Yeah, it's June...

I've been  busy on the Mountain.  Frankly, life in general has had me scrambling to keep up.  I prefer that metaphor to the one where I'm in the wagon, careening downwards and screaming the whole way.  Which I also feel like right now.  I'm going to recap where we are in the List for this year, and you may understand why.
  1. Do the upgrades that I have purchased for the house.  I have the paint for the side door and front shutters, the paint for the trim on the living room window and spindles, and the paint for the front door.  I need to use it.  As well, I have a new light for the patio.  I need to get it up in the spring.  We're moving!  Suddenly, all these things took on a new urgency.  In addition to the painting listed above, We hired a painter who also painted the front railing and the surround on the garage door.  It looks so fresh here.  Wish that We could continue to enjoy.  Sigh.
  2. Move.  I spent part of the summer lap swimming, and loved it.  I want to start swimming at the municipal pool again.  I've bought a new, smaller pair of jeans.  I would love to shrink out of them.  I've stopped drinking pop, but it will take more than that and I know it.  Stress makes me eat.  And eat out.  A lot.  We're working on the whole clean out the freezer before moving, and that means eating at home.  Hopefully, all will go well.  It's not moving, but I find eating mindfully what I prepare is a great help.
  3. Cook at home more - like, 5 nights per week consistently.  I started taking pictures and posting them to Facebook last year.  My new project is a blog of what I make.  I'm hoping I update there more than I update here.  Sigh.  Have you seen Things I Make for Dinner ?  It's great...when I have time to update.  I have a bunch of pictures on my camera.  Hopefully, this weekend.  I love the accountability of it all. 
  4.  Repaint the upstairs bathroom.  I haven't told J this yet, but I want to repaint the bathroom.  We currently have a double towel bar that is pulling out of the wall.  He wants it replaced, and I agree.  I need to decide what I want to put up instead, and then do it.  I am much enamoured of stripes right now.  In greens, blues, and chocolate browns.  Then all the towels I have will still work.  If we don't go away for March Break, perhaps then.  Not Happening.  We're moving.
  5. Complete the 1000 Gifts in 2012.  Have you ever read Ann Voskamp?  I can never decide how I feel about her...hers is a style of writing that I do not enjoy.  But I've taken up the challenge of 1000 gifts to bring joy this year.  My calendar is printed, and I've started.  It's coming.  Sometimes the prompts are weird.
  6. Use the library.  J is in the market for an ereader.  I can't decide if that's something I really want.  But I do have a library card that I don't use enough.  I think about purchasing cookbooks, and then I think, "Why don't I get this from the library?"  I think of a movie that I want to see that's been out for a while, and I realize that I could borrow it from the library.  I want my card to smoke in 2012.  Or, at least obey the laws of thermodynamics and warm a cup of tea.  We've taken to borrowing movies.  I like that.  We're just not always good about watching them before they need to go back.
  7.  Organize.  Erg.  I'm moving into larger categories and away from specifics.  Organize means deal with the boxes on the floor of the living roomDeal with the black hole that is my office.  Keep working on picking up what needs to be picked up.  But the boxes are the priority.  It's slowly getting there.  It's amazing what wanting to sell a house will do to you.  The living room has furniture!  The boxes are gone!  J and I spent a weekend going through things we hadn't touched in 3 years.  This is a sign, apparently, that we're supposed to move more often.  Ugh.
  8. Entertain more.  This may be the only thing on the list that involves J directly.  J and I both want to see our friends more, and to spend time with them.  We'd like them at our house.  We've talked about having people in once a month.  That helps with my organization thing too.  We were averaging a family a month.  Then we started getting the house ready.  We've had no one in since.  But we do have plans for next Sunday night to sit on the patio and grill.
  9. Get a handle on our finances, and our legal stuff.  J and I have been making some strides towards this recently, some of which I'll share later.  The big thing is we have no will.  If I die, J loses the house seeing as the title is in my name and the estate would sell it.  This is something that just makes sense.  Our finances are in a better place.  Really.  Someday, I may even share.  Moving back from whence we came should help too.  Prices are lower there.  We still have no will.  Argh.
  10. Apply for a new position at workThe hiring pool will be opening soon.  I would like to move up, even though it scares me to death.  If not, I think I need to spend some time with a career counsellor talking about what I want to be when I grow up.  Check.  I have my own building next year as principal.  New position found, totally scared of what's to come.