As the new year creeps closer, I have been thinking more about my goals and New Year's Resolutions in general. I also traveled across the country with my family last week. I noticed something while on that trip. Sometimes my son will do something not exactly the way I want him to (I know this is a huge shock to anyone who has met a 3-year-old). Sometimes my husband does something a different way than I will do it. You know what though? It's okay. I can deal with these situations without freaking out. I just haven't been. I've been Queen Freak Out, and my subjects are starting to get tired of it.
Thus, my resolution for 2011 is to take a chill pill. Instead of freaking out over the little things, just relaxing and enjoying my life and my family. I've done a good job of this over the past couple days, but we'll see how things go once I go back to work next week. Speaking of work, there are a lot of instances at work where I need to dial back the anxiety. Hopefully, this will not just affect my family life, but my professional life also.
It may sound easy, but it is not going to be.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Money on My Mind: Goal 3
Creating a budget. Blah. This is the goal that I am least excited about, and most unsure that I will accomplish. Many of my other goals are fun. Gardening: YAY! Taking pictures of my cute kids: adorable! Creating something all by myself with just some boards and screws: awesome! Reclaiming our storage space: Yippee (okay maybe that is a stretch). Budgeting: Blah. Actually, I enjoy creating budgets. That's no problem. The problem is with the second part of the goad - sticking to the budget. This is also the hardest goal to blog about because financial situations are delicate, and people get all judgey when you talk about how you spend your money.
Don't get me wrong. I am (mostly) good with money. We save some. We contribute a large percentage of our income to retirement. We have minimal debt (mostly student loan debt for our graduate degrees). We save for college. We live within our means, for the most part.
We also waste a lot of money. We don't buy a lot of stuff, but it feels some some of our money just flutters away in the wind. I track our spending on using online tools, but when I see how much money we spend on food it makes me a little sick to my stomach. We could be smarter with our money, and that is why I have set goal #3. There are some big ticket purchases that I would like to make (new dining room furniture, new living room furniture, new bedroom furniture - seeing a theme?), but with so much of our money fluttering off in the wind (or into my belly), it's not going to happen any time soon.
To prepare for this goal, I have set up electronic transfers to increase the amount we are saving starting in January. I also have set up our electronic bill pay to increase the amount that we pay toward our HELOC. A few weeks ago, I had the following conversation with my husband:
Me: We really need to set up a budget and try to stick to it.
Him: Yeah, we do.
Me: We should talk about that some time.
Him: Yeah, we should.
Me: I'm hungry. I think I'm going to bake some cookies.
Next steps: Set time aside to work with my husband to create that budget. Start tracking spending on January 1.
Don't get me wrong. I am (mostly) good with money. We save some. We contribute a large percentage of our income to retirement. We have minimal debt (mostly student loan debt for our graduate degrees). We save for college. We live within our means, for the most part.
We also waste a lot of money. We don't buy a lot of stuff, but it feels some some of our money just flutters away in the wind. I track our spending on using online tools, but when I see how much money we spend on food it makes me a little sick to my stomach. We could be smarter with our money, and that is why I have set goal #3. There are some big ticket purchases that I would like to make (new dining room furniture, new living room furniture, new bedroom furniture - seeing a theme?), but with so much of our money fluttering off in the wind (or into my belly), it's not going to happen any time soon.
To prepare for this goal, I have set up electronic transfers to increase the amount we are saving starting in January. I also have set up our electronic bill pay to increase the amount that we pay toward our HELOC. A few weeks ago, I had the following conversation with my husband:
Me: We really need to set up a budget and try to stick to it.
Him: Yeah, we do.
Me: We should talk about that some time.
Him: Yeah, we should.
Me: I'm hungry. I think I'm going to bake some cookies.
Next steps: Set time aside to work with my husband to create that budget. Start tracking spending on January 1.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Dirt Under My Nails: Goal 4
Ever since we bought our house, I've wanted to start a vegetable garden. Actually, even years ago when we had a small apartment in Southern California I tried to grow tomatoes (is that a fruit?) on our teeny patio. That didn't work so well.
Aside: That's the story of my life. I start something, but don't finish. I didn't water the tomatoes so they died. This blog is supposed to help me overcome my inability to finish.
2011 is the year I am finally going to start my garden. I think it would be a great thing for B and I to do together. B favors his father over me. My husband is just so much more fun than me. I am definitely the heavy in our household. I think starting a garden together might be a good bonding experience for the two of us.
To start planning for this, I have checked out Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening from the library and added his All New Square Foot Gardening to my Christmas list. I think I am going to do two 4' by 4' beds. I was just going to do one, but I gotta have zucchini and one plant takes 9 sq ft to grow, so we'll do two. I have started reading the book and thinking about where we are going to place the beds in our yard and what plants we're going to put in the beds.
