Wrapping up my Winter 2019/20 To-Do List

I guess winter is over.  I guess we're not even having a real winter.  We got .2 inches of snow this year.  I am really disappointed.  What is the point of it being cold for months if we don't have snow?

Anyway.  Time to weigh in on all the things on my winter to-do list that I did and did not accomplish.  Titles of books and movies linked to my reviews where applicable, as always.

~ Finish the second draft of One Bad Apple and be editing it  Check!  In fact, I'm on the third set of revisions, which I HOPE will be the last major ones.  I expect to send it off to my sensitivity readers later this month.

~ Read 3 titles for my Classics Club list  Check!  I read and reviewed these four: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling, Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, and Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer.

~ Read 6 books off my TBR shelves  Check!  In fact, I read ELEVEN!  That's largely due to joining #TheUnreadShelfProject2020 on Instagram and setting myself the goal of reading enough books this year that those books piled on the floor can have a home on a shelf instead.  I've read most of the ones on the floor, but have run out of room for them in my library, so it's time to get serious about reading through all these books I own but haven't read, and start making those shelves work for housing books I've already read and want to keep.

Anyway, the books I read off my TBR shelves this winter were:  Blessed are the Cheesemakers by Tricia Goyer and Cara Putman, Murder on the Moor by Julianna Deering, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, Dear Author: Letters from a Bookish Fangirl by Laura A. Grace, The Number of Love by Roseanna M. White, Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer, January Snow by Hayden Wand, Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis, The Secret in the Tower by Charity Bishop, Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky, and Hello, My Name is Single by Adriane Dorr Heins.

~ Read 3 books from the library  Fail.  I only read two, mostly because I'm concentrating on getting books off my TBR shelves now.  But I did read The Undertaker's Assistant by Amanda Skenandore and The Bones Will Speak by Carrie Stuart Parks.

~ Watch 5 movies off my TBW shelves  Check!  I watched The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), Santiago (1956), Ophelia (2018), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and Touch of Evil (1958).

~ Go see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Fail

~ Go see Frozen II  Fail

~ Go see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker  Check! Here are my thoughts on it.

~ Go see Little Women  Fail 

~ Go see Dolittle  Fail

~ Go see The Call of the Wild  Fail so far, but I might manage to see it this month yet.

~ Go see An American in Paris (1951) on the big screen, via TCM & Fathom Events  Fail, and I'm REALLY bummed about that, because it's one of my top favorite musicals.  But life intervened -- I think one of my kids was sick?  I can't even remember.  I just know I couldn't make it, and I'm sad.

~ Finish decorating for Christmas  Check!  And because I was a couple weeks late putting everything up, we left it all up an extra week :-)

~ Get my Christmas cards sent  Check!  They went out before Christmas!  Most people probably got them after, but hey, I did get them sent.

~ Finish wrapping gifts in time for them to get opened  Check!  Whew.

~ Finish the Christmas skirt I started making last year  Check!  I want to change it a bit, as I'd like to try adding side slits to it so it fits a little more like I was envisioning, but at least I had it done in time to wear to church for Christmas.

~ Make Christmas dresses for my daughters' 18" and 14" dolls  Semi-check -- I made them Christmas skirts instead.

~ Host a Ukrainian Christmas shindig at our house  Check!  And it was super-fun.

~ Repaint my kitchen  Check!  It took us three days to paint, and the rest of the week to get the whole place put back to rights, but it turned out really well, and I am very happy with it.

And check this out!  We got a hamster!  Our middle child has been asking for one for over a year, and she turned ten this winter, which I think is old enough to care for a pet and be responsible for it, so we surprised her with the cage on her birthday and finally found a hamster last weekend.  Its name is Squid, and we thiiiiiiiiink it's a boy.  It's a long-haired Syrian, and completely adorable!  We haven't been able to pick him up yet, but he lets us pet him a little.  Expect to see more about him in the future.  Also, I have a highlight reel of videos of Squid on my Instagram profile if you want to see him in action.

I'm already working on my to-do list for this spring, so expect to see that up in a few days!