Frustration--and 43 Other Things

Right now I'm intensely frustrated. I have too many things to do, and so feel as though I'm doing none of them very well.

Basically, these are my goals for the summer:

Unpack
Establish nice household routines so that we can live comfortably in this house
Get ready for teaching in the fall
Get a large chunk of work done on my MA field project
Learn to drive--this could be extended, but I want a license by the end of Christmas break
Finish the STUPID, STUPID teacher induction homework

It's too much. It's too many things. If, say, I were only unpacking and getting the house set up, and ALSO I was getting ready for fall, great. Or if I were unpacking and ALSO working on the MA, great. But it's a couple balls too many. And I feel kind of grrrr. This is the downside of the Balabusta dream. I imagine myself doing millions of things, perfectly and completely, without breaking a sweat, and I can't. Period.

I'm trying to pare down, and be smart.

The afternoon's plans:

Take a shower, get some clothes that aren't what I'm wearing on. --DONE
Go into Berkeley. Get some books. Make some photocopies--DONE
Come home --DONE
Make some cornbread
Do one more standard--two homeworks--for BTSA, and then mail off what I have. I may need to go back to the school site to finish the rest, and I want some positive feedback for what I've done before continuing to invest time.
Clean living room--pick up surfaces, and Swiffer

IF I'M STILL SANE WHEN THIS IS DONE:

Create an outline--not all the materials, but an outline, of my first week of class this fall, which is going to focus on classroom procedures. If this doesn't happen today, it will happen tomorrow.

I think this is reasonable sized.

I've found a weird website called 43 Things. Essentially, you create an account where you can make a list of up to 43 things you're working on at any given time, and then network with other people who share these goals. I'm creating one, trying to include big long-term stuff--get my novel published, stop beating myself up about small failures--with small stuff--get the BTSA homework done!

In the interest of stopping beating myself up, here are some good things I've done:

1. On the very PLUS side, the situation with the dishwasher continues to be GREAT. We have had almost no dish build-up, and certainly not the kind of problems we had at the old house. I currently have a couple of glasses in the sink, and nothing else. It's terrific.

2. I wrote to my Field Project advisor, explained what I was doing, and asked for help with a technical problem.

3. I bought a plastic filing cube yesterday, and organized a whole lot of papers that were lying around loose. This also allowed me to throw away papers we didn't need, that had been in the stacks.