These photos were all taken on September 23rd and 25th 2015 while we were on a trip to London. They are just too cute not to share with the world. So very artistic and creative, I took photos of my favorites. I wish I had taken the time to take photos of all of them. May these bring you peace and joy. Please let me know which is your favorite in the comments below.
It is that time of year again, summer, here in the northern hemisphere. If you are anything like most North Americans, then summer means at least one trip on the calendar. If not a trip away then perhaps you have an event to plan for. It might be a Fourth of July cookout, in which case you need to plan the menu and make a list of all the foods and drinks you plan to make. Before you can make the foods and drinks, you will need a grocery list or maybe even a to-do list to help you get everything done in the right order and in a timely manner.
Maybe your summer plans involve a trip away for a weekend or longer. First, you need to decide if you will be away long enough to need to do laundry during your trip or if you have enough clothing and luggage space to pack clothing to last you the entire time you are planning to be gone. Once you have that done, you can either be very general like I was in the list below or get super specific planning each day’s outfit down to shoes and accessories. You do you. Whatever works. Make a list and reuse it each time you go on a trip to save time and help you not to forget anything.
If you think of something you forgot to pack while you are away, add it to the list so you will remember it next time. My hubby has what he calls vacation rules. Basically, if you forgot to pack something that you really need, you have permission to go out and buy it. He joked about forgetting to pack the car when we flew someplace on vacation. I told him that was over budget. We have been known to go out and buy jackets while we were on a beach vacation because we forgot the evenings might be chilly. On that same trip, we decided we needed clothespins because it was so windy the beach towels were in danger of flying away. Unfortunately, the grocery store we went to didn’t have clothespins so we bought a bunch of chip clips with magnets on the back instead. We still have and use those chip clips to this day, so it was a good investment and certainly cheaper than replacing the beach towels would have been had we let them blow away.
When it comes to making lists, I really like using Google Keep. The list below is an example of a list with checkboxes. When you have added the items to your luggage, you can check the box. The items go down below the list and when you need the list again, you just uncheck the boxes. I use this sort of list for my grocery list all the time. You have the ability to drag the items to rearrange the order of the list. You can tag the list with search terms or color code it, like make the background green if it has to do with money or whatever you like. Lists are very handy for helping you organize your summer activities. What is your favorite listing apps?
Here is the list of my 2018 Goals.
FAMILY/FRIENDS
Spring Break Cabin Trip (March 23-30) (Read More Here)
London Trip(September 21-29) (details and photos)
College Avenue Stitchers (1st Saturdays) (10/12)
FlyFests (2nd Saturdays) (12/12)
Knit & Crochet It Forward (2nd Saturdays) (12/12)
YarnSlingers (3rd Tuesdays) (11/12)
HEALTH/FITNESS
Sleep (6 hours/night) (57/92 this Qtr) 61.9% (258/365 = 70%)
Water (6 cups/day) (86/92 this Qtr) 93.4% (324/365 = 88%)
Cardio (3/92 this Qtr) 3% (Achilles Tendon trouble since 7/1) (73/365 = 20%)
Strength (0/92 this Qtr) 0% (no excuses really) (4/365 = 1%)
HOUSE
Finish Cleaning Office (cleared table from the hall that I piled office stuff on)
Backup Floppy Disks to Iomega Drive (ALL 434 DONE! as of 4/24)
Paint Table for Porch (DONE! as of 4/29) (See proof here)
Master Bedroom (work on it) (destruction is done) (See proof here)
We have decided to Reclaim Our Home, one room or area at a time.
We turned our daughter’s old bedroom into our Reading Room.
We decluttered and cleaned the Landing, Garage and the Basement!
FINANCES
Pay Off Car Loan (DONE as of 7/17!)
Pay Off TAN (making monthly payments) (12/12)
Pay ALL Bills on Time (so far, so good) (12/12)
Save $6,000 for London Trip (scraped it up somehow)
We cut the cable and saved over $200/month!
GIVING
Donate 36 Crocheted Hats (55 DONE!)Donate $ to NaNoWriMo (November) (DONE!)
Gift Wrap for DAR (I missed the signup and they didn’t need me by the time I volunteered)
I have also added crochet edging to 6 baby blankets (30″x30″) this year and taught a great group of ladies how to do this as well. All blankets will be gifted to family or charity. I made 10 soap sacks too!
FUN/HOBBIES
Get Family Tree Maker (just have to decide which computer now) (gifted to me!)
Update My Genealogy Websites (ALL DONE! as of 4/16, see Karen’s Kin)
Setup a Way to Sell my Crochet Online (got Etsy Store up and posted 30 listings/49 pcs total)(Sold 2 hats!)
Got a My Heritage DNA test kit for my birthday (reviewed it)
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Read 100 Books (107/100) (DONE! see GoodReads for specifics)
Complete Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge (12/12)
Read 3 Personal Development Books (21/3)
Update Resume (DONE and currently job hunting)
BLOG
1 New Blog Post/Week (Thursdays) (105 new posts in 2018!)
Continue Five Minute Friday Posts (My blog says I have written 81 FMF posts in about 18 months)
YOUTUBE
Continue to Add Content (video clips posted throughout the year)
Try to Film Bullet Journal Flip Through (I filmed it!)
Try Being On Camera with Someone for a Virtual Write-In (still thinking about it/didn’t happen)
I did test Google Hangouts with my adult son who lives in another city
I took a free class (May 11-15) to learn how to edit videos and have posted a few to my IG feed
WRITING
Complete NaNoWriMo (November) (DONE) See wrap up
Read 3 Writing Craft Books (DONE 4/3)
Take 3 Writing Classes (1/3)
Submit 3 Guest Blog Posts or Magazine Articles for Publication (DONE)
Write 3 Contest Entries (DONE)
Thursday Night Writing Group (42/52) LOVE this group!
