I like making lists.

I think it has something to do with my ADD brain and the need to see everything directly in front of me.

Here are a few things I'd like to accomplish over my summer vacation.

READ.  My book club is helping with this a little.  I am reading books that I wouldn't normally pick and for that I am very thankful.  It also forces me to read at least one a month. Over break I want to read five books.

DECLUTTER.  I told the kids that every Tuesday (which is the day before garbage day) that it is "Throw a bag of crap out day"  I am going to do it too.  Hopefully by the end of summer we will have a lot less crap.

CELEBRATE.  I turn (gasp) 40 at the end of July and I would like to celebrate with family and friends.  I'm just not really sure how.  Any suggestions?

PEDICURES.  I don't really pamper myself but I love a good pedicure.  Having just gone with my daughter for her 11th birthday, I have decided that I will go again in July and again in August before school starts back up.  Do you have any indulgences?

FIRE AND FRIENDS.  I am very social. I would have people over every weekend if I could.  My husband...not so much.  I am hoping we can find a comfortable medium and have a few friends over for some fires.

PAINT.  I put this one on all the time, but it's so much work.  The girls want to redo their room.  Lord have mercy, can we do it?

SCRAPBOOK.  I am going to attempt to do 30 pages (just 10 pages a month) in my scrapbooks.

BULLETIN BOARDS.  Like every year, I told the teachers I would cut some things for them and my list is upstairs.  I should probably not wait until the last minute.

UNPLUG.  I spend too much time online.  I really need to walk away from the computer more often.

SUBMIT, SUBMIT, SUBMIT.  I need to keep putting my book out there.  I need to take rejection with my head held high and to continuously remember that I am a good writer.  Persistence is half the battle.

Other than hanging at the pool with B and forcing my kids to practice their instruments, I have nothing else on the agenda.  The kids and I may travel to see my mom's new property and hopefully we'll sneak in a visit with my sister.

What do you have planned this summer?  I'd love to hear your goals, unless they're drop 15 lbs and train for a half marathon.  Then you're just showing off... (smile)

I'm linking myself up again with Pish Posh's Get Fit challenge and I am encouraging you all to do the same.

Do you have any left over New Year's resolutions that are nagging at you? Do you find yourself complaining more than rejoicing? Do you need to write more? To whine less? To take your own advice and avoid people who make you unhappy?

Link up with Pish every Thursday for the next 10 weeks. We can encourage each other. We can share our successes and our failures. She's giving away a cool prize and best of all when it ends, you might just be in a better place than where you were when it started.

PERSONAL GOALS

I'm still plugging away on my new novel. This week it hasn't been on the front burner. However, I feel very confident that I can reach my 50,000-55,000 word goal by May 10th.

I haven't been all that physically active this week. I mean I'm on my feet for at least five hours a day, but what little time I had been spending in the treadmil has dwindled. I did, however, walk 3 miles over the weekend at a benefit walk for my nephew. If you count the 600 I drove round trip I covered a lot of ground this week.

PROFESSIONAL GOALS

My dreaded ServSafe Certified is this Monday and I'd still like to prove to myself that I'm not as dumb as I think I am. That being said, I still need to retain a lengthy list of foodborne illnesses and their causes which include things like Bacillus cereus gastroenteritis, Shigellosis and Cryptosporidiosis.

MENTAL HEALTH

My mental health has been pretty low this week. I wrote about one of the reasons and the other one stems from the fact that my hubby has been traveling more for work in 2012 than he has been home.

It is exhausting.

It is draining.

It makes me feel like I am not doing anything well.

I am not mantaining the house well.

I am not parenting well.

I am not writing well.

I am not even cooking processed chicken well, let alone learning all the acurate holding times.

Here's hoping that once he returns and I get this stupid test off my list that things start to turn around because as of this post, I'm officially getting on my own nerves and that can't possibly be good.

I'm linking myself up with Pish Posh's Get Fit challenge and I am encouraging you all to do the same.

Do you have any left over New Year's resolutions that are nagging at you? Do you find yourself complaining more than rejoicing? Do you need to write more? To whine less? To take your own advice and avoid people who make you unhappy?

