Weekly Goals ... November 6th and a Pathetic Showing Last Week

Sort of a pathetic showing as far as last week's goals go.  I have more motivation for this week.  I hope I can get more done.

Weekly Goals ... October 29th

Family:

• Bible Study with kids two times. Only once.
• Write Gene a love note. Done
• Finish up the bucket list and start the Thanksgiving Count Down. We have three things left on the bucket list.  Two of them got forwarded to the Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar.

Personal:

• Lose four pounds. I am down a couple pounds.
• Pedicure. Removed my polish but I don't have the color I want to redo them.
• Exercise four times. I got on the exercise bike once all week.  Probably explains why I feel so crummy and I haven't lost any weight.

Homemaking:

• Finish Bathroom list. Done. Plus I added a few things to the list that I hadn't thought of before.
• Finish Laundry Room list. Not even started.
• Tidy all bedrooms. Ughhh!
• Patch and paint cracks in drywall. I did buy sanding screen and primer, but I didn't touch the actual walls.

Finances:

• Keep Spreadsheets current. Done.
• Coupon and menu plan. Lots of great deals at Kroger this week!
• Total October budget and start November. Spending for October was out of control.  I cannot believe the amount of money we went through.  November will probably be ridiculous too since Gene and I are going on a trip and we have to get serious about Christmas gift buying.

Holiday:

• Scrap three months of calendar. I did one month.  It is going to be so cute!
• Granny accessories assembled. Hate the pattern I started to use.  I need to rethink the whole project.
• Bake three things for the freezer. I baked pumpkin bread.  I wasn't in love with it.  I will have to try another recipe.
• Thanksgiving decorations. Decided not to do these until after company comes on Tuesday.  They haven't seen the Halloween decorations and will be back to see Thanksgiving so I decided to put it off.

School:

• Check in every day, especially with Marshall. I checked, but the kids are not exactly truthful.  Threats will ensue.
• Investigate volunteer opportunities. Didn't even send the first email about it.  So lazy!

Only seven things checked off the list last week.  Pretty pathetic.  Next week I have company coming so I know that I will be more motivated!

Weekly Goals ... Week of November 5th
Family:

• Bible Study with kids two times.
• Write Gene a love note.
• Prep kids and self for four days away.

Personal:

• Maintain weight 
• Pedicure.
• Exercise four times.

Homemaking:

• Finish Laundry Room list.
• Tidy all bedrooms.
• Patch and paint cracks in drywall.
• Clean off deck and put away all of the random totes.

Finances:

• Keep Spreadsheets current.
• Coupon and menu plan.
• Figure out budget for trip away.

Holiday:

• Scrap three months of calendar.
• Granny accessories assembled.
• Bake three things for the freezer.
• Thanksgiving decorations.

School:

• Check in every day, especially with Marshall.
• Investigate volunteer opportunities.

I have to get on the ball!  Company is coming on Tuesday evening.  I am leaving for a four day vacation with Gene on Saturday morning and Christmas is only 49 days away.

Last Week's Progress and Goals for the Week of October 29th

I am amazed at how busy we are even though I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom who doesn't really volunteer for that much stuff and whose kids are not involved in sports or many other activities.

How in the world do working moms get anything done?  I applaud you.  I am barely keeping up, and I have all of the time in the world.

I knew this week was going to be a challenge because we were going to be gone three days.  We were supposed to be camping for two, and one day was entirely used up with a field trip and party for the homeschool co-op.

Last week's accomplishments: 

Week of October 22nd

Family:

• Bible Study with the kids two times. Twice!  I may leave my goal at twice a week until after Christmas.  I am struggling to fit this in and it is so important.
• Love note to Gene. Poor guy.  He is so neglected.  I am making this a priority for next week.
• Check two things off the Bucket List. Two big things.  We went on a Fall Field trip with the co-op to Weber Farms and had a nice wagon ride and got to pick our own pumpkin.  The weather was beautiful!  The very next day we were off to the Buckeye Furnace Fall Festival to sell Hobo Pies and help raise funds for the Furnace.  The weather was crummy.  It rained and was cold all day.  We didn't camp as planned.  Kind of disappointing.

