Laundry Quintet

While the thought of starting church at 9:00 in the morning made me dread having to set my alarm on the weekend, I do have have to admit that it was grand to be done with church at noon today.

I had declared today to be my catch-up day. I made some phone calls, washed dishes, took out the trash, and caught up on my laundry. I'm not sure whether it's with shame or with pride that I tell you I've done five loads of laundry today. I even stripped my bed and washed my sheets!

Yes, it is exciting.

Things, as always, have been frantic. They will, of course, continue to be that way too, which is why I welcomed a chance to take care of some housekeeping while I caught my breath.

Tomorrow after school I'm having dinner with Jill before packing Natasha and myself up for a week at the condo. With the home speech meet on Saturday, a play the following week, and all of the usual school craziness, I decided it would be easiest to be up there for the week so I could be on hand to take care of last-minute stuff AND have a hope of getting decent sleep.

This weekend was fun, though. Thursday night Rachel cooked schnitzel as a birthday dinner celebration for me and Miranda. Happily, the Walkers were in town visiting for the weekend. Friday was a Teacher Work Day, since midterm exams were this week, but I took my kiddos to a speech meet instead of doing grades and attending a workshop on child abuse. Whee.

It was really nice to do a speech meet and still have my Saturday free. I went to lunch with the gang, braved the lines at JoAnns to get fabric for Robin Hood costumes, and played games/ate garlic knots at Rachel's with the others in the evening.

The Home Meet is less than a week away. Oddly, I feel like things are under control. I'll probably still be at school way too late each day, and I'll probably keep working through lunch, as has been by habit the last few weeks. Still, my assistant coaches and team mom have been all over their jobs, and I think we'll be ready.

Here's what's needed for a speech meet:

1) A schedule of events
2) Formal invitations to all schools
3) A website for schools to register students
4) Parents to host students overnight from school more than 3 hours away
5) Breakfast, lunch, and snacks for 200+ students
6) Breakfast, lunch, and snacks for 65 coaches/judges
7) Classrooms for all events (pre-scheduled)
8) Maps of the school
9) Door and directional signs
10) Arrangements for janitors, administrators, and police to be on hand
11) 100 copies of ballots for 11 different events
12) 6 Value Debate topics
13) 50 or so Creative Storytelling and Impromptu Speaking topics
14) Index cards, scratch paper, and pencils for draw room
15) Packets for coaches with instructions
16) Packets for ballots after they're completed
17) Computer system for tabbing Individual Events and for Debate
18) Back-up plan for when network/website/power goes down and we can't use the computer
19) 50 judges' cards for scheduling rounds
20) Tables set up for registration, judges' check-in, and ballot-turn-in
21) Trophies/medals/ribbons for 11 different events, including back-ups in case of ties
22) Instructions and handouts for judges' training, to be held Wednesday and Thursday night
23) Stopwatches for judges
24) Thank-you gifts/cards for all the helpers
25) The will/stamina to get through this year and still want to host another one next year.

Mai bpen rai, right?