August 2020: New Month, New Goals

I had my leisure in July...well, okay, I at least gave myself a break from goals and working on projects in July.   I worked plenty but it was mostly day to day things, the wash, rinse and repeat tasks that claimed my attentions.   August is a tough month to pick up the mantle of hard work but it's necessary on so many scores.  I can't say July was without any accomplishment at all.  I accidentally added to my potted plant garden by rooting more basil, coleus stems and Portulaca from stems I'd picked from the ground.  The pot is full and lush and a great surprise to me!  I kept the flower beds pretty much weeded and have put up a tiny bit of harvest from my produce bags.  I wiped down walls in all but two rooms.  I added to my pantry.  I cut my credit card bill hard after a spate of spending in June.  

But here in August I must look not only to jobs at hand but future things and begin my preparations for hurricane season which is upon us, for autumn and winter and yes, even spring.   I can't forget the upcoming feast days and such that are important in the Messianic calendar, nor my very real need of a vacation of some sort and then there's holidays ahead and I really need to plan now for those as well.  So you can see August is a key month for many things!

I'll start in the house:  I want to get those last two rooms' walls dusted down.   

I'd like to start airing quilts and washing curtains while we've got good hot sun to dry them.  

I want to go through each room and seriously consider what is in each and how we use it or why we don't.   

There are minor maintenance things to be done in each room either to furnishings or to the walls and doors and windows.  I haven't a complete list of these and I likely won't make a complete list but I will start in one room and work my way through it.  I just need to pinpoint exactly what that one room is likely going to be.  I want to say it will be the guest room, as it serves so many purposes overall, but we'll see if that is true.  Sometimes my home redirects me by pointing up a need in another area!

The only room I won't really touch is John's music room.  I might wash curtains and dust down the walls but I don't muck about with his things.  I move things of his all the time and he's pretty cool with that for the most part but the man ought to have one room where his things are his things and the music room is it.

I need to make a list of pantry items needed.  I know, for instance, that we're low on mayonnaise and likely Labor Day weekend will be the last sale of that until Spring.  There are other things we need to stock.  I have already made a list of non-grocery items that we need to restock such as cold meds and over the counter remedies and personal care items all of which are really pantry items in the end.  I don't believe a pantry is just foods.  It's paper goods, and pet care items and cleaning supplies and toiletries.     If 2020 has taught us nothing else it's that all those things need to be kept in our homes in some supply.

I also want to make out a list of things we can substitute for others.  John and I have had this conversation in a small way.  There are things I am planning to just cut out altogether because I feel the money could be better spent in other areas.  I've gleaned ideas from reading past posts in my own blog!  I really ought to put some of my own suggestions to work, agreed?

Outdoors, I want to maintain the beds I have.  

Now that I have direction for where the garden will go, and thanks to Lana's advice I feel the southern exposure near the house is a good one since it gets shade in the afternoon/evening hours, I want to finish off the end of the bed that runs along the end of the house and about the Sweet Gum.  That way I can contain my mulch better.  

Then I need to get my compost in a better spot.  I've been using two trash bins but I can't really turn it the way it ought to be turned so there's that to work on.   

The back porch floor needs to be scraped, sigh.  The paint has peeled a lot over the past year.  I don't know just why but it has.  So it needs to be redone so that the porch will maintain well over winter.   I also want to work on those railings and rafters back there.  BIG job, both of them and it shall be a small bites job.  I have at least three months of warm weather to work in so no need to rush it along.

I want to get my bulbs planted.  And the daylilies I've divided.  I need to divide Iris and spread them about a bit, too.

I want to start planning my fall plantings.  I need to do necessary research before I do plant. So that's on the agenda!  Carrots, beets, Swiss Chard, potatoes, brussels sprouts, spinach and collards can be grown in what receptacles I have at present.  I need to purchase more soil to top things up and some seeds.  

I want to keep a promise to myself to add something this fall that will bloom next spring/summer.

I could go on and on, truly.  I see so many things that I could and should be doing but I think that's quite enough over and above the usual and given the very warm temperatures this time of year.