Whaddaya Mean, Summer’s Over?

This week’s question: Are there any summer projects you want/hope/need to finish up before the summer is over?

As a teacher, my year is shaped by the school schedule. In Michigan, school starts the day after Labor Day for kindergarten through high school, and the colleges start a week earlier. I spent twenty-eight years teaching elementary school (during which time my daughters went through the K-12 system) so summer vacation was when I rushed around trying to complete the things I didn’t have time to do during the school year. Looking back, I probably would have enjoyed summers more if I hadn’t felt pressured to do so much in so little time.

Now that I’m retired from full-time teaching and the children are on their own, there is less pressure to “get things done” during a three-month period. But since I still teach part-time, the school year is still busier than summer, and I had a list of things I wanted to finish before the fall semester begins.

Here’s my Summer 2015 to-do list from mid-May, when the last semester ended:

1. Re-publish my Christmas book from 2012
2. Write a Christmas sequel to the 2012 Christmas book
3. Make a bunch of Christmas stuff for promo and gifts
4. Remodel Daughter #2’s bedroom into a craft/sewing room (possibly writing room)

And here is how I fared on those goals:

1. The Partridge and the Peartree has been re-edited, historical errors have been addressed, and the book (with a shiny new cover) is due to release tomorrow!
2. Two Tutor Doves, the sequel, is complete and has been submitted, thanks to an all-night editing session last Friday and the help of an amazing beta reader.
3. I have a few Christmassy tote bags made, and I’ve brought a bunch more fabric upstairs, but I’m nowhere near ready for the holiday and since I just got done writing the Christmas books, I haven’t had a moment to think about making things to promote them.
4. I’m about halfway there! The room has a new floor, and the walls have been painted. On Saturday, the new shelving units I ordered were delivered, and on Sunday my daughter and son-in-law came over to put them together. Now I need to arrange all my “stuff” in the cubbyholes. I may have to buy another unit.

I can’t wait to get all my scrapbooking, card-making, and sewing supplies out of the living room and into my new craft room!

Since the fall semester begins tomorrow, my “summer” ends today. Out of four goals, I have two and a half done. Next weekend I plan to finish putting things away in my new sewing room, so that only leaves goal #3. If I allot a few hours each week to sewing Christmas gifts I should be able to finish most of those projects, too. Of course, the bulk of sewing will probably be done the third week in December.

After all, I’ve always worked better under pressure.

Did you have a to-do list for the summer? If so, what kind of progress did you make?

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