Sixteen Weeks

Now that winter break is over, things are returning to what passes for normalcy around here. But a lot of talking went on in bits and pieces over the past 3 weeks, leading me to examine a calendar closely this morning.

A whole bunch of inter-connected things are going down in mid-May. The lynchpin, as it were, is that Media Guy will be graduating. Since he's looking for a job in LaLa Land, or possibly somewhere on the east coast, he will also be looking for an apartment and moving out. Second, Future Vet plans to move out of the dorms for his next year of school, so he and a couple of friends are looking for an apartment. Since the Wizard and I are talking about moving back to Eastern Time, he will also be moving out.

In the meantime, the Drama Queen is also planning to move back to Eastern Time, so she is thinking she will work up until the week before Media Guy's graduation, then drive out to LaLa Land with us so that she can visit Disneyland. Sports Nut has also finished his degree program and will be applying to business programs back on the east coast. He'll be done with his one spring semester class at the end of April, however, and he wants to see the Grand Canyon before quitting Mountain Time. A trend develops....

So, as I said, today I looked at a calendar and noticed that there are 16 weeks between now and the day when most of these plans need to be in place. That's sort of a deadline, right? I went around the house -- which looks really great right now because we shoved a bunch of things into the garage and the Wizard's office -- and made a list:

-- approximately 150 boxes in the garage (a guesstimate, but it's an educated guess)
-- 4 sets of shelves plus shelves on the walls in the garage (all full)
-- 3 four-drawer file cabinets, mostly full of papers that need to be looked at
-- various stuff crammed into the Wizard's office
-- packing Media Guy's and Future Vet's stuff up to be moved
-- going through t-shirt collections and other clothing
-- two sheds full of boxes and other stuff
-- books on shelves, piled on tables, etc., etc.
-- games and puzzles
-- plastic bins on the balcony

Now the question is, is it possible to deal with all of that in the next 16 weeks while also taking care of the projects that have to be completed before this house can be sold, like:

-- paint the master bedroom and bathroom
-- replace the flooring in 4 bedrooms and the Wizard's office
-- stucco and masonry repairs (exterior)
-- tile backsplash in kitchen
-- front yard (right now, there is negative "curb appeal" out front)

While at the same time, staying on top of the laundry, general cleaning, knitting, reading, writing, family meals, preparing for Purim and Pesach, and maintaining my sanity. Good thing I quit my jobs already.

I made a very sketchy plan for the next 16 weeks. It should be interesting to see whether I can stick to the plan.

Week 1 -- 50 boxes
Week 2 -- 50 boxes
Week 3 -- rest of boxes
Week 4 -- books
Week 5 -- garage shelves, games & puzzles
Week 6 -- file cabinets
Week 7 -- file cabinets
Week 8 -- Catchup
Week 9 -- blank for some reason
Week 10 -- balcony
Week 11 -- sheds
Week 12 -- sheds, Pesach cleaning
Week 13 -- Pesach cleaning
Week 14 -- Pesach, the Wizard's office
Week 15 -- t-shirts and other clothing
Week 16 -- finish packing Media Guy's and Future Vet's stuff (they will be home for part or all of Pesach and I expect them to do most of the packing themselves)

Stay tuned for progress reports.