Goal update...

There is a crazy ice storm today.  Isaac had an early dismissal.  I made it home from school and the babysitter without too much trouble.  Ryan's commute ended up being three times as long as usual as he white knuckled his way home from Reading.  

I googled some March blogging prompts and found this list.   The first prompt asks how you are doing on your New Year's Resolutions.  Probably a topic that is not of interest to anyone but me, but I do like to take stock of where I am on my goals on my 101 in 1001 list.  I have made some progress on a few things.

Here are some things I am doing well on so far in 2015

1.  So I have been trying to make more of an effort as far as my appearance.  It's so easy to just throw my hair in a ponytail and mindlessly throw on one of the same boring outfits I have been wearing since I ended maternity leave.  I went shopping over the weekend and finally bought all new bras, underwear and pajamas.  Mine were literally falling apart at the seams, overstretched elastic, the whole nine yards.  I also got a few new outfits and a haircut (can you tell we just got our tax refund?) I've been blow drying and brushing my hair and wearing makeup most days.  It's a process, and sometimes it's easier to just not care, but I think I am doing better.

2.  Preparing things the night before.  I have been really good about signing the homework book, packing the lunches and Hannah's bag the night before.  It's actually one of the first things I do when I get home from work, is pack lunches for the next day. It makes things so much easier in the mornings.  

3. Money stuff.  Ryan is making a lot of more money at his new job, so that certainly helps to have more money to work with.  We have been doing well communicating about bills and expenses and getting on top of things.  Not that we are perfect by any means, but I think we are on a good path.  It's amazing how much stress is out of my life now that things are improving in this area.

4. Staying on top of the everyday stuff.  I am doing better staying on top of the dishes and the laundry (well, the washing and drying part, not so much the folding and putting away part).  

5. Reading.  I have actually finished a few books and have been doing better at keeping a book in the car or my purse for those times when I am waiting on someone and have a little bit of time.  I need to read more at night before bed and not just flip through facebook.

Here are some things I could improve on:

1.  Drinking more water.  I'm horrible about it.  Lunch rolls around and I realize I haven't had anything to drink all morning at work.   It's like, the easiest thing you can do to improve your health and I am so bad about it.

2. Making better use of my morning time.  I pick up Hannah almost as soon as I am allowed to leave work, and she has to tag along for any potential errands to be run after school.  More often or not Isaac has an evening activity.  Ryan usually gets home around bed time.  Our weeknights are full.  There isn't much room for "me time" on weekday evenings.  But Ryan gets the kids up and out the door in the mornings long after I have left for work.  Once in a while I will run an errand or something on my way to work, but that would be the perfect time for me to go to the gym or go for a walk, or get to school early to get stuff organized.  I think one morning a week would be a realistic goal to start.  I will try for March.

3. Getting to the less essential cleaning (bathrooms, floors, dusting).  It's not fun, so it gets put off and put off.

So I want to work on that stuff.  Other goals for March:

1. Date with Ryan-- no kids allowed!

2. Finish Mercy and start another book.

3.  Get my clearances in order for work (they need to be updated to stay at my current job and definitely need to be updated if I am going to get serious about applying elsewhere).

4. Get one more letter of recommendation together.  I have two that I have collected but I need one more.

5. Figure our renewing our family membership at the Y.  

And it's January...

Well I don't even know if this blog has any readers anymore (besides my mom-- HI MOM!) but I am going to try to write more regularly again.  Having a baby really put me into survival mode for a year and I feel like I am just starting to come out of the fog. The usual steamroller that is back to school and then the holiday insanity is amplified by dealing with a very mobile and destructive curious toddler.  Add in the fact that my caseload this year at school is especially large, more responsibilities that used to the job of other people has now been shifted onto the special ed teacher and it left little time for blogging.  Or vacuuming. Or sending our Christmas cards. Or sleep.