Personal:

• Three doctor's appointments. Done.  One more this week.  Ughhh!
• Three blog posts. I may just give up.
• Read a self help book on my Kindle app. I read Crystal Paine's new book 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.  Excellent.  Now to apply it to my life.

Homemaking:

• Complete Kitchen List. I am calling it finished.  There is still some dusting to do, but I just did it recently and I will have to do it again for company next Monday so I made an executive decision and called it finished.
• One hour in each kid's room. Once again. Ha!  This week for sure!
• One hour in my room. Ditto, above.

Finances:

• Keep Spending Spreadsheet current. Complete, although the total at the end is scary.
• Keep Christmas Spreadsheet current. Complete, here I wish I had more things purchased.
• Menu plan and grocery shop with coupons. Three separate trips to the grocery store, one for our groceries, one for camping groceries, and one for Hobo Pie making groceries.

Holiday:

• Two baked goods in the freezer. Haven't baked a thing.
• Finish scarf. I did finish this.  I may end up having to give it away early.
• Start granny square accessories. I decided on a pattern and started ripping the original piece apart.
• Complete calendar grids. Hours later they are all finished.  Now I can just concentrate on the fun scrapbbooky part.  I don't know why I didn't think of this before.

School:

• Check in with kids every day. (Check on the details)   I did check in, but things were so crazy by the end of the week that some stuff fell through the cracks.
• Post next co-op session details. Posed to the group, agreed upon, and posted.  Looks like this session is going to be very laid back.  Thank goodness!

On to this week!  I have company coming on November 6th that I would sort of, kind of like to think that I am not just a hillbilly.  (Although I know I am.)  So I have a lot of stuff to do around the house to make it look presentable.

The things from last week's list that didn't get done are top priorities, but it all has to get done!

This week I vow ....  I will check off everything on my list!


Weekly Goals ... October 29th

 Family:

• Bible Study with kids two times.
• Write Gene a love note.
• Finish up the bucket list and start the Thanksgiving Count Down.

Personal:

• Lose four pounds.
• Pedicure.
• Exercise four times.

Homemaking:

• Finish Bathroom list.
• Finish Laundry Room list.
• Tidy all bedrooms.
• Patch and paint cracks in drywall.

Finances:

• Keep Spreadsheets current.
• Coupon and menu plan.
• Total October budget and start November.

Holiday:

• Scrap three months of calendar.
• Granny accessories assembled.
• Bake three things for the freezer.
• Thanksgiving decorations.

School:

• Check in every day, especially with Marshall.
• Investigate volunteer opportunities.

Goal Update and Weekly Goals for October 22nd

There were eighteen items on my list for last week and I marked off ten of them.  So, a little better than half.  Unfortunately they were all of the little, easy things that didn't require a great deal of effort.  I blame it on all of the fun running around we did. 

A two day trip to Cincinnati to help my grandmother and an entire day spent at the Ohio Renaissance Festival were definitely worth it, but made it difficult to get things done at home.

Goals for the Week of October 15th

 
Family:

• Bible study with the kids at least two days. Only one day
• Write Gene a love note. Nice long letter.
• Check two things off the bucket list. We did quite a few things this week which sort of explains why not very much got checked off of the rest of the list.  We had a wienie roast complete with s'mores.  We made caramel apple bites, which were delicious!  We opted to go to the Natural History Museum in Cincinnati rather than the Ohio History Museum in Columbus.  We made in to the Ohio Renaissance Festival on the very last day.

Personal:

• Lose four pounds. Not so Much!  I seem to be having some sort of issue with my Lap Band.  Hopefully that can be resolved this week.
• Three blog posts. Nope.  Just one.
• Read one book on my Kindle app. I read a couple of cozy mysteries, but not one self-improvement book from my Kindle collection.  Another reason why I didn't get much done this week.

