Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

Okay, so reviewing my goals for this last week, I have come to realize that the only one I came close to getting accomplished was cleaning the house.  Other than that, due to exhaustion, not a lot got done on that list.  Now I did get some things done.  Naps.  Naps got done *laugh*.  And other things, but honestly the most important one for me was the naps.  I needed those.

I gutted and cleaned out my hallway closet (shot seen above).  I still need to clean off the top shelf completely to make room for more blankets, but I'm making good progress getting it all turned over to a linen cabinet.  All of my material got moved downstairs so it's all in one area now and I even managed to herd in my yarn from it's various locations, layer it into a tote and put it into my closet for the time being, so it's not out in open baskets waiting for things to get dumped onto it.  I pray that I remember where I put it, though, so when I need it I'm not searching for it, but we shall see.

I got my pantry cleaned up a lot more than it was and started a preliminary inventory so that I'm more ready for a "no spend" month next month (which isn't QUITE no spend...eh I'll get to that later in the month :).

I finally started to finalize my financial goals for the year.  It's one heck of a mountain to climb that I'm building, but it has to be done, so I'm sharpening my financial pick axe to start climbing the summit.  I'm trying to make sure I look toward the sunny side of that mountain, though, instead of getting stuck in the dark and dreary side, as that's not going to do me much good getting things done.  So, upwards and onwards!

I went and downloaded about 20 different budgeting programs onto my new android tablet to see if I could find a program with a good fit for me and I think I might have finally found one.  Now to sit down and start seriously imputing things into it.  I usually do ledgers and balance sheets and such by hand, but I'm hoping that using a budgeting program has gotten easier since we used one in high school *laugh*.  I think if I can find a good fit it'll really help me to keep better track of expenses and figure out where we really could afford to cut back.  It'll be a good exercise if nothing else to see if doing it via computer beats doing it by hand with an adding machine.

I got more creative with my son's lunches this last week.  I decided to try him on penne pasta vs. angel hair and his teachers love me for it as he's not only eating one noodle at a time but he's also used a fork to eat some of it the last week.  You can not BELIEVE how excited I am to hear about him using a utensil to eat!  And I managed to smuggle spinach powder into his Parmesan cheese alongside the beet powder, so now he's getting two veggies in his lunch instead of one!  Bwahahahahaha!!!  I'm thinking carrot powder might be next or I might try tomato powder because if I can get him used to tomato flavors...man spaghetti might be in his future.  So, so excited!

I made good head way getting caught up on laundry this week, so that was a definite bright side to the "where am I?" form of exhaustion I found myself lost in.  It felt good having a place to stick some of the bedding once it was clean by having the hallway closet cleaned out, so I'm really hoping I can get the top shelf cleaned off tomorrow and ready to go for when I have the other blankets all nice and clean.

I made a quick sketch of my garden dimensions and tried to figure out a way to get as much possible out of the space come summertime as possible.  I'm really REALLY hoping to get another space, somewhere, that I can use for extra garden space, but I'm thinking that maybe a couple of deep pots might be the way to go to expand the garden a little bit.  Still kind of torn on that one, but we'll see how finances go.  At least right now I have seeds.  Seeds are good :).

So, now onto this week's goals, which you'll notice things like "make muffins" are still on the list.  Baking is getting done tomorrow, if my daughter is good (she's going to help me make her muffins for this week as I'm trying to get her interested in cooking and baking right now).

Baking Goals:

• Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Bread
• Granola (this one I keep messing with as I want to get a good variety of stuff into it for my son, but not overwhelm him)
• Beignets (for breakfasts for a few days)

Cleaning Goals:

• Deep clean master bathroom (hopefully this'll get done tomorrow too)
• Finish laundry.  Fold and do ironing.
• Go through catch all paper pile in bedroom.  Organize and throw away anything that can be.
• Continue to take inventory of pantry.   Work on pantry/items on hand only menu plan for February.
• Mop floors 
• Polish wooden furniture

Sewing Goals:

• Sew cloth napkins for everyday use (white).  Make a few to embroider (Spring designs)
• Sew 2 dish towels to replace ones that are getting too ratty
• Look through material and see if there is a nice material to make skirt for daughter for her birthday.
• Look and see if I can find a pattern in my stash to make some night gowns for my daughter.  If not try to make a new one from the one night gown I have for her.

General Goals:

• Finish organizing hallway closet to store more blankets.
• Go through cookbooks and weed out ones I don't use.

And there you are folks.  My goals for the week.  How about you?