Monthly Goals: February, 2022

Originally I was going to do two months at a time when it came to goals and do a "January/February Goals" type of post, but January just flew by, it seemed, and here I am starting to draft this post on the last day of January, soooooo I guess February goals will get its own post after all *laugh*.

For me this is traditionally the worst part of winter to get through.  The sun is coming back slowly but surely, which is good, but a lot of times it is overcast so you don't see much of the sun when it does pop its head over the horizon and we are only regaining light by like 2 to 4 minute increments per day this time of year.  It can still get decently cold (we are at a whopping -4 F at the moment and it is after 10 am Alaska time) and we usually expect to be buried in snow come March.  So, basically you know the Christmas holidays are over, so the Christmas lights (which help to light up the house and your mood) are put away, Spring is still a long way off and it can really start to feel like everything is a slog.  You get really tired all of the time (good old vitamin D deficiency), don't feel like doing much and can really start to suffer from SAD (Seasonal depression) if you aren't careful.  So, for me, this is the time of year I really start to try and stay as busy as I possibly can to help combat the doldrums.  Staying active really helps  to make this time of year go quicker and feeling like I'm getting things done helps me to feel good.

So, speaking of getting things done, let's get to my list for February!

Canning Goals:

1.  Can some beans.  

I know that sounds like a kind of vague goal, but I have at least four different types of beans in the house, so I want to make sure I start to get those canned up to use in dishes around the house.  I have tons of beans in food storage, so I really want to make a point this year of starting to use some of them more.  If I can keep rotating out jars as I run out (like make 4 cans of black beans and when those cans are gone immediately refill those four jars with more black beans to use later), I think it will really help me to streamline things and make me more motivated to use up some of my dried beans :).

2.  Can frozen cranberries.  

I think I'm going to take my frozen cranberries and make a cranberry orange relish/sauce from them from a recipe I found online.  It looks good and I think will help me be at a good start with the cranberry sauce to make some really nice sauces for chicken and things with it later in the year.

3.  Make and can applesauce

I'm really not sure if I'll get to canning this or freezing it and canning it later.  I got a really good price on apples earlier in January (they were 1.00 per pound on 5.00 Friday), so I had my husband pick up a ton of them so that I could make them into applesauce.  So far they are keeping just fine in the fridge, but I want to make sure they get processed before they go bad on me.  Since we are running low on applesauce, I am thinking this will be a good idea to use some of the apples :).

General Goals (basically I'm just lumping all the other goals together):

1.  Get the son his physical for Special Olympics so we can sign him up for swimming this year.

Last year swimming was cancelled for a good portion of the season due to restrictions, so I'm hoping this year will go well and it will be worth getting him his physical for it.

2.  Save money out of paychecks to pay for Subscribe and Save order at end of the month.

I had to order some things in bulk from Amazon for February that I can't find locally at the moment or are so darned expensive locally that it is worth my while to get them from Amazon instead.  But, while I'll save money getting things in bulk, I still have to pony up the bucks to pay for the bulk orders by the end of February, so I've got two pay periods to work it out or start to cut back my order from them.  Since I have things like laundry detergent on that order, I really don't want to have to cut down my order much, so we'll see how I do on saving the money to pay for it.

3.  Start to reorganize pantry to accommodate new jars of canned food.

I want to make sure that I can still find and get to things decently easily, so I'm still debating on the best way to do that at the moment.  For now, the boxes of jars of food that I've made are sitting down in the den ready and waiting for me to put them away.

4.  Make and freeze sugar cookie dough.  I want to make a nice versatile dough I can turn into different types of cookies and sugar cookie dough is one of the best for that purpose so I want to make some to have ready to go in the freezer.

5.  Find room in freezer for ice cream bowl so that I can make ice cream for daughter's birthday in February :).

6.  Make and freeze some waffles and the rest of the Swedish pancakes.

7.  Make and freeze some extra bread for Valentine's Day.  I decided I was going to make cheese fondue for Valentine's, so I want to make sure I start to put up different things for dipping :).

8.  Make some turtles (the candy) for Valentine's Day as well as a few more different types of chocolates.  I'm thinking of making some chocolate truffles for my husband for Valentine's this year.  I haven't made them for my husband since our first year of marriage, so I think it might be fun :).

9.  Fix work jumpsuit for the son.  The suit is my husband's old one from when he was a teenager but it has a big rip in the Carhart material.  We tried it on my son and it fits him perfectly, so I want to fix it so he has something cool to wear to match his dad when he goes and hangs out in the garage with him :).

10.  Sew handkerchiefs.  This was SUPPOSED to be my husband's Christmas gift, but when the family got sick, it got sidelined, so I want to make sure I get that done for him.  Late is better than never.

And there you go folks.  I have other things I want to get done (organizing and such), but I'm going to count these goals as my main ones I want to accomplish, so I'll leave the written list here :).  How about you?  Got things you want to get done in February?