Summer's just about over...

And I got a LOT done.  The kitchen is completely painted (cabinets and all).  The office is set up and painted, and it looks so much better.  The first floor bathroom is painted (a self-concocted gray-blue-green that really has a nice beachy feel to it).  I bought new cabinet hardware for the kitchen and for the bathroom, and it's almost completely in... still waiting for Rainman to drill holes in the last few cabinet doors for me.  Yes I could do it, but better to let him take care of that.  Lots of crap went out the door. 
The garden looks great, and the tomatoes have really helped me keep my calorie counts down (lots of tomato salads with fresh herbs).   The South Beach app is helping me track that.
We are refinancing the house because we are able to get the interest rate down to 3%, and we're adding a little to take care of the last of the miscellaneous credit card debts.  If we keep paying the same amount we're used to now, we'll be taking a couple hundred off the principal every month and we'll be able to pay this off by the time we're 60.  Hurray for that! 
I bought a wet/dry vac for the basement.  Should help when we get the gullywasher storms that have started becoming more frequent this summer. 
DQ went to 2 weeks of gymnastics camp at the new Chelsea Piers facility in Stamford.  She loved it, and I decided to spring for a family membership.  The kids are now signed up for rock-climbing class and tumbling for cheerleading this fall, and I've been getting up at 5 to go either swim laps or get on the treadmill at the fitness center.  It makes a big difference in my mood and how I feel, so hopefully that will translate into better year at work (the plan is to keep that up).  Since The Boy doesn't have before school care or after school care for me to pay for, we can now afford the membership and activities fees. 
I haven't tackled the attic like I wanted just yet.  There's still some time, though.

2012... The Summer The House Begins To Look Like Grownups Live Here

Once again the list is long and daunting, but the grands have been here and gone on back towards home.  Granny (with not nearly as much help from me as I should have) made new curtains for the kitchen, and it looks much nicer in there.  DQ has a new rug and rug pad up in her room, and I moved the Boy's desk downstairs into the office after the aerobed up and died on Granny and Papa.  We bought new mattress pads to go on the hideabed so it wasn't such a disaster to sleep on, and Papa declared that a success.  Actually he snored that.
Have the office better set up for working this year -- new lights, new office chair and small throw rugs under the chairs by both desks.
Up in the batter's box:
Painting the kitchen and the cabinets, and that will go into the bathroom and the few walls left where I haven't managed to cover up the el-cheapo paneling that we have been ignoring since we moved in.  Decided to just go with white for the kitchen but paint the shelves and the back door deep red to give it a little oompf.  We'll see how that works out.  The bathroom's going to have to be off-white, but it won't take much.   I might also attempt switching out the showerhead in the first floor bathroom, but that's likely going to take Rainman to complete as my plumbing experience is minimal.
Have to get upstairs in the bathroom and finish the couple of places on the walls Rainman ignored when he ripped out the old tub surround and did a big tile/shower door install up there.  That will require a little leftover white paint from the kitchen and probably a little creative molding buying/nailing/painting.
The Boy's room is in dire need of decent shelving, which I am sure Rainman will tell me he can't possibly tackle that until the fall.  But I can measure and design and bother him anyway.
DQ's desk in her room is missing one damn drawer, which I know is up hiding in the attic somewhere.  You would think with the number of times I have cleaned that place out, I'd have it together, but no.  The Crap Gnomes have been busy little bastards up there.  Anyway, her desk needs some organizing, and the contents of the cabinets in her room need some shifting around so she can actually use the ones above her desk.  Thinking it would be good to create a corkboard space in the corner and across the wall in back of her desk.  It would hide the *ahem* interesting patch jobs where Rainman had some difficulty removing the sink and plumbing (her room used to be the kitchen upstairs when the house was a two-family and we had renters on the second floor).
There are closets to clean out again as well, weight to lose, exercising to do (that's going to be tougher as I'm still not 100% after spraining my ankle 3 weeks ago), and children and cats to manage.

July: Now We Get Started...

