Its like laundry- Never done

Summer is, for all intents and purposes, over and fall has arrived, and with it a need to look back at what I did and did not accomplish the last 3 months. Here is my list from the beginning of summer with the accomplished items in red.

*Girls' room organized- once and for all (though I do still need to push them to put things away, it is a 5 minute activity and not a 5 day activity)

*Finish decluttering in:
my room (working on it and finishing this next week)
the garage (will only be done when the kids' father gets his crap stuff out of there-I wish I could sell it and would if I dared)
the kitchen
the office (I need about 4 more hours to be totally and finally finished. again it was their father's garbage all over. Do you know he kept every single proof of insurance card since he was 16? Again, if he would just take his stuff out of here, we would have a ton of room!!)
the family room/basement (this one is orange because plans are to finish this one tomorrow, but the boys need to buckle down and work harder than they have all summer)*Organize the sewing room (also tomorrow)
*Rearrange the family room (ditto)
*Organize the hall closet- again (maybe a lock to keep the kids out would help?) (and no I didn't get a lock, just a garbage bag)
Refinish:

my office desk (on hold)
Outside chairs (also on hold until I can afford the material I like for the cushions, or find something I like that I can afford)
Outside bench
Dining room table
Front room chair (re-upholster)
Clean out flower beds of weeds and overgrown/unwanted flowers (I'm counting it even though it is still not the way I want it, we worked on it every day except Sundays until August and I had a HUGE project at school and the boys had marching band)
Attend Booksellers convention (like Christmas for me and I found some really great new products and books I need to tell you about. I will try to get 1-2 a week for you now that I have gotten a rhythm/routine back- I think)
Read for fun (again, so so many books to tell you about. Like The Road Show by Branden Bell, The Fourth Nephite by Jeffrey S. Savage,  Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Nielson, Defensive Tactics by Steve Westover {review coming on Sept. 23}, Key Lime Pe by Josi Kilpack {review and giveaway sometime in the next 2 weeks}, A Time to Die by Jeffery S. Savage. I know there were more, but don't want to go find the titles right now and I am not going to include books that have titles like Transforming the School Counseling Profession, or Utah Model for Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance: K-12 Programs, or  DSM-IV-TR because they would really just bore you. Well, maybe not the DSM, but if you have any hypochondric tendendcies, then skip it for sure.)

Go on picnics
Marching band with the kids
Soccer games with Brandi
Post some more how to recipes on my cooking blog with pictures (ideas?) (I have ideas, now just to schedule the postings)

Oh yeah, sometime I need to do some homework (did enough of this that I have comp guidance lessons for at least 13- 8 week groups, led 2 group sessions, and got 100% in my class on running groups. And started my last 6 week class and so far have 100% in there as well. I also started accumulating internship hours and have done a couple of projects and presentations for and with the counselors. Remind me to tell you about counseling at the high school this and next year)

I hiked the waterfall trail without stopping in 16 minutes. I hiked to the "G". I hiked to Timp Cave. Friday night Jess and I hiked to the "Y". Based on the hikes I recorded, I hiked almost 50 miles this summer. I lost 15 lbs, lost the phrase "I can't", and found the me that got lost 26 years ago to oppression and supression and found out that I still like her.

While I didn't get everything done I wanted to do, and if you were to come over it would look like I have done nothing, I feel good about what I accomplished this summer. I sent loads and loads of things out of this house that were uneccesary, unused,, clutter and weighing me down mentally and physically. I moved and conquered mountians, not only mountains of stuff, but literal mountains and in doing so I learned a bit about myself. In the words of Christopher Robin:

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh

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Indeed.