Results of October Goals

Goal Setting For October 2012

How did it get to be October again?  I really don't know.  It seems like just yesterday that Sunshine turned 2, and here it is nearly her birthday again.

Specific Events for this month -

Oct. 14 - Sunshine is 3
Oct. 26 - My Aunt arrives
Oct. 27 - Sunshine's birthday Party
Oct. 28 - Church Harvest Party  (Though it has been a while since it we were able to attend - due to the Ref's basketball scheduled Meetings)

There is also a Bluegrass group coming to our church this month.


We are trying to get in 2 - 4 hours of school a day.  Or at least start a better rhythm to accommodate school.

Blogging -
1.  Kiddos With Kindles - Write at least 25 Daily Kindle posts (that allows me to forgive myself if I miss a few).   Done
2.  Eagle Nest - Write at least 25 Other Posts on Homeschooling, Crafts, and such. I think I did around 20 posts.
3.  O 'Scarlett - Write at least 8 book reviews  Failed totally.  Not even ONE got done.
4.  Wings - my personal scrapbooking blog - Write at least 8 posts and 1 Family News Update.  Done
5.  Try to skim Google Reader daily. Skim ... barely ... but I did manage to hit it most days, at least enough to check off the stuff I had no desire to go back and look at further or read completely.


Project School Room - and Household Shuffle
1.  Story gets her room and bathroom finished organized.   She worked several hours on this, and Aunt Next Door came and helped her for another several hours.
2.  Ref moved into a new office space.   He is mostly moved in.  There is still lots in the hallway, and he sent some home with his mom.
3.  Work some more on Sunshine's room - try to find and localize the items that will be in her room.   Most of what will be in there is there, but it's still really messy.  And I need to go through and PURGE items.
4.  Paint Scholars new Room and reseal the parque flooring.   Done!!!

5.  Move Scholar into his room and get it organized for him - go through his clothes as we move them.   Mostly done - need to do a declutter and purge.

6.  Find a home for most of the homeless items or Purge it.   Made a good attempt ... but still a LOT to go.

7.  Get craft supplies under control   I made a good first run at it - removed tons of junk and organized what will need to be sorted later into more secure boxes.  BUT  a long way to go here.

8.  Repaint the Master bathroom (not all of it)   Not even started.  Sigh.

Project Aunt V.  --  She arrived in the pouring rain of a cold front.  But by the time we started unloading the moving van, the rain had stopped, AND the temperature was perfect for maximum efficient unloading - not so cold we had to keep doors closed, and not so hot that we were shedding clothes and overheating.
1.  Empty the bunk house -  Sell the baby bed or toddler bed (unsold will be Sunshine's' bed)   Baby bed went to storage.  Cousin is in the bunkhouse.  

2.  Help Dad Redo the Bunk house bathroom and any repairs that need to be done in the room.  Put a door back onto this room.  Door was put back .....  but nothing else.

3.  Empty the Master Bedroom.   Done - and then refilled it for a week.
4.  Help Dad do the repair work on bathrooms and bedrooms whenever he is here. Mostly completed.  A cousin showed up the last week to help out.
5.  Finish organizing the livingroom   Made HUGE progress here ... but still more went out on moving day.
6.  Finish organizing the kitchen   Done mostly .... but tons more is leaving now.
7.  Decide between sibs where things can be relocated or stored, and who can best use things.   There will be a LOT more of this to come as Aunt moves in and settles.  
8.  Get with sibs at least 4 times to go through things that need to leave the house.  I think we got together twice.
9.  Garage Sale at R3's house on Oct. 6  (I just have to get boxes filled to go)   Garage Sale was a flop due to cold weather and not enough signs.
10.  Arrange some muscles for unloading the moving van when it arrives.   ONE person showed up.  THANK YOU ... even though he doesn't read my blog.


Food
1.  Keep using up the food in the freezers.   Done .... but a friend filled it up again when she emptied her MIL's freezer.  Hey, I'll take blueberries any time!

2.  Go through freezers again later this month and refill the ones next door.   Need to do this again.

3.  Empty the downstairs frig so it can be moved upstairs.   Done

4.  Make meal plans to use up as much odds and ends of stored food as possible.  Why is it SO HARD to do this????


Cleaning
1.  Deep clean as each room/ space is cleared.  We did our best.
2.  Get the main kitchen under control - easier said than done - the table takes up most of the room.  Must decided on new floorplan for kitchen/dining/living rooms - it's all one BIG room.   Made a grand attempt.  Partially working.  I need help getting the VCR/DVD player to actually talk to the TV.  And the TV clicker has gone missing sometime in the last 4 months.  I KNOW we had it the beginning of July - but it was missing the middle of October.
3.  Find a board to put under the foot of my bed - so it doesn't go through thfe floorboard anymore.   (Somebody tell me why they put particle board in trailer homes - it gets wet, turns to flaky sawdust, and disintegrates!)   DONE!!!!
4.


School

1.  Set up an area for the tiny TV for educational videos.   Maybe put this where the frig WAS at downstairs, and kids can sit on the steps to watch?   Done - and working pretty good!

2.  Find somebody to cut the chalk board in half - get half up in Story's room for her, and the other half up in the school room.   This STILL needs done.  

3.  Find someplace to put up the posters and charts in the room - or find them a new home.   Well ... not sure where they are all hidden at the moment.  Must  take things down before hanging more up.

Facebook and Email -
Goal is to check no more than 5 times a day.  Did pretty good this month .... of course there were days I barely saw my computer after my morning Kindle post.


Personal
1.  Be in bed before Midnight - WITH the lights off.  I was IN bed most nights .... got to work on the lights out part.
2.  Have all of the kids in bed by 10pm - and asleep.   Scholar and Song made it most nights.
3.  More consistent devotional times.   Still more sporadic than I like.  But I joined some very good Devotional blogs, and I've read them most days.
4.  Loose 10 lbs.  Let's skip this one ... I've been under far too much stress.
5.  No eating after 8pm.   Skip this one too.
6.  Walk a two miles at least 4 times each week.   I CAN now walk 2 miles - and in less than an hour.  But there was too much going on to do it even 4 times a week.

7.  Get a schedule in place for chores and routines for the household (minus the Ref).  And get it posted somewhere.   I do have a skeleton schedule - and we are still a long way from implementing it. 

Christmas:  --- NEVER even got to this one.  Other than actively making sure the cards did not get lost or buried.

1.  Isolate all of the cards and addresses from the last year or two into a findable location.

2.  Find the Christmas cards and put them with the address pile.

3.  Research ideas for Acts of Service Coupons.

4.  Research ideas for other gifts to give for Christmas.

Birthdays:  Didn't get to this one except for ONE birthday.

Find and enter birthday information into the Reminder program that I found to use.

Sunshine's Birthday Party:  Had a great party - will post about it later.   The weather was nearly perfect.  Just a tad too warm in the sun - but not too cold in the shade.  And only 2 wasp bites.  
1.  Print and deliver invitations
2.  Buy balloons for the party.
3.  Already arranged the chocolate cake with strawberry icing - need to get some ingredients
4.  Find eggs and "confetti" for the confetti egg hunt.
5.  Set up for crafts for bracelets, crowns, and painting fingernails.
6.  Clean up the yard 
7.  Find the water cooler and all the extra ice from past parties
8.  Buy pink ice cream
9.  Make and find decorations for the party.
10.  Pray for a pretty day - and lots of friends to show up