The Eclectic WAHM

Yep. The kids are leaving for a vacation with the grandparents tomorrow. It was a very last-minute plan but it's happening. A week. A whole entire kid-free week. I can barely comprehend the idea. We've never had that long without the kids here. So I've been mulling over ideas of what to do with all this time. I'll be working half-days during the week, but this leaves me a LOT of "extra" time on my hands. My husband will likely be working mega-overtime so I get to live that dream that I see so many women talk about on message boards...time just for me!

There will be Starbucks involved, no doubt. Catching up on my reading a little. Here's the thing, though...I just came up from the basement. Oy. It hit me like a ton of bricks down there. You see, I come from a long line of pack-rats. This is NOT a good thing. Combine pack-rat with procrastination and I tell you what...that adds up to, oh, about four years worth of "I'll get to that next week" sitting in my basement. I'll confess my dirty little secret. At work I manage to be organized and get everything done. At home...well, that's a different story. Paperwork is the bane of my existence. I let it pile up and then ohmygoshsomeonescomingoverandmyhouseisamess. ::::whoosh:::: the papers get piled in a box and stuck in the basement. I'll get to it next week. HA. I can guarantee you that there are random papers from the kids' Wednesday folders from second grade down there. They're starting sixth and seventh grade in just over a week. This is a problem.

So I decided that "next week" really IS next week. With no kids to distract me I can and WILL finally start to tackle some of these tasks that have been piling up for all too long. I'm going to need trash bags. LOTS of trash bags. I swear, I'm the poster child for the reason places like The Container Store exist. Now I just need to write down a plan for the week and stick to it. If I don't, it won't get done. If I don't I'll just go down to the basement, look around, get completely overwhelmed and decide that ice cream and Oprah sounds better. I'm gonna put on my iPod and get to work. Maybe I'll even tackle the kids' rooms while they're gone!

What would YOU do with an entire kidless week?