Jonah is getting ready for midterms with a particularly evil  bio midterm on the horizon, so we couldn’t do any big family adventures this weekend. Steve took Ian to the movies, and I popped into Jonah’s room every 40 minutes or so to gauge his level of misery. In between the misery checks, I made a pot of chili and cleaned up.

I organized my office. I have stacks and stacks of paperwork for Ian. One of the annoying things about being a special ed parent is dealing with the volume of paper —  IEPs, progress reports, information about after school activities and other nonsense. None of  it can be thrown away, because you never know when you’ll need it for a lawyer. The paperwork stacks are oppressing me. They need folders and organization.

I also have about six big projects that get sporadic attention. There’s the website where I sell old books on the weekend. Should I put more effort into it? I have three half-finished manuscripts and proposals. An idea for a website that got revived last week. A folder for freelance article proposals. My primary job is dealing with the kids, so nothing else gets my 100 percent attention.

I pulled out all my folders in the bottom of half of the file cabinet. I vacummed the bottom of the drawer and started from scratch. I came across research from political science papers from 2006 in there. Info for jobs that I applied for in 2007. I tossed everything old and made new color-coded folders for the new plans and projects.

I sorted and tossed. I made a To Do list and ordered the goals. But sorting is easy. Following through on these goals is hard.

One evening, I met some high school friends for drinks. We didn’t know each other very well in high school, so they are more new friends than old. We reconnected through a reunion this fall and also through a high school Facebook page. There a certain windows of time when people are open to meeting new people. One time is when your kids are little and you need companionship with other parents. Nearly-50 seems to be another age of openness, because I suddenly have tons of invitations for get-togethers with my former classmates. These former acquaintances are looking for feedback about grown children, careers, divorces, and general life stuff. I’m having a marvelous time learning about the different paths that people took after high school. There are so many paths.

David Brooks has some great advice on helping people who are dealing with trauma. With all the socializing that I’ve been doing lately, I’ve heard a lot of traumatic stories. Brooks has some very good advice on how to be a good friend to those in traumatic situations.

So, I’m thinking and sorting and meeting and planning — perfect activities for grey January weekends.