Monthly Goals: May 2017

When it came to goals for last month, with everything else going on, really I think I did pretty well.  I didn't get as much cleaning done as I would have liked, but between life in general and how hectic it has been, being sick and then adding in a bad arm on top of it, I would say I did half decent.  The arm has its good days and its bad days, still, and after being to three doctors I just keep hearing, "It will improve in it's own time and the only thing you can do to maybe help it along is physical therapy".  Well, since I can't afford the aforementioned physical therapy, I just tough it out and the arm gets slowly better little bit by little bit.  Too slowly for my "I was not born with patience" self, but at least it is improving.  Taking care of the chickens everyday has actually been really good for the arm as doing things like reaching to grab an egg that was knocked into an odd location in the nesting boxes or broadcasting some scratch grain out into the coop has helped to get more mobility back.  Chicken exercises...it's a new thing *laugh*.

I organized my seeds earlier in the month and have reorganized my garden plan about four times since then as the weather just doesn't get warm enough to thoroughly defrost the ground enough to plant things.  I keep looking at seeds that require the ground to be at a certain temperature for germination and go, "No.  Next."  Rinse, lather, repeat.  I think I at least have a plan to get some seeds in the ground that go in as soon as the ground can be worked and I figure if I throw some type of cover over young seedlings for things like lettuce at night I SHOULD be okay planting those in the garden.  I can't afford row covers right now as I'm reserving every available cent I can squeeze out of the budget to sock into the "don't know what the future holds in the way of pay" fund, so I am going to have to scramble and see what I can dig up around here to use as a row cover for the garden.  At least the small garden I have, some of the garden is protected a bit by the eaves of the house and the overall garden isn't that big, so at least I have that going for me.

My husband and I walked the property, made easier by the electric company cutting a swathe out of the back of our property, along the side that borders the highway and the front of it to clear their pole lines last year.  We lost at least two decently big trees over the last few wind storms we've had, luckily one of them being one of the smaller pines on the side of our barn so it didn't take out our neighbor's shed or something on their property.  Overall, we'll wait to cut up the tree along the property line between us and our neighbor until my husband's schedule gets worked out a bit better at work and call it good I think.  Our next door neighbors are nice, so we haven't even heard a peep out of them about the tree potentially crossing their property line or anything.  We're lucky that way :).

Spring cleaning...well I seem to get a start and wash a wall or something only to have my son run in with really nasty dirty hands and immediately smear them on the wall, so it's a ongoing battle, but I'm really determined to persevere here.  Today I had both kids home.  One with a cycling stomach (end of the year excitement an trying out for the talent show next week) and the other one is getting used to being on his new medicine from the doctor.

Speaking of the son, we went to the doctor yesterday.  The doctor put him on an ADHD med because she thinks that is where a lot of his problems are lying and a side benefit of the drug he is on is that it helps to calm you down, so she wants to try that first and then if that doesn't work there are a few more drugs that we can try before going at things with the "heavy guns".  A big step up from the anti-psychotics that I was worried about that can be prescribed for violent behaviors (which the idea of him being on those was eating my stomach lining as those things are a real nightmare to get dialed in right and can do damage to the body...I have heard horror stories), so here's hoping once it regulates out it works for him.  Right now he's just groggy AND crankier than he has been before and it can take a good week before his body regulates and then we HOPE that the dosage isn't too low...I might commit seppuku by the time this is over.  Ever try training an autistic kid to take a pill for the first time (which we still need to get him to take a pill whole, but after five pills we got one down him last night) and then trying to get him to not smack things when he doesn't feel right?  Not fun.

Anyway, overall when it came to getting things done, somehow over the last month I did get some things done, so yay!  And now onto this month's goals!

Sewing Goals:

• Mend, mend and mend some more (lots of holes and things to fix in clothing and comforters)
• Work on embroidery projects (I think I'm holding a record for most consecutive months of having something as a goal and NOT getting it accomplished *laugh*).

General Goals:

• Work on garden. Plant seeds.
• Conserve every penny possible.
• Use recipes that use more eggs (making progress there)
• Spring clean some more
• Work on getting budget dialed in as new pay rate and things come more into focus.
• Finish up the lettuce plants in hydroponic garden (at least one of them is starting on the downturn when it comes to growing a lot, so I'm THINKING I will be able to replace it anyway here soon) and plant herb pods in the lettuce's place.
• Get kids through the end of school and hopefully find ways for them to enjoy their summer break without spending money.

And there you are folks.  My goals for this month, such as they are.  How about you?  Up to anything this month?