Homemaking:

• Complete dining room list. No.  Still all of the dusting to do.
• One hour in each kid's room. Nope.  I just glance in and shudder.
• Clean two shelves in the craft cabinet. I actually finished the whole cabinet.  It is so much nicer now that I can see everything!
• Complete Kitchen list. I didn't even start it.  I was out of town for three whole days out of the week.  I didn't do much more than routine maintenance.

Finances:

• Keep spending spreadsheet current. Done.  We spend too much money!
• Keep Christmas budget spreadsheet current. I have a few Christmas presents purchased and that is nice.
• Menu plan around grocery deals. I got some great deals at Kroger this week!

Holiday:

• Two baked goods in the freezer. Nothing
• Scarf. Didn't pick it up.
• Start calendars.  I picked up the Crickit from my mom's house so I can do the boring part of the calendar grids.  At least that is a start.  I ma crossing it off.  I didn't say how much I had to do to call it a start.

School:

• Check in with kids' school every day. Every day that we were home at least.  I need to be more specific about the questions I ask.  They seem to be able to say they did everything but ignore the little details of actual completion.
• Check in about Box Tops.  No one has a big bag to send me that needs clipped and counted, which is nice, because I really don't have time to do it.

This week's list looks depressingly familiar.  Hopefully I can be more focused this week.  I have three doctor's appointments this week plus rehearsal for the kid's part in the ghost stories at the Buckeye Furnace Fall Festival.  Most of the day Friday will be spent at the Homeschool Co-op's fall outing and party and then we are off to spend the weekend camping and volunteering at Buckeye Furnace.

I need to start strong this week. 

Weekly Goals ... October 22nd

Family:

• Bible Study with the kids two times.
• Love note to Gene.
• Check two things off the Bucket List.

Personal:

• Three doctor's appointments.
• Three blog posts.
• Read a self help book on my Kindle app.

Homemaking:

• Complete Kitchen List
• One hour in each kid's room.
• One hour in my room.

Finances:

• Keep Spending Spreadsheet current.
• Keep Christmas Spreadsheet current.
• Menu plan and grocery shop with coupons.

Holiday:

• Two baked goods in the freezer.
• Finish scarf.
• Start granny square accessories.
• Complete calendar grids.

School:

• Check in with kids every day.  (Check on the details)
• Post next co-op session details.

I really only have four days to accomplish all of this!  I need to get on the ball.

There are only 64 more days until Christmas.  Time needs to slow down!

Weekly Goals ... October 15th and last Week's Results

Not my best results this week.  I didn't get to check off very many things.  I was horribly indisposed for a couple of days in the middle of the week.  Turns out I have Benign Positional Vertigo.  It is amazing just how terrible you can feel when you are dizzy.  Not to mention that the medicine made me so sleepy I couldn't function. 

Add in the fact that we decided to work on Marshall's costume for the Renn Festival and Abby's zombie costume and making a giant picture frame for my grandmother (who is 95, by the way, and gets whatever she asks for) and it made for a week of not checking things off the list.


Last Week's List: 

Family:

• Bible study with the kids at least four days. One day, once again.  I have to figure out a good time to do this.
• Write Gene a love note. Oops!  He came home a day early and kind of snuck up on me.
• Check two things off the bucket list. Instead of a scary movie night we went to the movie theater to see Hotel Transylvania.  Cute!  We had pumpkin spice lattes after.  Not my favorite.  Abby and I decided to put Pumpkin Pie milk shakes on our list instead!

Personal:

• Exercise four times (two on the treadmill). Okay so I only got in three days of exercise.  And I talked myself out of the treadmill.  According to the minimal amount of research that I did I burn more calories on the bike than on the treadmill.  I'll take it!
• Lose four pounds. Ha! again.  What the heck is wrong with me?
• Three blog posts. Fail!  Only one.

Homemaking:

• Complete dining room list.  I still have two things left on this list.  Uggghhhh!
• One hour in each kid's room. Nothing!  I just looked in and sighed heavily.
• Clean two shelves in the craft cabinet. I actually got three shelves cleaned off so I am happy with that progress.

