Temperatures are starting to cool down here in the Bay Area, and we have had some stunning sunsets, in addition to the beautiful Supermoon! The kids are settling into school and we are finding a school-is-in-session rhythm for our days. I struggle – as I always do during the school year – with getting the kids practicing and helping around the house while still making time for free play and down time and the always-there-even-though-research-doesn’t-back-it-up homework. I did get some good decluttering done. I’ve been listening to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up on audible as I clean, which is very motivating even if the author recommends decluttering in silence or with mood music. When you are a trained musician, there no such thing as background mood music, anyway. I taught my kids how to fold their clothes the “correct” way and they love the way it looks in their drawers but now none of them want to fold laundry because it takes so long to fold them nicely.
As for other September goals, Lily’s quilt is partway cut out. I made the mistake when I bought the fabric of taking the very nice shop owner’s advice to save money by buying a little bit less. This did, as she suggested, mean I paid less and still had enough fabric – but now I BARELY had enough fabric. The quilt would have been cut out long before now if I had simply purchased the recommended amount so I wasn’t placing the curved-edge pieces *just so* in order to fit them within the yardage I bought. At least I still have enough fabric!
Neither one of my crochet projects is done – another goal fail. One is almost done, and the other is about 2/3 of the way done. I did make a list of foods for the kids’ lunch boxes, and I will be posting that sometime in October. So I met three out of five goals – not great, but not a disaster either.
Setting Goals for October 2015
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Here are my goals for October:
- Halloween costumes. We ordered fabric for the requested two pink cats, one fox, and one owl. Now it just needs to arrive and I need to sew them up. Character trait: helpful and curious
- Finish at least one crochet project. Hopefully both. Character trait: curious and kind
- Finish cutting out Lily’s quilt. Character trait:Â curious and thankful
- Teach my kids their Jingle Bells trio. My mom kindly arranged this song for them. Now I need to help them learn it. Character trait: curious and thankful
And I’m going to leave it at that. What are you hoping to accomplish this October?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Great goals! We are hoping to get through this month without losing sanity – it’s going to be crazy busy with various activities including A’s 9th birthday :)
I love that you set goals. I’m a bit more wishy washy with that but should be more definite about my intentions. I tend to float and amble a round a few at a time, sometimes successfully but often things only get half done!
I can’t wait to see your quilt!
I tend to get extra fabric for that “oops” moment, but that also means I have lots of fabric scraps that aren’t quite big enough for the project.
A patchwork quilt or a nice comfy patchwork pillow maybe with a pocket to put the remote in or a bed doll with a pajama pocket I think would be a great idea for Xmas presents and it would use up all that spare material :-)
We need to do Halloween costumes too! Forgot to add that to my list :)
These are always so inspirational. I think one of my goals for October might be to pin down what our actual goals are for the month – we have them, but in a gray fuzzy, back of the mind kind of way, not clearly articulated.
Looking forward to seeing those pink cats with their fox and owl friends! :) I think you could add the character trait ‘perseverance’ to the goal of having that quilt cut out. And yay for a Jingle Bells trio! That sounds like more than enough for October on top of school+homework.
I would like to mend a skirt, sell (hopefully) or give away some things that are just taking up space, and arrange for the handwriting practice my kids have been requesting.
I have a hard time doing decluttering and cleaning without music. I know she says to no, but I do! I will say my girls clean better without music though.
I need to do costumes as well. The girls want stuff I can’t get in stores. We shall see how it goes.
I also read Marie Kondo’s book and am in the middle of “the feast”! :) Quinn and Audrey happened to get a load of pretty (many) hand-me-downs from family and were all psyched to reorganize their closet folding everything the konmari way.:) I don’t do that with the music. Right now we have lots of motivation to go through our things because of the wave of refugees, also in our area!
Audrey will be baptized a week from Sunday!
Mary Anne, I hope you can enjoy the journey thismonth and guess what,I constantly don’t manage to do allI wish I could! I have been meaning to sew up a laundry bag for a missionary from our ward… for a year! I am determined to get it done tomorrow! We shall see! :)