My first goal was to update my goal list each week. We are almost halfway through the year, can you believe it! I am really enjoying keeping my goals in the forefront. Some goals I am doing really well at, like reading and completing mu knitting projects. Others, like getting 10 K steps at least 5 days each week, I still haven’t accomplished! I have to say that thinking about the goals each week is keeping me motivated to complete them.
1. Find a new hosting site for my blog and make the site secure. Done!! So excited after all this time I finally have a secure website!
2. Monetize my blog. In the works, I have set up an account with Amazon Affiliates! Soon you’ll be seeing links to my favorite items on Amazon. Next on the list is to look into Google Ad Sense.
3. Create a cookbook! One step at a time, get the blog running smoothly, increase readership and then I’ll be working on the cookbook!
4. Be diligent about getting 10 K steps in 5 out of 7 days each week. I’m not sure why I am finding this so hard to complete, however my husband and I do work out everyday on an online program so it’s not like I’m being a total couch potato! Just have to get in the routine of getting a walk it at the end of each day. A year ago we we’re on the west coast and had no trouble at all getting our walks in!
5. As we continue to prepare for an eventual house sale, continue to de-clutter. Get rid of at least 250 items from the house this year! This is an easy goal, I have a box that I loves on the table and I add to it each week. At the end of the week I count up the items and move them into the Pile I am collecting to donate to the schools annual yard sale. Another 20 items out of the house this week – 139 items to go!
6. Read more 25 books this year! Only read one book this week called Trauma Room Two. In this collection of short stories, Dr. Green takes the reader inside the emergency room. Based on fifteen years of experience as an ER physician, he reveals the profound moments that often occur in emergency rooms for patients, their families, and the staff that work there. It was a quick read but very thought provoking. Still keeping track of the books I’ve read on Good Reads, what a wonderful app. I can keep track of all the books I have read, the books I want to read and the books I am reading. I listed on the app that I want to read 25 books this year, 9 to go! Beginning to think my goal here should have been a few more books!
7. Have a consistent meal plan each week and prepare ahead! I’m learning the fine line of figuring out what we’re going to eat each week and plan it so that we don’t end up with too many leftovers. When we spend a weekend away this doesn’t help. Trying to focus on recipes that only feed four that way we can enjoy a meal for dinner and then have the leftovers for lunch.
8. Finish 4 1 knitting projects. Third project finished. I loved knitting the mobius scarf so much I may start another one although I still want to complete the sweater ornament! Nice to have another knitting project finished!
- 9. Clean out our freezer. Such progress! Freezer is well under control now. Downstairs there is just some tomato sauce and two loads of bread I recently made! Used up the last of the blueberries in a shake. Making progress!
- 10. Take a few road trips and visit family and friends on the east coast that we will not see so often once we make a move to the west coast. Our trip to North Carolina is coming together. We’ll be gone a week and will be able to visit family and at least four friends! Looks like we’ll have a long day of driving the first day but after that it will be manageable. It will be the perfect way to celebrate the beginning of summer. Plus we’ve been meaning to visit our friends in North Carolina for years! Hoping to get two other trips in this summer one to Maine and the other to upstate New York.
Can you believe it’s May already! Another month and half the year will be gone. I’m so thankful to be keeping track of my goals, I think I will have a good chance at completing them all!
This month I also have a few goals related to the self-reliance challenge I am part of. My husband and I have always had the goal of being more self sufficient each year. The goals for this month of May Challenge are the following:
1. Get my vegetable garden planted.
2. Do a foray and look for wild leeks.
3. Make my own bread this month and don’t buy any store bought bread!
It’s also a wonderful activity to engage the family. Involve your children in planning your garden, and plant vegetables they like to eat. Include vegetables, like radishes and lettuce that are quick growing as well.
It is almost like magic as you are knitting from the outside in, if that makes any sense. To see what I’m talking about check out this YouTube video.
10. Take a few road trips and visit family and friends on the east coast that we will not see so often once we make a move to the west coast. We came up with a list of three people that we would like to visit while we’re still living on the east coast. Now to take a hard look at the calendar and plan these trips. Recently contacted our friends in North Carolina and an aunt in upstate New York. I foresee a road trip in our future! Well into planing this trip to North Carolina, it’s quite a drive so we’re trying to figure out who else we can visit and how long we should plan to be away.
We ended up at Billings Farm. I was really hoping the young cows would be outside but the only animal we saw was a white horse.
It was a drive but all in the fun of exploring Vermont! Flat Alma was able to view the whole process of making maple syrup, from the sap coming out of the trees to boiling it down to pure maple syrup.
They even drove by the Ben & Jerry’s factory, but no time to stop for ice cream.
Nancy on the Home Front 