The Weekend To Do List - Update

Home
1. Clean up living room - with The Child's help.
2. Clean up the dining room/kitch - with the Child's help. Do dishes.
3. Vaccuum up the residue of goop and adhesive crunchies left over from last weekend's floor work.
4. Laundry
5. Strip and change bed.

Mom and Dad came over today and helped with The Floor. I used the Shop-Vac and then their good vaccuum; Dad and I used the Ex's two belt sanders and sanded the blank places left by the adhesive remover, and then Dad went out and got heavy-duty caulk and we filled in the nail holes in the concrete where the carpet nails used to be. Mom swept my outside steps and the inside staircase and vaccuumed my living room. The Child and I did a bunch of clean-up yesterday and this morning. I even cleaned my toilet, which wasn't on the list! Guess I should go throw my sheets in the wash, so I can declare complete victory over the house!

Next chore for The Floor is to sand the caulked places, vaccuum and then mop the whole surface again, and then paint! Dad says that if I do the cutting around the edges, he will do the floor. We're going to buy a long-handled roller for that chore.

Part of me feels weird being 39 years old and having my parents help me with this stuff, but I'm not that great with household tending, and I know that my dad takes a great deal of satisfaction from helping his daughters. Especially now that he has Parkinsons and is all too aware of his physical decline, being able to do stuff like this helps him psychologically. He feels like he's still capable, still needed.

Work
6. Edit five articles for the department newsletter, including the top boss's.
I've been procrastinating this like crazy, but it's next on the list -- after I finish this entry and put my sheets in the wash.

Once upon a time, I had a job I was passionate about. This is not it. I take satisfaction in Jeannie's good opinion of me, but nothing else about my job. If I do well on this newsletter, it will be a major coup politically. I just don't give a damn. But I do care about doing it right, just for my own pride. As gothic_coop wrote a few months ago: "Loyalty must be earned. Professionalism can be rented." I accepted this project and by damn I'm going to do it right.

School
7. Continue to read The Active Life
8. Contact a spirituality expert in my denomination to request an interview so I can write my other 3-page paper.

Nothing from the school list. Hmmm. Tomorrow.

Fun
9. Spend Sunday evening with an old friend, taking him out to dinner for a belated birthday present and watching movies. Dinner at the Outback, rest of evening spent hanging out and talking, a good time.
10. Continue to read The Hall of the Mountain King by Judith Tarr, which I started last night over french toast and which pulled me right into the story and characters. I'm into the second book of the trilogy now. A very good read.
11. Do something fun with The Child.

We've read some Harry Potter together, but not gone out of our way to spend time together. But she's been busy with her step-sisters and having a good time, so I'm not stressing this. But we still need to have a Girls Night Out soon, just the two of us.

Not bad. In fact, better than I had realized before I sat down and re-read my list! Now, I'm going to go throw my sheets in the wash and power up my work laptop to edit those articles.

And thank you for your thoughtful, engaged responses to my Godspell post. I so appreciate having friends like you!