April Goals

This month sees the end of busy season.  But it usually takes me a couple of weeks to get over the urge to absolutely nothing.  With that under consideration, the April goals are not all that ambitious either. 

1. Continue with daily exercise.
2. Read 1 book.
3. Plant the garden (though depending on scheduling, this may get pushed to early May).
4. Start melon, pumpkin, and watermelon seeds.
5. Sign-up for quilting classes.  UPDATE 10 minutes after initial post-The quilting store posted their spring schedule today and mother of purl, if the next class series doesn't start next week.  Shawn and I have already made plans to go see South Pacific next week (Well, I made plans and am dragging Shawn along.  He doesn't seem to share my love of musicals).  Dang it.  I'll have to wait for the next series which doesn't start until July.  
6. Attempt to correct the drainage issue in the front yard.  The current situation is not quite what I envisioned when thinking about living on a lakeshore.
7. Get the spring pictures up on the banner.  This snow has got to go!

March Month End Wrap Up

Goal: Exercise Daily.

Status:  Done!  I’m doing pretty good with this one, but busy season is wearing me down and the next few weeks is usually the point at which I quit.  To make it stick this time, I’ll have to really be vigilant about those sneaky voices in my head that try to convince me to stay in bed. 

Goal: Read 1 book.

Status:  Done, barely.  I was about halfway done with In Defense of Food this weekend, so I buckled down and finished it.

Goal: Plant onions, peas, broccoli, and strawberries.

Status:  Onions, peas and broccoli are in the ground.  The strawberries haven’t shipped yet so this one carries over to April. 

Goal:  Weed flower beds.

Status: 1/4 done.  I have worked sporadically in the flower beds this month.  We’ve had a lot of rainy weekends and on the good weekends, well, there is only so much energy to go around.  Garden stuff won.

Goal:  Put down fresh mulch.

Status:  Not done.  Since the weeding has to come first, this isn’t a shocker.

Goal: Start melons, pumpkins, and watermelon.

Status:  Not done.  I decided to move this one forward a couple of weeks b/c my usual weekend to put the garden in has been taken over by another responsibility.  

Goal:  Work on the diaper bag.

Status:  I’ve only gotten as far as figuring out the math to alter the pattern so as to have a bag that will be big enough and the 1st row of stitching.  But I’m counting this goal as met.

March Goals

Dang.  Already month 3 of 2010.  Well here is what I’m planning for this month.  I’m scaling back this month since work will be very busy this month as well, and I didn’t hit all my goals for February.

1. Exercise daily (can you tell I’m trying for a new habit here?)
2. Read 1 book.
3. Weed the flower beds (I really slacked off on this last year and it shows).
4. Put down fresh mulch.
5. Plant peas, onions, broccoli, spinach, and strawberries.
6. Start melon seed, pumpkins, and watermelon.
7. Work on diaper bag.  

February Wrap Up

So, the end of the month is here, and February wasn’t quite as stellar as January.  Based on this month’s results, I’m scaling back for March.  

Goal 1:  Exercise daily. 
Results: Done!  5 am comes early but I’m a morning person.  It’s working for me.

Goal 2:  5 a day fruit and veggie consumption.
Results:  Done!  Most days I’m good with this one.

Goal 3:Transcribe 1/2 of the interviews with my Grandmother.
Results:  Fail.  Didn’t even get started.

Goal 4:  Complete another 1/4 of the Arabian cross stitch.
Results:  Eh.  I got quite a bit done, but fell short of finishing 1/4 of the pattern 
done.  This one will have to roll to March.

Goal 5:  Read 3 books, one of which is off the Pulitzer list.
Results:  I got the Pulitzer book read, Age of Innocence. read, but no other books were completed.  

Goal 6:  Get the insulation installed under the floor and roof.
Results:  Done!   

Goal 7:  Find a housekeeper.
Results:  This may have to wait as I don’t have time now to interview.

Goal 8:  Purge excess stuff from the upstairs bedroom.
Results:  Um.  Stuff is still there.  Fail.

Goal 9:  Start remainder of the seeds when they in.
Results:  This one isn’t my fault as the seeds have YET to come in.

Goal 10:  Put down crabgrass preventer.
Results:  Done!

Goal 11:  Decide on a baby gift pattern and purchase yarn.
Results:  Done!  Pattern will be the felted crochet bag modified to be a diaper bag that will be lined with a super cute vinyl print that I found.  Yarn is purchased, and I’m ready to get started.

February Goals

In the spirit of Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy, I’ve been trying to plan out each month’s goals.  I’m working from my master list of projects and goals.  The master list includes all my to-dos from house projects to craft projects to work projects to life list goals.  I selected several projects that I wanted to accomplish this year and broke them down into action steps.  From there, action steps were assigned to various months of the year depending on my work schedule and the step’s priority in project hierarchy.  Anyway, this is what’s on tap for February.

1.  Exercise daily
2.  Shoot for 5 a day fruit and veggie consumption.
3.  Transcribe ½ of the interviews with my Grandmother.
4.  Complete another ¼ of the Arabian cross stitch project (orphaned project #1).
5.  Read 3 books, one of which is off the Pulitzer list.
6.  Get the insulation installed under the roof and under the floor.
7.  Find a housekeeper (I’m taking recommendations!)
8.  Purge the upstairs bedrooms of excess stuff.
9.  Start the remainder of the seeds when they come in.
10.  Put down crabgrass preventer.
11.  Decide on baby gift pattern and purchase yarn.  Yes, after a 4 month dry spell, another friend is pregnant. 

Each action step has been assigned a week and before that week rolls around, it will be assigned a day.  I did this in January and was pretty pleased with the results (See blog post on completion of orphan project #2!).