Many bloggers start off the new year with a look at last year and a post detailing new resolutions.   I have my long terms goals listed as a document on my blog.  It is finally the last year for them, with the deadline being October of this year.  I am going to keep working away at those.  As far as other goals, I need to be more organized in general (really, that is the overarching theme/struggle of my life) and to make better use of our family together time.  Ryan has just started a new job which should allow us a little more financial breathing room and also the luxury of a fixed schedule.  Knowing his schedule ahead of time will hopefully allow us to plan more family experiences and see more of his kids.  Working opposite shifts has it's pros (he is home with Hannah during the day) and cons (we never see each other, I have to handle all of the evening chaos alone).  While that won't be changing, knowing Ryan's schedule for the whole entire year will really help us make the most of the times we are both home.

Aside from being more organized and planning more family time, another goal is sort of get back to myself. Being pregnant and then being broke for a year, it has been a while since I bought any new clothes, or really, anything that wasn't an absolute necessity.  I want to figure out my sense of style as a 30 something adult-- something beyond my uniform of black trousers and button downs for work and yoga pants and scoop neck t-shirts for home.  I got a compliment the other day on a coat, and I realized that I have had that coat since college, which was over ten years ago.  It must be that my clothes are so old they are coming back into style. Same for my hairstyle/color, the same since high school.  It's time for an update.

Another goal of mine is to find more time to reconnect with things I love doing.  It worked out over winter break for me to get out to a cardmaking workshop, something I used to do regularly but haven't done much the past two years.  I had such a nice time and it made me feel bad about all of the stamps and craft supplies that sit dormant and unloved in my living room closet. I would really like to carve out a little bit of time every other month or so, to get out to a workshop or get together with friends and allow myself to be creative again.

In the same vein, I also want to get off my phone and pick up more books.  I used to read almost every night before bed and now sit in the dark refreshing Facebook and playing Trivia Crack.  I have been slogging through Wally Lamb's beast of a book I Know This Much is True.  While I am enjoying it, is nearly 900 pages of heavy, emotional drama.  I have come too far to quit, but I may alternate reading it with something a little more light and fluffy.

Over Christmas break Ryan and I watched It's a Wonderful Life.  I had never seen it before, but it is one of Ryan's favorite movies ever.  I felt so bad for poor George, but I like it.  It was also one of the things on my 101 in 1001 goal list.

New year, new goals

So with the new year, I have been thinking of what goals and tasks I have accomplished last year, and where I would like the see myself in the years that are coming up.

I have seen this floating around the blog-o-sphere and I decided, in the spirit of goal-setting, to write my own.  This isn't a "bucket list" of major things to accomplish before I die, but I thoughtful list of things I can change, and habits I can form in the next few years that would improve my life.

There are more details on this website.  Here is a little bit about the project from their website:

The Challenge:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).

              

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple challenges such as New Year's resolutions or a 'Bucket List'. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips, study semesters, or outdoor activities.

 

Start date: January 6, 2013

 

End Date: October 4, 2015

 

