To-Do List.....March Update

Let's see how March's To-Do List turned out.........

* Pay Bills  DONE  Everything paid early or on time and money leftover this month. yay

* Read 1,2,3,4 Books  DONE  Even before we got the stay home order in PA I was on fire reading.  Ok, one of the books was a lightweight but still....

I read this one...

"Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan
This is a novel, a partially historical novel about Mamah Bosworth Cheney, the mistress of Frank Loyd Wright and their life together.  It was well done and reminded me of "Twain's End" and "Hanging Mary", two other historical fiction books I've read.  5 thumbs up.

Then I read this.....

"It's All Relative:Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree" by A.J. Jacobs
This is a genealogy related book so someone into this subject will find some of it interesting.
I found it a very quick read and a little too lightweight and full of general knowledge with a humorous tone.  2 thumbs up.

Third was this one......

"Papillon" by Henri Charrière
This is the autobiography book from 1969, that was made into a major film in 1973 with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman and was remade in 2017 starring Rami Malek and Charlie Hunnam.
It's about a safe cracker from Paris who was wrongly convicted of killing a pimp in 1931 and sentenced to life in the French Guiana penal colony (called "Devil's Island" in English)through 1945 and his numerous attempts to escape.
It's an amazing book, especially since the writer was not a writer per se.  It will keep you interested and you won't be able to put it down, especially if you haven't seen either movie.
I now need to see these movies to see if they live up to this man's book.  5 thumbs up!!!

Fourth was this.......

"The Birth of Loud:Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Guitar Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock N' Roll" by Ian S. Port

I picked this up on a whim at Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)and thought at least Ex-College Boy being the family musician may enjoy it but I gave it a read first.  I was never a guitar gal but I did grow up during the revolutionary period of 1960's rock n' roll so it intrigued me.  It filled in some history about this era in music and I learned a lot about Leo Fender and Les Paul(and Mary Ford too).  4 thumbs up.


* Manage Money (CD)  DONE  We had a CD mature the beginning of March.  If we left it at the financial institution it was with they had a 13 month CD that gave an extra .05% in interest(not that the current rates are anywhere what they were when we set this CD up in 2019).  Plus if we kept the money with this bank we got an extra .05% in interest at maturity making the bonus .10% extra. whoopee 

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  and received.

* Make Face Masks  DONE 
I made myself a mask and one each for my 2 sons.

I also made this one with some "Night of the Walking Dead" fabric I had bought to make shorts to match a t-shirt I bought Ex-College Boy(but he isn't into NOTWD anymore).....

* Bathe Dogs  DONE  Both pups got bathes in March(Dixie got more than one as she is stinkier).lolz

* Take Load to Food Bank  PASS  Ok, I didn't get the food to the Food Bank in March.  I called twice and left messages and they never got back to me in March.  I am not sure if they are accepting food donations with the pandemic or just money.

* List Items on eBay  FAIL  Thought I did sell 1 item in early March I just haven't been motivated to list anything else.  Now with money being tight with so many losing jobs temporarily I just don't feel right selling non-essentials even if someone is nuts enough to buy them.  I don't make my living off of eBay so I'd rather not put anything for sale on there now.  I can wait.  ;-)

* Cash Savings Bond  DONE  I had Hubs cash the bond before our bank closed it's lobby for the duration(now it's only drive-thru tellers).  I've added the proceeds to all the other cashed/matured Savings Bonds.  We really need to dump this stash into a CD or something but with rates in the toilet right now, we'll wait a bit longer.  It's not life-changing to not have this $$ invested right now.

* Hem Hubs' Shirts  PASS  I did work on this sewing project but I didn't have Hubs full cooperation in March so nothing much gone accomplished.  I needed him to try every. last. shirt. on. to mark them all. ugh

* Plan/Goals for 2020  FAIL  A big Fat Fail on planning anything for 2020.  I had some ideas but everything/all the world is on hold right now so we are at a standstill on plans for 2020.
I'll mention what I need to do once it's safe to resume life as normal......
*Go to VA to work on legal stuff with brother(and visit eldest son too)
*Go somewhere on vacation(it's looking like Fall now)
*Get painting in house done(have to wait to hire someone)

So that's where we are at going into April.
How was your March?
Did you get anything accomplished?

Sluggy

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

Well I Got Something Done!

I paid the bills and mailed them Saturday.....and then a new bill came in.
Besides that one, I am still waiting on a phone bill and the electric bill and then all Jan.'s bills are in the books, as they say.

My Daughter also made her loan payment to us 4 days early this month.
I like to see promptness like that.  8-)

College Boy left to go back to school on Sunday.
Of course he promptly forgot to call me when they got there and the weather got bad and sleety so I was worried.
So I called him and he called back and said everything was "cool".
Kids..........

And now I can walk around the house nekkid again if I wanna.
I know, TMI....... ;-)

All the Christmas paraphenlia got put away as well on Sunday.

Today I've been working on tax stuff.  (Cover your eyes if you don't want to see anything having to do with taxes yet.)

I've been working on my income from online sales and blogging revenue this afternoon.
I am due another check from Google for blogging so I'm waiting to see if they put this bit under 2014 or 2015.  It should be under 2014 but waiting to see how they mark it down in their books to see how/when I report this.

I have all the eBay(1 item), Etsy(105 fabrics)and Amazon(1 book)Sales figures finished.
All these online sales netted me a profit of $626.73 after all fees and costs of goods sold were figured in.

So far the Blogging Revenue is at $209.68 for the year.
At the end of December I had another $118.94 earned that hasn't been paid out yet so the blogging money could be $328.62 when all is said and done for 2014.
Heck that means I almost broke $1K in side income last year.
I will TRY not to spend it all in one place..........lolz

Well I am off to water my magnolia bush and go put my feet up and think about the year ahead and what I need/want to get done in 2015.

Sluggy