Also, since planting depends on the first and last frost dates, I went ahead and looked those up for my area. The last frost is around April 25. The first is around October 14.
Next steps: Read books. Select plants for beds. Create a calendar for planting.
Aside: That's the story of my life. I start something, but don't finish. I didn't water the tomatoes so they died. This blog is supposed to help me overcome my inability to finish.
2011 is the year I am finally going to start my garden. I think it would be a great thing for B and I to do together. B favors his father over me. My husband is just so much more fun than me. I am definitely the heavy in our household. I think starting a garden together might be a good bonding experience for the two of us.
To start planning for this, I have checked out Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening from the library and added his All New Square Foot Gardening to my Christmas list. I think I am going to do two 4' by 4' beds. I was just going to do one, but I gotta have zucchini and one plant takes 9 sq ft to grow, so we'll do two. I have started reading the book and thinking about where we are going to place the beds in our yard and what plants we're going to put in the beds.
Also, since planting depends on the first and last frost dates, I went ahead and looked those up for my area. The last frost is around April 25. The first is around October 14.
Next steps: Read books. Select plants for beds. Create a calendar for planting.
Say Cheese: Goals 1 & 2
My first two goals go hand in hand. I don't take enough pictures. I bought a dSLR camera a year ago, but I hardly know how to use it. I have two extremely cute kids. But I often forget to take my camera places. Or worse, I'll take the camera somewhere, I'll carry it around and then forget to take pictures.
In March, I spent a week in Vancouver with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. My sister-in-law had just been released from the hospital after having a stem cell transplant to treat lymphoma. I was 30 weeks pregnant with my daughter. It was an emotionally-charged time, and I had a wonderful visit. But I did not take a single picture. I lugged my camera all the way across the continent just to sit in my brother's hallway for a week.
When I do remember to take pictures, they aren't great quality. I would like to learn how to take better pictures, and I would like to remember to take pictures more frequently. Since this will be my first full calendar year with both kids living outside my womb, I think it would be fun to make sure I take pictures of them each month. Then at the end of the year, I can have some of those pictures made into a calendar for 2012.
I have gotten a head start on these two goals.
I have signed up for photography classes starting in January. At this point, all I need to do is show up once a week for six weeks, and I can check my first goal off my list.
I also put a reminder on my calendar to take pictures. My phone will now alert me on the first of the month to take pictures of my kids. My plan is, once the first rolls around, reset the reminder for a day that month when we are doing something fun. Yeah, I can take random pictures one Wednesday after work, but if we're going to the zoo two weeks later, it would be more fun to make sure we get a pictures at the zoo (or even better, I could do both).
Next steps: Go to first photography class. Think about when I want to take January picture.
In March, I spent a week in Vancouver with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. My sister-in-law had just been released from the hospital after having a stem cell transplant to treat lymphoma. I was 30 weeks pregnant with my daughter. It was an emotionally-charged time, and I had a wonderful visit. But I did not take a single picture. I lugged my camera all the way across the continent just to sit in my brother's hallway for a week.
When I do remember to take pictures, they aren't great quality. I would like to learn how to take better pictures, and I would like to remember to take pictures more frequently. Since this will be my first full calendar year with both kids living outside my womb, I think it would be fun to make sure I take pictures of them each month. Then at the end of the year, I can have some of those pictures made into a calendar for 2012.
I have gotten a head start on these two goals.
I have signed up for photography classes starting in January. At this point, all I need to do is show up once a week for six weeks, and I can check my first goal off my list.
I also put a reminder on my calendar to take pictures. My phone will now alert me on the first of the month to take pictures of my kids. My plan is, once the first rolls around, reset the reminder for a day that month when we are doing something fun. Yeah, I can take random pictures one Wednesday after work, but if we're going to the zoo two weeks later, it would be more fun to make sure we get a pictures at the zoo (or even better, I could do both).
Next steps: Go to first photography class. Think about when I want to take January picture.
Getting Started
I always keep a running list in my head of things I want to do. Often, life gets in the way and I forget what was on my list. Forget actually making the time to do those things.
I decided to start this blog as a reminder of what those things are. I have listed my seven goals for the year in the sidebar. Considering I have 365 days, this is a pretty modest list. If I make the time, I should be able to accomplish these things fairly easily. I have even gotten started on a few of my goals already, and the year hasn't even started yet (yay!). More on that later.
I decided to start this blog as a reminder of what those things are. I have listed my seven goals for the year in the sidebar. Considering I have 365 days, this is a pretty modest list. If I make the time, I should be able to accomplish these things fairly easily. I have even gotten started on a few of my goals already, and the year hasn't even started yet (yay!). More on that later.
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