DOMESTIC GODDESS

1.       Sew a baby quilt

2.       Can something

3.       Cook a turkey

4.       Purchase art from a local artist

5.       Compile favorite recipes into a book or binder

6.       Update 72 hour kits

7.       At least once a month cook a nice Sunday dinner.

8.       Host a holiday meal for family.

9.       Try 50 new recipes.

10.   Keep re-useable grocery bags in my trunk and use them for a month straight.

11.   Learn to eat with chopsticks.

12.   Get a professional family portrait taken.

13.   Start an herb garden.

14.   Buy a car that can fit all of the kids.

15.   Befriend the neighbors.  Be more social with people who live near us.

16.   Have a dinner party with friends.

17.   Learn to make some freezer meals.

18.   Use organic/natural/homemade cleaning products in my home.

19.   Get an allowance/chore chart system together and actually stick with it for at least a year.

HOUSE

20.   Repaint the powder room

21.   Turn the front bedroom into a nursery

22.   Put a ceiling fan in Isaac’s room

23.   Finish basement

24.   Paint and decorate the master  bedroom

25.   Pour a patio out back.

26.   Get/make an outdoor firepit.

27.   Have carpets professionally steam cleaned.

28.   Organize and display Ryan’s memorabilia.

29.   Get a grill.

30.   Get a stand alone freezer for the garage.

PERSONAL

31.   Find a great shade of red lipstick and feel confident wearing it.

32.   Invest in great fitting undergarments.

33.   Read 50 books

34.   Read Les Miserables (can count for 32)

35.   Blow dry my hair every day for a week

36.   Go totally blond again (for a short time, not necessarily indefinitely)

37.   Try being a redhead.

38.   Pay off all credit card debt

39.   Get an “emergency fund” together (amount to be determined later).

40.   Blog every day for a month

41.   Movie theater marathon: three movies in one day

42.   Take a cooking class with Ryan

43.   Take a self defense class

44.   Send a secret to PostSecret

45.   Unsubscribe myself from all e-mails that clutter my inbox and blogs that clutter my reader

46.   Learn how to tie a tie.

47.   Take a picture in the same place in all four seasons.

48.   Give away at least 20 cards as gifts.

49.   Purchase a web domain for my blog/cards.

50.   Seriously try to bite my nails less.

51.   Watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Ryan.

FITNESS/HEALTH

52.   Try a spin class.

53.   Give up soda for a month

54.   Log my food intake for 30 straight days.

55.   For a week eat all of the recommended servings of vegetables.

56.   Do a family fitness class at the YMCA.

57.   Ride my bike to work at least 1 time.

58.   Try a pilates class.

59.   Try a hydro-aerobics class.

60.   Stay up to date with dermatologist appointments.

61.   Get a physical.

62.   Go to the eye doctor.

63.   Spend a weekend “unplugged”

PROFESSIONAL

64.   Get level 2 certificate

65.   Finish elementary ed certification

66.   Finish REAP application

TRAVEL/CULTURE

67.   Renew my passport

68.   Go on Steel Force with Ryan

69.   Visit the MOMA in New York

70.   Take the kids camping at least 3 times

71.   Go to a drive in theater

72.   Attend 5 plays or musicals

73.   Take a trip to California

74.   Go to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

75.   Go to the Storming of the Bastille in Philly

76.   Do a Ride the Ducks tour in Philadelphia

77.   Take the kids to the Baltimore Aquarium

78.   Take the kids to New York City

79.   Go to Niagara Falls

80.   Go to the Smithsonian 3 times

81.   Visit ten other museums

82.   Try White Castle

83.   Try Brunish’s

84.   Go to a rally or protest in DC.

85.   Send postcards to friends/family from our travels.

86.   Go to a drag show.

87.   Attend a film festival in Philly.

88.    Go to a mudsale in Lancaster.

89.   Go to the auction with Selena.

90.   Go to Longwood Gardens

91.   Go to a live taping of a TV show.

92.   Take the kids snow tubing.

93.   Watch 5 football games with Ryan without complaining.

LOOKING OUTWARD

94.   Pay for the person in the car behind me at Dunkin Donuts

95.   Leave a 100% tip

96.   Send at least 50 cards to friends and family

97.   Do something for a charity as a family

98.   Do a Clusters meal

99.   Participate in a benefit walk/run

100.    Find a way to volunteer in Isaac’s school/classroom

101.    Send my mother and mother in law flowers for no particular reason.


I will be updating this page (see my sidebar) and blogging about things along the way.

 

 Wish me luck!

         

Yeah 2013!

Isn't that great?

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I love reflecting on the last year and thinking about where I am heading next.  2012 was an incredible year that brought many exciting changes to my life.  I will probably be writing more about plans and goals later.

I started 2013 off by donating all of the "stuff" we worked so hard to purge from every nook and cranny of this house. 

On the way home from my parents house, we stopped by the Leola ReUzIt shop.  We filled up one whole bin with our donations!  It's such a nice cheery feeling thinking about people actually enjoying and  using our things.  And of course, the best part is I am thrilled to be purging clutter from the house.