Link up with Pish every Thursday for the next 10 weeks. We can encourage each other. We can share our successes and our failures. She's giving away a cool prize and best of all when it ends, you might just be in a better place than where you were when it started.

PERSONAL GOALS

I'd like to finish my NANOWRIMO novel. I'm almost at 40,000 words and I want to get to 50,000-55,000 by May 10th. No excuses.

I want to get a little more physically active. I've been trying to get on the treadmill a couple of times a week, but failing miserably. I feel out of shape phyically and mentally. When I do walk/run in the morning I feel really proud of myself. My goal is three times a week. Let's not get too crazy.

PROFESSIONAL GOALS

I have to be ServSafe Certified to manage the school cafeteria and my exam is on March 26th. I'd like to prove to myself that I'm not as dumb as I think I am. That being said, I need to retain a legthy list of foodborne illnesses and their causes which include things like Bacillus cereus gastroenteritis, Shigellosis and Cryptosporidiosis.

I'd also like to submit a few more billable articles for the newspaper. Lately I've been attending numerous meetings with little to nothing to write about.

MENTAL HEALTH

I have never been secretive about my desire to be praised and adored. It is my curse. My Words of Afirmation love language. This makes life challenging, as taking criticism (even well intended criticism) is exceptionally difficult for me. This makes PTO exhausting as I cannot possibly please everyone. This makes letting people read anything I write terrifying, this makes me suffer from blog comment jealousy.

I need to work on that. Just because someone doesn't like my book doesn't mean they don't like me.

What will you be working on? What will you be cleaning up and making to shine like new?

Stop over. Visit Pish and link up with us. We're going to be in each other's corners spreading enough words of affirmation to drowned out all those negative voices in our heads.

Summer vacation, for me, is right around the corner so I decided to make a list of 15 things I'd like to accomplish over this much needed break.

Complete another edit. I want to complete another edit of my YA novel. I had a former English teacher friend offer to do an edit of the book for me and it is my hope to completely review her suggestions before the end of summer.

Paint my bedroom. This was on the list last summer and it has yet to be accomplished. I am tired of the colors in this room and I want to do an overhaul.

Enjoy my kids. I want to enjoy the fleeting moments when my kids aren't fighting. I want to be able to look back on the memories we make this summer with a smile and not feel like I spent most of it yelling.

Visit the Crayola Factory. I want to visit the crayola factory and I guess I should take the kids along. It might be weird if I go by myself. LOL

Clean and organize my craft room. I want to get rid of one of the desks I have in this room and get a more elaborate organizational system in there. I spend too much time looking for things and that is getting on my nerves.

Fly to Florida. We were invited to a college friend's wedding on the white sand beaches of Florida. We originally dismissed the idea as pricey, but now I think hubby and I are gonna try to swing it as an early (gasp) fifteenth wedding aniversary gift to ourselves.

Summer Reading Club. The kids enjoy visiting our teeny library. Every year we join the reading club and go on scavenger hunts provided by them. They are a lot of fun and a great free family activity that even the dog can go on.

Scrapbook. Make at least 30 scrapbook pages. That is only 10 a month...right?

Bulletin boards. I promised a few teachers that I would cut out some bulletin boards for them. I want to make sure I get those accomplished as well as make the ones we will be using in the cafeteria at the start of the school year.

Visit friends in Ohio. I haven't been back to Ohio in nearly five years. Since we left, lots of things have happened including a devastating tornado. I would love to go back and see some old friends and perhaps visit the zoo. This may not happen if gas prices continue to rise.

Survive Camp. We will be going to camp in a few short weeks. Don't worry we aren't camping in a tent. We are actually camping in a modern cabin which I am hoping will be like a hotel in the woods. LOL. Plus, the dog isn't invited.

Visit family. My sister and her family are planning to visit and that is always a good time. I hope to see my mom, my dad and my inlaws over the summer, as well.

Have a fire (or 2 or 3). I'd like to have some friends over for a camp fire and some drinks. Maybe I'll have a "oh crap summers half over BBQ" and invite some of my co-workers.

Birthday books and school albums. All three of my kids have birthday books and school books that need to be caught up. I am hoping to get them all up-to-date by the end of summer.