Finances:

• Keep spending spreadsheet current.  I continue to be amazed at how much money we spend.  Maybe this has been a really expensive month?  I am sure that November and December will be!
• Keep Christmas budget spreadsheet current. I am spending an awful lot of money on craft supplies.  I never kept track of that before.  Interesting.
• Menu plan around grocery deals. I did consider what was on sale when I did my menu plan this week.  Unfortunately Gene was home an extra day and he ate some of the stuff that I planned for lunches.  We may have to go back to the store.

Holiday:

• Finish afghan.   Only two years late.  I am quite proud!
• Frame cross stitch.  Beautiful!  This one only took about 15 years to finish.  My gram is going to be so surprised!
• Finish one gift. I meant finish one more gift, but I am marking this off because I am so proud of the two I did finish!
• Two baked goods in the freezer.  Only one.  Chocolate zucchini bread.  Delicious!
• Fall gift for my secret sister at church. I have had a secret sister since the beginning of the year and this is the first gift I have given.  Not my finest moment!

School:

• Check in with kids' school every day. Not so much.  A lot of catch up is being done on Monday.
• Figure out why Abby's French class won't record. Done.  Very simple once the kind lady at the help desk walked me through it.

Green items have been forwarded from last week's list. Blue items are ongoing until they are finished or become a habit.

This week is going to be messed up too.  I have to go spend a couple of days in Cincinnati with my grandmother (see note above about whatever she wants) so I can help move stuff for the carpet cleaners.  The kids and I are going to take advantage of the opportunity to go to a museum and to the zoo.  I have a very ambitious list cooked up.  We shall see what gets checked off!
Goals for the Week of October 15th

Family:

• Bible study with the kids at least two days.
• Write Gene a love note.
• Check two things off the bucket list.

Personal: 

• Lose four pounds.
• Three blog posts.
• Read one book on my Kindle app.

Homemaking:

• Complete dining room list.
• One hour in each kid's room.
• Clean two shelves in the craft cabinet.
• Complete Kitchen list.

Finances:

• Keep spending spreadsheet current.
• Keep Christmas budget spreadsheet current.
• Menu plan around grocery deals.

Holiday:

• Two baked goods in the freezer.
• Scarf.
• Start calendars

School:

• Check in with kids' school every day.
• Check in about Box Tops

What I Accomplished This Week and Goals for the Week of October 8th

I almost finished everything on last week's list.  I am totally liking all of this accountability.  Even if no one really reads my list, someone might, and I don't want complete strangers to think I am a slacker!

Weekly Goals .... Week of October 1st (Last Week)

Family:

• Start Bible study with kids.  If one lesson counts as starting, then we did start.  I am going to have to give some thought to just how this is going to fit into our day.  Since the kids start school stuff at different times, it is making it difficult to work in first thing in the morning.  The fact that Marshall doesn't actually start fully functioning until noon is a hindrance too.
• Write Gene a love note.
• Check two things off the bucket list.  A trip to the farm market and clearance priced caramel apples from Walmart.  We still may make home made caramel apples!

Personal:

• Exercise four times (two on the treadmill). I only got on the treadmill once.  I did exercise four times.
• Lose four pounds. Ha!
• Three blog posts. Done, sort of!

Homemaking:

• Organize sewing basket.  So nice not to have to search in the big cabinet when I need hand sewing supplies.
• Complete living room list.  All done.  No cobwebs, all the movies are in order.  All the glass is dusted.  Everything is ready for Christmas decorating.  Now just to maintain.
• Put out Halloween decorations.  We even went shopping for a couple of new doo-dads.

Finances:

• Make spending spreadsheet and update.  It is eye-opening to see how much money we are spending.
• Keep Christmas budget spreadsheet current.  Just a few things so far.  Hopefully I can keep the budget under control this year.
• Menu plan around grocery deals.  Kind of amazing to actually know what we are going to have to eat every day.

