After an August that basically just had STRESS written all over it, it was nice to have the feeling like things had at least *somewhat* settled down in September. We’re getting a lot more used to Matt’s work schedule, we’ve hit quite a good rhythm with homeschooling, and we made a lot of fun memories together as a family this month.
October is also the last month (or so we hope) of our “limbo” stage of housing, as we’re planning on closing on our new house on the 28th. We’re not planning on actually MOVING at the end of this month because we want to complete some work in the house before we move all our stuff in, so I’m going to try to kind of just enjoy this last month of living with and by our folks and not try to set *too* many goals for myself.
Here’s how last month shook out:
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September Goals
Start brainstorming my next 101 in 1001 list- I’ve come up with a lot of ideas I’m excited about (the projects list for our next house is HUGE, ha ha), and I can’t wait to finalize this and share it with you this month!
Plan something fun for our birthdays- This felt like a great year as far as birthdays go, maybe just because Matt was able to take the day off of work so that he could be here for mine at all (since he’s living away from us for over half the week to be closer to his work before the business moves down). Matt and I went on a date, we celebrated with the kiddos, both his parents and my mom and stepdad did special meals for us, my dad and stepmom sent us a surprise birthday package we weren’t expecting…it was a great week!
Go on day adventure- This one happened thanks to my mom (as do most of the fun things around here)—we ended up going up through a scenic canyon to go to a fun park to play with cousins, then we followed it up with a family meal out at Cracker Barrel. It almost felt like pre-pandemic times again (other than all the mask-wearing, obviously!).
Get a haircut- I love living so close to my favorite hairstylist! I always feel like I’ve lost five pounds every time she cuts my hair because she takes so much of the bulk out.
Spray paint jewelry box- Did this, and I LOVE it. (I did a little post on the before/after as well as my process HERE.)
- Finish The Age of Innocence and
Daring Greatly- One for two, but I have at least made progress in The Age of Innocence, so…maybe I’ll complete it before my 101 in 1001 deadline next week? We shall see. (Oh, and Daring Greatly was FABULOUS, and it also fulfilled a 101 in 1001 goal of reading five books recommended by these five different people.)
Finish the process of securing our online protection and financial identities after The Great Laptop Hack of August 2020- Yes, but in buying the Family ID Theft Protection, we discovered that one of my children’s social security numbers had been compromised (before all this hacking went down, coincidentally), which has meant yet MORE phone calls and paperwork. I guess the good news is that we did discover this now rather than in 15 or 20 years when they start applying for credit, but still…ugh. (And let this be your PSA to make sure you’re up to date on your computer’s security and your family ID security! Trust me, you don’t want this happening to you.)
- Call about van key
- I had found the paper with the number I needed to call, but then I lost it again. Rollover goal for October.
Give Raven’s hair a trim- This was my first time ever cutting/trimming anyone’s hair but my own (and even then, I’ve really only ever done my bangs), so I was a bit nervous. I think it looks pretty good, though! And I feel like it definitely helped her hair look a lot less straggly and a lot thicker and healthier.
- Start teaching piano to Raven
- I’m officially putting this off for the time being—it’s hard enough fitting in enough focused homeschooling every day, much less adding music on top of everything. Haven’t decided for sure when we’ll start this together, but it won’t be until at least the new year.
Send in homeschool affidavit- Done, and I’ve already received my exemption certificate back, so we’re all official and everything.
Other Successes:
- Registered to vote!
- Finally scheduled a dermatologist appointment to have a mole on my face checked out. (Everything looks A-okay, thankfully!)
- Finally got in to see a specialized massage therapist for my ongoing back issues, and we’re making definite progress. Fingers crossed that this will be the final key in the puzzle of Fixing My Back Injury from Two Years Ago.
- Applied for life insurance for me. (We’ve had it for Matt for years, but not for me since I quit my teaching job.)
October Goals
- Close on our new house!
- Our current plan is to close by the end of the month, and all systems are go as of now. Once our loan is finalized, we should be ready!
- Pick a moving date for November + book moving van
- The current plan as of now is to close on the house at the end of the month and then do some work over the next couple weeks before moving in (since it’s the kind of work that will be a TON easier without all of our stuff in the house). We’re also waiting for a more finalized timeline from Matt’s work so that we can coincide our own move with the business’s move as much as possible, so probably mid-November.
- Sell or figure out what to do with chicken coop
- So our new place already has a chicken coop and a large chicken run, so we are now left with the question of what to do with our massive Chicken Palace that Matt spent so many months building. Do we sell it? Do we give it away? Do we try and go through the nightmare of moving it again so we have two coops? The verdict is still out.
- Decide on paint colors, flooring, lighting for new house
- Since we were unable to go to Hawaii this year as planned, we’ve decided to use the money we’d saved up for that to make some updates to the house. We don’t know exactly how much of the paint/lighting/flooring we’ll be able to afford right now (we’ll have to see what kind of deals we can find), but we will for sure at least be doing a little of each on the main floor.
- Finish The Age of Innocence
- Eighth month’s the charm, right?
- Finish the 1,000 Book Challenge with Raven
- I set a goal to read 1,000 different books with Raven before my 101 in 1001 deadline of October 7th. I think we’re actually going to be able to hit it—we’re only about 20 books away!
- Do a Halloween craft with the kids
- I’m not into crafts, but my kids are (especially my oldest). I plan to make this a part of our homeschool lesson one day.
- Finalize next 101 in 1001 list and post about it
- I’m excited for this!
- Call about van key
- Rollover goal.
- Request updated car title
- Now that we’ve totally paid off our minivan, we need to get an updated title that reflects that we own it outright.
- Send in gym receipts to insurance to get reimbursed
- Our health insurance covers a gym membership—now I just need to actually send in my receipts.
- Finish editing the first three photo shoots of the fall photography season
- Fall photo season has officially started for my little part-time photography business, and my weekends are quickly filling up! My goal is to have the first three shoots totally done and sent off by the end of the month so that I’m in a good headspace for house-related stuff.
And that’s our October (or so we hope!). How are your plans looking? You planning on taking your kids trick-or-treating this year?
