2016 Resolutions
1) Remodel the Hall Bathroom
Silly girl. Third year in a row this has been on my list. I'm still not certain this is going to happen this year. Our kitchen became a priority this year, and now that we've started it, we need to finish the final touches so that it's not coming back to haunt me in a couple of years!
Middle child has informed us that he's hoping to move back in with us when he graduates in May, and to stay with us until he builds up a decent down payment for a house. So, fixing up this bathroom now has a target date: APRIL 2017. We'll have to work within the confines of the budget of whatever we have saved up to that point in time come March.
2) Improve My Health
Looking beyond the numbers on the scale, I am going after the big picture numbers that add up to an overall look at my body chemistry and how my body is functioning as a system. This led me to three separate categories:
My goal for the year was to lose a total of three inches. That took longer than I thought it would! Eight months to lose three inches. I'm happy to see those inches come off! For now, I am content. Those were 3 very hard inches to lose!
YES!! 120/60! No lecture from the doctor this year, instead I got a hearty "Keep up the good work!"
This time last year, my blood pressure was at 140/80. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!
c) Go Down at Least One Clothing Size.
At least one. The hard work of the last year has paid off! I bought pants in the regular section of the store!!!! Even better? No elastic waist on these babies! I want to lose more. My waist is still not under the "circumference" guidelines that suggest that women should have a waist measurement less than 35 inches. Trust me, I'm working on getting that measurement down there!
3) Restart my Vegetable Garden
Due to a very wet spring and a hideous ant problem, no vegetable garden got up and going this year. I really need to spend some serious time thinking about this for next year.
4) Learn to Pressure Can
SO, we have a glass top stove. Pressure canners do not work on a glass top stove because they can't consistently keep the temperature up high enough. This one will be a wash. Another epic fail. If I ever do put in an outdoor kitchen, I'm going to make certain I have a propane or gas stove so that I can pressure can - and I'll be able to do it outside and keep the heat out of the house.
5) Daughter's Quilt
I have pieced it together! It's sewn! I'll be pinning the layers together next week. I want to get it finished before she finishes up at the Community College and transfers on to a 4 year school.
The kids did this for me when they were all home the weekend after Mother's Day. Thanks guys!
Even more fun, my husband made this wonderful tool corral last month! It's so nice to have everything organized and no longer piled up on the floor, next to the house. It was a dangerous tripping hazard that had snared us all at least once.
Bonus - there's enough space in that protected area in front of the tool caddy to put in the buckets full of rock salt for the winter!
4 or 5 days every week. Even better, I'm now keeping a hard copy
journal with me when I go. I get to visibly see my progress every time I work out. It's an excellent motivator!Originally, the goal was to clean out 23 things a month. Then I changed it to 23 things a week. For the entire 52 weeks of the year, that would have required me to get rid of 1196 things for the year. I met that goal in May.
I didn't get rid of anything extra this month. But, the White Elephant sale is coming up at church later this month. I'm putting together boxes of stuff to donate now! It's a wild feeling to walk down to the basement and be able to see across a room without looking at boxes of "stuff" every which where.
Thank God I did this, both in February and in March. It has literally saved our asses as things continue to break and fall apart at an alarming rate. I originally found this challenge on the Frugal, Debt Free Life Blog. Bless your heart, Lydia. Because of this challenge, we have not yet gone down the rabbit hole of massive credit card debt with the huge expenses we've had in 2016: 1 abscessed tooth requiring a root canal. 1 crown for said tooth. The van needing huge repairs not once but TWICE, (once for the a/c, once because it just stopped working late at night when husband was on his way home from choir practice.), 1 leaking, moldy mess under the kitchen sink, and NOW a major leak in the basement from the upstairs bathroom. You know, that bathroom that I have on my list to remodel? This is honestly beginning to sound like the "12 Days of Christmas".
Niagara Falls! We spent time on both the Canadian and U.S. side of the Falls. I loved Niagara State Park. If you ever have time to go, make a point of heading to the state park and walking the perimeter trail around the island. It is absolutely gorgeous!
I need to catch up. I know I had years that I didn't do this. I went through all of the albums and found the years that I have not yet finished. These are the years I am in search of:
2009
There's nothing like the feeling of being caught up! I'd like to say I won't fall behind again, but realistically, we all fall behind with things. It's going to happen again. It's good to know that it's possible to catch back up, though!
13) Walk or Bike a portion of at least 6 Rail Trails
Does the Rideau Canal in Ontario count? I don't think it's an official
Rail Trail, but it is alongside a canal, and at one time, there were
rail tracks nearby. It's officially a World Heritage site, so I'm going
to add it. We hiked a good 10 miles of it while we were in Ottawa!
Such a beautiful place!2) Rideau Canal
How am I going to get those other 4 trails in before the end of the year?
14) Pay off
The big debt is gone. It's nice to have one monkey off my back!
The payments on the smaller debt have accelerated. My goal was to have this paid off by December, but it very well might be Feb. or March of 2017 due to the extenuating circumstances we've had this year.
I nicely fixed up the recipe tab so that it is easy to find recipes that I've posted on here before. For me, this is my online recipe book. Some of the recipes are my own. Some, I post direct links to other sites. You might or might not choose to use it, but I use it on a pretty regular basis, and I've found out that one of the boys does, too. He likes the fact that most of what I've listed is food he already loves and that everything is fairly easy to make and budget conscious. (Hey Kiddo! Glad you stopped by for a while! Call your mother sometime. She'd really like to hear from you!)
How are you doing on your goals this year?
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