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The Week in Review: Weeks 40 & 41, 2018

16 Tuesday Oct 2018

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Because turkeys mean fall.

Clearly I missed some posts last week.  On the other hand, I feel like I got a lot accomplished, not necessarily all of which will be reflected here.

In kids sports:

  • The middle four had swimming lessons each week.
  • By a mix of schedule and weather, our oldest only had four baseball practices.
  • We totaled four soccer practices and seven soccer games.
  • Our youngest went to two gymnastics classes.

Soccer has now moved to it’s “Under the Lights” late fall stage so all soccer practices for us are 7:00-8:30 pm.  This provides a whole new level of dinner complexity, but will only last a few weeks.

Other happenings:

  • Collectively we had two doctor’s appointments.
  • I attended another Back to School Night.  There’s one more next week.
  • I went to a friend’s for dinner which was a nice variation from normal.
  • We had a few play dates among the younger five kids.
  • The kids had a day off from school.
  • As a result of the day off there was only one math morning.
  • The youngest had visiting day and her first day of school.
  • We had visitors over the weekend.
  • One child attended a birthday party.

The big bout of productivity came in the continued cleaning out.  I finished putting away all of the sale items.  As part of that process I separated out items to donate to various charities.  Those items still need to be sorted and actually donated.  I also listed a number of items on online yard sales with much success.

Sold:

  • Two pairs of women’s pants
  • One Halloween costume
  • Two pairs of hockey gloves
  • One pair of hockey elbow pads
  • One pair of hockey socks
  • Two travel booster seats

I also returned a shirt and gave away an infant tub and infant car seat.  And yet, the clean out continues.

Fall 2018 Freezer/Pantry Challenge

13 Thursday Sep 2018

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So last year I did both freezer and pantry challenges and updated you throughout the year on how both were going.  Thankfully, I have many fewer items this year that need using up (although some readers will notice a few things on the list again) so I’m putting the lists together.  Also, since I have next to no proteins on the list, I’m hoping/planning to move through these things faster.

Most everything this year is in the freezer so the pantry list is really short:

  • Coconut oil: I bought this originally to make granola which I haven’t made in the last year so we’ll see where this goes.
  • Veggie straws: I have one bag left over from summer when we take these to the pool.  I opened it today to send some into school for snacks.  Only two kids eat them.  Sticking to Thursdays (which are they best day to send these as snacks so they don’t get crushed), it will take me a few weeks to finish off the bag.
  • Bag of mixed nuts:  I think I’m just going to have to open this and break out the nutcrackers come holiday season.  They have not expired.

That’s it there!

The freezer list is a little longer, though not nearly as bad as last year.  Clearly not everything in the above pictures is on the list (see my free pint of ice cream in there).  These two freezer compartments are the most loaded with listed items though.  The other two are rather neat.  So, here’s what we have:

  • Beef bones: for stock
  • Hamburger and hot dog buns – one package each: Probably going to thaw these and use them for sandwiches as BBQ season is largely over.
  • Pre-made hamburgers: We weren’t fans of these and we have about 10 lbs left from what we purchased for our big summer BBQ.  I’m going to try cooking them up and draining them (80% vs our usual 90%) to use as regular ground beef.
  • Twelve (8 + 4) egg whites: There are a couple of options here, add-ins for sous vide eggs or macaroons being the most likely.
  • Nine cubes of cilantro in chicken broth: This goes with a specific recipe which obviously I haven’t made enough of recently.
  • Eleven servings of butternut squash ravioli: Clearly I could eat these faster, but they feel more right in the fall than the summer.  I will get to them all eventually.
  • One serving of mushroom ravioli: I need to sell this to someone as its not my thing.
  • One gingerbread loaf: Clearly I need to thaw this when we have a shortage of desert options.
  • Four bagels: We’re working through these.  They’re all sliced for easy toasting.
  • Three blocks of cream cheese: I can’t think of anything to do with these besides cream cheese frosting, ie carrot cake.  My kids aren’t super interested in this though so I have to time it right.
  • Chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, and chopped pecans:  These are odds and ends that could be used up.  The walnuts and pecans I do use from time to time.  The almonds are left over from granola making so either I’m back to that or I need to come up with some baked goods to use them up.
  • Some frozen celery sticks: These should go with the beef bones, and other things, for stock.  I just need to remember that!

