makin' a list

Monday morning and I’m ready to go. I had big plans of getting up really early this morning, which happened, but I promptly fell asleep next to Josh around my wake-up time.

Getting some coffee ready and making my weekly to-do list. I’ve finally found a system that seems to work for me. I’ve spent years buying notebooks, calendars and filofaxes in hopes of keeping it all filed away. I would spend one day organizing and then never pick it back up again and so I have millions of one day sprees of organization and that doesn’t really work.

Basically I create a little document with the weeks date on the top. Rather than doing things day by day, I just write a huge list of things I want to get done for the week which spaces by the task for check marks. I put some really crazy to-do’s on there like: wash face twice a day and put 14 spaces by it. Or wash dishes before bed with seven spaces, one for each day. Getting the small stuff done somehow makes the less-fun big things easier to get done. I love the feeling of having most items checked by the end of the week.

I put three holes on the side of my list, and keep them in a cheapy folder with pockets. I labeled her “daily assistant”. I like to pretend that I have an assistant, I almost named her.

This week I have a lot of blog catching up to do. I have two blogs that I update on a regular basis and a few visual changes I want to make. I’m also hand-making a lot of my Christmas gifts this year, something I’ve always wanted to do. Every year the date just creeps closer and closer and I always think to myself “I should start this earlier next year”. So this year, I’m starting early.

I love the holiday season, I am ridiculously antsy to start decorating for Christmas. I keep telling myself it would be inappropriate to hang stockings before we’ve eaten the prerequisite turkey and stuffing.

Christmas has always been really exciting to me, my mom did a really great job decorating the house and creating memories. This time of year always has a certain feel and smell to it that I still remember. I know Christmas catches a lot of flak for being so commercial and some people just down right hate the fuss. Its not the presents I remember, although the anticipation cannot be denied. It was the gatherings we went to, the cold air, listening to Christmas music while decorating the tree, watching our favorite Christmas movies on marathon, baking an assortment of treats, sitting in front of the tree for hours.

No longer being a child, or even having a child of my own can bring speculative “why bother” jeers from other people, but I can’t help but feel: why not? Its something that I enjoy and I’m a big fan of making everyday special, using the nice dishes, taking time to make a nice meal, taking time to just be and to enjoy yourself. I’m heavily influenced by two bloggers during this time of year: Posie Gets Cozy & The Black Apple.

Both without children, both with an infectious need to make the most out of our time here on earth, which is something I aspire to be lucky enough to realize. To doing things on your whims even if other people think it is weird or quirky. Not that decorating for Christmas is the most outrageous thing a person can do.

I’m working on some handmade holiday projects that I’m going to share in the coming days leading up to Christmas. I have a lot of ideas for creating decorations and hand made gifts using recycled items we might otherwise throw away or using relatively cheap and easily accessible supplies. There is something rewarding for me to take the time to make something using my hands that doesn’t involve making money, or progressing to some next step. Just being still in that moment, all focus on details and completion.

I’ve also created a wists that can be found on my sidebar, it is full of things that I think are wonderful as gifts. Almost all of them are hand-made, in case you’re looking for a unique item for someone.