Today began like a normal late-summer morning: foggy.
Unlike a cloudy morning, fog is almost always sure to burn off. So I knew, as I wandered down to check the garden that I had only a few hours at most of cool weather to have all the windows open and get work done with air flowing through the house.
Job number one: Clear off my workbench.
Before… let’s just say one couldn’t see the surface of the workbench, and the pile of posters, supplies, mail, books, prizes for students and almost anything else you might want (except my old passport) was as tall as the set of four cubbies on the far right.
In picture, you can see that I discarded the hundred (literally) gel pens that were almost a decade old and thus drying out and unreliable for art. This leaves that shelf open to receive new pens or pencils as I have time to restock. I have organized my office supplies, and put down a posterboard for a mat on the top of the “woodgrain” surface of the workbench, which used to be a closet door. I still need to pull out the materials in the cubbies, but surprisingly enough, they are not dis-organized, just not neat. I have managed to keep the materials in each cubby in the correct location over the last four years! I have several cans and jars of brushes, pens and pencils to go through and sort into useful and discard, I expect to pare it down to just three containers. And I have a few supplies for printmaking and random art materials on top of the card table to go through… and then I am done with this part of the office.
Then, I can work on the pile of materials and supplies that is outside in the driveway, about three feet high and five feet across, or about 60 cubic feet. My goal is to have that pile sorted and put away before I take a short trip at the end of the week… I hate coming home to piles of work.
What else did I do? I “attended” the Saturday morning webinar from Classroom2.0 and looked at some of the online resources mentioned. I cleaned under and behind the now-defrosted 14 cubic foot upright freezer. I did some laundry. I started cutting, prepping and setting up bamboo on the garden gate to provide a more complete deterrent for the deer. I picked peas and beans. I played with birds. I talked to cousins in Germany and one of my dear friends on the phone. I watched some Olympics.
It was a productive day, with luck tomorrow will be, too!
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