Brain Dump

I'll bet the frame on this truck is less rusted than ours.
Photo Credit

You know, sometimes with all I have to do, and all that's going on, my mind gets bogged down like a rear-wheel drive truck stuck in the mud. The tires start spinning and next thing you know, I'm doing nothing instead of hitting the gas.

On a related note, if you have a spare truck, even a 2WD truck that's stuck in the mud, I'll take it. We just found out yesterday that our awesome little Dodge Dakota has a rusted-through frame that even our mechanic won't touch for liability reasons. And a dealership sold it to us like that for over $3K, but we didn't discover it quickly enough to do anything about it. That's a rotten, awful feeling.

As a result I'm feeling kind of paralyzed, so it's time for a brain dump. Do you ever do that? List everything you need to do so that it's on paper a screen and not cluttering you mind, and then go through the things on the list one by one and (hopefully) get everything done? I do, with varying degrees of success. Cross your fingers... here's what's on the list for this week. If I didn't forget anything.

Blog
Look at me killing two birds with one stone - getting organized and blogging!

Dog Training
Practice some training basics with with Polly the Collie and the clicker. (Polly is our year and a half-old Border Collie and I've been neglecting her training because of lack of time. She's full of energy and needs to work!)

Sell Truck
This one makes me sad. I loved that truck. My mechanic recommended I list it on Craigslist (full disclosure on the rusted frame, of course) and maybe we can recoup some of our losses and a backyard welder will become the proud new owner of our little truck. Then, of course, we need to decide if and how we can buy another truck... note to self, buy Powerball ticket on the way home from work.

This really stinks, though - I bought the family a vintage camper last year, and just got a great little early 60's fishing boat and trailer for my husband's b-day. So much for actually pulling those things... lol.

Credit Repair Project
We'd like to be able to buy a farm in the next year (whether the one we're renting or another), so it's time to fix the credit. I'm using a really great site to help me figure out the process. I've also signed up for Quizzle so I can keep an eye on the situation and know what kind of collections items are out there.

Photo Credit

Write a Novel

A bestseller. The first of many. So I don't have to work anymore. This one sounds kind of silly, but I've got a few novels in progress and just have to finish one. So I guess my "action item" is develop a reasonable writing schedule.

Herbalism Project
My "thing" this year is to start on my path to becoming an herbalist. To that end, I sent my deposit in today for a Susun Weed class (ABC of Herbalism) and signed up for her free course, Nourishing Herbal Infusions. My first "assignment" is to make and drink a quart of herbal infusion (nettle, oatstraw, clover, raspberry leaf, or comfrey leaf), as well as make a tea from the same herb and compare.

I also recently made elderberry syrup (post coming soon) and next, I'm going to try a calendula-based diaper rash/skin healing cream, along with my infusion project.

Kitchen Time
Tonight, after work, I need to make a birthday cake for my hubs (it's tomorrow), make dinner (we're doing vegetarian three days a week now for money and health reasons, so it's grilled cheese and tomato soup), and make a batch of peanut butter kisses. I offered some folks at work cookies, since I bring them in once a month and this month a bunch of people missed out because they went so fast. The great thing about that is that my standing order has been increased, and instead of $120 for 120 treats, my company is now buying 200 treats for $200. Woohoo!

Also, I follow FlyLady (or try) and we're in the kitchen this week, so I have decluttering and daily missions to do.

Sewing

Photo Teaser: Those baby shower gifts will make it into a blog post eventually!

It started as a bargain with my hubs: sew 10 projects by the end of February and we'll look into getting my awesome antique sewing machine running. Looking at it realistically, with credit repair and the truck situation and everything else going on, we can't afford a sewing machine and cabinet refurbishing, but I still want to hit my goal. So far, I've made two baby shower gifts and altered a dress to fit me (alterations are hit and miss with me, but it fits perfect now - yay!). Still on the list to make are two cage covers for our new parakeets, a pair of "vintage" pj's (vintage sheet, vintage buttons, vintage-style pattern), and many other things I can't remember right now.

Plan the Garden
Yeah, I'm a slacker. It's already FEBRUARY! And I've got an herb garden to plan, too...

Well, that should keep me busy for a week if not forever. What's on your to-do list?