February's Recap

• Savings

  	Previous Balance	30.00
  Week 6 (02/03)	+12.00	42.00
  Week 7 (02/10)	+14.00	56.00
  Week 8 (02/17)	+16.00	72.00
  Week 9 (02/24)	+18.00	90.00

  
  

• Book Finishes
  
  • #2: I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby.

    I picked this book up on a extreme clearance for $1.00. This book is autobiography and has a 3.64 star rating at Goodreads and 4.3 stars at Amazon.com. I gave it three stars (at Goodreads). I have always been fascinated with the Anabaptist groups - Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite. About half the book delves into the Hutterite culture and the author's childhood as a Hutterite which I enjoyed very much and found interesting. The other half deals with when her parents left the community due to politics and the author's struggles growing up in a secular world.

  • #3: Words by Ginny L. Yttrup.

    This book is Christian fiction and has 4.8 stars at Amazon.com and 4.36 stars at Goodreads. I gave it five stars at Goodreads. This book dealt with child abuse in a very sensitive and tender way. It tells the story from the perspective of two people - the child and the woman who eventually comes to care for her.

  • #4: The Innocent Mage: Kingmaker, Kingbreaker (book one) by Karen Miller.

    This book is a fantasy. It has 3.2 stars on Amazon and 3.63 stars on Goodreads. I gave it three stars on Goodreads. I picked up the duology from a Half Price Books store with coupons. I have to be honest. This was an extremely slow read. I am hoping that the second book will be a better read than the first. Due to a variety of reasons, I would not recommend this book to anyone. Hopefully, the second book will be much better than the first. We shall see.

  • #5: The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel.

    This book was given to us by a very good friend. It has many genres such as Christian, non-fiction, historical, theology, etc., and etc. Amazon has 3.9 stars and Goodreads has 4.03 stars. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads as it is impossible to give it 4.5 stars. I read this book one chapter at a time as it was technical and logical. This is one of the better non-fiction apologetic book I have read in eons.

• Projects
  • I cleaned and reorganized four upper cabinets, four lower cabinets and all of the kitchen island cabinets. When we moved, I just threw things haphazardly into most of the cabinets. They are now cleaned out and reorganized. I threw out of lot of stuff and designated a few things for the rummage sale. I feel good about the kitchen now.

  • I cleaned out and reorganized the extended pantry. Our extended pantry is what most people consider to be the hall closet. There is no purpose for us to have a hall closet. Since this closet is so close to the kitchen, I turned it into an extended pantry. It contains kitchen items not used often along with bulk food staples and paper goods such as paper towels. This area was in the same kind of condition as my kitchen cabinets. I unpacked a tall moving box and I tossed out a few things (for rummage sale and trash). I am feeling a bit ruthless these days. As a result, I am feeling better about the state of things.
  • I cleaned out a writing desk with three drawers that I used to pay bills and whatnot back in our Houston days. But now, it serves as a entry way table and dumping ground (e.g. my purse), cat toy and care storage, and place for the sheets to the small sleeper sofa. I designed a lot of things for the rummage sale and threw out a few things.
  • I went through the filing cabinet and important papers. This took two days of effort - about eight hours total. It was tons of stuff and much of it was sentimental value. For example, I held onto papers from the first house we owned (which was built). Come on! Why am I hoarding crap?!?!? So, I ruthlessly shredded a bunch of papers. Now, I down to about half of a filing cabinet drawer. I am feeling a heck of a lot better; although, I am also feeling a bit worried that I may have been too ruthless. Ha!

  • I put many fabrics onto "bolts". This was a relaxing endeavor and I think my cats enjoyed the times I worked outdoors on our farmhouse table because I would let them outside.

• Other
  • We have slowly but surely been working on the flooring in my room. We are now half way done. Why are we not done? It is slow going on account of a variety of factors including patching (adding) tile in the doorway between the kitchen and my room, shopping for threshold, the size of the flooring (3 inches wide as opposed to 5 inches), etc., and etc.
  • In addition to the reasons listed in the above bullet point, we also have taken breaks to work on other small projects around the house. Dan started on making a bench to match the farmhouse table. We worked on making garden beds and filling them up with dirt. We planted some stuff in the 'potato bed' on 2/23/2014. I am currently making some lightweight garden screening for the regular beds to protect my plants from gophers and birds.