Summer Bucket List, 2017

Every summer, I make a list of fun & practical things I want to do before summer “kicks the bucket”.

On my Facebook page, I asked if I should share my summer bucket list posts like I usually do, and 100% of the respondents said yes.

So! Here I am.

Cook with my kids.

I’m not sure how much this will happen with the older two, given that they’re often working at dinnertime. But I can at least do this with Sonia and Zoe, whose schedules are significantly less cluttered. 😉

They’re both anxious to get into the kitchen anyway, so this will be fun for them.

To make this specific and measurable, I’m going to say I’ll do this twice a week.

Go see (3?) movies at the theater.

The theater isn’t a place we go often, but I’m thinking we could probably go see three over the summer, especially if some of the ones we want to see make their way to the $3.50 theater before summer is over.

I’ll keep checking the listings every week!

(My kids have mostly outgrown the fare offered, but if you have younger kids, check out Regal’s $1 Summer Movie Express.   Super cheap theater seats! Not affiliated.)

Keep Sonia and Zoe supplied with books.

Both of them are pretty voracious readers, and I’d like to encourage that by keeping our library basket full of new stuff for them to read.

Make photo books.

This is rather vague and not-measurable, I know!   So, let’s fix that.

I’d like to make one for September-December 2016, and then one for January-June 2017.

My last book ended in August of 2016, and though there are gaps before that book, I figure the best thing is just to pick up where I left off most recently and get my last year or so of photos into books.

Get the older two 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.

Since they’re both using mostly non-consumable books now, I shouldn’t have to buy a whole lot for them aside from the things I already bought during a curriculum sale online.

We don’t need a ton of supplies either, but I do want to keep an eye out for those spiral-bound notebook sales.   We use a lot of notebooks for math alone.

Paint my kids’ bathroom.

It was a rather fluorescent green when we moved in, and I covered it over with some paint we had from when I painted the office (I was trying to find a taupe color but ended up with kind of a green. And I had extra, so using it for the bathroom was free.)

It could really use repainting by now, and since I wasn’t ever a huge fan of the greeny/gray color to begin with, I think I’m going to paint it an actual gray.

Declutter my house.

Breakin’ it down:

-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.

Since Joshua and Lisey will be working and taking college classes, I’m going to have to seriously rethink what this will look like.

I do want them to still contribute around here, because as adults, they’re going to have to work/go to school and take care of household tasks.

But on the other hand, if they’re not here at breakfast, I can’t really assign them the task of unloading the dishwasher.

I’ll figure it out!

Make lemonade from scratch.

One of my Cook’s Country magazines has some fun lemonades in it, and I think Sonia and Zoe would enjoy making a batch or two.

Do random fun things as they occur to me.

I have no idea what these will be, but I’ll report back after the fact!

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Alrighty! Like I always say, if I finish all of this stuff, I can always add more.

But I’m not sure that’s ever happened…I usually give myself enough stuff to do on the first bucket list draft. 😉

I’ll do a bucket list progress post at the beginning of each month, and since it’s already late June, the first update will be pretty soon.