Advice Needed -- Come on, be bossy, you know you want to.

Ok, I need advice. Which project should I finish/start and finish first. I've kinda been aimlessly wandering around my house the last while trying to pick what to work on. Here they are in list format...please vote on voting thinger over there --------->

Sewing:
Brown curtains for living room (have one up, need 4 more to complete look)
Couch cushions for ugly white couch (have 8 done [one couch] need to do 6 more)
Pillows for both couches (need to purchase material, so not gonna happen this month...don't vote for it)
Back/arms of ugly white couch (rip off old stuff, put on new stuff, need to purchase a small amount for this)
Hamper liners (the plastic ones ripped, have 1 done, 2 are mostly done, just need handles)
Jeans quilt (top done, needs a back, need to purchase material, see above)
Fire quilt (top done, needs batting, back, etc. all to be purchased)
Mend Dave's shirt (re-do button hole)
Make girly cover for bassinet (not an announcement, friend borrowing for baby girl)
Sew light minimizing curtains for Joshua's room (need to purchase material)

House:
Finish putting up blinds and curtain rods (kitchen sink blinds, curtain rods in living room, our room, Joshua's room)
Patch plaster around front door
Re-sheet rock bathroom around mirror
Paint bathroom (can't vote for this one, have to do sheet rocking first)
Strip paint and paint kitchen cabinets
Scrape peeling paint and paint outside of house (huge job!)

Busy Day

<p>Apparently nobody has anything to say about any chores besides dishes except me, so on to another topic. Wednesdays are Dave's "Saturday" so we try to spend a lot of time together and work on some projects together (a.k.a: I watch Joshua in the same room/area as a honey-do item while Dave does it).<br>
After a fun 2 hours in the sun at the park for play-group, we made a trip up to Salt Lake to pick up Dave's paycheck so we could deposit it today and pick up my car from the shop on the way home. Since we were making the drive we figured we should make it worth it and do something while we were up there.<br>
We went through the new City Creek Center mall and played in the fountains (a.k.a: put joshua in the middle while they aren't shooting up and watch his reactions when they all start spouting--video to come). Then we went to temple square and visited the Church History Museum, which I had never been to. They had audio tours you could listen to in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, or German. I bet you can guess which language I listened to it in.
Dave took Joshua to the kids' hands-on exhibit (so he wouldn't disrupt people by screaming every time we wouldn't let him play with the escalators or electrical outlets) while I went through the regular part and brushed up on my German a little bit. New word learned today: Buntglasfenster - Stained glass window. We had to leave to beat traffic before I was able to finish the tour so we are going to go back as a date night sometime.
We planned on working on the yard the rest of the evening when we got home but we got invited to our friend Angie's birthday BBQ, so Dave just got them to the point that they can function (our grass is almost dead, it's been so warm and dry).
Joshua stayed up wayyyy past his bedtime and our bedtime should have been at that same time. We are all sunburned and worn out, but it was a really fun day. Did I mention Joshua only took a short nap in the car?

Speaking of Dishes...

While we're on the topic of chores...

Today I spent some time outside working in the garden. It's so nice that Joshua can walk because now I can work outside while he is awake and not have to worry about him ruining his pants by crawling on the cement or crawling through dog poop in the back yard. He even has some cute little toy tools that Dave's mom got him and some outside toys (dump truck, spade, sifter, star mold, bucket) that I got him at Walmart. Now all I need to teach him is to not wander off and to stay out of the street--I foresee a lot of time-outs in the near future. 

Anyway. The leaves on the daffodils and tulips finally are dead enough to clear them out, which means it's my annual clearing of the weeds time as well. Our yard has SO many weeds. The worst is bindweed; you just can't ever get rid of it and it's so mean to all the plants around it. 

Weeding is so much more gratifying than dishes. I know it shouldn't be because after you clean dishes, you have a clean kitchen, and after you pull weeds you have a clean garden. There is just something so satisfying about yanking those plants up and throwing them in the garbage. 

There is one major thing I can't stand about weeding though...

Spiders--One crawled across my chest today.

*****BLEEEEECKKKKKK*****

On that note, what should I plant in our garden this year?

Confession

Hi, my name is Sarah, and I have a problem. I hate doing dishes--hand-wash dishes are the worst. I'd rather fold laundry for 3 days straight than do dishes. The only thing lower on the chore totem pole is cleaning the toilet -  blech.
Dirty dishes are all food-covered and slimy, they smell bad, it makes my hands dry out, and it gets complicated with a toddler. I have to load and unload the dishwasher while he is either sleeping or in his high chair or he will play with the wheels on the drawers, push the drawers in and out while I'm trying to put dishes in/out, take silverware out and carry it all over the house (disgusting when they're dirty, and annoying when they're clean because now they're dirty again, dangerous when it's a knife), close the soap area, close the dishwasher, and try to climb into the dishwasher. If you have a toddler you've probably experienced all of those and probably more.
Dishes also have a snowball effect. At our house we don't put the dirty dishes into the sink, because then the sink isn't usable, and they would get even slimier and stinkier. So in theory we put them into the empty dishwasher because of course we empty it as soon as it's done washing, but that never happens (see toddler excuse) so they stack up on the counter next to the sink, which shrinks the counter space in the kitchen, which in turn makes it harder to cook. They stack and stack up until I can't even go into the kitchen without being overwhelmed by the disgusting mess. The result is many meals of cereal.
Finally I kick my butt into gear and just do all the dishes and clean the kitchen in one fell swoop. I did this today, even while Joshua was AWAKE and NOT in his high chair!
I absolutely love the kitchen when it is all cleaned up and sanitary again. And it never takes as long as I imagine it will. I sometimes just stand in the clean kitchen and admire the clean counters. This results in more home-cooked food items in our house: Freshly baked bread, treats, meals, etc. Unfortunately, when I cook more, it also means more dirty dishes, especially hand-wash dishes. And thus the cycle repeats. Arg, dishes.
Just as a side story, on Saturday, our downstairs neighbors moved out. This morning the utility company came and turned off their electricity so they wouldn't get billed for it anymore and it wouldn't be in their name anymore. This afternoon the new tenants showed up and started moving in. I let them know that the electricity had been turned off this morning and that they will need to call and get it turned back on and in their name. This was during my kitchen cleaning tornado so I then went and finished loading the dishwasher and went to start it. No Go. The dishwasher is apparently on downstairs' power. Oh the joys of living in an ancient house. So today, my kitchen looks clean, but secretly it's still hiding a mass of dirty dishes. Ps: Christin, if you're reading this, it all works out because either the washer or dryer is on the downstairs power, and let's face it, I don't do dishes very often (see above).