Summer 2018 Recap

05 Wednesday Sep 2018

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Because I knew most of our summer would be occupied with baseball and swimming, I didn’t set myself that many goals.  But, here’s what I did set out to do.  And, the mid-summer update.  So, let’s see how that last month went.

On the schedule this summer:

  • Swimming lessons for the middle four will run most of the summer.  This also results in our spending lots of time at the pool.  We missed two swimming lessons: one because it rained and one because it was painfully hot so I decided to leave for our 4th of July trip a bit early.
  • Our oldest has one week of baseball camp.
  • The oldest three have one week of track camp.
  • Kids B-D have one week of tech camp.

Somehow I never did list the baseball team.  We made all the baseball games and practices, as well as a few lessons.

We have a list of day activities for days in between.  And, hopefully we’ll get some movies in on rainy days. (Thus far we’ve had only one.) We did get in some movies: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, Avengers Infinity War, and Skyfall, among others.

We traveled to DC.  We went for mini golf and bumper boats.

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I need/want to accomplish the following:

  • Finish up school/spring sports:
    • Dry all soccer cleats and put away
    • Clean all sports water bottles (3)
    • Empty back packs
    • Clean lunch boxes
    • Clean all school water bottles (8)
    • Check status of all items in preparation for next year
  • Keep the woods from encroaching on our yard
    • On one side we have a five leaf vine thing and the plant in these pictures.  This second plant looks sort of like ferns when kept trimmed, but it puts out creepers that wrap around trees, thicken, and eventually kill the trees.  I think I did a pretty good job keeping this side in check.  I may need to beat it back some more next year though. 
    • On the other side we have the same five leaf vine, raspberry plants, and a different sort of climber.  This one doesn’t strangle the trees, it just creates a net over them that doesn’t look very good.  There’s also poison ivy on this side, which I am very allergic to, so I’m less brave about tackling things.  I had someone come in and remove the bulk of this as my only option was to bag it for the yard waste truck.  They removed the volume of an entire commercial truck!  I sprayed the poison ivy a few times and did make some progress.  There’s much more to be done.  Unfortunately after their work was done, first we traveled, then it rained, then it was very hot.  Maybe next week I can get back to it. 
  • Throw out/donate/sell/etc. another 465 items.  This counting thing has been working well for me.  I had planned to do this again in the late fall, but there’s enough kicking around now that I’d just assume move it along.  I made it!  I went in chunks as shown.  I missed one item in these pictures, but clearly got most of them.  Clearly there’s a bunch for paper recycling.  The bottom picture is all fabric recycling.  The “5” will go to Goodwill.  The other two did hit the trash.  The lower picture is a mongrel collection that completed the 465 items.  I added my Pampers points so I can get rid of the packaging.  Everything else is broken in some fashion.

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  • Tag 465 items for the fall tag sale.  My rules for above were that it has to get out of the house within the time period.  Since the tag sale isn’t until the end of September these items don’t meet that criteria.  As a result there are many things that should be leaving our house that aren’t going anywhere yet.  But, tagging needs to happen sooner rather than later.  I’ve set aside a number of things, but haven’t actually tagged them yet.  I need to get moving though because the sale is at the end of September.
  • Prep for the 2018-2019 school year.
    • Purchase a new lunch box and water bottle (I actually found one in our collection of freebies that he’s happy with.) for the incoming kindergartner.
    • Complete preschool paperwork for the youngest.
    • Pay bus fee.
    • Purchase school supplies after the lists come out in mid-August.
    • Check fit of soccer cleats for four kids.  Upgrade as needed.
    • Check fit of baseball cleats for oldest.  Upgrade as needed.

 

2018 Summer Goals: Mid-season Update

09 Thursday Aug 2018

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I tried not to put too much on my summer list this year.  And, thus far I think things are going fairly well.

