Goal Check-In

I've posted before about how I'm feeling stretched lately. I've been spending a lot of time knitting and thinking about what I really want from my life and how to make that happen. Superman and I find this topic coming up between us every few day, sometimes from my perspective, sometimes from his. I've been reflecting on my goals from the year too, and I have to say that I'm not regretting any of the goals I've set for this year. Usually something has shown up as really difficult by now, but the one really difficult thing on my list is one I'm determined to stick with.

1. Plant a garden this year and hopefully end up with edible produce. We're going ahead as planned! I've ordered seeds for the things that we need to have seeds for, and I've got my list ready for the transplants we will buy locally. I'm as ready as I'll ever be! We're deciding on containers this week, and then we're ready. Big Kid is tremendously excited.

2. Eat at-home prepared meals only for a week. This is going to happen sometime, but not until work slows down for both me and Superman- probably over the summer.

3. Read 20 fiction books this year. 0 down, 20 to go! I'm still working on Kushiel's Chosen if you can believe it or not- that is one huge book. I'm on page 344 out of 687 . . . I know, I know- It's already February and didn't I say I'd moved on from it? Well, I did, but I had to come back to finish because I just can't get the story out of my head. I am partly through Inkheart also, it's a faster lighter read than the other book. I'll catch up a bit when Rachel Caine's new book gets here and with some of the young adult fiction I'm planning to read this year.

4. Start Bible memory with Big Kid and build it into a habit. I actually got a few cards made for him over the weekend and we are starting today.

5. Keep my nightstand area completely clear for 30 days except for vitamins, Bible and 1 current book. This hasn't happened yet, but it will be happening soon.

6. Keep/Toss/Donate 15 items each day for 30 days. Done! And the house feels lighter. :)

7. Move systematically through the house to declutter and re-organize. I'm working on our living/dining room this month, a little bit at a time. It comes down to a few big projects- properly containing all of my sewing and knitting things,keeping school related items and crafting items contained properly, and then general tidiness. I'm still trying to find a solution to our "hot spot" - the dining room table. It collects all kinds of things, and it is NEVER clear, even if I've tried to really focus on it for a few days. It has become the catch-all for anything that has no home or is in transition (needs to go upstairs or to the studio). Next up after the living room is the master bedroom.

8. Drink water. Make juice an occasional thing and soda a rare thing. THIS is the really difficult thing. I'm doing either really well or really horribly at this on a given day- like I drink only water for several days in a row and then I have a few days where practically all I drink is soda. It has helped a lot that we haven't been buying any soda to keep in the house, but I'm pretty easily convinced to stop for a drink at one of the fast food places we drive by every single time we go out anywhere.

9. Move to using as many fresh ingredients as possible in our cooking. This is harder to do right now because of the season, but we haven't bought any pre-packaged meals in the last month, so we HAVE to make meals. It has resulted in a few "sandwhich nights", but I'm getting better at planning ahead for meals.

10. Re-evaluate my goals every 3 months. I think I'm going to try to check in every month. I need to keep focused on some of these things, and checking in is what keeps me on track.