Get Off That Duff!

Ok, so "duff" is one of my favorite words that I don't hear very often. Well, except when I'm watching Ace of Cakes, of course!

It's relevant today though. I need to get off my duff. I posted last week about all the things that I can get done in three minutes. To my credit -- and today, I'm taking it! -- I have actually gotten most of them done.

I've done a load of laundry and am just waiting for the wee ones to wake up from naps to start the next one (the laundry machines are right outside their doors upstairs). The dishes are done. I got the work (as in paid stuff) work done that I needed to complete. I went through a couple boxes of the wee ones' toys and sorted out the ones they no longer use.

But I still have more to do. And I keep putting it off.

The wee ones' preschool has a very small PTO, and lucky me, I was coerced into being president. We do fundraisers throughout the year, as special needs schools tend to need lots of expensive equipment and preschoolers tend to be hard on the items in the classroom.

I'm gearing up for our largest fundraiser of the year which we hold in conjunction with Cinco de Mayo. That's not the problem. That's actually going pretty well, and I'll have the brochure for it complete next week to distribute for presale.

It's our passive fundraising that I'm having a problem with. Earlier this year, I discovered that my school is part of Campbell's Labels for Education. In fact, we had more than eleven thousand points banked -- from 2006!

I did a little digging and discovered that we just send in the labels that parents collect and we can earn all sorts of useful equipment. Plus, one of the elementary schools also collects the labels for us. We trade -- our Boxtops for Education for their Labels for Education.

So we come to today. I have two filled Target shopping bags with labels. Filled. Hundreds of labels. Hundreds.

I've discovered that I need to:
a) cut out the UPC code from each label
b) determine the point value of each UPC code and sort them by point value
c) count the point value of each type of label
d) put them into an paper bag with the point total on the outside
e) find a corrugated cardboard box and ship them off with a filled out point banking form

Let's start with step a, shall we? I'm a lefty. I have an issue with scissors. And I have hundreds of these. And I know I need to get these sent in. I want to put a big thank you to the parents with a count of how many labels we've submitted.

But then I look at those shopping bags. And I heave a big sigh. The job is too big. It's for the wee ones' school though. And if I just do a little bit each day, it won't be so bad, right?

Excuse me, I have some scissors I need to go find!