Sunday Night Strategizing, Vol. 8

Oh my goodness, I am feeling like I have a million zillion things to do. Got to eat the elephant one bite at a time, I guess. This week's menu:

Elephant saute (prayer)

• Transfer notes from spiritual direction to a more permanent home
• Each day, spend some of the baby's naptime with my journal
• Start the St. Andrew novena

Elephant fricassee (person)

• Climb wearily back on the no sugar/moderate exercise wagon after the Thanksgiving revel
• Take some time to work on a post to be called Lilies in November, even though it's unlikely to surface before December
• Start this year's Shakespeare play (and perhaps blog about the Shakespeare project, which has been less successful than the Dickens project)

Poached elephant (parent)

• Figure out a manger/straw thing
• Look for a Nativity set that the little kids can play with
• Tenaciously push away stress-related snappishness with the kids. Approach Advent prayer with reverence and patience, not with the bad cop hat on.
• Read faithfully to the three youngest. Listen faithfully to the big guys. (Well, I should listen to everybody, but I'm going to concentrate especially on the big guys.)

Braised elephant (provider - home)

• Clean house
• Balance checkbook
• Figure out end-of-year financial stuff

Elephant tartare (provider - work)

• Prepare for thesis committee meeting
• Submit article review to journal editor
• Set nose to grindstone in multivariate book, to get it finished by December 31
• Pin down co-author about what needs to happen before article submission, even if it means feeling pushy
• Test vocab tool on a batch of new transcripts

Gingered elephant (Christmas)

• Mail out Christmas cards
• Make a Christmas pudding
• Get those Snapfish calendars made without swearing
• Prepare packages for mailing
• Seize the opportunity tomorrow to buy a specially priced gift before the offer expires

It's been fun to see a few other SNS posts. Hope it's helpful for those of you who have tried it! If you might like to leave a comment with a link, I'd enjoy reading what you're up to this week as the crazy season descends. I mean, as we enter this season of wonder and waiting. Yeah.