Saturday, August 25

So I found The Lazy Organizer following a link from Parent Hacks to GNMParents to her site, and really liked the "SMART Saturday" idea. I made a list of daily things I wanted to accomplish and kept track of them, and here's how I did, from Sunday afternoon through Friday:

*Wake up 7:30 - Averaged 7:50 (6:34 to 8:38)
*Prayer and Scripture - 5/5
*Make bed - 5/5
*Get dressed - 5/5
*Eyes/teeth/face - 5/5
*Hair and make-up - 5/5
*Laundry check - 4/5
*Flower check - 5/5
*Eat breakfast - 5/5
*15 min to-do - 5/6
*15 min declutter - 4/6
*15 min zone - 1/6
*15 min to-do - 3/6
*Eat lunch - 6/6
*Prepare dinner - 2/6
*Dishes check - 6/6
*Vitamin - 4/6
*Exercise - 4/6
*Eyes/teeth/face - 5/6
*Prayer - 6/6
*Bed 9:30 - Averaged 10:46 (9:40 to 11:43)
*Lights out 10 - Averaged 11:13 (10:28 to 12:46)
85/106=80%; times: 2 hours, 49 minutes late.

I guess that's not too bad. I think I do better with just having a checklist. The 15-minute entries in the middle of the day are to keep me on track throughout the day. I have a "focus" of what I'd like to do from my to-do list, which, this week, is retyping the Baptismal service for Fr. Peter so he can have it in the order he likes, without having to flip through the entire book. "Decluttering" right now just means unpacking; "zone" means actual cleaning; the other "15 min to-do" means taking something else from the to-do list, separate from the main focus. I did eight things on the to-do list (and not the main focus) on Thursday, but I don't think it's fair to put them on other days: I just get to enjoy having them done, and not have to look at them on the list any more.

In other news, my father-in-law is finishing his second week here with us before returning to his work in Nigeria. My mother visited on Thursday-Friday-Saturday, and took him and me to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, which was much better than I had thought it would be. We also went on the "Behind the Scenes Tour" and got to watch a girl feed the fish, and the Eco-Tour and managed to see a few brief glimpses of dolphins as well as the many birds ... nevermind just enjoying being out on a boat for an hour and a half. (Yes, I put on sunscreen before and after, and yes, I'm still as red as a lobster.) My favorite part were the otters, even though the "Behind the Scenes" tourguide said they were mean. They were also show-offs, doing flips any time anyone looked their way.

Yesterday was my (late) father's birthday. I used my new colorful stationery to send out cards to my niece, nephews, and sister, using the stamps my mother got with Papa's face on them (and was able to get them hand-cancelled by a nice lady at the post office). Since he is not using his birthday any more, I am very happy someone I know is! Gabi has a newborn little sister, and they are sharing a new blog.

Great Paraklesis

(We're back from the trip to Romania, but there are 899 photos and one video to sort through and provide commentary on.)

Tonight, as there is no service at Holy Trinity (you can check out the webpage as Fr. Peter is working on it), we had a Great Paraklesis service at home. As you may know, the service is the same as the Small Paraklesis except for the odes and (as we remembered midway) the Gospel. However, we have no idea where our service book for the Small Paraklesis book is. (Did I take it to Romania? Is it still in a box?) So we used the online services (Small and Great).

But I learned (well, not in the finished sense) the Great Paraklesis odes from Fr. Seraphim (Dedes)'s cd. Except that I don't have a written copy. Being familiar with it from my six-month-plus stint of listening to it to and from work (twice through each way, or once in English and once in Greek), I found it much easier to finish transcribing it. (I had already done the first two odes previously, when I was less familiar with it.)

It was strange to have a service with my very own priest at home, but delightful to have a thoroughly familiar service. We have an icon of the Theotokos, gift of Fr. Antonie from the Neamţ Monastery (orthodoxwiki article to come, following picture-sorting, God-willing), propped up on a table. For most of the service we were turned towards the monitor, even using google documents for our prayer list ... which my husband added to verbally and I typographically as we went.

I think our house is happier now.