Recharge. Most importantly, I plan on sitting at the pool with my BFF and the family multiple times a week and just relaxing. During that time, I won't be checking my email, tweeting or even listening to music. I will be sitting poolside laughing with my friend. The only way it can get better than that is if we decide to share a cheese fry.

What do you plan on doing this summer?

Near the middle of June I complied a list of 30 things I'd like to do this summer.  Today we're gonna find out how well (or how bad) I did.

1. Visit with Family.  I did pretty well with this one.  In June, my friend B and I went to visit with my mom and attend a scrapbook convention; my sister and our friend G came out to visit in July; my MIL and FIL visited us a handful of times including a very hot day at camp.  My dad and step mom went to a baseball game with us.  We went "back home" for a weekend in July and August.
2. Get my birthday scrapbooks up to date.  I didn't get this one completely done.  I have them about 3/4 complete, but not exactly what I hoped to accomplish.   Little G's birthday is in October and I'm hoping to get that other 1/4 done before then.
3. Scrub the living room carpet.  completed.  I know...I'm impressed too.
4. Get a roof.  We haven't come close to getting this one accomplished.
5. Siding replacement. It's on the calendar for the 2nd weekend in September so I'm considering this one complete.
6. Car Inspection. We actually remembered to get this one done.
7. Have the van's hail damage assessed.  We had this done in early June! 
8. Scrapbook weekly. I may have missed a week or two but for the most part I scrapbooked on a regular weekly basis throughout the summer.
9. Free bowling.  We didn't get this one accomplished.  We had a very hot beautiful summer and we spent most of it at the pool.
10. Summer Reading program.  We signed up.  We read a few books. We lost interest quickly.  We spent most of the summer at the pool. 
11. Read at least three books.  Failed.  I only read one book.
12. School scrapbooks.  These are ready to go.  But I'll soon need to add....6th grade, 4th grade and 1st grade.
13. Visit Hershey.  I was very nervous about this trip and thought it might be a form of torture.  However, we stayed the entire day.  We didn't really fight.  We didn't cry.  We didn't get lost.  We had a lot of fun.  Dare I say it but I would be willing to do it again next year.
14. Use the Pool.  We were there at least three times a week, if not more.
15. Clean my closet.  I can't believe that I accomplished this, but I did.
16. Bulletin Board ideas.  I needed to come up with two unique ideas for the cafeteria and I told one of the kindergarten teachers I would help her out as well.  Our theme this year for Accelerated Reading is under the sea.  Keeping that in mind I made octopus for the one cafeteria bulletin board.  It says Armed with the Rules of the cafeteria and includes the five behaviors we would like to see.  The other bulletin board says Welcome back to school and has all of the classes depicted as fish.  I like how they turned out.  For the kindergarten teacher I made her whales and they say Whale come to Mrs. W's class.  I also did a Dive into a good book bulletin board for 3rd grade.  Don't tell anyone, but I actually like doing it.
17. Use some scrapppin supplies.  I did pretty well with this.  However, I probably bought too much additional paper.
18. Crayon Factory.  Until about a week ago, I didn't have reliable transportation so this little day trip was pushed to the side.  Now that we have a new van it has a better chance of coming around again.
19. Encourage my kids to go to summer playground.  I'm pretty sure that summer playground made our summer more enjoyable.  We need a few hours apart from each other or we all start getting on each other's nerves.  My kids loved playground and if you have one in your neighborhood I would highly recommend it.
20. Go camping.  We went.  We baked in the 100+ temps.  We had fun and we didn't bring the dog.  I think that may have been key.  LOL
21. Pick blueberries.  We picked two quarts and ate them in a day or two.  They were yummy.
22. Swimming lessons.  I decided to take Little G out of swim lessons for the summer and to instead encourage him to take the swim test at the pool and it was one of the best ideas I have ever had.  He enjoyed swimming.  He began jumping off the high dive.  He began going down the big twisty slides.  He can actually swim!
23. Bathe the dog regularly.  This depends on your definition of regularly.  He probably had a bath three times this summer.  It probably should have been six.
24. Organize my craft room.  This one didn't really happen.  It's still a mess in there.
25. Cook dinner at least three times a week.  Success.
26. Pedicure.  I had two...which I guess should make a girl happy.
27. Housework.  The goal was to keep the house reasonably clean.  I think I made this one, but hubby would probably disagree.
28. Paint my bedroom.  This didn't happen and probably isn't gonna happen anytime soon.
29. Teach Little G. to ride a bike.  Yeah!  Pictures to follow later this week.
30. Enjoy.  I had a great summer.  Yeah, the kids fought with each other and with me, but that's okay.  We had a lot fun together.  We made quite a few memories that will last a lifetime and for the most part I accomplished all that I set out to do!