Holiday:

• Nine squares completed and assembled.  I actually completed three sets of nine.  This is going more quickly than I hoped.  Maybe I can finish it next week.
• Complete cross stitch.  Finished!!!!!!  Now to frame it!
• Finish one gift.

School:

• Lesson for co-op on elections.  Done, Although I did not have to teach!
• Check in with kids' school every day.  Still a work in progress.  I did check in, but not in a very timely manner.

Green items have been forwarded from last week's list. Blue items are ongoing until they are finished or become a habit.




Goals ... Week of October 8th

Family:

• Bible study with the kids at least four days.
• Write Gene a love note.
• Check two things off the bucket list.

Personal:

• Exercise four times (two on the treadmill).
• Lose four pounds.
• Three blog posts.

Homemaking:

• Complete dining room list.
• One hour in each kid's room. 
• Clean two shelves in the craft cabinet. 

Finances:

• Keep spending spreadsheet current.
• Keep Christmas budget spreadsheet current.
• Menu plan around grocery deals.

Holiday:

• Finish afghan 
• Frame cross stitch.  
• Finish one gift.
• Two baked goods in the freezer.
• Fall gift for my secret sister at church.

School:

• Check in with kids' school every day.
• Figure out why Abby's French class won't record.

Green items have been forwarded from last week's list. Blue items are ongoing until they are finished or become a habit.

78 days until Christmas!  How is your Christmas prep going?

I Love the Colors of Fall

I love decorating for Fall.  I love the orange and yellow and rust colors.  The mums are fabulous amd pumpkins make me smile.

Sherlock, the black cat, has taken to laying around on the hay bales.  I think he is waiting for the Halloween decorations to come out.  He will look right at home!

Daily/Weekly Cleaning List

For a long time I have been making a To Do List every morning.  There were always the same few cleaning chores that I feel should be done almost every day.  Even though I knew that I was going to do them every day, I still wrote them on the list.

'Cause I like to check things off my list!

I'll tell you a secret.  Sometimes I even write things on my list after I already have them done, just so I can check them off!

Eventually, I added some things that need to be done every week and I have been gradually coming up with things that I should do every month.

Add in my recent obsession with a weekly goal list and our Fall Bucket list, and I had four or five lists laying around next to my computer.

So, I created a printable checklist with handy little spots to check off my daily chores, a list of weekly chores, a short list of monthly chores and lines for writing the jobs that need doing in the room of the week.

I also included a space for my weekly goals.  I have to write really tiny, but I fit it all on there.  The empty space on the right is perfect for clipping on my list of jobs that I specifically want to get to each day. 

It has been working out great.  Everything I need to accomplish is right there in one place!

I tried to post my list as a printable in Google Docs but I have had no success.  My son says that you could click on the above image and copy it to paint and print it out if you wanted to.  I am working on getting an editable printable finished for you.  I'm sure you don't have to do the same boring jobs over and over that I do.

I bet you have boring, repetitious jobs of your own!

Now, I need to make foofing up that clipboard a "to do" item on my list!

Linked Up at these parties:

Weekly Goals ... Week of October 1st and Update on Last Week

Please note that I managed to cross off EVERY SINGLE ITEM on my list!  Just the fact that the list is sitting there next to my computer keeps me so much more accountable.  When the computer is being touchy or slow, I get up and do something.  Ingenious, Huh? 

Hope I can keep this up.  I might actually be ready for Christmas this year!


Last Week's Goals.... Week of September 24th

Family:

• Make copies of Bible Study Stuff.  Finally got this done!  Now to actually start the Bible Study with the kids next week!
• Write Gene a Love Note.
• Check four things off the Fall Bucket List. Johnny Appleseed Day Celebration with apple food at every meal, Johnny Appleseed videos on YouTube and a trip to the apple orchard.  We had hot spiced apple cider.  The kids didn't care for it.  I drank a half gallon by myself.  We made a fall wreath.  Cute, with glittery spiders.  And I got the porch decorated for fall with the help of my oldest minion.
• Check in with kids on school work every day. I need to make this a habit.  I think that the kids were a lot more diligent about actually finishing everything when they knew I was going to check each evening rather than at the end of the week.