The grands went home to Tulsa yesterday morning (driving to the airport at 5:15 am was lovely), and we had the town fireworks last night (got home with the kids at 11:30pm) so I think July 2 officially qualifies as our longest day of the year. Screw the sun and all of that astronomical nonsense!
While they were here, Mom and I went and got 6 new chairs to go with the table we already have for outside, and found a nice outdoor seating set. Ordered that online to get the free delivery and CT tax (at the end of June it was lower than the NY tax, but as of July 1, I think it's all comparable).
The seating set should be here this week at some point, I hope.
Got the rest of the seedlings planted. I think we ended up with a couple of pea vines, four beet seedlings, and a bunch of healthy looking zinnias. Flowers went out front around the dogwood and in the bare spot by the grill, and the vegetables went in the garden. We'll see if any of that actually works!
Drama Queen's room is officially cleaned out, though there is still a pile of "saved" school work and artwork that needs to find a home. We'll go get the big expandable art folders this week.
The Boy's room is next for mass cleanout, and I have to go through my own clothes upstairs for giveaway and toss piles. Might turn some of them into soft rag ties for the tomato plants...
The Boy is hellbent on earning money this summer, so I have given him a list of chores and projects for which he can get paid. Hopefully that means I get plenty of extra help painting the bathroom when we get a decent (not roast-o-matic or rainy damp) day for it.
Raining today, hoping to start c25k and some South Beach tomorrow...

Father's Day

The rest of the garden is cleaned out and mostly planted. Rainman added more peppers, and there is room for whatever needs to be transplanted from the seedling box. I think we'll have to wait until August to try the spinach and beets -- those sprouted but keeled over in the hot weather we had right after they popped up.
The grands are coming on Tues to stay for about 10 days, and even though I have to work for 5 of those, I'm hoping to get a good jump on things while they are here.
The Boy is sporting a new buzz for summer (temporarily with a mohawk top, but that's going for go soon). Drama Queen is looking forward to swimming lessons, and I need to see about signing her up for dance class camp and/or art camp, depending on the times available.
Big Bertha's going to get a lot of miles on her this summer...

Garden done...

Rainman has always been in charge of the garden, but I've stolen that this year. Last weekend the Drama Queen and I spent about two hours at the Home Depot, getting everything we needed to tackle the vegetable garden and get flowers planted. I cleaned out about 4/5 of the garden, put down landscaping fabric, and planted regular and heirloom tomatoes, three colors of sweet peppers, basil and oregano. We planted seeds for peas and beets and baby-leaf spinach, as well as zinnias and sweet peas. They are coming up nicely in the seed-starter box. Rainman cleaned out the last bit of the garden and threw in some spindly looking corn he wanted to try and his usual hot peppers. We planted the pink and purple and yellow flowers DQ picked out, replaced the dead rhododendron in the front, and Miracle-Gro'd everything.
Watering every day has been therapeutic. Hopefully the landscape fabric will be the magical cure to weed frustration and hopefully lead to more veggies from the garden.
Also cleaned off the cement driveway/patio area between the back door, garage and garden/yard. I'd like to convince Rainman to buy a better table and chair set for out there as what we have now is a sad mishmash of pieces, none of which match anything.
We'll see.

2011... Another Summer's Goals:

Lather, rinse, repeat...
Well, obviously we have a clutter pattern in the house, as I have the same areas for major cleanout goals this year again: computer desk, dining room and closet, attic and basement.
Goal: Throw Shit Out.

I have curtains to hang in the master bedroom, and the kitchen drawers and cabinets need a good cleaning as well. Painting project this year is the upstairs bathroom, and if we get beyond that it will be a miracle.

Time is going to be harder to manage this year, though -- the kids are not doing full day camp, but are doing some partial-day activities around town. Lots more schlepping this year. I'm putting in my 3 days of summer work getting certified as a mentor teacher the first week we have off, and then I'm not doing anything but managing the summer reading website after that.

And of course there's the South Beach/c25k to be managed as well.

Summer's Over and the Goals Are...

Well, the goals are some met, some in progress, and we have some new ones in play.
I think I did a good job on the clean out/donate end of things, and my bills/receipts organizing is overall much better than it was (not perfect, but wasn't expecting that without massive medication and paid assistance). The weight - well, lost some to start, had some setbacks, but I have a basic plan for the school year. We'll see how well I can hold onto that and keep a slow pace of losing a little each week. I think I can manage it most days, especially with the new tracking app and the walking/running (ha) app.
My biggest accomplishment was getting a plan together to get rid of the debt I've accumulated, especially the chunk from last year's funerals and all. I now have a loan the takes care of about 3/4 of the debt immediately, with 48 months to repay at a low interest and low monthly payment -- which means I'll be able to tackle the rest of the debt faster and get rid of that. There are no early payment penalties, so I do not have to take 4 years to get rid of the biggest chunk, and I think that barring some other family disaster, I could potentially be credit-card-debt-free in 2 1/2 years. I could not have managed that without my credit union working for me and helping me consolidate like this -- it just wasn't making a big enough dent paying the way the credit card companies set up. But then, that would be the point for them -- maximize the amount of time you spend paying them, right?
It's good to have the time to think through all of this and tackle goals that are doable. It makes such a difference to be able to accomplish short term goals as well as long term goals.