To-Do List....September Update

Let's see how we did with September's To-Do List..........

SEPTEMBER

* Pay Bills  DONE  Paid in full

* Read 1, 2 Books  HALF DONE  I was on course to finish both books but I forgot to bring book #2 on the trip so didn't quite finish that one.

The book I did finish was this one........

I read Ms. Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees" last summer and liked it so when I saw this book at Ollie's I picked it up.  It is based on the life of Sarah Moore Grimké though not a straight up biography.  Ms. Kidd added a character(also based on fact but largely fictionalized)to build her tale.  
The book begins on Sarah's 11th birthday and she is given a slave of her own age as a gift.  This triggers something in Sarah and opens her eyes to the society and culture around her in Charleston, South Carolina of that time and her own sense of justice and morality.  The book then follows the intertwined lives of Sarah and her slave, Hetty, as well as Hetty's mother, as they grow and live in the years leading up to the War Between the States and beyond.

I felt a kinship to Sarah, as I too grew up in the South, not in the 1800's but in the 1960's, where I saw much injustice and inequality myself, in the society and in my own family.  I felt out of place and time among my family and those around me.  
I had a similar experience as Sarah, on my own 10th birthday, when I was not allowed by my parents to invite a classmate of mine to my birthday party, because she was black.  This triggered in me, like Sarah's birthday experience did in her, a consciousness and dissonance of the world around me.

I give this book 3 stars and it's worth a look.

* Clean House  DONE  While Kim may not agree with this we did get a LOT of cleaning done in the house. ;-)

* Move Some $  FAIL  I am still waiting on Hubs to sign off on moving some $. sigh

* Start Organizing Items to Sell  DONE  I've got items in tubs in the den and living room, awaiting weighing and then listing.  I still need to go through the diaper packs I have left and list those in the local site.  I'll go live with listings later in October.

* Purge Q Inserts  DONE  Got the coupon inserts whittled down to what hasn't expired yet.  Go me! ;-)  I also purged my coupon pencil case while on the trip.

* Get Rid of Landline  FAIL  Hubs doesn't feel comfortable yet with ditching the landline.  I told him to at least get rid of the long distance component but he's not done anything yet. sigh.

* Hold Giveaway  DONE  Not only did I hold 1 Giveaway but I threw caution to the wind and held TWO Giveaways in September.  Just call me a wild and crazy slug......

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  Everything got mailed and received while I was away. rah.

* Put Garden to Bed  FAIL  I got most of the garden cleaned up but ran out of time before we left for New England.  I figured I'd come home to everything still out there being dead and such but it's been unusually warm here while we were away(and still now that I am back)and some plants are still hanging in there(I've even got two teeny tiny Japanese eggplants growing again!).  The garden will definitely get finished up and put to bed in October.

* Finish Trip Plans  DONE  One last minute motel changed but all the plans got finished and mostly came to fruition.

* Pack for Trip  DONE  I forgot 2 things(1 meds, 1 book)but other than that the packing was great.  Too bad we didn't have room in the car for more Diet Coke and water bottles.  8-)))

* Go on Trip  DONE  We survived 10 days with Kim(just barely). hehehe

Too bad this harpoon cannon wasn't loaded or I could have taken Kim out before she beat me at finding change on the ground during this trip.  Arrrrrgh!


How did you do on your September goals?


Sluggy

September To-Do List......Update

Here's the update on my September To-Do List.  I post a To-Do list on the side bar of my blog's homepage every month.
Let's see how ol' Sluggy did this month on her list, shall we? ;-)

This Update has to be reconstsructed as I blew away my To-Do List before copying it to post my October list. sigh
I hope I remember most of it.

* Pay Bills  DONE  
Everything got paid and on time, as per usual.

* Bike Something  FAIL  
Well I did do 4 mile. lolz  Must get back on this in October.

* Read 2 Books  DONE
Finished the first book, "Growing Up" by Russell Baker, then Lena Dunham's "Not That Kind of Girl" second and resumed a biography of Katherine Anne Porter by Joy Givner(which is slow going and massive in length).

* Pick Produce and Use it  DONE  We hit 39.775 lbs. of tomatoes picked and used by September, among them this interesting little fellow. lol

I've frozen all the tomatoes we haven't eaten fresh or used in the relish making.
Since I didn't get a massive amount of tomatoes to can I've been putting them whole into the freezer........

This is a super great way to keep them for the short term until you are ready to use them.
Don't boil and peel, just pop them after cleaning off into the freezer.
Then you take them out to thaw when you have enough to make sauce or use in a recipe.  When they have thawed they slip easily out of their skins, just squeeze them out. You might have to cut the core out with a small knife after squeezing but it beats heating water and your kitchen up, boiling them to skin them.  Less energy used if you have the freezer space to park them for awhile.  8-)

* Get Farm Veggies  DONE  I even ended up picking most of the peppers myself when I stumbled onto a PYO farm down the road from the Farm Stand I go to.

* Can Produce/Make Relish  DONE

5 quarts and 18 pints done!  I had picked so many peppers I could have made/canned another batch(if not another double batch).  This is just too much work to do alone anymore so I don't know if/when I'll make relish again.  Next year I do want to get to that PYO farm in time to pick tomatoes to put up.

* 1 Doctor's Appointment  DONE
Went to a medical nutritionist type educator as directed by my new dr.  Diet changes will be ensuing shortly.

* Go to Family Reunion  DONE
Yep, we went and came home.  The weather was good and as a bonus I got to spend time with my oldest son too.  Win/Win!  We are finished traveling in 2016 now.  Hubs has time off in October but between things going on plus money issues(I just can't see spending any more on travel this year with our increased expenses this year).  We may go on a few day trips in October and there may be a quickie during the Holidays to Virginia but that is it for the year.

*  List items on eBay FAIL
I didn't get around to doing this yet.  If it's going to happen it must happen in October to catch the Holiday Selling Season as most of what I have left to unload is new in the package merchandise.

* Shred Papers  FAIL
I just didn't get the time to drag out the shredding and do this.  Mostly because the pile of shredding isn't very large yet so why drag all that out and do it? lolz

* Sew Something  FAIL
Nope didn't have the urge to sew in August.  Perhaps September will see me pull out the supplies and have a go at making a shirt.  I really need to.....

4 items I didn't get to.  It was another low energy month for me(plus it was still hot here which is unusual)plus I've been fighting a touch of depression which I always seem to catch this time of year.

Onward and upward to October!  I am still compiling a To-Do List for this month so it may grow a bit longer as we go through October.

How did you do with your To-Do list for September?

Sluggy