  • Scheduled activities:
    • Swimming lessons, baseball camp, and track camp are done.
    • Tech camp is almost done.
  • Rainy day movies turned into Heat & Air Quality Alert days.  We’ve had very few rainy days.  But, we did watch:
    • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 & 2
    • Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
    • Skyfall
  • School/spring sports tasks are done because I did clean all the lunch boxes.
  • I’ve stayed on top of the upper side of the yard (with the five leaf vine and fern-like things).  I’m trying to pull out all of the vine and thus far I’ve gotten everything I’ve seen.  I can’t take out the fern-like plants because they’re coming from conservation land.  It takes a relatively quick weekly trimming to keep them at bay.  I’ve also continued to find poison ivy here which I spray when it’s not too windy.  But, I doubt I’ll get all of that this year.
  • On the downhill side, I’ve made some additional progress but its very slow so I’m bringing in reinforcements.  I’ve kept it in check, but it needs to be thoroughly taken back and it’s mostly our property (no conservation land) so this is more doable.  There’s more poison ivy here so that’s been getting in the way too.
  • Throw out/donate/sell/etc. another 465 items:
    • 69 items so far, officially.  I returned one item (left), I sold a baby gate (not pictured), I donated a piano bench (not pictured), and I used two socks to protect one child’s feet during a long pool day (not pictured).  The second picture shows a cardboard “sword” that had worn out, two Toys “R” Us cards, a shirt that no longer fits right to donate, and some blackout curtains that never really blocked enough light that will also be donated.  The socks with holes are self explanatory.  On the far right are a mix of fabrics for recyling: a crib sheet and pillowcase with holes, a cheap oven glove that arrived as an ad in the mail, a fabric cover for a new sheets set, a shirt that’s so yellow as to no longer be useable, kid’s jeans with holes in the knees, and a pile of underwear.
  • Tag 465 items for the fall sale.
    • I haven’t tagged anything yet, but I have set aside five boxes of things to tag and identified a few large items.  Not sure how many items this is.
  • Prep for the 2018-2019 school year.
    • Not much here.  I’ve started a list, but the school lists won’t arrive for at least another week.  And, I try to save shoe shopping for as close to the end of summer as possible.

 

The Month in Review: Weeks 28-30

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

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Again this is not quite a month, but hopefully next week I’ll give an update on the Summer Goals as a whole.

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I’ve mentioned many times that our summer has been dominated by baseball thus far.  That isn’t strictly true, but it feels that way because it is usually during dinner and because one might plan for an evening game only to have it rained out and rescheduled so you have to think about it again.

  • It’s been 20 days since my last update.  16 of those have included baseball in some form – game, practice, lesson, or camp!
  • Swimming lessons have continued multiple days a week for the middle four kids.  They wrap up this week.
  • We attended the summer company party.
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  • One child went to kid’s night at the pool.  I couldn’t interest the other two who were eligible.
  • I’ve continued pulling unwanted plants on the perimeter of our yard.
  • I’ve made some progress towards the toss & tag goals.  More on that next week.
  • We’ve watched a few movies and just generally tried to be unstructured and spontaneous.

 

 

2018 Summer Goals

19 Thursday Jul 2018

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I realize summer is about one third gone, but I have been working on some of these things and if I put them all in writing they’re just more likely to get done.  Certainly we will do more than this, these are more the big hitters.

I consciously tried to keep us less scheduled than last summer.  Last year a number of interesting options came up after we’d signed up for other things so we got over-scheduled.

On the schedule this summer:

  • Swimming lessons for the middle four will run most of the summer.  This also results in our spending lots of time at the pool.
  • Our oldest has one week of baseball camp.
  • The oldest three have one week of track camp.
  • Kids B-D have one week of tech camp.

And that’s it!  Should be very manageable.  We have a list of day activities for days in between.  And, hopefully we’ll get some movies in on rainy days. (Thus far we’ve had only one.)

