Less Stuff Frees Up Your Life

I just wanted to share this video......

Sluggy

September To-Do List Update

SEPTEMBER

* Pay Bills  DONE  Everything got paid on time and no interest fees were accessed.  Go me.  Nothing fancy here, rather boring. blah blah blah

* Read 1,2 Books  DONE

The first book, "Doc" by Mary Doria Russell was very interesting.  It was a psuedo-biography of John Henry "Doc" Holiday.  Basically it followed Doc Holiday from his childhood in Georgia(as a series of flashbacks)up to his life lived in Dodge, Kansas and the people he knew both unknown and famous.  After his time in Dodge he moved to Tombstone Arizona as became embroiled in the notorious shoot-out at the OK Corral there, which is how most of the world remembers or knows him.  Doc knew some famous folks....the Earp Brothers, the Masterson Brothers as well as early entertainer and vaudevillian Eddie Foy.  One of the most interesting people Doc knew in real life was his on again/off again longtime companion/ common-law wife, Mary Katherine Horony, known to the world as "Big Nose Kate".  You can read about her HERE.
This book was very entertaining and informative and "meaty".  Very highly recommended for those of you who like American history and a good story.

This is a book that Kim leant me when I was visiting her in Idaho called "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop.  It's about a woman born into the FLDS(Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints sect), who married within that group and had children with her polygamist huusband, before realizing this wasn't the life she wanted for herself or her children and found a way to get them all out once Warren Jeffs came to power.
It was a real page turner and a harrowing(at times)account of her life.  Very sad but uplifting, she is a strong woman of faith.

* Repair LA House  DONE  The work finally was finished and we paid.  Now we just have to get this thing sold. ugh.

* Can Veggies  FAIL  Well not my fault really why I didn't get to this.  The tomatoes at the farm were ready the weekend we needed to go down to help Eldest in VA.  So no canning or relish making this Fall for me.  At least all my jars are gathered and ready to go once the harvest comes around next year.

* Declutter Spare Room  DONE  Hubs got his room organized, we got rid of 4 boxes of books plus I decluttered the hallway book shelf too.

* Donation to Sallie's  DONE  The 4 boxes of books mentioned above went bye-bye!

More stuff is slated to be donated as we clean out the garage in October.

* Paint Porch Posts  DONE

Hubs did this all by himself without my assistance.  Looks much better as they were in need of repainting.

* Seal Coat Driveway  DONE  Though we didn't do this ourselves, we arranged to have it done and paid for it.  The driveway is now good to go for another 3 years.

* Smoke Meats for Freezer  DONE

Three pork shoulders/butts were bought(at a discount of course)and I got them smoked last Friday.  Then into the crock pots and cooked down oovernight Saturday/Sunday and "pulled" when cooled off.  I ended up with 7+ quarts of meat.  6 of those went into the freezer(pictured above)-2 quart freezer bags inside a gallon freezer bag each.  Now when we get the "yen" for bbq this Winter all I have to do is thaw a bag out and whip up my famous Carolina vinegar sauce and simmer the meat in that and we be eatin' fine! 8-)

* Clean and Seal Deck  DONE   Though my contribution to this project was minimal the dog and I supervised Hubs and thanks to some stellar weather conditions it got done quickly and thoroughly.  Now the deck will be protected through another severe Northeastern PA Winter season.

* Put Garden to Bed  DONE  The garden(including my beautiful morning glories)had to be pulled up and the garden bed turned over and readied for Winter before the deck could be sealed.
I miss my morning glory vines......

* Clean Garage  FAIL  We ran out of time and energy(and enough good weather)to get this project even started in September.  This chore has moved to October's list and we have started in on the job as of Oct. 2nd.  Stay tuned for updates this month.

* Sell Stuff  DONE  I got on the stick and sold $89 worth of toiletries in September.

* Sew Stuff  DONE  I hemmed two pairs of jeans for Hubs and I started in on completing a shirt for myself that has been sitting around for ages.  Didn't get to as much as I wanted to sew but a start was made and I'll try to keep it going in October.

* Hold Giveaway  DONE  I got a giveaway up in September, drew a winner, mailed the box of goodies and said winner is happily enjoying them now(especially the tweezers it seems!lol).

* Pick Winner  DONE

* Mail Giveaway Prizes  DONE

* Go to Virginia  DONE  Life events necessitated that we travel down to visit Eldest son and lend him support and a hand in getting a few things accomplished.
We brought down 4 boxes of his "stuff" to him now that he has room for it in his apartment.  

It was fun watching him go through his junk, including old keepsakes from his childhood, and all those papers I saved from his early school years.

Though I can be a sentimental old sot I no longer feel the need to hold onto all this junk and every paper he colored on in pre-school and old birthday cards, etc.

Eldest is about as far away from being sentimental about all this stuff so we took a few photos and he pitched most of it in the garbage.(Don't look Val!)

I did however rescue a small token to keep.............

So all in all a good month for getting things done with only one major job not started in September.

