I spent a large quantity of time over the weekend trying on most of the clothes in my closet and figuring out what to donate, throw away, or keep. The upside is that I have chosen a few outfits for upcoming events, and my closet, though far from Instagram minimalist, feels lighter without this giant pile of stuff (pictured below — it’s off to the charity bin). The downside is that I had asked my husband to take the kids out for a few hours on Sunday so I could do some big picture work 
stuff…and then I cleaned my closet. Don’t you write about this? he complained. Um, yes.
I am still working my way through the Olympic coverage. We taped everything, but even with fast forwarding through the commercials, getting through 2.5 hours of TV per day takes a lot of time. It takes…2.5 hours per day! Which is why I’m behind on it. I remain amazed that this is less than the amount of TV the average American watches daily during times when the Olympics aren’t on. When do people find the time?
The track athletes have inspired me to do some speed work on the treadmill. Not that my notion of speed really deserves to use the same word. I have also been taken with the elegance of the sprinters. To me, running is this activity that leaves you a sweaty and rumpled mess, and I’m sure the sprinters look like that after a tough practice, but for races themselves, a 100-meter competition is completely over for world class athletes in less than 12 seconds. So there can be some flair.
Another highlight: I watched hurdler Nia Ali give her post-silver-medal winning interview while holding her 15-month-old son. I have to admit my first thought was wow, props to her mom for keeping the toddler occupied in the stands during what was probably an epic-length track meet.
Next week feels like a bonus week of summer. It’s already late August this weekend, but Labor Day isn’t until the following week. The days are going to be in the 80s and 90s, even as the nights have started getting cooler. The sun is going down earlier, and I can tell from my summer of too-early wake-ups that the sun is rising later each morning. I do like September, even if it carries with it a sense of time passing
I also like buying school supplies for myself, even if I’m not going back-to-anything. Do you do that?
I will be doing a time-tracking challenge from September 12-18. I will have a sign-up form here later if you want to get daily reminder emails full of gentle encouragement during that week.
We recorded all of NBC’s Olympics coverage too and the only way we got through (most of it) was by skipping a lot of sports…and quarter and semi-finals for some races. There was So. Much. On. but also, not enough of the random sports I enjoy like synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. But I do love the Olympics in general!
And totally agree about bonus summer! Our oldest is only 3 so we aren’t dealing with school schedules yet which makes this time of year bittersweet!
I don’t understand the TV viewing either, although there are days I spend more than two hours reading. I find that in some households, the TV is always on as background chatter. I can’t stand it! I guess my house is loud enough 😉
I agree with you so much on TV as background chatter! My in-laws prefer it that way, which is fine for their house, but they also switch on the TV at mine even if not watching… sigh.
I love watching the Olympics too, but we don’t have a recording device and so it was sort of catch-it-as-we-can, mostly on the weekends. Then we watched highlights on YouTube of anything we missed that we really wanted to see. The schedule was odd, finding what we wanted to watch was tricky (sometimes what was listed wasn’t what was on, etc.), and there was a lot of downtime and inane chatter from the announcers. Still fun, but I’m fine with how it worked out. I’m not a huge TV watcher, either.
I’ve scaled back since I already have a lot, but I do love buying school supplies this time of year. Also treating it as a fresh start, cleaning out my closet, etc. I think tasks like that can use our brain in a different way–as I commented on your “thinking deep thoughts” post, sometimes seeds are planted that we don’t know about at the time. Especially doing something physical, like cleaning, lets your brain wander a bit.
I love school supplies! Of course, I work in education, but I love new notebooks and pens. Saturday is a scheduled mass clean out. Ugh. I need to go through all closets to see who will need what for fall and winter and weed out toys, too small bikes and outdoor equipment, and the like. My reward for all the agony is a family trip to the theater to see Mamma Mia. So at least there is that to look forward to!
Ooh! I’m up for a time-tracking challenge. I’ve done it before but with a 10-month-old I feel like things are changing really quickly and I could benefit from reexamining where we’re at now.
In other news, although I didn’t have a big long formal summer list, I completed the second of two items yesterday when I took a half day of vacation to take my daughter to the pool with my SAHM friends. It was wonderful, and she loved it so much I kind of wish I’d done it more. 🙂
@B – I love half day vacations. They can feel like this secret extra time, especially right in the middle of the week.
I ALWAYS buy school supplies this time of year – especially pens and mechanical pencils. I scored an important-looking drafting pencil at the grocery a couple of weeks ago. I took it home and flaunted it in front of my envious adult son!
Because I have no willpower to not buy school supplies this time of year, I always make a point to donate it! It’s such an easy way to make a difference and satisfy my love of school supplies!