Monthly Goals: November, 2019

Our front yard as of yesterday.  We haven't gotten buried in snow yet, thank goodness, as there is still so much to do around here.  Not trying to brag or anything to those poor souls down South that have been getting buried in snow the last month...just grateful we aren't in that camp yet.

Right, first, I know the Frugal Friday/Savings post for the last bit is missing around here, but I'm just going to skip it until this Friday and try to get back onto a regular blogging schedule instead of doing the whole "skip two weeks and play catch up" thing I've been having to do since the earthquake pretty much.

I would have at least posted up an update the last couple of weeks, but the daughter and I sat down and discussed school schedules and she really wanted to take Halloween and the day after off from schoolwork, so I made a deal that if we worked through the previous weekend and worked ahead she could have those two days off.  And she did wonderfully, even going so far as to get an additional day of math done on top of it so she could have a relatively light day yesterday when we "started back to school".

This actually ended up being a Godsend for me as I woke up early last week with my mouth swelling up.  I, at first, thought it was an allergic reaction to something in the air, but after many doses of Benadryl and showers and everything it didn't go away and actually seemed to be getting worse, so off to the doctor's I went praying it wasn't an undiagnosed food allergy.  Turns out I have a staph infection.  Oddly enough I didn't feel bad, with the exception of the mouth of course, until I started the antibiotics.  They are working, but the infection keeps trying to pop up on different areas of my face (which the salve they gave me seems to keep that from becoming a problem).  The antibiotics have also given me a constant headache since I started taking them (which I guess is a common side effect from what the nurse was telling me) and I'm bone dead tired to the point that I've cancelled appointments, leaned on my husband heavily to get the kids from point A to point B for different activities and things and have thanked the good Lord many times that I have a pressure cooker so I only have to stand for limited periods of time to get dinner started before I can sit back down again. 

The nurse, when I called concerned late last week, warned me that staph can be a real pain to get rid of so be prepared to have to do more than one bout of antibiotics if I am not feeling well by day 9 out of 10 on the antibiotics.  I'm not there yet, so I'm praying that the first round of antibiotics kills it and I can start to feel better.

But, yeah, blogging hasn't been in the cards the last couple of weeks, unfortunately.

So, basically that's been my life the last couple of weeks or so.  I'll update a bunch more, hopefully, this Friday and get it all up to speed 100%, but in the meantime let's talk about monthly goals.

I've been in a constant state of taking one thing at a time since the earthquake.  Making lists and things would just completely overwhelm the husband and I both as we realized how much there was yet to do and it seemed like more and more would get added to the list and not much would be taken off.  But, since homeschooling started, I've found myself needing to do lists again or everything just gets behind because I'm a creature that needs to stay organized or things go to chaos too fast.  So, list writing begins anew!

I have a lot of varied things to do this month and it's all things I NEED to do, or in some cases get started on at least, or things will get really complicated in a bad way by the end of the month, so let's get to it!

Monthly Goals:  November, 2019


Repair/Rebuild Goals:

1.  At least START to repair various cracks and things in the master bedroom to get it ready to paint (I decided I am going to at least finish the downstairs and then move onto the upstairs...it's better than the random room repair and repainting I seem to have been doing up to this point. 

2.  Pay for bathroom vanity cabinets (they are on order now) and see if there is an ETA for the cabinets so the husband and I can figure out demolishing out what is left of the old cabinets. 

3.  Shop for new bathroom sinks for when the new cabinets come in.  Pick up more painter's tape. 

4.  Put den back together as much as possible.  Use old sewing cabinet, for now, to hold books that were removed from the bookcases to free up space and gets things a bit more usable in den (making shelves is on the husband's to do list, but he wants to do it right, so it's been slow going as he plans things).  Set up new printer for schoolwork and insurance renewal paperwork needs. 

Finish demolishing old love seat and demolish old couch (this is going very slowly as I've been doing it on my own due to my husband's schedule and things, but I'm getting there ever so slowly).  Set up new chairs.  Use some stuffing from old couch to make new throw pillows for chairs and upstairs love seat (I found that the fill for the love seat upstairs was actually really clean in places, so I'm thinking of reusing the fill from the couch if it is just as clean).  

5.  Set up multi-media shelves in living room to house some of the videos that are currently in boxes (I bought the shelves a while ago and have finally decided to set them up in the living room where they won't impact painting...I hope).

6.  Try and repair the retaining wall for the driveway before the snow flies and covers the stones (trying to avoid the husband taking out the snow blower on a huge stone or something that he can't see).  I'm going to try and get some help with this as my husband can't do it alone and I'm not sure what I will be up to doing.

Winter Preparation Goals:

1.  Take stock of pantry.  See if any holes need yet to be filled in the food storage department.   

2.  Start sauerkraut to ferment (I have the cabbage in the fridge and am hoping to do that this week). 

3.  Take stock of what is needed for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals so that I can pick those up ahead of time (before they are out of stock).  I THINK I'm pretty good on Thanksgiving at this point as I've been picking up things slowly the last few months, but I need to double check and see what I might still need. 

4.  Pick up a few cases of canned peaches (if I can ever get the energy to go to the bulk store and pick them up). 

5.  Get tires changed over on husband's car (done last Friday, so yay for that).

Christmas Prep Goals:

1.  Find a good spot to set up sewing machine to get ready to make Christmas gifts next month (I'm planning on keeping it simple with how our schedules are going, but I do have a list of things I want to make for the husband and kids if no one else).  Make sure sewing machine is oiled and ready to work. 

2.  Shop around for a new Christmas tree (I had to move the tree too many times since the earthquake and pieces are just falling off of it now...or should I say falling out of the box like crazy...my husband and I looked at it, decided it wasn't worth the cost to repair it and are just going to find a new one...the kids will enjoy helping, I know, as Alvah has really gotten into the Christmas holiday the last few years, so hopefully we can at least have fun doing it).

General Goals:

1.  Schedule daughter for full dyslexia testing (she took the preliminary testing and definitely needs the full test done, so I am trying to get referrals and things figured out for the next steps). 

2.  Start kids on the "Christmas Around the World" unit that I put together after Thanksgiving (I think this is going to be a lot of fun for both kids :).  Do some Colonial crafts and history leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday. 

3.  Defrost the bananas I put into the freezer when I got sick and make banana bread out of them (thank goodness I thought to do that before they went bad).  Make cranberry orange muffins to go with them for breakfast fare (hopefully I can do this soon as I want to make sure to keep up with the feeding therapy as we are making progress...slow progress, but progress!).

So, yeah, there's a lot to do this month yet, so hopefully I can get it all done :).  How about you?  Got things you need to get done this month?