Not everything is concrete yet BUT I keep having flashes of ideas – little snippets – of stuff I will plan to do once my time is my own. No, I do not yet know my TCC face-to-face teaching schedule but supposing it’s only MWF, I have T/R to work on my other online stuff at home. However, because I’m pretty good at multitasking, I also want to do things for myself. So, shall we?

1. Drive out to Bradley’s when I feel cooped up. Bradley’s country store is about ten miles from my house down a beautiful canopy road. It’s always a very nice drive too. I enjoy going to this little shack in the country that has stood and operated since 1927. I usually pick up some pickled something or other, fresh bacon, and some old-fashioned candy. If I get sick of grading or feel the need for freedom, I can totally see myself making the trip.
2. Make kombucha. I bought a kit for it and though it is not nearly as complicated as beer, it does take time and has a bottling process. I could get this done on a Saturday but maybe it’s just good to wait and do this as another stress reliever, if I find myself overwhelmed by grading.
3. Sand and repaint the stair railings. The little newells and the balusters are worn and it wouldn’t be too difficult to do a quick hand sand and repaint. But that’s definitely something to be done when no one else is in the house.
4. Go back to doing yoga. For a while there, I was waking up early to stretch but I could arrange my time such that I take a mid-morning break for a 20-30 minute video.  This will vastly improve my well-being! When I was doing it before, my body felt so much better.
5. Run! I can already picture it now: Tuesdays and Thursday, I won’t get up and shower right away. I’ll make my coffee, help the kids get ready. I will see the younger two to the bus then come back. Once my oldest is gone, I will go for a nice run. Maybe I’ll even be able to increase my mileage. This prospect makes me so happy; running has been difficult with the late afternoons, the heat, and just the general life upheaval from the job change.
6. Digitize old photos. This is a project I have been wanting to do for a while. Ash went through the majority of his family photos and scanned them in but I have not attacked my plethora of physical photos but if we can get the Dell up and running – the one that supports the old scanner – then it will be worth it. And I can grab a stack here and there and get them into digital format.
7. Minor yard maintenance. I feel like my weekends are sometimes filled to the brim with yard crap. We’ll spend hours pulling weeds and honestly, if I could do it a little at a time, that would be preferable.
8. Try new restaurants. Not that I will eat out often but there’s plenty of little places near me I have never tried but who’s to say I couldn’t order take away and enjoy a meal? I’ve got my eye on the Asian place next to the garden store and the Vietnamese place by the old mall.
9. Sit by/in the pool. I do love my backyard and pool area. My neighbor was mentioning that sometimes on her lunch break she goes outside to just relax and I too could do this!
10. Find and make more crockpot recipes. I am really looking forward to making stuff for the kids once I have time. Also, some recipes only call for food to be in there six hours; not feasible if you leave the house for nine hours. I can probably experiment a little more too.
11. Transfer old VHS home movies to another format. This is one I will be doing for Ash, as he has a lot of these. Much like the photo digitization, it just takes time and computer storage.
12. Look into investments. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while – start a retirement fund. Ash has one for us but it cannot hurt to diversify. It’s never too late or a bad idea to sock away money!
13. Clean out the bags of junk I took from the old office.  If you’ve worked in an office for a long time, you probably know how much stuff ends up there. I mean,if you’re that kind of person. I had all kinds of knick knacks and toys and just fun stuff around the office. It mostly all came home when I moved and it’s funny to hear people come up to the new office and ask where it all went. But I do want to look through everything and determine what I should keep and what can be tossed.