I’m still a bit sick. I managed to knock off a good number of goals last week despite not feeling well, but some were left for this week.
Organization:
I’m working on one room/area a week until I get each room re-organized.
1. Photograph and list 5 items for sale on Facebook garage sale pages
2. Organize and clean laundry room
3. Organize girls’ socks and discard any that no longer stay up/match is missing
Garden:
It’s time to start fall planting this month. I’ll be planting seeds directly in the garden. Most things do best planted after the 15th (it’s still hot; it’s 105º F here today), but I will try a few things earlier this month in some shady spots in the garden.
September is also the time to fertilize fruit trees here.
1. Plant Swiss chard seeds
2. Plant parsley
3. Cut and hang basil to dry
4. Mix up fertilizer for trees (blood meal, soil sulphur, epsom salts, and bone meal). I’ll fertilize sometime later this month, but having the mixture ready will make it easier.
5. Weed white garden
Sewing:
1. Sew pillow and cover for Ezrom’s room
2. Sew buttonholes and buttons on 3 items
Canning:
1. Can one batch of dill pickles
Cooking:
1. Start a batch of mung bean sprouts for stir fry
Decorating:
1. Finish removing staples from chair
2. Order two pictures for Ezrom’s room and have my dad cut a mat for one of them to go in a frame I picked up at a garage sale.
Shopping:
I’ll be posting this week about my shopping goals for September, so stay tuned for more details on what I’ll be buying.
1. Trip to Target
2. Trip to Winco
3. Trip to Sam’s Club
Gift Making:
Liberty’s birthday is coming up, so I’ll be working on some gifts that she requested.
1. Make bookmarks for Liberty’s birthday
2. Make necklace for Liberty
3. Make bracelet for Liberty
Other:
1. Cut both boys’ hair
I am so sorry you are not feeling well, I have been suffereing from allergies, and my best friends family had a stomach bug, hopefully we managed to avoid that. I know you still get more done that me even on a sick week.My goals this week are:Finish a quiet book, I have 4-5 pages I want to make for my youngestMake a quiet book for my nephews, I bought one from a friend, but their are two boys with a third on the way, so I’d like to have two to give my mom. Grandma is the keeper of the quiet bag so none of the daughter in laws has to think about more than getting the kids to church.I night gown for myself,One night gown for my 3 yr oldOne night gown for a friends 2 yr old, found the cutest elephant fabric! and she is wild about elephants.Continue to work on organizing fabric and school stuff, especially the preschool stuff.
Here are my goals this week: Finish reading Little Women, read books with Bug, finish my cross stitch project, can raspberry jam, finish making 3 busy bags for gifts, attend a picnic, get pictures taken for the church directory and attend an appointmentI’m praying I can get everything done. It’s a shorter work-week so that will allow an extra day of opportunity 🙂 My hubby is the stay-at-home parent and he does a beautiful job of it. I’m very grateful for our situation and how well it’s working out for everyone. I’m praying you’re feeling better and better!
Thank you for the inspiration! Excited about the coming posts 🙂
Mine for the month include learning to bake crackers (I’m trying your recipe) and to bake graham crackers. I’m also working on further lowering our electric bill just through careful diligence. We’re also working on a bigger school project and I want to work hard to keep our steam up. I’m also working this month to continue to rotate our food storage items in. I’m working on a rag rug for our living room and still working on Christmas presents.
My husband and I just did a budget. It was hard to see just how much I have been spending. I have recommitted to being more frugal. I started with some freezer cooking. I made a double batch of spaghetti pie. The taste is similar to lasagna. I estimate it cost me $4 and will give us 4 meals. I stretched the ground turkey by adding mashed beans to it. I cooked 2 more batches of beans in my crock pot and froze them. I made mini muffins from some ripe bananas I had previously frozen. My husband evaluated our utility bill and we plan to cut back there, too.
Ambitious! Sorry you’ve been under the weather–I hope your kids kept their excellent routine going. I’m starting with just one goal so far: Sit down at nap time/Sesame Street time and make a to-do list!
I’m sorry to hear you’re still not feeling well. It’s pretty amazing how we can persevere even during those down times when we don’t feel 100%. My prayers are with you as you continue to push through this illness.I, too, am hoping to get a better handle on my home situation. This is my first year having all of my children out of the house for a school day and likely my only one since I plan to homeschool my 8th grader next year as she enters high school. The other two also want to come home, but I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by that idea if I’m going to have a high schooler in the house. At any rate, there is a lot of research I want to accomplish for my oldest and I want to try to start tackling some of that. They’ve only been in school a couple of weeks and it’s been a little bit of “fits and starts”. The first week was full of half-days, then they had a regular week (although they always get out early on Fridays), and this week is another short week, with the early-release on Friday of course. I feel like I can’t get “out of the gate” in a manner of speaking. While most of my goals revolve around planning for homeschooling a high schooler, I want to be able to maintain a routine in my home as well. We have had a bit of rain which aggravates the scorpions (they don’t like to get wet and hence try to get in the house—and one was successful!!) so we need to have our bug guy come out again to spray. We found one tiny one, about the size of a cricket, which tend to be the most dangerous. It blended in with the carpet and the only way to find them is using the black light. I’ve been vacuuming and mopping every day to try to keep after this, at least until the bug guy comes next Thursday. Normally I can get by with vacuuming every other day and I like the kids to do their own rooms so finding these unwelcome critters has upped the ante for housework. I also fertilized our fruit tree yesterday. A friend of mine who is a native Arizonan told me “Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day” for fertilizing the trees. I found that to be an extremely helpful reminder. We also have to do our garden planning. Since my husband is home today, I’m hoping we will be able to do that together as well.I will also have a little bit of baking on my list today. Since Labor Day is one of our “freebie” days from the electric company (i.e. all day is ‘off-peak’), I want to take advantage of getting more cooking done. I made sauce and yogurt yesterday, but need to make more bread, banana bread/muffins, and crackers for school lunches. Also need to make tortillas for dinner tonight (lentil tacos!) and I might try my hand at pita chips while I’m at it, if time permits.Finally, I’m hoping to be able to sit down and write for a bit. I volunteered to write for a financial ministry website (not my own) and my last article will go up this Thursday so I need to put pen to paper and start getting a few more submissions over to them.I think that about covers it, but I always seem to find other things that need to be done as I’m going along…sincerely hope you’re feeling better soon! God Bless!