Personal:

 

• Read The Five Love Languages of Teenagers.  I finished this book while exercising this week.  Excellent sugestions.  now I need to figure out the kids' love languages.
• Exercise four times.  I actually rode the exercise bike five mornings this week.
• Lose four pounds.  I lost enough that I was a half pound lower than my lowest weight when I went to the doctor on Thursday.
• Pedicure.  Who knew that painting spider webs on my toenails would be such a pain in the patootie?  I redid them three times and I am still not so happy with the results.

Homemaking:

 

• Fall decorations on the porch.  The cats seem to think that I put the hay bales out there just for them!
• Get out Abby's winter clothes.  They are out of storage.  The process of trying on everything and getting it hung up takes a while.  There aren't enough hangers to hang it all up until more of the summer stuff can get put away.  It will have to be a work in progress. 
• Make daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning check lists.  Done.  I like it.  I think that just having one list on a clipboard rather than three or four will make it easier to see what needs accomplished.
• Switch my clothes to winter. What a mess!  I got rid of a bunch of stuff that is just too big and sloppy looking.  Woot!  I hope all of the jeans I have will fit.  I didn't try anything on; I just stuck it in the drawer.  The bonus of it all was that I cleaned up my closet a bit and went through my Christmas Gift/Project tote and rediscovered a few things that I intended to do last year and can finish pretty quickly this year if I get on the ball.
• Make laundry soap.  Done.  I love the smell of Fels-Naptha! I have my own recipe that is a combination of lots of other people's powdered soap recipes.

Finances:

 

• Track all spending for the week.  I kept track and I was apalled.  Apparently every time I leave the house I spend a great deal of money.
• Write six blog posts.  I wrote five posts.  I am calling it a success!

Christmas Prep:

 

• Cross stitch for at least three hours. I worked on this for about five hours at the beginning of the week.  I need to get it finished so I can figure out about framing it!
• Start a Christmas Gift List.
• Crochet borders on nine squares.  I also got a couple of solid squares finished!
• Christmas gift budget.  I even made an excel spreadsheet to keep track.  Now I am going to have to make it a goal to keep it updated.

School:

• Post about interest in high school breakfast club.   No responses.  How dissapointing.  I think Marshall and his one buddy will just start meeting for breakfast once a week on their own!
• Co-op lesson.  Not my turn!  How nice is that?

Green items have been forwarded from last week's list.  Blue items are ongoing until they are finished or become a habit.

On to next week.

There are only 85 days until Christmas.  This is my favorite time of the year!

Weekly Goals .... Week of October 1st

Family:

• Start Bible study with kids.
• Write Gene a love note.
• Check two things off the bucket list.

Personal:

• Exercise four times (two on the treadmill).
• Lose four pounds.
• Three blog posts.

Homemaking:

• Organize sewing basket.
• Complete living room list.
• Put out Halloween decorations.

Finances:

• Make spending spreadsheet and update.
• Keep Christmas budget spreadsheet current.
• Menu plan around grocery deals.

Holiday:

• Nine squares completed and assembled.
• Complete cross stitch.
• Finish one gift.

School:

• Lesson for co-op on elections.
• Check in with kids' school every day.

Green items have been forwarded from last week's list.  Blue items are ongoing until they are finished or become a habit.

Here's to keeping the momentum going!

Happy Johnny Appleseed Day

Can you say "Good Sports?"

I love my kids.

I love the fact that even though they are teenagers they are willing to play along and do silly things, celebrate silly holidays, and enjoy being with me.

Attending a cyber school means that they spend almost all of their time with me.  We are all three at home together every day.  They almost never have an attitude, they do what they are told, and best of all, they enjoy having fun!