I must say that one of the perks of having Hubs retired I am realizing is that not only is he home and has time to do all those little(and big)jobs I have wanted him to do around the house but he now takes his time on them(what else does he have to do since he isn't rushing off to work, right?)and tries to do a much more thorough job of it, rather than half-assing it and then me trying to fix it or complain about it. lolz

That's one of the great perks of having a retired spouse.
I knew there had to be a perk somewhere......hehehehe

So did you get your September chores accomplished?
Tell us all about it. 8-)

Sluggy

How the 2012 Goals Turned Out....

Readers might remember that I set up a List of personal Hopes/Goals for 2012 back in January.
This post is my End of the Year Check-In for my list and to see how I did(or didn't do) on the Goals I set out to accomplish 12 months ago.

Sluggy's Personal List of Goals for 2012

1.  Get all the tax and college Paperwork completed and filed by the end of February.
PASS....one of the few things I can totally cross off the list until next year...which starts in less than a WEEK.  LOLOL

2.  Convert all my vinyl LPs to CDs and purge the LPs from my life.
FAIL on the record digitizing.
Six months into the year, I changed that Goal to Digitizing all my photographs, since I purchased a handheld scanner with a gift card I received for Christmas in 2011.  I have stacks of scrapbooks from my mother plus a stack of scrapbooks from when my kids were small to digitize.  In the last 6 months I scanned 2 whole books worth of photos.  I am VERY far behind but I "AM" working on this project.  I didn't realize it was such a large project and I misjudged the amount of time involved.  
This "new" Goal goes onto the list of Projects for 2013.

3.  Continue to Declutter everywhere.  Finish the garage and move what's in the living room into the garage so that the house is 100% done by April.  Be out of the storage unit by December.
FAIL--well, the house is NOT 100% done yet so that's a fail.   
I have continued to declutter in 2012 but it hasn't been nearly what I did in 2011 and it's not done yet.  I didn't reopen the eBay store until November, so I didn't sell off all the sellable items yet.  I still have things in the storage unit.  
I need to throw this Goal onto 2013 as well.

4.  Complete 4 house projects in 2012.  2 inside/2 outside
FAIL.  Projects identified and the cash is there, but we haven't pulled the trigger yet on any of them.  I need to sit down with Hubs and set up a step-by-step process for getting these projects done in 2013.

5.  Read 20 books this year.
FAIL.  I read 6 books.  Most years I read much more.  I just wasn't feeling it in 2012.

6.  Rework the stockpile.  Make it healthier and more compact.
PASS.  I reorganized and thinned it twice in 2012.  I loaded up Oldest son Thursday evening with stockpile items to take back to school and I'll make a pass through the stockpile on Sunday again and glean some more items to give to the B-I-L.  

7.  Finish up the eBay sales by May.
FAIL  
I shut down eBay before Christmas 2011 and didn't do any eBay sales this year until November.  I will sell for 3 more months(Jan-Mar. 2013) and then shut it down for good.

8.  Get the sewing going again.  Go through projects in-progress and alterations pile and get rid of stuff.  Sew clothes for myself for a change!
FAIL
I did nothing except hems some pants for Hubs and daughter, and finish some pj pants for daughter. 

9.  Get the Etsy Store up and running. 
FAIL
Just didn't get to that one at all.


10.  Spend more time with family, especially Hubs.
PASS  Have taken a couple of vacations with Hubs alone in 2012.  Have tried to spend time with the kids with mixed results.  Oldest has been home a total of 9 days in 2012.  Daughter moved home in May so we've been working on our relationship and I think it is better.  Youngest tries to spend as little time as possible with us, since he's almost 17. lol

I need to face the fact that our "kids" are now past the ages of doing things together as a family.  Oldest moved out basically when he left for college in 2009 and has only come home for brief visits since.  Summers he spent living/working at summer camp so he wasn't home when school ended for the year.  Daughter is living at home this school year but is wanting to move out into an apartment as soon as it's feasible.  At least she'll be nearby.  #2 Son is busy with school, band, driving, trying to get a 'real' job and his girlfriend so he's about to fly from the nest too.

11.  Lose 40 lbs...there, I said it!  Now I have to do it!!
FAIL.  I lost 7 lbs.  At least I didn't gain.....ugh.  I need to get more serious with this one in 2013.


12.  Continue the Savings Challenge with a goal of $20K for 2012.
PASS.  We hit the goal and then some!  We have $26,000.00+ saved right now and I haven't added in December's money yet.

13.  Continue to be Frugal whenever possible and live well below our means!
PASS.  We spend way below our means each month generally.  In a bad/expensive month, we still spend less than we make, though sometimes with not a lot of room to spare.
I know we could have been more frugal sometimes, but I'm happy with our general level of frugality.

14.  Take at least 1 REAL vacation and ENJOY IT!
PASS.  Hubs and I took 2 short vacations.  They were short, but not jam packed and we just did what we felt like doing at the moment.  They were low stress trips.

So, in the end, 2012 was a real mixed bag of result for me.
I Failed more than I Passed this year.......an 8 to 6 ratio.

 I was just not as ambitious as I thought I'd be and bit off more than I could finish.  
As I look ahead to my Goals for 2013 this weekend, I'll mull over how realistic my expectations were in 2012.

 How did you do on your Goals for the 2012?
Sluggy