Weekly Check-in #21

This week held so much for us! DH (Darling Husband) was off work, but he was busy with his side hustle, so it was almost like he wasn't here. 

Blog more.

Five months in, and I am still blogging. That's a decent accomplishment these days. 

Keep the food budget to $400 per month.

I haven't reached this goal yet. I think I may make $500, but this month has had a few extra things, like a birthday with a special cake to make and 3 gallons of strawberries. Special items increase the budget. I do think some helpful things are: buy staples and stock up when you can, eat rotating meals, plan ahead a LOT, don't purchase specialty items (unless on sale!), and grow what you can/eat seasonally. I don't think there's anything revolutionary in that advice. 

I will say I think making things that you might ordinarily buy saves money. I have run out of baking mix and can't find the cheap version at Aldi. It can be made, and I have flour on hand. The hardest part is storing it. I have (somewhere) a metal bowl with a lid. I will also be making strawberry syrup, strawberry soup (strawberries with sugar), and strawberry lemonade concentrate.

Start a garden.

Now I have to tend this one. It's in the maintenance phase. I got more tomato plants, since some of the first ones didn't make it. 

The spigot got fixed! It was more than I hoped to spend, but it's done.

Pay more attention to my health.

Since coming off my medication, I have a lot more energy, which means I am much more active. Being active decreases my weight (in theory - not so much in practice), and also lowers my blood pressure.  

Read 50 new books this year.

I have been really busy with the house, so reading time has been pushed back a bit. I picked up another book though, and it's not quite what I expected but I think it's better. 

How to Use a Planner Without Wasting Time, Mystie Winckler 

Poor Richard, James Daugherty

The Empowered Wife, Laura Doyle

Fortress of the Lost Amulet, Michael Webb

Different, Sally Clarkson

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

The Convivial Homeschool, Mystie Winckler

The Out-of-Sync Child, Carol Stock Kranowitz

How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind, Dana K. White

The Nemechek Protocol, Patrick Nemechek 

Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood, Danny Trejo

The Magnolia Table, Joanna Gaines

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

Legend of the Golden City, Michael Webb

I pulled another book from my list, in a category I haven't started yet. Now that the birthday party is over, my routine can get back to normal.

Declutter our home and make it hospitable.

There was SO much progress made this week. While cleaning the dining room, I found another box for the kitchen. I also found painting supplies! I borrowed a roller frame from a friend (the one thing that was missing), and now I can paint the front bathroom. I have also decided to paint the kitchen. It's a yellow with red trim, and the kids call it a "hot dog" kitchen. Not my thing, but I have enough white paint from the ceilings that I can do the bathroom and the kitchen. I also found the EXACT color I wanted for the bathroom, and I think there will be enough. 

I found I need to mulch again. Fortunately, that's a $0 project, as I have some bags leftover from when we did them the first time. All I need to do is load the wheelbarrow and distribute it.

There is a place where I want to make a path with tiles or stone. It has been worn over time, and gets muddy when it rains. I would really like to use some pea gravel and stone tiles, if I can find them free or cheap. It's not a huge area, and it can wait until the right time. The driveway also needs to be fixed. It's gravel, and there are some holes that have developed. I think most of that will be a shovel and tamper to pack it down.  

While it feels very frustrating most days to have so much stuff to go through, one of the beautiful blessings of that is finding things that are really useful to you. What we can't use, we pass on, especially when we have duplicates. 

Complete 12 craft projects in progress.

My Saoirse is still in progress. I work on it at night, and still hope to have it done soon. I need to iron some material and make curtains for the pantry/laundry room. I hope to get through several things this fall, after I make my craft space.   

It's been a good week, although I don't know that I made a lot of progress on any particular goal. Sometimes the small steps make the biggest impact though, and it's more about being consistent than giant leaps. God is using these goals to teach me consistency. What are you learning?