It’s that time of year when I look back on what I did from my “To Do” list for the summer and think about what I want to do for the fall.

At the beginning of the summer I made this graphic and used it for my laptop wallpaper to remind myself of all that I wanted to do.

• say “yes” lots – I still have a long way to go in this area. I need to remind myself often that their desires are big to them even though they may feel like an interruption to me. So within reason I am truly trying to say “yes” more.
• parks and picnics – Not as much as I wanted, but we still went to the park. We also had a planned picnic and an unplanned picnic. The planned picnic kind of bombed – bad weather and all the picnic tables were taken. It was a breakfast one too. Who would have thought that we wouldn’t be able to get a table at 9 a.m.?

• sewing – I still have to evaluate what exactly I did. I know I did quite a bit just not sure how it matches up with my list.
• teach Bekah to bake bread – Well, we started. She’s not yet at the point where she could do the whole process start to finish on her own, but then she’s only nine so we have some time to work on that. ☺
• teach Micah to read – I think this was my biggest success this summer. Micah’s reading went forward by leaps and bounds. I am so pleased at how well he is doing.
• scrapbooking – Do we ever get caught up? Enough said.
• plan next school year – This went really well. I’m happy with everything we’re doing this year especially with adding copywork into our schedule. In another post I’ll describe what my oldest son is doing for his literature. He’s studying Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and thanks to some brainstorming with my youngest sister we came up with a really unique way for him to study this book.
• sing and smile more – I don’t know. I think you’d have to ask my children about this one. Overall, I felt pretty relaxed this summer. So I’m guessing I did smile more.

• read books outside – I have to admit I only did this once. I got some bug bites and decided I’d go for comfort over fresh air for the rest of the summer. Wimpy, I know.
• zoo trips – Sadly, our membership has run out, and we never got around to renewing it. We hope to do that this fall. We like going in the fall and spring better anyway when there aren’t as many people.
• canning – This really didn’t happen this year. I was enjoying relaxing so much I decided I didn’t want to pressure myself to can. Also, we figured out that it’s cheaper to buy canned tomatoes than to do it ourselves. I’ll probably still do apples sometime this fall. Homemade applesauce is so easy, and it’s an activity we enjoy working on.
• painting – Does picking out the colour and buying knobs for the one of the dressers count? Again, this is something that’s being shifted to my fall list because I really want to get this done. It’s been on my list for way to many years. Yes, I just said “years”. Don’t you hate those things you want to get done, but just keep having to shift them until another time? Ugh. This fall.

We also went to/were highly involved in a wedding this summer and threw an ice cream party for our church.

Now for my sewing goals

• a skirt for myself – I’ve had the fabric for ages – I didn’t get that particular skirt made, but I made another one
• a skirt for each of my daughters – I made two skirts each for my two youngest daughters and a skirt each for my oldest daughter and I
• a bag each to hold my two baby wraps and my mai tei – I will use the method I posted here only bigger, of course – still want to do this
• my oldest son’s quilt. I would really like to finish it this summer – did start up working on this quilt again. I love to quilt. It’s just so hard to find the time.
• a church dress each for my two youngest daughters – I did do this. Plus an extra one for my youngest daughter for a wedding we went to. My youngest daughter wanted an orange dress for the wedding. I told her I wasn’t sure I could find a nice orange fabric, but I did. It’s an orange gingham with tiny daisies embroidered all over it. It’s always nice when you can go with their first colour.

• some bread bags – not yet
• Lumber Jack hats for my two youngest boys for this winter – I’d forgotten about this. I need to look at the pattern again because it seemed like it would be such a fun project.
• wallet for myself – no
• a bag for holding my clothespins – no again
• some doll clothes with my middle daughter – I didn’t get to this but I did figure out how to convert patterns for 18″ dolls so we can use them for her 14″ doll. Now I just need to pick some patterns and get her to pick some fabric.
  reusable paper towels – I have wanted to do this ever since I first saw it – sadly no again.

I made some pattern weights for myself. For a while now I’ve been using canned goods to hold down my patterns. I wish I had discovered pattern weights a long time ago. I hate the cutting out stage of sewing. Using weights saves time and effort making me enjoy the process more. I think I made them a tad too big. If so, they’re easy enough to make more.

All in all, we had a great summer. Lots accomplished but lots of relaxing too. One of the favourite things we did together in the afternoon? Watch “Cupcake Wars” on YouTube and try to guess who would win compared with who we wanted to win.

How was your summer?