Plans for Today

I was thinking that it's time that I set out some goals. These are very general, but I think that I need to start thinking in the right direction:

For Today

• I believe that I can get through this.
• I will take care of business.
• I will do things that I want to do.
• I will ask for what I need.
• I will learn something new.
• I will cry only for a reason.
• I will laugh for no reason.

I did well with this today. Annette and Steve came down and helped me with my sorting and culling. I worked on some more very difficult things today -- attic and library.

In the attic, I had stashed a bunch of bakery-related things -- glass pie plates (yes, more of them!), muffin pans, springform pans..on and on. And I had four years of wonderful and creative lesson plans. And many pounds of materials that I had used with my students, projects that they had made, etc.. The lesson plans are at the recycling facility. The materials are going to Teachers' Warehouse, and I hope that some teacher finds them as fun as I once did.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I put these things into the difficult-to-access attic, but I believe, at my tender age of 38, I thought that I might someday return to teaching high school mathematics. I think that I believed that life is long, and our desires go through cycles. There is no way that I could ever live long enough to teach high school math again.

And I went through some of my books. Books become like friends, and it seems inordinately difficult to get rid of them. How could I toss "The Pearl," "Night in Funland," or "In a Sunburned Country?" I didn't. I did put some books into a pile to give to the Red Cross, which has a book sale annually. I hope they want them.

More books -- the rarer and older ones -- will be put up for sale on Amazon. This saddens me deeply, but simplifying is what I want to do now, and this is the way to do it. If I didn't do it now, someone would be tossing my life's collections after I die, and they would just laugh at my things.

I boxed up my puzzle collection, too, but these -- my favorites from my collection -- will be going with me to Tucson. I'm not sure where I'll put them there, but I do love my puzzles. Only if I use it, need it, or love it, is it eligible to stay with me. And I have to answer honestly about each item.

We had lunch at MCL and it was gooood! Now it's time to play some games. I think that online Boggle will be my game for tonight. I play at WordsPlay. I consider myself a winner if I place in the top third; that's how good these folks are!