a productive summer come and gone

I set a few goals for the summer months and, as far as I'm concerned, once school has started, we can pretty much consider summer officially ended. Here's a round-up of my efforts. What'd you get up to this summer?

1) Grocery shop less. I feel like I did well with this. I wasn't on a strict budget, but I tried to think about what we already had in our cupboards before going out to buy the things that I just wanted instead of needed. We got out to farmers' markets several times for fresh, local produce, which was part of this goal. Now, we're in the midst of revamping our family budget plan, so I'm trying to see how inexpensively the three of us can manage. There will be more to this as the month goes on. So far, a success!

2) Find more time to read. Enter The Litwits! Thanks to our new book club, I'm working on my second book in the past month and I also have a beach read going on the side.

3) Take Jacob to the beach and dip his toes in the ocean for the first time. Take millions of photos.

Here you go ...

4) Journey to visit family. This includes NB, CB and anywhere in between. Done and done! We had some wonderful time with family this summer and hope to visit even more this fall.

5) Go camping. This was a lofty goal with a less-than-one-year-old, and it didn't happen this summer. We're super excited to take him out as soon as it's warm enough next year, though!

6) Keep my hanging basket alive. All. Summer. I'll spare you the photographic evidence on this one. I'd lie, but I know my neighbour friend reads my blog and would rat me out. The basket is dead. Dry, crunchy, dead. Never to be revived. Maybe next year I'll fill it with artificial flowers.

7) Sleep in. Please. Just once. Jacob was a peach this summer and many times Husband and I woke up before he did, which qualifies as a sleep-in for us. Waking up on your own, naturally, and refreshed feels so good.

8) BBQ. A lot. We did. Again and again. We filled the propane tank for a second time this year and we will BBQ well into the fall.

9) Wash both cars inside and out. We did clean both cars already, and just recently gave the Kia a second vacuum and wipe down. Being down to one-car family, for a while made it simpler, but we're a two-car household once again and I'm making it my mission to keep "my" car spotless.

12) Purge. Success as shown here.

13) Fix the DIY curtains I made for the front door. I haven't done this yet, mainly because I still don't know what I want to do. Must hit Pinterest for ideas.

14) Do a few little home-improvement projects, like touch up some paint, etc. This was so easy. In less than an hour, we patched holes in the Gyp-rock and re-painted some spots. Plus, we exchanged our kitchen hardware, which made a huge difference.

15) Scrapbook (or come up with a reasonable alternative). Even though I still have lots of scrapbooking supplies, I've put them aside in favour of organized photo albums for now. Rather than doing a rushed job on our scrapbooks, our albums will serve to keep our memories until I have enough downtime to do it properly. I also cashed in Pampers Gift to Grow points for a free Shutterfly photo book of J's first year, which may be my forever alternative to scrapbooking — it's so easy!

What are your most important to-dos for fall?