End of summer bucket list update!
Every summer, I make a list of fun & practical things I want to do before summer "kicks the bucket".
Cook with my kids.
Guys. I did not do very well with this in August at all. The combination of my cooking blues and a teach-my-kids-to-cook goal wasn't exactly a marriage made in heaven.
I really, really feel like I need to figure out a better way to incorporate this into my life. But maybe I should drag myself out of my cooking ennui first.
Go see (3) movies at the theater.
We knocked out number three! Despicable Me 3 hit the cheap theater, so we went to see it.
Verdict: most definitely better than the Minion Movie (which was really rather terrible), but not as good as the first and second Despicable Me movies.
Keep Sonia and Zoe supplied with books.
Yep!
Make photo books.
(I'm making a book for September-December 2016, and then one for January-June 2017.)
Welll...I'm really close with the September-December book, but I obviously haven't even started on the January-June one. Oh well.
Get Joshua and Lisey squared away for college classes.
-Register Lisey online
-Take her in for a placement test (She did great! Tested into the highest level. Yay Lisey!!)
-Have her take a CLEP test for Spanish
-Sign her up for fall classes
-Buy books
Got all that knocked out for Lisey! She CLEP-ed completely out of Spanish 1 and 2, so she's into Spanish 3 (which is turning out to be rather easy for her, so I am super glad she did the CLEP test). And she's taking a health class too.
Joshua:
-Register for fall classes (He took care of this 95% on his own. Woo!)
-Buy books (He took care of this pretty all on his own too, using the bargain-hunting tips I helped him with in previous semesters. Yay! I have parented a person into independence.)
Buy schoolbooks/supplies for Sonia and Zoe.
Done, except that we just realized I did not buy a health book for them. Ha. I need to order that.
Paint my kids' bathroom.
Done! Before and after photos here, in case you missed them.
Declutter my house.
-linen closet
-coat closet
-kitchen
-my room
-laundry room
-the under-the-steps closet
-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)
So, I didn't help Sonia and Zoe, but they tackled it themselves, and I think it's good to go. Look at my independent declutterers!
(Related: Why I declutter WITH my kids instead of FOR them)
I'm happy to report that I got almost all of the clutter out of my house in one way or another. Sweet.
(Here's how I declutter without creating trash.)
Make new chore lists.
Done! I gave Joshua and Lisey fewer chores, since they're often at work or school.
And I assigned myself some chores. We'll see if that makes me get around to things like vacuuming my poor neglected bedroom. 😉
Make lemonade from scratch.
Do random fun things as they occur to me.
I went on lots of bike rides with Mr. FG, Sonia and Zoe did a lot of swimming (a neighborhood friend has a pool!), we had a last-minute spontaneous sleepover with a friend from Kung Fu, and last week, Sonia was like, "Hey mom! If you take us to get snow cones, you can count that for doing random fun things on your bucket list."
Ha.
We went to the snow cone place twice last month, actually!
Repaint part of Lisey's bed.
Done! Before and afters here.
Refinish the front soffit.
Before and afters of the back soffit here.
Nope. I did not find myself with soffit motivation yet. But fall is a good time for this sort of outdoor project too, so there's hope for me. 😉
_____________
So. I didn't cook with my kids as much as I wanted to, I didn't paint the front soffit, and I didn't get as many photo books done as I'd hoped.
But on the other hand, I did spend my summer time doing a lot of other things I wanted to do!
And here's something I realized: I've spent the last two summers ferrying my teens to work/teaching them how to drive.
But next summer (and the next), Sonia will not be old enough for a job/driving, and Lisey will be long past getting her license. Sooo, next summer is looking to be pretty fabulous!
How did your summer go?
That's a huge amount of things marked off the list! You make me feel like such a slacker. Mine are still very small, all three between 2 & 6. So it would look different. But I need to do this for all the seasons for our family.
Do you involve the kids in making the list or is it just things you want to do or get done?
It's a combo...for instance, Sonia added the lemonade idea!
And yes, give yourself grace for the life stage you're in. Your kids will get bigger and more independent as they get older, and so your life will change a lot!
I think for my bucket list, I need to add this item: KEEP bucket list.
I keep forgetting what is on my list, and I never write it down, because it's only a few things and I know what they are, right? Wrong.
However, I did manage to purge my wardrobe, which I remembered that I wanted to do, and I'm very pleased with the extra room in my drawers and closet now. I still have the rest of the closet to organize, ugh, but the biggest task was going through those clothes.
My junk drawer clean out was on that list, and it hasn't happened yet. Summer may be over, but I'm more motivated in Fall anyway. If Irma knocks our power out, I may spend some time cleaning the drawer out then, since there won't be much else to do.
You got so much done over the summer! I saw the Minion Movie and didn't really think it was that great either. I really liked The Life of Pets though. It was so funny and cute! ^.^
Hubby and I planed to go to the beach or go camping this summer, but it never happened. We tend to think about great plans and then get lazy on the weekends >_<
I can make a list of all the things I wanted to do but didn't (move my office to the basement, declutter, take my daughter to a somewhat far away carousel and park) but if I did all that, I'd just get really depressed. Here in New England it was a rather short and crummy summer full of rain and disappointment.
At least I got my new home theater / family area started. My daughter thinks it's her space to play blocks and watch anime with daddy (I'm a horrible parent in some ways 😛 ) so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
At least autumn looks to be much better as we have a couple things planned (our yearly trip to King Arthur Flour, getting chicken BBQ etc.) so hopefully we get some nicer times ahead of us before winter throws us all into a pit of depression for 6 months.
I wish I could go to King Arthur Flour with you! What is it like?
