Monthly Goals: October 2016

This month's goals were actually kind of hard for me to sort out.  Normally, this time of year is a whirlwind of activity for me.  I'm usually getting ready for dividends to come in and preparing for the one huge grocery trip of the year where we would go and buy food for the pantry and freezers and get the majority of the Christmas shopping done for the kids.  This year, oddly enough, most of that is done.  When it came to Christmas, I knew not to have too many expectations this year.  Between us being super tight on money and then my extended family having problems of their own with money, I was figuring if I could clear "S Man" gifts I could make everything else and it would be fine.  And so far, so good.  I've gotten a gift here or there on Amazon with gift cards I've had for under the tree and picked up a few small things here or there on clearance (like I found a "knobby" type of therapy ball for my son on clearance at the store for .38 after all discounts were taken).  I've also had some gifts fall in my lap, usually through the generosity of others (thank you), so I put those aside to add to the Christmas gifts I bought.  I figure if worse comes to worse the "S" man gifts are bought, so that is the most important thing.  Luckily, my kids are actually pretty easy to please, so that helps :).

It's kind of depressing in a way that no food will be bought with dividends this year as the kids usually enjoy the "wow" shopping trip for the year, but I feel good about not having a huge grocery bill staring me in the face either *laugh*.  The pantry right now is sitting pretty good, which is a good feeling for sure.

The funniest part is that part of me doesn't know what to do with myself this month.  Normally this month not only am I preparing for shopping, but then I'm ripping apart the pantry and freezers to find the room I need to put said food and also this time of year is usually when I spend part of dividends to buy things like apples to process and put up food for winter.  Thankfully, with all the reduced produce I've found throughout the year and canned, I don't need to do that this year either.  So, instead of running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, I'm sitting there going, "Wow.  It's done already.  What do I do now?"

So, after much thought, I decided this would be a good month to just start really focusing on Christmas gifts and getting some other projects done (including a Halloween costume for my daughter).  So, here are this month's goals!

Sewing Goals:

• Sew Halloween costume for daughter
• Work on Christmas gifts
• Work on mending
• Make son his weighted hat (I've been messing around trying to make him a weighted baseball cap, but haven't found the right thing to weight the hat with that would weigh enough.  My husband thinks he's got a good idea, so now it's trying to find said thing to put in said hat :).

Cleaning/Organizing Goals:

• Get hallway closet gutted, supported better, reorganized and put back together.
• Clean walls in children's rooms (getting there on getting them cleaned to that point)
• Move daughter's dresser into closet and reorganize room to hopefully work better.
• Continue to recover the house from being down and out with the shoulder and then implement a cleaning schedule once done completely.

General Goals:

• Get winter tires on car (hopefully I can order those today and just get them on tomorrow or Friday)
• Get daughter through orthodontist check up (done yesterday.  It went fine :).
• Get children their flu vaccinations (my son gets the flu for 21 days if he gets it, so we make sure we get this done every year period now).
• Get flu vaccinations done for myself and husband
• Get through yearly physical (here's hoping we have money for this).
• Get son through third "long wait" allergy shot.
• Have a safe and fun Halloween for the kiddos
• Pay bills and be able to do so without deep hurting (I can hope anyway).

So, there you go folks.  Some of my goals for the month.  How about you?  What are you up to this month?