Loose Ends!

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Summer is drawing to a close here. It’s two weeks till school starts and I’m beginning to realize just how many loose ends I need to deal with. Projects that need to be finished and way, way too many that still need to be planned and started.

We got pavers this year for our birthdays and an early Christmas present, from my in-laws. Which means removing sod/weeds, deciding whether to install a French drain or a rain barrel, laying gravel, pavers and filling with sand. Before the fall/winter rains begin.

And I’m touring a few gardens and writing program descriptions of them for a garden tour next summer. Also the group of plant geeks I hang with are having a tour of the member’s gardens next month. Which I’m organizing, because it’s my turn.

Oh, and I’ve got a huge amount of publishing things to do, website updates, print on demand books to get up, lots of reformatting/rebranding plus new covers to make. Not to mention the whole writing thing. Stories to get written and out of my system so I can wade into a novel in October/November.

And it’s time to decide which plants to move around this winter. Roses that need more sun, perennials that need more room. Trees, shrubs, etc. which have outgrown the decorative containers and now need to go into the ground.

All of this along with the normal stuff of life – cleaning, cooking, herding child to get up in the morning and make lunch and do homework in the afternoon, volunteering in the classroom, pretending that we are keeping track of money and paying bills, organizing our crazy schedules. And maybe feeding cats. I’m trying not to think of all the Christmas gifts I could be making from summer fruits, which are currently passing me by.

I’m hyperventilating here.

Not even going to consider the child’s room – which is truly horrifying. And there’s a million other little loose ends which need to be taken care of.

I don’t remember my to-do list being this large for a long time, so it’s annoying. I’ve spent years trying to keep it pared down to the basics. But this year, I think spring cleaning has merged with summer upkeep, fall cleanup and upcoming winterization to form some sort of horrible monster – the All Season Overwhelm.

And it’s slapping me in the face right now. I made a list of just the publishing things I need to do in the next month and a half. It’s a notebook page long with each item taking anywhere from a couple days to a week to accomplish. And I really want to do all these things. (Unlike the cleaning, cooking, etc.)

So, I’m going to take a few deep breaths, carry my computer out into the sunshine and go work on the current story.

And ignore the monster for at least a few more days!

 



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