Leaving Tomorrow

We are going home from Kentucky tomorrow. Time has flown by. I am really surprised by how fast the week has gone. When I get home, I'm housesitting again for a bit and then in less than two weeks school starts! I don't know if I'm prepared. I need to get mentally prepared for it, mostly. The first semester I was very careful to go out and buy all of the supplies I thought I would need - highlighters, mechanical pencils, erasers, colored pencils, etc. Most of them I did end up using, but in later semesters I've needed less and less of all that fun stuff. I hardly used any notebook filler paper last semester because I took all of my notes on the computer or on printed out powerpoint presentations. This semester I would expect to be the same. I really stocked up on filler paper the first semester and I bet we will still be using it when Aftasie learns how to write.

I will be using plenty of notecards, however, since next semester I will be taking pharmacology and memorizing many medications and details about them.

Catastrophic Light Packing Results

are non-existant. Everything has been going fine, even though I only have three shirts. I must say, though, that any ideas of rewearing shirts have completely gone out of the window in this Kentucky heat. The humidity is down to a merciful 66% down from 97% a few days ago. It actually feels cool outside at 80 degrees. 

Homework Emergency

Well, it's not exactly an emergency, but I forgot all of my stats notes at home. And I just realized there is indeed an exam due this week (in two days!) as well as all of this week's homework. I guess I am going to be spending a lot of time in front of the computer. I thought I would have worked on it before this but days have just been flying by.

It has been very hot and muggy here in Kentucky. When we stepped off the plane I instantly felt the muggy air and heat. It is pretty amazing. Last night there was lots of lightening here, and then it poured rain! I stepped into Walmart to pick something up and I heard a thunderous rain on the roof. It was amazing. Nothing like Willamette Valley rain.

Well I guess I am off to remedy the homework situation. :\

Flying Light

I have a chance to try some minimalist ideas on a trip! One of Porter's brothers is flying us out to Kentucky for a family reunion and we will be there for a week. For myself, my list is pretty simple.

• I will wear an outfit for the flight: boots and socks, jeans, tank top and undershirt (I wear something like this this because they work splendidly for nursing!), and I will wear one pair of earrings which will be the only pair along
• 2 shirts
• 2 undershirts
• 1 pair socks (going to wear flipflops most of the time, but I also need the boots)
• 4 pairs of underwear
• 1 skirt
• flipflops
• deodorant
• hair conditioner
• facial moisturizer
• floss + toothbrush
• mp3 player
• a book? I kind of expect to be so busy with Aftasie that there will be no time to read
• laptop (we're just bringing one, and since mine is lighter and more portable I think it will be my mac)
• a purse with my wallet in it, which I will stash in my knapsack for the flight

We are staying in a hotel for a total of four nights of the eight, so I should be able to get shampoo (I'm counting on it!), and Porter is bringing toothpaste so I'm not going to bring any more. I am convinced we might be able to get a complimentary tube at the hotel, but I'm not sure, and Porter definitely isn't into going without toothpaste on my whim :P 

We'll be able to do laundry at Porter's family's house, so I should be good asking to throw in my shirts with someone else's laundry, since I won't have a full load to do even when all of my clothes need to be washed. 

For Aftasie, it's a little more tricky. I'm planning on bringing a knapsack for myself (my "personal item") and bringing a diaper bag as my carryon. I'm bringing a week's worth of clothes for her (yes, they'll get dirty before the week is up but we can do laundry), as well as enough diapers/wipes for the trip. We'll buy some diapers when we get there. I also need to bring her diaper oinments which I'm packing in 2.5 ounce baby jars. I looked over the TSA guidelines and there doesn't seem to be any regulation as to whether the containers are glass or plastic. Everything liquid/gel I'm bringing for her and myself should fit very comfortably in the regulation quart-sized bag. 

For Aftasie I also need to bring a water cup and possibly a bowl, and we're also bringing a bag of assorted snacks that will probably get tossed in my knapsack to bring my bag count down to two including all of our snacks. 

We will also need to bring her carseat, which going to be a pain to carry but necessary if we want to get anywhere on the other end! It also flies free in addition to our regular carryon + personal items, which is very nice.

Aftasie pictures

Aftasie has been growing like a beautiful flower (thought I was going to say weed, didn't you! ;) Since no one will see pictures if I post them on facebook, here are some!

This is while we were housesitting in Eugene

It is hard to take pictures of us together in the camera because she wants to play with the computer

Haha, defending her lettuce from our friend's chickens! :) 

She has gotten pretty good at feeding herself, though it still is a colossal mess. 

Bye Bye Pocket Wallet

Years ago I started using a nifty little grey "wallet" that was essentially just a zippered pouch. It has always been hard to find cards, and cash would just be wadded up between the cards. Over a year ago the zipper broke, which means that besides having to look for every card every time, all of the cards fall out periodically.

4 years ago someone gave me a beautiful (big) red wallet for my birthday. I put it in my closet and forgot about it, because I didn't want to have to carry a purse everywhere and this wallet definitely is not a pocket wallet. Every time I've purged I've hung on to it because it's so nice, and I thought I might use it someday. The day has come! I've realized that I almost always carry a purse or bag around anyway because I can't fit everything gracefully into my pockets anymore (keys, wallet, etc). So I'm preparing to say goodbye to my trusty old broken zippered pouch.

For now, I'll be slipping the wallet into either my casual orange bag or my black purse that I reserve for less casual situations. In the future, I want to have a multipurpose small leather purse that can be used for wallet and essentials whether I'm wearing jeans or a dress. I think a key to making it work in all situations might be having two shoulder straps - a long one and a short one. I don't like wearing a bag that can't be put across my body for ease of carrying but I also don't think it seems appropriate for dress wearing. I'd rather have a short strap for that to just go over one shoulder. I guess even better would be an adjustable strap, but who knows what I'll find.

Goodbye old wallet, in with the new. (I know it's a horrible picture, but what's better, bad pictures or no pictures?)

Budgeting Time

I have been pretty excited about getting our budget worked out for when we have more predictable income, but it struck me that there is another thing that we have a limited amount of and must manage and that is time. Unlike the disparities between the spending capabilities of the rich and poor, everyone has the same amount of time, and furthermore, everyone must use it all.

I have never been taught how to effectively manage my time. My later teenage years seem to be a blur of hanging out on the internet, working a few hours a week (and complaining about and dreading my two-hour "work days") and doing projects with the family. That's not to say I wasn't taught how to work. On the contrary, I think my dad instilled in us all a very strong work ethic and I think about that every time I find myself meticulously picking things up off the carpet (my dad was big on picking things up off the floor. I do vacuum, but sometimes it's faster just to get your fingers out and pick up the 20 pieces of food on the carpet. I personally think I'm very good at picking crumbs up off the carpet :).

But work without managing your time can be pretty ineffective. I remember having great lists of family projects but not getting much done because everything was so important we couldn't pick one thing to start with and finish. It would be so incredibly stressful to have deadlines because we had a hard time meeting them. I remember putting cabinets in the bus at 9pm on the day we were leaving for our first bus trip. Yes, we did do a lot of work on the bus, but I think we could have been more efficient at our work and part of that would have been organizing our time better. That would have lead to a lot less stress when push came to shove.

But I digress, this is not about how I used to manage my time, this is just an example of something I personally need to work on and pay attention to. My time management is definitely better, mostly due to the necessity of having a large school workload on top of having a family, but I think it could be better.

What are ways you manage your time? Do you have a schedule? The idea of a schedule appealed to me at one time but then I found I never stuck to it and I never accurately scheduled the time I needed to get things done.