Settling into a Routine and maybe a Rotation...

Today was the kids' second full day of school. As we are new to the school, it has been a little rocky but not by much. The parents and teachers at my kids' school have been great to me and the kids. They have been so welcoming and helpful that I feel right at home. It is a good feeling. Hopefully after my first back to school night on Thursday, I will feel a whole lot better. Today was the first day of homework for both the kids and I am happy to report that it was not overwhelming like it used to be at our old school. Every day at our old school, my kids had something in every subject. There were times when my then 5th grader had over 4 hours worth of written homework. The teachers here feel that they just need to send home "home practice". I am a bigger fan of that and it was exactly that today. After all, I am paying tuition and I feel that they should be taught at school and just have a little reinforcement at home. So far, so good.

On the homefront, I have spent the last two days getting reorganized and cleaning as I have neglected housework the past couple weeks. I am happy to say that there is just the dusting of the bedrooms and the never ending laundry to do and I am home free for the weekend. And tomorrow is just Wednesday. I figure I will do the rest of the housework tomorrow and then food shopping on Thursday and then Friday, I just need to vacuum again and of course keep up with the laundry. That means, I have a free weekend. This will be my first entirely free weekend since before we moved in June. YES!!!! I have arrived. Actually, I guess I am just getting settled into a routine finally!!! It is a great feeling.

On the stitching front, I have rethought (is that a word?) my rotation. I don't think I am strict rotation kinda girl. This weekly thing is just not going to work out with two kids that have social lives. So I figure I will do a goal based rotation. It will work with the WIPs I have going and also the things I plan on adding in the near future. My goal is to have something, anything finished before the end of the year. So far in 2004, I have ONE, count'em ONE finish. Here is how I plan my goal based rotation:

1. Fire Dragon - I will work seven 10 X 10 grids in their entirety. A little ambitious since this is on 28 ct. evenweave but doable.

2. Chatelaine Previous Mysteries II, III and V (my choice): one entire part of whatever mystery I pick up. Next up will be Mystery V since that is in my stitching area at the present.

3. Coffee Design by Mystic Stitch. Again this will be stitched using the 10 X 10 grids on the chart. Since this one is on 14 ct. aida, I will do 10 blocks per rotation.

4. Coffee Designs from Stoney Creek or other small design or ornaments. I will work on it for the week or maybe two and then it will become a car project after the current car project is finished. Right now I am still working on the project for my DD which is nearing the end of cross stitch. I just have a little more xs and then the backstitch.

I think this goal based rotation is a little more reasonable with me. There are weeks that I barely stitch and then there are others where I get a ton done. It is not because I don't want to stitch, it is because life gets in the way and there isn't time to settle in and stitch. I also hope with fall fast approaching that I can go back to my Sundays of stitching while in front of the tube watching football with DH.

For the rest of this week, I plan on finishing the housework and getting the grocery shopping done before Friday and stitching 4 more blocks on Fire Dragon. Now to get off this box and get stitching.

Night all.....