If Only I had All the Time in the World

Do you ever feel overwhelmed?

Overwhelmed is a characteristic I feel often... especially when I'm thinking about the things I need to do at home.  I'm a list maker and a list typically helps me decrease the stress I'm feeling about all of the things I need to do.  If I can get my thoughts down on paper and then cross them off one by one, then I get a feeling of accomplishment.  Even if one of those items is - eat lunch then I get such a warm fuzzy feeling if I get to cross something off, even if they are things I would be doing anyways.  Lists are what got me through planning my wedding for sure.  I had a small notebook that I made a list each day of things I needed to do whether it was wedding related or life related.

Anywho... this gets me to my MASTER LIST.  I constantly think about what I need to do at home.  I seem to have started many projects and left them half-finished.  So, if I had all the time in the world... these are the things that I would want to get FINISHED.

1.  Finish my wedding scrapbook.  You heard me... and No, I have not finished my wedding scrapbook.  Brian and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary in April, so I'm 4 years late in getting that done.  I have actually filled 2 full scrapbooks from pre-wedding and wedding festivities, but I still have a stack of about 100+ pictures from the reception still waiting to be creatively placed on those blank pages.

2.  Transfer ALL of our home videos on VHS tapes to DVDs.  I have also started this project, however I found out last weekend that I had not finalized any of the DVDs I've made so I have to go back and do that.  Granted, that is only about 5-10 DVDs... but I still have to redo them.  On top of what I have done, I have about 40-50 VHS tapes I would like to transfer.  Then, once all of the DVDs are finished, I would like to put them on the computer and rip them to digital files so I can post old videos on things like this BLOG :)

3.  Research and put together a compilation of all of my ancestry.  My Mom has a stack of information, there is pile of stuff coming from my Gram's house, and Brian's Mom has most of his side finished.  I would like to put all of this together and use ancestry.com to make our family trees.  This is a project I have not yet started, but something I have a HUGE urge to do.

4.  Go through 52 Weeks to an Organized Home

I started following this blog and getting email updates at the beginning of the year.  My New Year's Resolution... Let's just say I have done pretty well at reading the emails... not so much with following through with the tasks.  I would absolutely love to completely organize my home... room to room, top to bottom.  I spent MANY hours cleaning out and organizing our office.  I'm about 90% done and just feel stuck  with how to decorate it and make it look "made over".  Right now it still looks like the same ol' office.  But what you can't see is that I filled our huge trashcan size recycle bin TWICE and still had more to get rid of.  I went through our entire filing cabinet, drawers, book case... you name it, but it still doesn't look like I did much... still work to do I guess.

Back to organizing, I would love to clean out all of the closets in my house, the buit-in cabinets, the guest bedrooms, the list goes on and on.  Organizing makes me sooo happy and if I could get my WHOLE house organized, I'd be one happy camper :)

5.  Get this body in to tip top shape.  I would love more time to get to the gym, do a boot camp, or take up cycling.  In addition, researching and getting together a good diet that we could stick to would be amazing.  I could spend more time finding recipes, researching better foods, and planning our weekly meals.  Then, with more time I could begin couponing and saving mula at the grocery store.  Less money spent and more pounds lost.

6.  Spend more time with family and friends.  I love spending time with people I love.  I have known most of my friends for many many years and it feels like I see them less and less.  Everyone's lives are so busy with jobs, families, and extracuriculars that there is not enough time to spend with each other.  I wish I could spend all the time I had with my family and friends, life just does not allow it.

7.  Make photobooks of my last 2 vacations.  Photobooks are the new scrapbooks of the 2010's.  I've made some photobooks in the past and it takes so much less time to make than regular scrapbooks.  They are also sooo much CHEAPER, big plus in my family.  Okay...not just my last 2 vacations but any occassions, parties, travels, and get togethers that I have had since I started PT school (2005).  Yes, I'm that far behind on scrapbooking.

8.  Scan and organize old family photos.  Anything before the digital age... somewhere around 2001 when I got my first digital camera.  Plus, I'm supposed to receive all of the photos from my grandmother's house, scan them, and give copies to my family.  Something I'm actually really looking forward to doing.

9.  Organize all digital photos (plus those I have to scan) on photoshop elements.  Just so they are easier to find.

10.  Learn all there is about photography and my Nikon D90.  I actually am working towards this one since I began a beginner photography class this week at the Houston Center for Photography.  So far so good.  Hopefully I can learn everything in 4 weeks.

Here's hopin'.

11.  Make time to progress my career.  There is always more you can learn in the field of physical therapy.  There are journals beyond journals of information.  I wish I had the time to absorb and learn as much as possible so I can better treat my patients.

12.  Read more.  I've never been a reader.  However, lately, it has been a different story.  I made it through the Hunger Games, then Dominique's Memoir, and now I'm on Bloom.  My SIL gave it to me for my birthday.  It is a memoir from a blogger, Kelle Hampton (check it out here) and it has just sucked me in.  Anywho, I would love to have time to read for fun.

13.  Frame all of these BEAUTIFUL pictures we have taken on vacation and of our puppy, Ryley.  We have thousands of pictures from all of our vacations that are just sitting in a file on our computer.  It would be so nice to display some of those shots in our house.

14.  Spend more time with my Ryley girl.  Yes, she gets a walk most mornings and played with every afternoon... but I know she is sooo bored during the day and I wish we could just play all of the time.

15.  Become a better BLOGGER.  You know I wouldn't forget that one, didn't you?  I would love to have the time to blog daily but there just isn't enough time.  As I blog now, I think about all of the other things I could be doing (hence this list), but I have found a new love for blogging :)

Well, that is the list... for now.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some things and I'm sure I will find new and creative projects I want to get in to (ie. learn to sew).  So, I will return to this post and cross of each item, one by one.  But without all of the time in the world, this is going to take me FOR-EV-ER (imagine the kids from Sandlot).  I can only hope and manage my time as best as I can to accomplish all of these things.  But once I do, it will be the BEST feeling in the entire world!