Summer Bucket List Update, The First
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.
⅓! 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.
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?
I'm starting to think I'm the only person who like Cars 2. Sure it was silly and stupid, but that was the point.
I just thought the story line of Cars 2 didn't mesh as well with the Cars lineup of characters...whereas the storyline of 1 and 3 seemed like they fit better.
Totally agree! Definitely feel like cars 3 meshed with cars 1, but 2 wasn't my favorite.
Spiderman and Wonderwoman have by far been my favorite movies of the year. Baby Driver was also pretty good!
Well my list keeps evolving but I can at least count the things I've done:
* Get my movie shelves organized
- This is about half way done so far. It's moving along nicely but much slower than I expected.
* Finish basement remodel
- All the contractor work is done and it's painted but there's no furniture yet. I'll have to keep my eye out for that.
* Go on some trips:
- We made it to South Carolina to see my in-laws but getting out to some day trips seems to be insanely difficult.
So yeah, summer is progressing. We'll see how it all goes.
Wow, that's awesome that your basement remodel is so close to being done. Woohoo!
After about 2 weeks school break, today my 2nd and 3rd grader finished their math! Yay! In my mind, school is "done" finally. Now I can work on my summer list.
Well, I have started painting the inside of my house. It's a slow process as the house is older with lots of imperfections that we have to repair as we go and some of the ceilings are 12 feet high. We went on vacation right before summer so this was actually what's I planned to do when we got back. I love the way it looks but it is so daunting. Doing things the right way takes a lot of time. I have a new couch coming so I really wanted to get the living room done before it gets here...totally not happening. May have to just leave it in the plastic for awhile. We got some of those water balloons for free at a Toys R us event a few weeks ago so we threw ours on the trampoline, too. The kids had a blast!
Look at Hollar.com. They have spiral notebooks for $1.00 and your first order ships free.
I don't have an official summer bucket list, but I've been focusing on getting my homemaking into routines: daily/weekly/"zone" cleaning. So essentially I've been doing "spring cleaning" type cleaning throughout each week. The work for the daily and weekly tasks is getting quicker/easier, and the zone cleaning is really making the hidden parts of the house clean. I've been following the zone cleaning on the videos from How Jen Does it (YouTube).
It has been quite a few years since I had a Cinnabon, but my husband and I used to split one at the mall. The gooey center was the best part to us! 😀
I have a long list of mostly small things to do in the next few weeks. The bigger ones are:
1) Put things back after the AC broke & leaked.
I need to re-build the wire shelving I keep my yarn in. It's the sort of thing that, when you bang together one edge, another one tries to pop out. Then it's just put things back where they were. Maybe 90 min work but some of it will be disproportionately aggravating.
2) Give All The Things to Goodwill.
I find that doing the big donation runs goes more peacefully if I do it alone. Roommate has already agreed what jointly-owned can go. No backsies, no vetos.
3) Mail. Especially the dreaded insurance cross-checking.
This built up while I was on vacation. :-{
4) Decide what new furnace to get.
I have time on this one.
The rest is the usual small fry that builds up: tidy up this and that, organize small areas, run errands. There's just a lot of them right now.
I'm afraid that the things I wanted to to do this summer--a trip to the Montreal Botanical Garden, breaking in the older kids to various chores and an allowance system, cleaning out closets--have fallen victim to an unexpectedly delicate pregnancy. Not that anything is wrong, it's just that if I do too much, I start with the Braxton-Hicks contractions, which makes me really nervous. So I've had to choose what I think I can handle in one day, and those things are usually the non-negotiables like the vegetable garden, cooking, and basic cleaning. Everything else will have to wait until next summer, I suppose. When I'm sure I'll be much more motivated because I won't be pregnant and will instead have a six-month-old. (Sarcasm.)
Oh, but I HAVE managed to start working with my older two children in the kitchen. They really wanted to help me cook. I really did not want to deal with a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old in the kitchen, but surprisingly, I kind of like it. They help me while the 2-year-old is napping, which is an incentive to get some prep done early in the day. It's a good motivator. Even if I do have to spend twice as long cleaning up the explosion of potato peelings that results when small children peel potatoes.
I'm waiting for the chore list ;).
Oh wow this is such a great list. The summer is not even half way over, but you've gotten so much fun. I really admire your painting skills. I've tried it before, and it just didn't go well. The room looks like it was painted by a professional!
Mr. FAF and I want to take a road trip to NYC with my MIL and our baby. We will probably do that at the end of the month. We also want to go to summer picnics and meet different people. I can't wait for the fun to begin! ^.^
Oops, I haven't made a list, and I never finished last summer's list, so, um...
Well, I'll try. Here's what I have done:
Went on a mission trip (that is actually a lifetime goal, so I am awarding myself extra points for that one, ha).
Did not buy a bunch of new stuff for this trip, but any clothes or shoes I had to purchase were second hand, and I left quite a bit of it behind for donations. I also left behind some of my stuff that is good but I don't wear anymore. So a few more items out.
Took a big load to Goodwill while going through items to take on the trip. Unfortunately, I have a lot left to be purged. Where did it all come from?
Got replacement curtains ordered and installed.
What I want/need to do:
Finish with the brick installation around my umbrella clothes line. That's a hot job in the summer in Florida, whew.
Organize my junk drawer.
Put up some freezer meals.
Repair the kitchen faucet.
Re-do my closet. This was on the list for last year, but it's going to be involved, and we have other, more urgent projects that need to be done first, such as finishing our porch, which is not on my personal list because I can't do it alone. This will take help, and perhaps a professional, if we can afford that.
Repair four lamps that have become "broke-necked". Why are my lamps suddenly giving up the ghost and falling apart? I'll reach to turn them on and the metal bulb base thingy suddenly flops on its side. Grrrr.
My local Staples had 1 subject notebooks for $1! I'm not sure if that's the type of deal you're looking for, but just an FYI 🙂
I laughed that you would even want to eat a Cinnabon with all the great baking you do yourself! But then everyone deserves a day off. 😀
To be honest, I probably wouldn't have gone if it was just me! But Lisey was intrigued by the novelty. So, that was worth it.
But I'll stick with eating my own cinnamon rolls. 😉
Our Cinnabon closed down. I have made a knock off recipe. Brown sugar is always used in the cinnamon filling. And cream cheese frosting.
Cinnabon always smells AMAZING! But I am always a little disappointed when I get one. I will stick with homemade carmel pecan sticky buns. (The recipe from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book.)
Hey, it sounds like your summer bucket list is going swimmingly! 🙂 I'm not sure what all I want to accomplish this summer. One thing no one told you about growing up is how fast time starts to fly by! I still feel stuck back in February in my mind lol.
We liked Cars3, too! Our local theater (with recliner seats!) offers $5 movies before 4pm, so we hit it up at 10am. Ha!
It's funny you mention Cars 2. I've never let my 3 year old watch Cars 2, actually! I read the synopsis and poor reviews, and was worried that he would get hooked on it he saw it. You know how little ones can be....and I'm not willing to watch a movie with him 50 times, I don't even bother. Haha!
I'm a teacher, so we are at the halfway mark of our summer. I am quickly filling up my calendar with items on our summer bucket list while we still have time to squeeze them in!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 🙂
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.
Woohoo! I bet you feel great about how your garage is coming along.