Every summer, I make a list of fun & practical things I want to do before summer “kicks the bucket”.
Cook with my kids.
A big ol’ fail here! I did this zero times.
Must rectify that…
Go see (3?) movies at the theater.
1/3! I noticed that Cars 3 had hit the cheap theaters, so Mr. FG, Sonia, Zoe, and I went to see it yesterday.
Based on how quickly it hit the second-run theater, I thought it might be pretty disappointing, but we liked it and definitely thought it was better than Cars 2.
And I thought the Pixar short at the beginning was great.
Keep Sonia and Zoe supplied with books.
I’m doing just ducky with this goal, and they are doing just ducky with getting the books read.
Make photo books.
Nothing done here yet. At all. 😉
(I’d like to make one for September-December 2016, and then one for January-June 2017.)
Get Joshua and Lisey squared away for college classes.
I’m gonna break this down into multiple steps so I can cross things off a bit at a time.
-Register Lisey online
-Take her in for a placement test
-Have her take a CLEP test for Spanish
-Sign her up for fall classes
-Buy books
Joshua’s already registered, so his list is shorter.
-Register for fall classes
-Buy books
Buy schoolbooks/supplies for Sonia and Zoe.
I bought all of their books; now I just have to wait for a good sale on spiral notebooks. It seems like those usually start happening late July/early August.
Paint my kids’ bathroom.
Nothing done here yet!
Declutter my house.
I am actually making pretty good progress here and I’m also doing well at getting the decluttered stuff OUT of the house. Woo!
–linen closet
-coat closet
-kitchen
-my room
-laundry room (THE WORST.)
-the under-the-steps closet (second worst thing)
-office
-downstairs entry area
-living room (not a lot in there, but I’ll give it a once-over)
-Sonia and Zoe’s room (they’ll just need a little help)
Joshua and Lisey can handle their rooms on their own…the only thing I’ll do there is to go through the toys/games that are stored in Joshua’s big closet. Lisey’s closet has a bit of communal storage in it too, and I plan to look through that.
Make new chore lists.
Nothing done here.
a previous chore list
Make lemonade from scratch.
Yes! I bought a bunch of lemons from Aldi, and Sonia, Zoe, and their friend made a big pitcher of strawberry lemonade, using a recipe from a Cook’s Country magazine.
Do random fun things as they occur to me.
I took Sonia and Zoe out to get ice cream at Chick-Fil-A with our June cow calendar cards.
And I also took them out to use their July free milkshake coupon, with a stop at the craft store beforehand.
Also, Lisey and I realized recently that neither of us had ever eaten a Cinnabon. So the other day when I picked her up from work, we went to Cinnabon. The verdict? Lisey loved hers, but I felt like mine was a little too doughy in the middle.
Based on this little list, it would appear that my repertoire of fun things consists of: going out to eat sugary foods. Ha.
I’m adding a thing to my bucket list too:
Repaint part of Lisey’s bed.
I painted this craig’s list bed back in 2012 (it was Zoe’s then!), and five years later, two parts of it need a little refreshing (the headboard and side rail). So, I want to scuff them up, prime them, and repaint them.
(Here are the before and afters of Lisey’s room refresh.)
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Ok! It’ll be several weeks before I do an update next time, so hopefully I’ll have some more things to cross off.
How’s your summer coming along? Have you been spending it the way you wanted to?
Lorraine
Tuesday 11th of July 2017
I am off work this week and have decided to organize the garage. I only work out there in the morning before it gets too hot since it has been between 95-105 degrees the past several weeks. So far I have the built in shelving cleaned, decluttered and organized but have 3/4 of the garage still left to go. I did finish unpacking the moving boxes though. From 4 years ago. Um yeah. Better late than never.
I have a huge laundry list of things to get done but am trying to focus on one thing at a time.
Kristen
Tuesday 11th of July 2017
Woohoo! I bet you feel great about how your garage is coming along.
Amie
Monday 10th of July 2017
My daughter starts year around school tomorrow. I already had all supplies from school sales last year. I know here we gwt single subject notebooks for like 5/$1. I actually have some in my stash. She's not using them much yet for school. But I've always kept notes and she does it too. I did have to pickup earbuds. Saw a good school sale and grabbed 2, putting one up just incase. Pencils(they prefer those Ticonderoga) and dry erase markers are what's expensive, unless there is a sale. I bought more than enough at the clearance after school started sale. I have doubles for just about everything. :)
Reese
Monday 10th of July 2017
I need to de-junk. I love myself a good yard sale... but I just don't want to spend the energy on one this year. Plus we don't have a TON of stuff (and to keep around a ton of stuff...makes my clutterphobic heart have palpitations! I couldn't keep it that long!). My boyfriend's work is having a large garage sale event to benefit Alzheimer's (He works at a retirement community). They're accepting donations of stuff to sell... so we're sending them all of our stuff, and a nice tax write-off for me.
It's amazing how much stuff you DONT need in your house. I'm a firm believer that spare bedrooms should be used for guests or offices, and that those open spaces are for THOSE rooms. Not for overflow of my junk. I've been pairing down things I don't use and don't need for what seems like ages. Getting there.
I also only allow myself to have one "junk" bin per person. So my boyfriend and I each have a plastic tub with a lid. We keep mementos from our past,...things only we would like... in them. When it's filled? We need to go through those and cull things. We're not getting rid of memories; we're getting rid of stuff. Hopefully by the time we're older and retired, what remains in our tub are things we really really love and truly cherish.
Clutter.. yikes.
Lisa
Monday 10th of July 2017
My summer, well, it is progressing. We are currently two steps crossed off on the one item for the summer: Move half way across the world. Stuff is long gone, cars shipped, too. Living in a hotel before we travel and live in another hotel and pray we find a house soon thereafter. Everything else is inconsequential.
Lisa M.
Monday 10th of July 2017
I have been reading this blog for a few months and have noticed that summer decluttering and Goodwill donations are frequently mentioned. Are there opinions on funneling unwanted items in to garage sales? I am curious if there is any consensus about them.
Regarding the Cinnabon cinnamon roll's doughy middle, the "mini-bons" are equally delicious but overall less dough due to their smaller size.
Kristen
Tuesday 11th of July 2017
I've tried doing garage sales a few times, and man, it's just ended up being a ton of work for very little reward.
If I have something valuable, I sell it on craig's list or eBay, and then I just give away the rest via freecycle or Goodwill.
WilliamB
Monday 10th of July 2017
Here are the factors I consider, when thinking about a garage sale: - How much do you need the cash? - How much time do you have to prep and organized? - Is your neighborhood one in which is it easy or hard to have a garage sale? (This includes rules, culture, and foot traffic.) - How much effort can you put into advertising? - How much do you like dealing with deal hounds?
In my case, the answers all come out against a garage sale.