Word counts are steady but not as much as I’d like. Pretty much just writing blog posts, resumes, and cover letters these days.
How are you doing on your goals so far this year? Is there anything we can help you with? Let us know in the comments or email me through the contact form.
Please subscribe so you won’t miss anything I post.
Now to start figuring out what I want to accomplish in 2019, because this setting goals things works pretty well in my humble opinion, at least when you check in and hold yourself accountable by posting your progress for the entire world to see. Give it a try, I double dog dare ya!
Last year, for Christmas, we got a voucher for a scavenger hunt adventure. It took us an entire year and an expiration date looming over our heads to finally get a chance to use it. The time we finally got all of us together with a couple of hours free to use it, was on Christmas Day this year (actually about 7:30-9:30pm). That’s what happens when you have four adults living in three households and two cities with five jobs and lots of other commitments and responsibilities between us to have to work around our various schedules. Something to consider when giving the gift of an experience that has an expiration date, just saying.
I’m not worried about posting this scan of the voucher here because it has already been used and is about to expire anyway. This is what we were given, so first, we had to do some digging to figure out how to redeem it. I have seen tons of ads for the company on Facebook over the last few months. All their ads and website seem more concerned with selling their scavenger hunts than actually redeeming the voucher after someone presents it to you. To be fair, that IS their business, but they didn’t make it easy to use the voucher, in my opinion. It isn’t as intuitive as they seem to think, but we muddled through and made it happen thanks to our twenty-something kids. We all had to download the Let’s Roam App (this could have been a problem if we had limited data or space for additional apps on our phones). We also had to make sure our phones were fully charged before we started or bring battery packs with us (we did some of both). The screen is on constantly unless you turn it off to save battery.
I was disappointed that there are only 2 choices for hunts in our city (Indianapolis). I have to say that after living here all my life I had never walked around the areas the hunt had us exploring, so that was pretty cool. It was cold and I’m not supposed to be walking that much in my walking boot, but I did it anyway. The ads I saw online with sales for the holiday were priced at about $11 per person. The hunt we chose was rated as hard, 1.7 miles, focused on history and 1.5 hours long. Given all that, I suppose this is a fair price for entertainment, but not exactly cheap. The teacher in me thinks that fourth graders studying Indiana History would love this interactive activity. The cheapskate in me thinks next time we could save money with fewer tickets and sharing the phones because two would have been plenty.
Basically, after everyone gets into the hunt and on the team, they have to choose which role they want to take in the adventure. I chose to be the photographer. These screenshots were all taken after the fact because it was too cold to worry about that while we were doing the hunt.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
I have to say the app is very slick looking and worked well on our various phones, so no problems there.
These are the photos we took on my phone during the hunt. Many were taken to fulfill specific tasks that were asked of us during the game. (Fast food, blackbird, foreign currency, black and white dog, etc.)
We chose a very peaceful time to do this hunt. There was almost nobody out in downtown on Christmas night, so we had the run of the area without worrying about other people wondering what we were doing. There was almost no traffic, and the weather, though cold at about 40 degrees F, was tolerable with our winter coats and gloves on (Texting Gloves for the win!)
Would we do it again? Probably, if all of us were healthy and not gimpy like I was. We would likely choose to do it on the spur of the moment instead of racing the calendar trying to fit it into our already tight schedules so as not to waste the money that was spent on the gift. Now that we’ve done it once, it wouldn’t be nearly as intimidating. That is why I wanted to post screenshots and such for you here. If you need help, give me a holler, I can try to walk you through it.
I’d like to see more tours offered in a city the size of Indianapolis. I would like to see more handicap-friendly options too. I would seriously consider using this as a way to see a new city on a vacation or weekend getaway. It would also be nice to see driving tours too, and maybe they do have them, but just not here.
Have you ever tried something like this? Tell us about it in the comments. I’d love to get other recommendations on sightseeing in your own city.
At the end of September, hubby and I went on our second trip to London. We were with a group of 22 people, I was the youngest in the group. We went for the first time in September 2015 with a group of 29 people. That trip was fun and we knew when we got back that they planned to go again in about 3 years. I wish I could say we spent those years saving up to go back, but we, for any number of reasons, never quite got around to it. Once it became certain that the group was planning to make the trip again, we hustled to do whatever we could to make sure we could go with them.
Traveling to another country is not something we do usually. There is so much of our own country yet to be explored. But when an opportunity to go with a big group presents itself and someone else is planning all the things for you, I recommend you jump at the chance and go with them. When we travel, I am usually the one that has to book the hotel rooms, reserve the rental car, and all those pesky little details. It is a treat to have someone else buy all the tickets to all the things and all you have to do it pay the money and show up at the airport ready to fly away.
Note: This post is graphically intense, but a picture’s worth a thousand words, right?
Here is the list of where we went and the photos I took while there. They are in chronological order so it is almost like you were there seeing it all with me, I hope.
Friday:
Flew from Indy (IND) to Newark (EWR) to Heathrow (LHR)
Saturday: On our own until dinner.
Travel from Airport to Hotel via Motor Coach/Tour Bus
Check into Copthorne Tara Hotel
Tube ride from South Kensington to High Street Kensington where several museums can be found.
Science Museum of London (yes, of all the museums, we chose science) Continue reading
