My To Do List

My parents get here on Monday evening. The parents for whose visit I typically repaint the hallway to hide the fact that we scuff it horrifyingly over the course of the year, you ask? Why yes, those parents. I have decided that this year I will not repaint that hallway. (And a chorus of joyous singing was heard in the background.) But only because I still have to finish painting the trim in the guest bathroom that was "almost done" when they were here last Christmas. That unfinished little gem of a project really needs to get done in the next few days, if only so I am not mortified when they arrive. (And the singing stopped, and the singers got out paint brushes.)

In addition to which, I still have to turn in final grades for 90 students. And finish planning my classes for next term so that I can order books and print out the syllabi before the office closes for two weeks.

Ideally, I had planned to clean out our basement so that we could make it into a playroom before my parents got here. But instead, we just took the largest of the toys from the family room, shoved them down the stairs any which way we could, shut the door, and called it a day. No one goes down there anyway. We might as well wait until the "down" week between Christmas and New Year's to get that heavy lifting done.

My beautiful nook of a home office has been declared a Federal Disaster Area (that's a figure of speech; no tax dollars were utilized for this declaration) what with the arriving boxes from Amazon.com, and the packages from out-of-town relatives, and the wrapping station of my own, and the sewing machine, and the piles of papers I haven't had time to file, and the books from planning classes, and the random junk in the corner that was shoved there when we had a dinner party a month ago and didn't have time to properly put away everything. SO. That door is staying closed for a while, but it will have to be openable by Monday, which means I have a little cleaning to do over the weekend.

In the spirit of the holidays, however, I'm trying not to dwell on the overwhelming nature of the tasks at hand. Instead, I've composed a festive little song to help me keep the list in mind and also get me through the day. The tune might be familiar as the Twelve Days of Christmas. You might also note that I have to get twelve days of work done in the next four. That's pretty typical around here.

Go ahead, sing along...

I have to:

wrap 12 zillion presents
deliver 11 cranberry breads
do 10 loads of laundry
grade 9 more papers
make 8 pocket fairies
clean for 7 hours
buy 6 more presents
mail 5 out-of-town packages
donate 4 hats
paint 3 kitchen cupboards
rearrange 2 beds
and sleep for 1 hour before company arrives!

What's on your list right now?