Goals for the WeekAccomplished Last Week – Thanks again Brandy for your blog! These posts help me see I am actually getting somewhere with my goals!1) I backed the computer up. This was one of those “I know I need to do this” items but it had not happened for at least a year. Finally accomplished!2) Order is starting to appear in the garage [it is really our storage/clock shop/library/genealogy center/extended panty/cleaning closet area]. We are shaking it out. This will save money in the long run.3) The kitchen pantry got completely shook out! Yea! We are in the midst of moving the garage pantry closer to the kitchen door in the garage. It will be easier to access what we need. It will save money in not buying what I don’t need.4) Created a list of helpers needed to accomplish my fall goals. Helpers are the only way I will get what needs done this fall.5) Talked with a former employee that will help restart our quilt/yarn business [Spindles and Quilts.com]. We closed the brick and mortar shop last year. She will help set up local events for fall sales. 6) Interviewed a high school girl that will be starting to help me in the home 2x a week. This is critical to my sanity as I start teaching more hours. 7) I was fortunate to get Microsoft Project software at a significant reduction because I am a teacher. I updated the task list.8) Grandson completed a week at a Children’s Museum Special Effects Video Camp. It was 5 afternoons. This was part of his summer school program. We do year around schooling. Now to keep his interest in videos moving along. We set up the tripod and old video camera for him to use. Now to set up a green screen area. Oh I need to put that on the “to do” list for fall!New Goals for the Week1) Son’s room restructured. He is moving furniture around for a better design. I was so happy to see him doing it WITHOUT me nagging! Through the week this project will continue. Saturday I have a helper that will help me get the clothes, etc. sorted. This was the arrangement. He moves the furniture and I will put the clothes, towels, etc. on the shelves for him. Yes this is part of my I want it organized correctly.2) Grandson’s closet is schedule for a shake out on Friday.3) Fall Homeschool begins gently. This means we go back to more structure in the program.4) Tuesday – Downstairs clutter removed. Yes it seems we have lots of that in this house.5) Contact Colleges again for an Internship. I need someone to set up our online store and the shipping area. An intern would be great.6) Be ready to teach on Thursday evening. This is big and really my highest priority.7) Schedule flights for our November trip to CA. We will stay in my Uncle’s home. This is the reward for the fall work.8) Yikes I tired just putting the list together. To accomplish all of this I must get to bed by 10pm and take a nap each day.So great to see everyone’s posts! I might not post a comment but I have read them and enjoyed them! To another week of accomplishment for all of us!
Brandy – Hope you are feeling better soon! It is no fun to not feeling good!
I bought some books at a thrift store and read Little Men and Jo’s Boys which are sequels. They were very good.
I bought a book on making bread out of cooked, pulverized beans. No flour. I am working on it today and hope I like it as I am celiac and gluten-free flour is expensive.
It would be easier to say…be more like Brandi. Listed my goals for this week on my blog…http://chefowings.blogspot.com/2014/09/goals-for-this-week.htmlThanks Brandi
Can you tell me how to make the garden fertilizer? Do I just buy a bag of each ingredient and mix them together? Thanks.
Dear Miss Brandy and readers,I went on a small retreat in the park today. My life has felt out of synch lately. After reflecting in the cool morning and lovely setting, I made some fall goals. I took photos of the pretty flowers and used them in the posting I made of my fall goals.Happy Labor Day to all.Anna
http://www.starnursery.com/610-fruit-mix Our local nursery (from whom this comes) has since changed from carrying cottonseed meal in large bags to carrying blood meal instead. You can substitute that. Instead of 21-0-0, you can also use blood meal, at triple the rate, to make an organic fertilizer (I learned this in my local gardening classes). Bone meal is the phosphate.
Happy early Birthday to Liberty!I started my new job this week in a totally new area of nursing that’s different from anything I’ve ever done. Correctional Nursing (Prison). Been busy learning about my new benefits that come with the job. Where things are. It’s a big place with 2300 inmates. Sept 15th-19th and 22nd- 26th I’ll be at the Training Academy 5 hours away from home but I don’t have to drive MY car. I get to take one of theirs. Lancaster PA (Amish Country) isn’t far away. I plan on checking it out while I am there. Never been there and am looking forward to it. Can also go to Hershey PA which is 10 minutes from where I’ll be training. Also plan on checking that out. Just been trying to keep things in our household going. It’s the 2nd week of school and my son ruined a pair of his good shorts on a screw or something that was sticking out from under his desk that cut his shorts up. I wrote the teacher a note and she switched out his desk. It ought to be taken out of the classroom all together!