Goals for 2011
My non-traditional "Christmas Flowers" from my Dad - just because!
As I'm sitting here, there are huge, fluffy snow flakes falling outside my window. I have a pot of tea and one of my special tea cups and a lighted candle. It's quiet and peaceful. In the living room the tree lights add a spark of joy. I couldn't find our angel tree topper this year - things got put away so hap-hazard last year I couldn't find half of our decorations this year! - so Missy drew a paper star, cut it out, colored it yellow, glued it to a Popsicle stick and we stick it at the top of the tree. Every time I look at it, it makes me smile!
This year has gotten off to a good start.
And today is John's birthday. I am so blessed to be married to him and so blessed to have the marriage that we do. Celebrating his birthday so close after Christmas and New Year's is just another reason to count my blessings one by one.
So what are my goals in 2011? I have an ambitious list again, though many of them look familiar!
Well, I did make progress on the goals I had last year but didn’t hit that many of them. I’m not that discouraged, though I have been discouraged at times during the year. I am continuing many of the goals into 2011 so that I actually complete them – maybe not in my original time frame but complete them nonetheless!
1. Finish My PhD.
Yes this was my #1 goal for 2010 and I ran into some serious snags getting done. They were not things I can control (like a cranky committee member who got his knickers in a knot and refused to untie them – I replaced him!) and I am okay with that. Right now there is no reason that 2011 can’t be my graduation year! As they say “Lord willin’, and the creek don’t rise!” Or something like that! Check out my sidebar for progress.
2. Reach My Target Weight.
Since I didn’t meet this goal in 2010 either, I’m carrying it over too. I have been asked to certify to be a Jazzercise instructor and am planning on doing that as soon as my PhD is done. Sooo, I need to lose those nagging extra pounds that have plagued my hits and thighs for far to long. I'll write more about this tomorrow in Healthy Habits in 2011.
3. Finish Cleaning Out Our House!
The final rooms are: The office, the Sewing/Craft Room and the Furnace room. I have one laundry basket full of stuff junk to sort through for the Master Bedroom and then I’m officially done with that. We tackled the family room as a family on New Year’s day so that’s done too! Woo hoo!
4. Finish Those Sewing Projects!
Check out my side bar for progress – I keep adding things to work on in the meantime which means these are getting done slower than molasses in January. However, we have two graduations and a friend’s baby coming up this spring in May so I need to get cracking on things!
5. Refinish Our Hardwood Floors and Woodwork.
This falls into both the house and finances categories since we have to save the money to hire this done (no WAY are we doing it ourselves - it's far too big of a project since it involves our whole first floor of the house!) and we need to get this done since we have some problems with woodwork and the current carpeting we have in our living room.
6. Get Our Garage Repaired.
This actually comes before the hardwood priority speaking, because if we don’t do it our garage could fall down! Literally. Yikes. Again, this is a house project/finances thing.
7. Pay Cash For A New Vehicle.
My 1999 Camry is on it’s last legs and I’ve had the mechanic laugh more times than I can count now about repairing something. Most things are more expensive then the car is worth now. And, yes, I should have a “Don’t laugh, it’s paid for!” bumper sticker on the back end! Since my heater is very sketchy we decided that it’s time to retire the poor thing and get something “new.”
8. Refurbish Our Front Flower Bed.
This didn’t really get touched this last year. I’m hoping that this summer I can actually get this done!
9. Catch Up The Kids Scrapbooks to The End of 2010.
I love to scrapbook and I have such a backlog of things to do with these! My kids love to look at pictures but their scrapbooks currently end at age 8 months! Opps. I did make progress – from 4 months to 8 months! – but I need to get rolling on that!
10. Fill 8 Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes for $30.
Last year my goal was 6 for $25. I did it (barely) and I’m adding this year because the kids now fill a box each for school too. I’m hoping to get the boxes for $1 or less this week on sale and start filling as we clean out. I found bouncy balls still in the package and the kids picked out 6 small stuffed animals to add as well. Missy cleaned out her bag collection and we have 3 bags big enough for notebooks and pencils to add as well! Such a good start and we haven’t spent a dime yet!
I'll write over the next few weeks about how I'm going to accomplish all of these things. I'm also going to write each week about what I've done the previous week to reach these goals. This is for my record, your amusement and hopefully some accountability along the way!
What are your goals for 2011? And how are you going to accomplish them? I’d love to know.
