My "Nothing" Summer 13

Last week I was at a 4th of July get-together, and someone asked me what I'd been up to. "Absolutely nothing," was my reply. But, that's not entirely accurate.

I've done things. They're not interesting things. They are not the sort of things one talks about at social functions. But I've been plugging away at some projects that I've been wanting to deal with. And so, with it being Thursday, I figured I could list 13 things that I have done this summer thus far. 

(Yes, this is a Thursday 13. If you click on that link, you'll find the others who are playing along today.)

1. Photo organization. I'm still kind of in process on this. So far, I've connected my iCloud account to my computer so I no longer have to access my iPhone photos via Google Photos. (I had set it up this way before due to storage limits. I've adjusted some things, so now I'm not in danger of exceeding my Google storage limit.)

2. Then, I took my school photos from the last school year and moved them to my external hard drive. So, when school starts back up, I won't have last year's photos to dig through for images for the blog. I also went through my knitting/crochet photos and cleared them out, too. 

3. Digital decluttering. I have a Google Drive account with the school district. Through the various long term assignments I've had, I accumulated various docs and files with classwork stuff. I reorganized a bunch so if I want to find an assignment in the future, I can find it. I also deleted a bunch of stuff that I'll never ever need again. (I had distance learning bell schedules stored. I had the previous school year's calendar. I had student scores from 2017 for a class I covered one day.)

4. I deleted all the teacher notes that I had stored online. I had them stored in my drive where I created them. (I held onto them in case the email didn't get to the teacher, so I could resend it later. It also proved useful for days when I covered the same class, so I could look back and remind myself of any issues I had had the last time. But those classes have now ended, so those notes are no longer needed.) 

5. And then I deleted all the saved emails I no longer needed. It turns out I had held onto some emails from as far back as 2017. Some I do need, as there are links to payroll and copies of tech stuff, but most were for issues that are no longer issues. Like COVID protocols.

6. Next school year prep. I set up my spreadsheet for my next year's end of term stats. I keep a tally all year long so when I write the stats post, all I have to do is copy the info. I created a template last year, so all I had to do was copy the template and title the doc with the next school year's date. Simple, but now it's ready.

7. Organizing. I reorganized my dragon pattern. I had printed it out so I could easily refer to it. While I was knitting the afghan motif, I realized that there was a better way to set up the notebook so the next time I knit it, I won't have to scramble to find things. I put in instructions for a couple techniques that I always have to refer back to, and I added page protectors and sticky tabs.

8. Exercise. I got back to walking. I haven't been out as much as I would like, but I've done my 1.9 miles around the block a few times in June and a couple times already this July.

9. More organizing. I have a clipboard that I keep my to do list and things on. I'm in process of clearing out the clutter that's accumulated and revamping a few lists I keep clipped there for easy reference.

10. I've played more games on my phone than I usually do. I picked up Candy Crush Saga again (I'm up to level 6261), and I keep plugging away at Words with Friends 2. Not exactly productive...

11. Videos. I recorded myself crocheting a couple things. I'm still sorting through the videos to weed out the outtakes before I can get to editing the thing together. 

12. And more organizing. I went through my school/work bag (that I carry with me daily), and decluttered. I had copies of bell schedules from 2021 still lingering in there. (I even found a "what if?" question that I wrote but never posted to the blog.) 

13. Reading. I read most nights before I fall asleep, but I can stay up later, so I'm reading more. That reminds me, I have to reorganize the books on my ereader so I can differentiate which books I've read and which ones I haven't. 

And, I still have other projects I'd like to get to. Hopefully, I'll make some progress on them before the school year starts back up.