I need/want to accomplish the following:

  • Finish up school/spring sports:
    • Dry all soccer cleats and put away
    • Clean all sports water bottles (3)
    • Empty back packs
    • Clean lunch boxes
    • Clean all school water bottles (8)
    • Check status of all items in preparation for next year
  • Keep the woods from encroaching on our yard
    • On one side we have a five leaf vine thing and the plant in these pictures.  This second plant looks sort of like ferns when kept trimmed, but it puts out creepers that wrap around trees, thicken, and eventually kill the trees.  The righthand picture shows some that have been cut.  You can see the marks on the tree where other bands have been.
    • On the other side we have the same five leaf vine, raspberry plants, and a different sort of climber.  This one doesn’t strangle the trees, it just creates a net over them that doesn’t look very good.  There’s also poison ivy on this side, which I am very allergic to, so I’m less brave about tackling things.

       

  • Throw out/donate/sell/etc. another 465 items.  This counting thing has been working well for me.  I had planned to do this again in the late fall, but there’s enough kicking around now that I’d just assume move it along.
  • Tag 465 items for the fall tag sale.  My rules for above were that it has to get out of the house within the time period.  Since the tag sale isn’t until the end of September these items don’t meet that criteria.  As a result there are many things that should be leaving our house that aren’t going anywhere yet.  But, tagging needs to happen sooner rather than later.
  • Prep for the 2018-2019 school year.
    • Purchase a new lunch box and water bottle for the incoming kindergartner.
    • Complete preschool paperwork for the youngest.
    • Pay bus fee.
    • Purchase school supplies after the lists come out in mid-August.
    • Check fit of soccer cleats for four kids.  Upgrade as needed.
    • Check fit of baseball cleats for oldest.  Upgrade as needed.

 

The Month in Review: Weeks 25-27, 2018

11 Wednesday Jul 2018

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Admittedly, this is not an entire month.  But, “weeks in review” didn’t sound quite right so here we are.

The chaos of the end of the school year has let go for the somewhat more relaxing pace of summer.  We still have things to do, but not as many (especially on the weekends), and not as early in the morning which just makes things seem more relaxed.

The last Review post went up on the last day of school.  Since then we’ve:

  • had 7 baseball practices plus 7 baseball games, all for kid A.
  • had four swimming lessons for each of four kids.
  • hosted one BBQ and attended two others.  This feels very summer-like.
  • attended one birthday party.
  • grilled ribs and baked beans.  Finished with s’mores.  Again, very summery.
  • spent four days with relatives.

I’ve been working on my project to take some of the plants attempting to encroach on our yard.  More about that on Thursday.

Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge – June 2018 Update

28 Thursday Jun 2018

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Now that the school year has come to an end, it’s time for a final update.

A couple of quick reminders on the principal first:

  • I kicked it off in November and updated the status in January and March.
  • The goal was not to stop shopping, but to use up things that had been in the freezer for a while.  I’m allowed to make new purchases and buy things to complement what I’m using up.

There’s not much meat left from the March update:

  • 6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
  • 5 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 9 4 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
  • 3 lbs chicken wings (These are probably waiting for summer smoking.)
  • 1 3-lb chuck roasts 
  • 1 lb of ground turkey 
  • 5 salmon fillets 
  • 4 lbs pork loin chunks cut for stew
  • 1 pork tenderloin
  • 1 bag of beef bones for stock
  • 1 package of chicken nuggets

Ingredients left after the March update:

  • Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
  • Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts (I have continued to use these, but there’s still a few left.)
  • 7 4 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
  • 9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
  • 12 2 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
  • 3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

Miscellaneous items left after the March update:

  • ½ box of popsicles (these waited for summer)
  • 7 loaves of banana bread
  • 17 14 servings of butternut squash ravioli (Seems like I should be eating these for lunch this summer.)
  • 2 loaves of gingerbread

Apart from the gingerbread, all items across all categories are now ok.  Either they are ingredients for dishes that will keep for a long while, or their churn is enough that they will be used up.

 

Decluttering by the Day: April 2018, Days 25-30

10 Thursday May 2018

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Success!

Sadly, there’s enough that I’m going for 465 more things this month and already have it in my head for the fall.  I know, not everyone would count every school worksheet, but some folks count pairs of shoes as 2 so I feel like there’s an element of what works for you involved.

