February Goals

OK.  The harassment about my blog has begun, so I shall attempt to do an update. ;)

The thing is, I actually do want to keep up with it for the sake of looking back and seeing the things my kids said and did.  But I have a whopping 2 hours of alone time a week.  On the two days where the stars align and Olivia is at preschool while Logan naps... I don't feel like sitting down and uploading pictures and writing.  I feel like sleeping, and that is exactly what I do.  But I'm going to try to catch up and stay a bit more on top of it.  No promises, though.

I bet you thought I gave up on my goals... but I didn't!  Here's how they went:

USE MY PLANNER

I actually did do this, but still not as much as I'd like.  What I found out, is that I don't really like the big, fancy, decorate like a scrapbook type planners.  And the Morning/Afternoon/Evening set up is not really my thing, either.  I use to use a planner in high school, college, my teaching days, and even as a nanny.  I gave up on it when I became a SAHM, but my life is getting busier again.  But I think I like a more simple calendar type.  I'm plugging away at it, but I have my eye on a $10 one at Target that I'm waiting to go on clearance.  I need something more practical.

GO TO THE LIBRARY MORE

Logan and I made it to two of the music classes at our local library.

He still likes to participate from my lap, but he's getting better about joining in.

We were going to go to a story time at the library a town over on a day that Olivia could join us, but it was one of those Fridays were it was SUPER cold out.  Packing the kids up and driving 25 minutes for a 30 minute story time didn't sound that appealing, so we skipped it.  But two times in one month is better than we've done the whole year, so it's an improvement!

LIMIT THE KID'S TV WATCHING

We actually did great with this!  There were quite a few mornings where we didn't even turn the TV on.  Let me just say that I don't have a problem with the TV or screen time, per se.  I am careful with what they can and can't watch.  Olivia has learned A TON from both shows she watches and educational apps she uses on her kindle during rest time.  I'm always impressed with what she picks up and retains.  My issue was that when she watched an excessive amount of TV, her independent play basically became non existent.  She wanted to be entertained at all times, or she wanted to me to "watch" or "look" at every. single. thing. she. did.  I don't have time for that!  Or she'd just wander around bored and totally clueless of how to entertain herself.  I saw a drastic improvement about a week and a half into the month of limited TV.

She was back to "throwing parties", building all sorts of scenes with her Legos, decorating her room, playing with her dolls, making "stores" and "libraries" and anything else she could design, and more!

She "built" these chairs for her dolls, and then "taught" them while they were at school.

My goal was accomplished!

READ TWO BOOKS

Well.... I completed two books.  I was a few chapters in to The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up at the new year.  I finished it.  I'm not sure it was life changing.  It got weirder as the book went on.  I'm sorry, but I'm not going to empty everything out of my purse at the end of every day and tell my purse "Thank you for doing such a good job for me today"... BUT, I did take a few good notes and ideas away from it.  I also read a book by Shauna Niequist.  I just read 3 Jen Hatmaker books at the end of last year, and I was kind of thinking this book would be like that.  It wasn't as easy of a read for me, which lead me to dragging my feet a little.  But two books were complete.  And I'm about half way through Living Well, Spending Less.  Good stuff!

KONMARI METHOD ALL THE CLOTHES

Even though the book was a little strange, and I didn't follow all of the "rules"... I did go through my closet with a more fine tooth comb.  I sell the kids clothes, but there isn't much of a market for selling really old mommy clothes.  So I ended up donating 4 bags of stuff that either would not sell (kids stuff), my clothes, some of Michael's clothes, and some other linens.  I still had some maternity clothes that I thought I had already gotten rid of!

And as far as my trying to create a habit of a gratitude journal. No habit was formed.  More so because I have yet to find a time to just sit down and do those kind of things.  I desperately want to be able to get up in the morning and have some time before the kids wake up.  I hear over and over about how that makes people a better mom. But my reality is that I don't get enough sleep as it is, and when I absolutely have to roll out of bed I feel (and probably look) like I just got hit by a semi truck.  So waking up an extra 20 or 30 minutes earlier just sounds like pure torture.  So I'm still working on a solution to this.

Olivia is working on her goals too! ;)  We made a cake for the fun of it, and she's been working on her reading.

There are my February goals. I know I'm writing about it a third of the way into the month, but I've actually been working on them since the beginning.

1. The garage has come along nicely.  The main area that needs a good clean out and reorganizing is my craft supplies.

2. Taxes.  So this was more of a goal of "nag Michael until he finishes them". :)  He's a procrastinator. Every year he starts them, then gets frustrated or overwhelmed and then puts them off until April 15th.  Every year we get money back, and I didn't want to have to wait until April to get that money!  So I made it my goal that we he would get them done early this year.  Good news!  Our taxes are already filed! Yay!  We're just waiting for that beautiful direct deposit.

3. We've been in our house almost a year now.  We are getting ready to sign the lease for another year.  It's been a work in progress.  There are a few things that we need to get finished up.  Like hang some curtains, and hang a shelf (that still needs to be stained) in the laundry room.  I want those things done this month!

4. I'm going to clean out our medicine cabinet.  We aren't sick often, so sometimes medicine stays around a bit too long.  Michael went to take something the other day and it expired in 2011.  Time for a clean out!

5. Consignment sales are coming up this month.  It's such a big task and time commitment, but I need to get organized and sell the spring and summer kids clothes that I have.  I must!