One of the items on our Fall Bucket List was to celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day, September 26th.  It was a pretty laid back celebration!  We ate apple french toast for breakfast, had apple pudding and dried cinnamon apple chips with lunch, and had apple crisp with caramel ice cream for dessert after supper.  We read about John Chapman on wikipedia, and we watched a Disney video on You Tube. 

As holidays go, it was pretty inexpensive and laid-back.  The kids might have groaned a little when I woke them up shouting "Happy Johnny Appleseed Day."  But, they got into the spirit of things.

Little things, done with a great deal of enthusiasm make for the best memories.

Especially for moms!

Spider Web Fall "Wreath"

Abby says it's not a wreath if there isn't a hole in the middle. 

I say it's a wreath 'cause we hung it on the door. 



We took an old, very ugly painting from the thrift store that had a kind of fancy looking plastic frame and transformed it into a webby home for some very glitzy spiders.

First I had Marshall spray paint the front and the back of the frame black.  For some odd reason, he was wearing a trench coat while he painted.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get a picture of that.  {My children are a bit strange sometimes.}

Next we disassembled the frame.  I was glad to see that there were two pieces of cardboard in the frame so we would be able to hide the back of the spider web.

I wrapped some cotton yarn around the frame for the base of the spider web.  I used some very attractive duct tape to hold the yarn in the position I liked.  Abby wove the yarn around the spokes to create a very effective spider web.  We used a little Elmer's glue at each intersection to hold the web in place.

As the glue was drying, we positioned the spiders on the frame.  I was all for just using one spider from the package of six that we picked up at Hobby Lobby, but Abby thought it would be lonely and she found places for all six. 

I made a big, loopy bow from black and orange mesh ribbon and tied it onto the frame.

After the glue was all dry, we carefully reassembled the frame, I struggled to get all of the pieces jammed back together.  Finally, it was all together!  We ceremonially hung it on the door and took a picture.

Another thing checked off the Fall Bucket List.


Super cute, relatively easy, and not so scary Halloween decor for the door!

Abby still says it's not a wreath!

Spider Web Nails

One of the items on my Goal List this week was to give myself a pedicure.  Abby had recently requested purple nail polish, and I had visions of purple nails with spider webs and big black spiders.  Scary, huh?

Since it is rather difficult to reach one's toes with the amount of weight that I still need to lose, I decided to try out my design on my left thumb nail.  I liked the color, the spider web was a little wonky, but taking into consideration the crummy brush I had available, it turned out OK.

The spider, on the other hand, looked like a big fat tick. 

I took it all off and started again. 

No spiders for the toes!

I proceeded to try out the whole process on my toes.  Turns out, third time's a charm on the old toenails.  After much complaining and polish removal, I had what I thought was a credible spider web pedicure.

I'll let you be the judge of that!

In the interest of keeping it real here, take a look at this picture of my toes.  Apparently I am not only hampered by being too chubby to reach my toes, my eyes are so bad that I couldn't tell how messy the polish was until I looked at the picture.

Hopefully, no one looks that closely at my toes, 'cause I'm leaving them like this till Halloween!

Now, that's really scary stuff!

Fall Bucket List...The Cute Version

Because a list written on paper is OK, but a scrapbooked, foofed up, cute one is awesome, I made our Fall Bucket List into a "Bucket" List.

I used a little metal tub that I found floating around when I put out the Fall decorations and some clothespins that had been painted with orange dots and stripes from back in the day when we used to do craft shows.  I picked up a fall scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby, along with coordinating green, orange, and cream colored papers.  A chipboard shape left over from another project and some raffia that I think came off of an old candle rounded out the supply list.  Oh yeah, and a magnet I took off the fridge and pried the embellishment off of!

Talk about cheap!  The only thing I bought was the paper, and it was half off!

I glued tiny strips of paper in two colors to the clothespins.  Chalked the edges with brown to rough it up a bit and used a black Sharpie to write each item from the list on to its own clothespin. 

