3 in 30 October Goals + Update #1

During October for the 3 in 30 challenge, I have set three goals. There is also one that is a carryover from September which I never completed. Here are my goals for the month as well as the progress I've made on them so far: 

1. Work on organizing and creating the book with all of my Dad's homilies, prayers, and invocations. When my Dad died in January of this year, he left behind files of things he wrote and presented while he was a Deacon. I want to organize these items; and then have them printed and bound. The final books will be given to family members at  Christmas as well as to people who may be interested in reading what he wrote. A book also will be donated to the library at the church he attended.

One year ago, on October 3, 2011, I brought my Dad to the nursing home since his needs far exceeded what anyone could handle on their own. It was, by far, one of the most difficult days in my life. This is not where he wanted to be.

What made it even more difficult was that, although he had Alzheimer's Disease and was in the late stage of the disease, he had a moment of clarity as we were waiting in the lobby. He looked at me and said, "I will miss home." I knew that he knew where he was at that moment.

Anyway...to do something positive on October 3, 2012, I pulled out the files I had with all his homilies, prayers, and invocations. I sorted them by the month in which he presented them.

Dad's homilies, prayers, and invocations

sorted by the month in which he presented them.

It looks like a mess, but there is a system of organization there.

As I briefly looked at the opening paragraphs of the homilies, I read many happy memories that he shared with the parishioners at his church. His life was richly blessed. He knew that...and I know that. I just need to start crowding out some of the more challenging memories that happened during the end of his life with more pleasant ones.

The next step is put each month of writings in chronological order and take out any duplicates that he may have kept. Once this is done, I'll need to number the pages. It will then be ready for copying and binding.

2. Do at least 8 activities that celebrate autumn and Halloween. There are family traditions that we do each year that I want to continue as well as some ideas that I've read about that I'd like to do. The girls enjoy trying new recipes, so making some new food that includes apples or pumpkins, and/or food that is orange and gold/yellow will be part of this goal.

The girls and I looked on the internet for some ideas for costumes, and they both have ideas about what they want to dress up as this year. We went shopping at the local thrift store for Sophia's costume and found three items for it ($15 total for all three pieces!). Olivia wants to be a sheep, so I need to do a bit more searching for ways to make a frugal - yet cute - sheep costume.

I made one of the recipes that we enjoy each autumn: pumpkin spice bread. The recipe for the bread will be posted later today.

I went through my files and pulled pictures and magazine clippings of things that I thought sounded fun to do.

We are planning on making our annual visit to the apple orchard next week. I need to can pears first before I get the apples and make applesauce. I want to make sure I have only one type of fruit on hand for canning/preserving before I do the next one.

Sophia has already asked that in addition to applesauce if we can make dried apples this year. They are a delicious, healthy snack; and I was happy to hear she wanted to make them again.

3. Work on the African Library Project. We collected quite a few books during September for the library that we are going to establish in Lesotho, Africa. We still need to do a count of the books so that we can determine if we reached the goal of collecting over 1,000 books. At that point, we will need to sort them, pack them, and mail them to the African Library Project. We need to raise $500 to off-set the cost of postage to mail the books first to the ALP in California. They, in turn, put the boxes in containers and mail them to Africa. 

I brought all the books that we collected in September into our home so we can count them. Needless to say, it's a bit crowded in the mudroom. This weekend, we will be counting the books and then I'll update our website with a book count.

Also, I'll update the website as to where we are in terms of funds needed to get the books to Africa. Right now, we have only $25 towards the $500 goal which makes me a bit nervous. We need to raise $475 within the next month so the books can arrive in time to be shipped to Africa.

Carryover from September:  

1. Organize fabric. Most of the fabric I use for projects are in bins grouped by color. However, there are some pieces of fabric that are in bags that I want to put in the bins. Also, I'd like to go through all the fabric and donate the pieces I don't care for any longer and/or plan to use.

I did not work on this project.