Another week of Little bites .... time to make some serious headway on devouring these elephants

It's Monday. A new week. A fresh slate and a chance to make some major progress on my looming deadlines ..... a slip in some family fun (or at least try to avoid creating any of those memories that scar my children for life).
The weekend was great --- a fun(and profitable) time at the annual yard sale fundraiser for the MK school, two impromptu gatherings with friends that were so encouraging and uplifting to our tired spirits, and a blessed time at church yesterday. As time permits this week I will try to post more on the weekend fun .... we'll see. I did promise to give my son time to post on his blog (for the extended family and friends) about his deal of the day from Saturday. Not to steal his thunder but I'll just share one quote after he got his treasure home and found out it was as good as he thought. "Wow, Mom! I never thought I would have one of these! This is one of those toys only RICH KIDS have!"

Today's To Do list:
1. Plan menu for the week and post.
2. Do 2 loads of laundry
3. Complete at least 1 or 2 months of expense reports for the mission -- due tomorrow night but I will have no time to do them tomorrow.
4. Do something with the box of strawberries in the fridge. The plan is to make a batch or two of freezer jam --- it is that time of year to restock the freezer. Hard to believe but strawberry season is almost over here.
5. Make lunch and dinner for today and put together a lasagna for tomorrow's midday meal.
6. Do something with the zucchini and the peaches from last week's market trip that are rapidly reaching the point of no return.
7. Clear the front hallway and put away the few items that did not sell at the weekend yard sale that we brought back home with us.
8. Have living room straightened and dining room table cleared so as to be able to sit with my hubby for our weekly tv "date" (we love to watch Sue Thomas: F. B. Eye through the little box that we were given as a Christmas gift that allows us several additional TV channels and also allows us to switch the language on several shows back to their original English tracks).
9. Be prepared mentally and physically to have the first of our newly scheduled weekly money talks (hubby and I) after the TV date. Last week we sat down to look at the bank accounts and realized that the first entire week of the month had snuck by in a flash and I had missed the due date for making our monthly credit card payment. I hate that! We had the money in the bank account and because I didn't sit down at the computer for 10 minutes to make the payment before the 5th, we have another stupid late payment. We calmly decided (after a short, not-so-calm period of discussion) that one way to keep tabs on our money and avoid this is the future was to just meet weekly and take a look at the money situation and discuss what we needed to do that week and how it would happen. I chose Monday night. I think tonight's meeting should go well, especially if I have a couple of expense reports done and filed. Ü

Elephant Bites for this week:

School--
1.Elementary play is tomorrow night. I will be working in the morning with the pta moms to transport the sets to the theater and then will feed the kids and get them to the theater in time for my son the King to be there for rehearsal and for the rest of the family subjects to watch when the curtain goes up at 7pm.
2. Sign permission slips and send in money for two field trips.

Church VBS --1. TRANSLATE BIBLE LESSONS!!!!!
2. Plan and print out list of items to be collected and jobs that need to be done in the next month to distribute and discuss at Saturday's meeting.
3. Shop online for craft materials and "rewards"

Prepare for my upcoming trip --
1. Make schedule of which friends are picking up/watching the kids after school on which days
2. Start packing list of clothes
3. Work on the shopping list for when I am in the states. Note to self: add a pair of white flats to the list since I just noticed that the ones I am wearing have a hole in the toe.
4. Work on top secret computer related project. Ü (Can't go into details here since you never know who might be reading .... details will have to wait until June)