How did you do with your summer to do list?

1. Write more. I wanted to reach 10,000 words on my young adult novel in 2009. I didn't. In 2010, I want to surpass that goal and then some.
2. Craft more. I spend far too much time on this computer and not enough time in my craft room.
3. Yell less. Hello...my name is kisa and I have NO patience.
4. Eat better. Pretty self-explanatory but yet so hard to accomplish.
5. Walk more. I'm going to invest in a good step counter and try to reach 10,000 steps a day. (That counts as exercise, right?)
6. Eliminate some clutter. The clutter monster is always trying to take over spaces in the house. I plan to keep him at bay!
7. Get Organized: I often have trouble accomplishing things because my organizational skill aren't what you would call good. I'm going to try to get better at putting things back where they belong and maintaining a certain space for certain items. Especially in the kitchen and in my craft room.
8. Quality time: Spend some time alone with each kid and my husband once a month.
9. See family. More than just the holidays.
10. Plan some day trips. I want to go to this craft store and I just can't ever seem to plan a trip there. Plus there is a doll factory not far from here that middle G would love; and there's the zoo...and Hershey....and....well you get the picture.

What do you have planned in 2010???

I did pretty well on the ol' to do list over the weekend. Still hammering away at that newsletter but I'm sure the finished project will be laughed about for years to come.

Thursday we went to my oldest daughter's holiday chorus program. It was very well done and she seemed to truly enjoy herself.



Saturday we put up the tree. I went with the fake one this year for fear of what the dog may do to a real tree. This is his first Christmas with us and I think we ought to break him in gradually. So far he has only eaten a few minuscule items. The tree is still intact.

It's time for Friday High Five where you can gather your thoughts into five random things and post.

It's easy.

You can do it.

Today I'm trying to wrap my head around all of the stuff I need to accomplish in the next 20 days! That's right. Christmas is right around the corner and what have you done?

I have minimal shopping completed and not a thing wrapped. Here's what I would like to check off my list for the weekend.

1. Decorate. We have outside lights up but that's it. No tree. No decorations. Nothing. The outside of my house looks festive, the inside of my house looks like February.
2. Write my newsletter. Mock me if you must, but I write a family newsletter. Yep. I'm that person. The one who sends you the cheeky letter every year. Except mine is in the form of a newspaper page and it tells it like it is instead of pretends how rosey things are. This year it will include a Cafeteria Corner section and a tribute to the grandparents I lost this year.
3. Use my Kohl's cash. I have $80 in Kohl's cash that expires on Monday. Hello. We can't let that happen.
4. Finish up Teacher presents: Every year I make Thank You cards for the teachers at Christmas. I figure it works to ways. It says thanks for putting up with my kid on a regular basis and it allows them to thank everyone else for their stupid gifts.
5. Holiday Names: Every year we participate in a Christmas Cheer program that provides gifts for some needy kids in our school district. I always buy for three kids and try to involve my three. Those gifts need to be turned into my school district by the 14th and I'd really like to finish them up.

Let's not even talk about wrapping....

What do you have planned this weekend?

• I would like to go to the garage sale being held at my daughter's school tomorrow. Mostly to find some illusive treasure at the cost of 25 cents.
• I would like it to stop raining for the entire weekend. I'm sick of feeling like I'm on Noah's ark and I really want to be able to see Little G. play t-ball on Sunday
• I would like to finish staining the dresser I bought last week. It's my first foray in the refurbishing furniture department and it is taking me forever to strip, sand and paint the dresser I bought last week. However, I really like how it is turning out.
• I would like to have a picnic with my friend Becky and her family; we always have so much fun together; and
• I would like to take a picture of my kids next to my Mother's Day tree.

I hope your weekend is relaxing and fun. To read more Friday High Fives or to participate just click on the button at the top of this post.