I have been 31 for about a month and a half now, so I thought I would do a little recap of my goals. (This is a list of 31 goals I wanted to accomplish before my 31st birthday.) Life got pretty stinking busy this last year, so I’m not going to be disappointed because I didn’t meet most of my goals.
Lets take a gander:
Home
1. Paint, and decorate dining room. *I think I am focusing on the office and eat-in part of the kitchen this year. I picked out colors, and bought paint already. Have the paint, and a direction I want these spaces to go in, but not the time.
2. Build a display shelf for hubby’s decoys. *Have some ideas. Not this year…
3. Finish piano project. Nope.
4. Build a piece of furniture. Nope.
5. Plant garden. Can/preserve. *Garden is planted and looking great! I picked and froze berries in July. Made some refrigerator pickles. Froze zucchini and peppers. My father-in-law canned tomatoes for us.
6. Put together 31 meal binder. Maybe later…
Family
7. Potty train boys. We have been diaper free for almost a year!
8. Go on a family vacation. We had a mini vacation around Christmas. (I’m counting it.)
9. Make a new chore chart. Been using last year’s, need to complete new one!
10. Mail Christmas cards. Managed this one!
11. Have Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving. Maybe next year…
Marriage
12. Have 12 date nights (at least one a month). We were very sporadic with this one. We need to plan ahead.
13. Go on a mini-vacation with hubby. We were able to manage 2 overnight trips.
14. Go to a Tiger game. Hubby took me for my birthday!
Personal
15. Read 12 books. I read, but failed to document. (Do textbooks count?)
16. Start nursing clinical. If all goes as planned, I will be a RN next April!
17. Get a 100 bowling average. (Don’t laugh! I have been working on this for five years now.) I ended the season with a 106 average!
Money
18. Whittle down debt. We managed to get rid of all of our small credit card debt, big thanks to selling my crocheted hats.
19. C.N.A Recertification, start working part time. I work very part time, but that is about all I can handle right now.
20. Sell crafts (somehow; etsy/farmer’s market/craft fair). *Opened Theresa’s To-Dos on etsy in August. Need to spend some time in shop. I also have been selling crocheted hats via word of mouth. Update: My etsy shop is still opened (and I had a sale), but it is sorely neglected. I have been busy selling crocheted hats.
Cleaning/Purging/Organizing
21. Clean out and organize garage. Hopefully we can get to this in the next couple of weeks.
22. Find a system for paper. Tackle paper clutter. Nope. I think I am going to go shred happy pretty soon!
23. Go through cookbooks. Not the year for this goal.
24. Organize photos. Didn’t manage this one either.
25. Work on blog organization. Ha! I have been lucky to get a post a month up. Let me tell you, I have some great projects to share also, just looking for time.
Creative
26. Sew everyday for 31 days, only using stash. This is still a goal I want to complete.
27. Crochet a hat a day for 31 days. I tried this one in August, and only made it halfway through (that was the same month we potty trained the boys).
28. Make a quilt. Nada, I don’t see this goal happening in the next year either.
29. Work on one photography skill a month. I was lucky to remember to get my camera out at important times.
30. Complete 31 pins. I tried a ton of pins, but didn’t document any.
31. Do 31 refashions. I would venture to say that I got about halfway done with this goal. What really happened is I kept sewing, but stopped keeping track of my projects.
I know that this list looks a little sad, but i am just proud that we survived the last year. Everyone was fed. The house was in okay order. I made it through my first year of nursing school. The boys are potty trained (if we can only get them to make it in the toilet now…). I stepped out of my comfort zone and started selling my crochet. An even bigger accomplishment this last year (one I kept secret), I quit smoking.
As you can see, not too bad of a year. I think I may pick and choose just a few goals from this list to try to work on the next year. But most of them can wait until this crazy season of our life (aka nursing school) is over.
Your turn: What tips do you have to make it through a busy, and trying season of life? I want to enjoy every moment that I have been blessed with, but find that I am always saying, “after April..”
