11 Things I Could Be Doing While Hubby Works Instead of Watching TV

Earlier tonight, I went out to the garage when Hubby was leaving for work and noticed a huge bag of bird seed I'd purchased (When?  Who knows?  Maybe sometime last summer...as in like 14 months ago...what can I say?  Sometimes I have the attention span of a fly).  That, and the phone conversation I had with my mom earlier today about what I was going to do tonight when Hubby went to work* got me thinking.

What could I be doing besides watching TV every night?  Weeknights when I have to go to work the next day are one thing, but on a Saturday night?  Since I am too afraid to leave the house alone and then come back and sleep here (let's not talk about the night Hubby forgot an important binder at home and I had to take it to him) staying in, I thought I should make a list of things to do on my own.  So, here goes!

1. Make peanut butter & pine cone bird feeders.  Naturally, this idea was inspired by the bag of birdseed in the garage.  I love feeling accomplished and I love using things up.  Hubby Blue and I moved this past summer, and after moving waaaaaay too much crap from our old house to the house we live in now and sorting through boxes for WEEKS, I am in love with the idea of using things up.  This might be a little kid-ish, but how much would the birds in my yard love me?

2. Clean house.  This is a given.  Who doesn't need to clean house?  Then again, who seriously likes cleaning house?  I appreciate a clean house, but I also appreciate sitting on the couch.  Not such a great option, but a possibility.

3. Scrapbook.  Anything.  I've got a drawer full of scrapbook paper upstairs and half a dozen unfinished scrapbooks started...I have ideas to start one for Hubby with academy pictures, graduation pictures, the start of his career, one of our first two married years in our old house, one of our wedding...which was two years ago...yeah, I've got big plans.

4. Use my donut maker.  I was walking through a store about a month ago and saw they had these Babycakes appliances on sale...cupcake makers, mini pie makers, cake pop makers, waffle stick makers, and of course, donut makers.  I'm a big fan of donuts; actually I'm a big fan of all those things, but I can make all those things a lot easier than I can make donuts.  Side note: Hubby Blue came home from a night shift a couple weeks (days?  these weeks are running together) ago with half a dozen donuts and you'd have thought he brought me a diamond ring.  He says I'm like a fat person trapped in a skinny person's body.  As much as I'd really enjoy making donuts every night, that's probably not such a good thing for my health.  But maybe.

5. Laundry.  This goes along with the cleaning idea.  Zero fun, but necessary.  Ugh.

6. Read.  I've got a whole bunch of Kindle books to work on and at least three education journals I subscribe to.  This is tough to do when I'm already tired (which I am, all the time...more on that later), but I do enjoy it!  However, reading means I need quiet, and quiet kind of creeps me out when I'm home alone.

7. Pinterest projects.  Ohhhh myyyyy goshhhhh this is a big one.  I discovered Pinterest almost a year ago and to date, I have...1,499 pins.  Yikes.  I might need a Pinterest support group.  If I tried one idea every day it would take me over FOUR years to get through them all!  Finishing Pinterest projects that have already been started (like I said...attention span of a fly) would also fit in this category.

8. Learn to sew.  If there's one place where I'm pretty sure I've disappointed my mom, it's HERE.  My mom made the best Halloween costumes known to man (seriously, you should have seen my bunny costume), and I don't even know how to turn ON a sewing machine.  Hubby Blue actually does know how to use a one so we do have a sewing machine, but I'm pretty sure he knows I'll break it if I just look at it.  Even so, I still really want to learn how to use it.

9. Prep meals for the rest of the week.  I actually did a little of this tonight.  Well, I cut up some bell peppers for my lunches.  There's probably room for improvement?

10. Research ways to get rid of box elder bugs.  These little things that look a lot like lightning bugs but are most definitely not are taking over our house!  We had this problem the first fall we lived in our last house but we thought it was because we lived in the country.  They.  Were.  Everywhere.  It was so gross.  I don't know what he did or how he did it, but HB dealt with it and they were gone for good.  Now, we live in a town but they are still all over the place.  Ugh, I hate them.  We had fruit flies a few weeks ago and I figured out how to get rid of them...there must be a solution for box elder bugs.

11. Blog more.  If I'm realizing anything about my life as a police wife, it's that I desperately need community with other police wives.  I need to connect with people who understand what this life is like, and I think this could be a good forum for that.  So I definitely need to learn more about blogging and spend more time doing it!

*That conversation went like this: What are you going to do tonight?  I don't know, probably watch TV, just like every night?