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Anyone else feel like August was a mere whisper? I swear it started last week and now it’s over. Tomorrow is September 1st. So much for summer! But I’m pretty sure I say this every month when I get my goals post up. It really reaffirms the saying about the days being long but the years being fast. I mean, holy cow, right? Only four months left of 2016. Yikes.
Let’s look back at my goals for August and see how I did.
Goals for August
This month was all about Back to School prep. I knew there were lots of tasks that needed to be accomplished in order to make the transition a little easier.
1. School Shopping!
Check! I am really glad I forced myself to go through all the old supplies and stockpiled supplies BEFORE going school shopping. There is a reason I buy items on clearance throughout the year! I had plenty of GOOD markers left along with a huge stash of glue sticks. A few other random supplies (like a million pencils with missing erasers – yay for eraser tops!) got reused for the year as well and saved us a good chunk of money. I think we only spent about $15 on supplies and I bought a few extras of random items. I plan on stockpiling certain items that tend to get used up – crayons, glue, glue sticks, etc., – once they go on clearance to have on hand during the year.
2. Clothing Purge
Oh man was this a beast of a task. The big boys cleared out every single item of clothing in their room and piled it in their laundry baskets. They helped do the same with Mercedes clothes. Then I brought out five totes of clothing that were in storage. I went through EVERY SINGLE ITEM from their baskets and the totes to check size, condition, season, and anything else. I had piles for the thrift store, hand-me-downs for friends, garbage (why does little girl underwear fall apart so quickly?), and keeps.
I kept enough clothes for each of the big kids to have one basket worth of items. It’s a little more than a week’s worth of clothes. Why, oh why do they need more than that? The laundry is constantly going in this house. There is no need to have 30 shirts! Then the kids put all their sorted clothes away. I still need to go through the little guys’ dresser but they are still in the same size from spring so I don’t see much getting taken out. I do need to thin it out (again, even two kids don’t need 30 shirts) but it’s not as pressing as the big kids’ clothes. So thankful to have this task done and I was able to bless lots of friends and family with hand me downs!
3. Prep for Home Preschool
I got a few basic things printed for Mercedes to work on letter and number recognition. She is a rockstar with colors and shapes (how many three year olds know the word trapezoid?) but she has NO idea what her letters or numbers look like. So that’s my goal is to work with those. I think I’ll pick a letter and number each week to play games and read books about. I made some laminated alphabet sheets that we can use to trace letters as well as use with play-doh so that will provide some fun learning opportunities. I’ll definitely get the little guys in on this but I don’t expect them to catch on a whole lot. She’s excited to learn like her big brothers though!
4. Food Prep!
My freezer is so full! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this full in the ten years Micah and I have been married. Every Tuesday this month I shared a whole slew of foods I prepped for filling my freezer and pantry. Here are the links to week one, week two, week three, week four, and week five. Lots of great ideas to make meal prep a little smoother. We are even using several of the items for tonight’s dinner of Tater Tot Taco Bake. Now that the freezer is bursting I’m going to scale back to only making an item or two each month, depending on what we use up or what we want to have on hand.
Now on to September!
Goals for September
I jumped around between lots of ideas for my September focus. I have lots of ideas but I couldn’t quite settle on one theme until recently. My theme for September’s goals: Creativity.
God has given me an abundance of creative juices, or so I’ve been told and believe. I love being crafty and using my hands but it’s an easy hobby to set aside because other tasks (mothering, wife-ing, homemaking, etc) come first. I want to spend some time focusing on different creative ventures this month to really tap into this side of me.
1. Paint!
I’ve got a stack of unfinished canvases in my room waiting for me and I want to fill them up! I’m bursting with ideas so now I need to take some time to make them happen. Luckily Micah’s schedule is slowing down so it will be easier to find some down time and do this.
2. Wood sign for the boys’ room
Earlier this year we cleaned out the crawl space attached to the big boys’ room to turn it into a reading/play nook. We hung up LED lights with a remote control on the ceiling and I told them that I would make a sign for over the entrance that said “McGowen Cave” or something along those lines. Um… I still haven’t made it! I’ve got the wood, I’ve got the stain, I’ve got the paint. I need to make it happen.
3. Crochet new hats
Mercedes has asked for a Rainbow Dash hat for this winter and Cade and Anders need new hats as well. I had every intention of getting these done LONG before the cold weather arrived so I need to do them this month or it won’t happen! Luckily I have all the colors I need so instead of snacking at night when I’m on the couch I can keep my hands busy with yarn and a crochet hook.
4. Journaling
I mentioned this book in my first week or two of blogging and although I’ve read through a good portion of it I’ve yet to actually use it. Whoops! I want to try to journal once each week using one of the prompts. I want to do some writing that is only between me and God and that excites me.
What are your goals for this month? Do you consider yourself a creative person? What hobbies do you enjoy? Tell me in the comments!