Good if you want to buy in bulk, go occasionally, or have enough time to take classes. They have a good lunch counter (sandwiches and desserts mostly). They bake things to sample. They sell a lot of specialty baking things, both edible (dough conditioner, baking mixes) and non-edible (interesting bread tools, things unrelated to baking such as frezer pop forms). They sell some baking goods in bulk, such as 50 lb bags of flour.
Since I don't buy flour in bulk, going once every 5 years is about right for me. I do enjoy the window-shopping but don't actually need much.
That sounds like my idea of a good day. Thanks!
It's also lovely to go to in the fall. I don't need too much, but it's always fun to browse there.
Can you incorporate learning to cook into your homeschool studies? I baked with my mom ALL THE TIME when I was a kid and it made fractions a complete breeze. Just a thought. There's a lot of math there. 🙂
When I homeschooled my younger son, I signed him up for a cooking class through our co-op. Then he would cook dinner or lunch once a week as part of his course. Now he pretty much cooks himself lunch every day and helps me quite often in the evenings. This worked out really well because he learned to cook things I would never cook and he introduced us to some new stuff. Win/win.
I'm impressed by all the stuff you have marked off. Looks like a great summer!
You did a lot! I also spent a majority of my summer teaching my daughter to drive. She passed her test on August 9th and now can completely drive on her own (which is 250 miles away at college. 🙁 ) I think I completed almost everything on my list also except for painting two bedrooms and decluttering our bedroom. Hope to get those things done this month.
Hahaha, there's nothing like having a summer where you *won't* be ferrying more teenagers around, eh? 🙂 I can't believe it's almost fall, but I'm ready for the pumpkin spice and nice weather! Our summer was an expensive one, but I guess it was all right. 🙂
Wow, you got a big number of things done, especially your declutter list. I'm so impressed, and it sounds like it was a fun, happy list (even the painting and the decluttering chores). I sorta thought the garage would magically get decluttered this summer. Didn't happen. Maybe that's a fall chore.:-)
I love that you do these bucket lists! This is something I'd really like to try! This summer we decided to do a park tour - visit a different park each week in the town where we live (and just recently moved to). We invited friends and had a great time with lots of wonderful memories.
I wonder if it would help with your cooking blues if you put the task a little more in the hands of the kids. Give them each a designated week where they'll help with a meal or two and *let them choose* the meal (based on pre-approved options). Maybe some of their enthusiasm will rub off on you.
Ha, yes, pre-approved options would be very helpful! Otherwise, who knows what they'd come up with!
Nice job! I like your focus on teaching your children to be independent. I have a few 20ish year-olds around me who make it clear that becoming independent is not something you do on your own.
My summer bucket list was heavy on the work this year. Our children were 6, 3, and 1 over the summer, and we did some fun things (VBS, a day at the beach, birthday parties, baseball games), but at this age so much of life is just focused on keeping them dressed and fed (as I am sure you well remember). I really needed to focus on getting a ton of dissertation research under my belt especially because next summer we might have a fourth and final. I was successful at the research, so I am feeling good heading into this school year.
One thought I had on teaching your kids to cook. I wonder if you could be overthinking it? I remember my mom showing me as a teenager how to cut up a chicken, how to make a couple of dishes, but it was a very, very chill level of training. Then once I was out on my own I had enough of a basic idea of how to cook to start to learn how I like to cook and eat. I do both very different from my mom. I am thankful for the meals she prepared for us and for what she taught us, but there was value to doing it on my own too.
That's true...I know they can learn how to do it once they're out on their own. But on the other hand, it's awfully nice to start out your adult life with some already-established kitchen skills. So, I guess that's what's driving me.
Maybe rather than teach them to cook, teach them to read/follow a recipe? There are several good kids', teens', college students' cookbooks out there that will cover the basics. About 10-15 years ago the cookbook fad was teaching people HOW to cook rather than just supplying many recipes. You should be able to find good ones used. Send me an email if you want more specific book suggestions.
I learned to cook entirely from cookbooks and the occasional video. Today there are so many more around, the trick is not to find videos but to tell which ones are good. I recommend Jacques Pepin's Essentials of Cooking, from the late 1990s, as an excellent series for learning from.
Well my summer sucked a bit because of federal jury duty which was a 160 mile round trip from home; being a good citizen is sometimes a challenge. I did squeeze in a tubing trip which has been on my 'want to' list for at least five years. Liking the cooler weather but hate the shorter days.
Oh my. I can't believe you had to go that far! Ugh.
I think you should give yourself a pat on the back! You accomplished a LOT and if I remember correctly your kitchen was undergoing a makeover which might have something to do with you being not as thrilled to cook for the last bit!
It sounds like you are really taking this taking this more to heart and sometimes when we build something up, it can feel like a chore, a weight on our shoulders, rather than something fun. I know the cooking blues don't help and those we often just have to wait them out. How about just having the kids each choose something they want to learn and just supervise as they do it? It may end up about the same, but independence in that area can make it really exciting for the kids. You can discuss the choice of recipe together and see if you have the ingredients, patience and time for it. Then, just have them follow the recipe and you can be there for when they need a bit of help.
Or just have them join you whenever you cook something and give them jobs, have them be a "sous-chef". We have been teaching our kids to cook, the same way I learned with my grandma, they just hang around the kitchen and they help, as they get older they are progressively more involved and we work with their interests. They all start with getting things from the fridge for me, move on to cutting and chopping, then mixing and stirring, adding spices, measuring and then it's off to the races. The 9yo recently learned how to fry zucchini as she loves it and since she was 8 has been the house's pancake maker. The 11 year old has become the house baker (used to be me, but too busy these days) and the 6 year old has been great at chopping since he was 2 (yes, with a sharp knife).
So, just suggesting rather than seeing it as a class, maybe think of the option to approach it as an apprenticeship.
Love that you are so mindful about this, and like you, I think cooking is a life skill!