After I glued the leaf patterned paper to the chipboard, I added three layers of card stock and wrote "Fall Bucket List 2012 on the cream colored rectangle.

All of the clothespins got clipped on, the raffia got wrapped around, and I used the magnet to stick the chip board piece onto the bucket so that it would stay at the angle I wanted.

After we finish an item on the list, we will unclip it and put it in the bucket.

So far we only have one thing completed.  We have to get on the ball!

***Look at that picture of Abby and her Daddy on her second birthday.  Can you tell that her daddy likes her just a little bit?  He doesn't let us take his picture often so it is extra special to me!

Linked to these crafty parties:

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Weekly Goals: Recap and Week of 9-24-2012

Not so much progress on my list this week.  Apparently this was my week to make excuses about why I couldn't get anything done.  Ughhh!  Now I need to accomplish even more this week.

Here is what I accomplished last week:

 

Family:

• Make copies of Bible Study Stuff. Did not do this.  My excuse is that the copy place is in the Apple Festival area and I didn't want to have to fight to find parking.
• Write Gene a Love Note.  Done
• Check two things off the Fall Bucket List. Not a single thing. Everything we tried to do did not work out the way I had hoped.

Personal:

• Finish Destined to Reign by Joseph Prince.  I did finish this book and it was excellent.  The grace of God toward us is such an amazing thing!
• Exercise four times.  Actually did this.  I rode the exercise bike and read my book.
• Lose four pounds. Hah!  I think I gained a pound.  I have an appointment with the diet doctor this week and I vow to have lost some weight.

Homemaking:

• Fall decorations on the porch. Nope.  Went shopping for mums and was apalled at the prices.  I will have another go at it this week.
• Put away Abby's summery summer clothes.   One giant tote of stuff is put away.  Still need to get out the winter stuff and go through it.  As cold as it has been I think I could put away the capris too.
• Make daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning check lists. I sort of made a handwritten copy, but I want to make a printable copy.

Finances:

 

• Catch up on cutting coupons.  Done!  I had two weeks worth.  Now just to keep up with it.  I am making this an item on my weekly to do list.
• Write three blog posts. Just one post.  I have been having issues with my photo editor running on this slow old computer.

Christmas Prep:

 

• Fancy up the Fall Bucket List.   So cute!  I will be posting a quick tutorial for it soon.
• Figure out the afghan pattern I am going to use and at least get started.   I did decide on a plan.  I haven't actually started, but I am calling this a success. 
• Cross stitch for at least three hours.   Barely worked for three hours.  Still so far to go.
• Start a Christmas Gift List. Nope!

So much that didn't get done. We did have a great field trip on Friday to the Ohio Statehouse with the Homeschool Co-op with dinner out, thrift store shopping for zombie costumes, and frozen yougurt!  There were several visits with my oldest son and an emergency waterfall creation for my niece's science class project so I thought I had some good excuses!

I have decided that anything that doesn't get finished from the week before gets added to the list along with goals for this week rather than just forwarding things forever.  My list may be a hundred items long soon if I don't get on the ball.

Here goes!

Weekly Goals .... Week of September 24th

Family:

 

• Make copies of Bible Study Stuff.
• Write Gene a Love Note.
• Check four things off the Fall Bucket List.
• Check in with kids on school work every day.

 

Personal:

 

• Read The Five Love Languages of Teenagers.
• Exercise four times.
• Lose four pounds.
• Pedicure

Homemaking:

 

• Fall decorations on the porch.
• Get out Abby's winter clothes. 
• Make daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning check lists.
• Switch my clothes to winter.
• Make laundry soap. 

Finances:

 

• Track all spending for the week.
• Write six blog posts.

Christmas Prep:

 

• Cross stitch for at least three hours.
• Start a Christmas Gift List.
• Crochet borders on nine squares.
• Christmas gift budget.

School:

• Post about interest in high school breakfast club.
• Co-op lesson.

Green items have been forwarded from last week's list.  Blue items are ongoing until they are finished or become a habit.

Lots of work to do!  No excuses this week!