Day 25:

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Return: The black bag has nine items that will be returned.

Donate: The three shirts in the bottom row are too short.  The shirt in the middle left never really fit right.  There are two items under it plus one pack of hair clips.

Fabric Recycling: The blue shirt on the right has stains that won’t come out and doesn’t fit right anymore.  All the items in the top row have holes.

Trash: We don’t need the package of replacement toothbrush heads.  We have another set and, frankly, don’t replace the heads nearly often enough to need all of these.

Day 26:

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Recycling:  This whole stack is going in the recycling.

Day 27:

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Recycling: I know it doesn’t look like much, but there are twenty-seven items here and most are papers being recycled.

Trash: The two binders have seen better days and will hit the trash.

Day 28:

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Recycle: I’m continuing to power through the school papers.  Everything here will be recycled.  Enjoy the artwork!

Day 29:

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Recycle: Everything here will end up in the recycling.

Day 30:

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Recycle: Enjoy the artwork!  Everything here will be recycled.

 

By the end of this post I will have finished the 2015-2016 school year papers, and started 2016-2017.  Given that, I decided to power on to get through that next school year.  I’ll save the current school year for the fall.  Plus, in both cases you’ll see that I have plenty of other things/rooms I didn’t get to in this first attempt.  And, I think taken in full there was a nice range of items parted with.

Links to the beginning of the challenge:
Days 1-6
Days 7-12
Days 13-18
Days 19-24

Decluttering by the Day: April 2018, Days 19-24

03 Thursday May 2018

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This was vacation week so I mostly tackled the school paper pile from the 2016-2017 school year.  Fortunately or unfortunately, I get so much paper home from preschool and elementary school that most of it goes in a box that I hopefully process when I have time the following September.  Obviously I’ve taken a few Septembers off because I was behind.

Day 19:

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Recycle: There’s actually not that much paper here – the two yellow notebooks at the bottom and the pinwheels (minus the push pins) are it.

Trash:  Because so much of this is laminated, many papers fell here.  I also wasn’t sure about recycling the yarn with the fabric so I tossed it.  The bag got recycled, but inside was another bag of moldy preschool play dough.  I better have found all of that now!  The folders and binders had all seen better days having spent an entire school year traveling back and forth.

Day 20:

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We finally had a warm day and the kids were outside, so I was able to sneak back to the broken toy stash.

Recycle:  All hte paper stuff including unneeded old toy instructions and Happy Meal inserts.

Trash: There’s a shell, some ribbon, the Happy Meal frames, a sticky hand that is no longer sticky, some broken sports eggs, a broken RC car, two broken Tivo remotes, and a dagger toy that got stepped on and crushed so it no longer retracts (which is the actually fun aspect).

Day 21:

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The boys did some more cleaning out and I continued going through the old school stuff.

Recycle:  The boys came up with a bag of scrap paper, a torn gift bag, and two LEGO boxes to get rid of.  Then there’s a whole pile of school papers.

Trash: Some laminated papers (including the Fraction Kit), an old balloon, two hamburger erasers, and some ribbon.

Day 22:

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Recycle:  Again, lots of school papers.

Trash:  There are a few more interesting items here: two “reuseable” (but they’re super flimsy) bags signed with a bunch of kids names, one yarn head sculpture, many laminated papers, another Fraction Kit, and four Elementary School Field Day “medals.”

Day 23:

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Sold: I had another burst of success, selling the bassinet, associated bedding, and baby carrier.

Recycle:  All the papers here went in the recycling.

Trash:  Two folders that have seen better days, a foam star from 5th grade graduation, a piece of yarn “cloth,” and a box of random pencils/crayons.  None of the pencils are in great shape and I don’t keep non-washable crayons in the house.

Day 24:

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There were some nice examples here covering a year of preschool art.

Recycle:  Most of the papers around the perimeter will be be recycled.

Trash: A lot of these have random stuff glued to them that cannot be recycled.  The penguin is mislabeled 2014; these are all actually from the same school year.

Links to the beginning of the challenge:
Days 1-6
Days 7-12
Days 13-18