They need to realphabetized and reshelved.
   
6. Don't goto the grocery store. Eat from what I have here. I opened my pantry today and got hit with a falling can.
   
7. Watch the Love Comes Softly series on DVD. Gotta love netflix
8. Get three books read.
   
9. Figure out the plants that I want to get for the backyard landscaping and map out the layout for us to start in Feb/March. We are putting in a stone patio, some more trees and lots of perennial flowers. Just need to figure out what will grown here and start planning it out.
   
10. Email all the sources I need for a project I am working on for Caterpillar and try to make arrangements for meetings when I go next month. Edit and rewrite some copy and send off to Tako. (my boss)