August Looms

I know it sounds strange to say that this is kind of like the last "real" week of summer break, but it is for me.  Yes, I know. School doesn't officially start until the very end of August and that would indicate that I still have plenty of time.  However, August marks the season where I have to start thinking in terms of Going Back.  It's not like I just walk in on the first day of school and everything is ready.  I have to go make it be ready and that takes some time.  Granted, I do this on my own schedule and am generally home for lunch and a nap by midday, but still...it's a very different mindset.

I think that is why I am suddenly feeling pressure to do as much as possible this week.  Suddenly, I have knit three feet of scarf.  I've washed the kitchen floor and started sorting through some of the grown up clothes required for keeping my career.  I also canned three more pints of pickles in order that I might be sustained pickle-wise in the coming work-a-day lifestyle.

I took a picture of the pickles, but then realized that I've already shown you a picture of pickles.  It is unreasonable to assume that people want to gaze upon pickles more than once.  Anything beyond that is just pickle overkill and looks braggy.  Like my pickle wealth somehow makes me better than everyone else...

I'm lining up the next knitting project and have actually gone so far as to wrap a Christmas present.  I'm making a list of the books I'd like to read before I have to go back to work so that I don't spend my days wondering what happened to all my favorite characters while I should be teaching Very Important Skills to Very Deserving Children.  I have taunted the mean Wii Fit Lady with my upcoming schedule so she knows she can't torture me in the mornings forever.  She doesn't seem all that fazed by this revelation.  She knows she'll just get me in the afternoon.  She's smart like that.

The only thing I'm not really worried about is getting myself up in the mornings.  Since The Cat Whisperer put the resident felines on a no-carb diet, there is no issue whatsoever with my lying abed.  The mighty beasts begin the hunt for sustenance at the crack of 5:00 a.m. since there is no kibble upon which to nosh while they await my achieving consciousness.  For the record, I don't get up when they tell me.  I hang in there and fake sleep for as long as I can stand it.  My iron will is the only thing that has kept me even remotely close to the top of the hierarchy here.  However, I do have to admit that the cats have really done a marvelous job of keeping me on the school schedule at a time when I might be tempted to slack off and act like a person on vacation.

So there you have it.  Sheepie is changing gears.  It's early, I know.  I don't have to go back to school just yet and I really do still have days of peaceful relaxation ahead of me.  But it's not forever and the last week of July is a gentle reminder of that.  I need to start thinking seriously about what I want to tell everyone I achieved this summer.

I wonder if there is still time to re-tile the bathroom and learn how to yodel?

SA