Monday, February 01, 2021

Be It Resolved: February 2021 Goals

Since it's February 1 (how is it February already?!?!?), it's time to recap my January goals and set some goals for February. First of all, let's recap how I did with January's goals.

1) Pick out December pictures for the yearly calendars.

Well, I started to write this blog post yesterday morning, and I realized I hadn't done this yet so I quickly picked out pictures for December. One thing Dave and I discovered is, that unlike most years, December really didn't have a lot going on.

A memorable Starbucks stop in December, 2020.

2) Cut back on caffeine and up my water intake.

I definitely upped my water intake (although I didn't do as good a job of tracking it towards the end of the month) and I've cut down to two (and some days less) cups of coffee-hot chocolate, so I feel like I'm making progress on this one. I am starting to crave water which is a good thing!

One thing which really helped this goal was my friend Emily mentioned that she drinks out of different water bottles throughout the day. Somehow this was a light bulb moment for me and I've since started taking both my water bottles to work with me. That gives me a litre and a half (six cups) of water throughout the day, plus whatever I'm drinking at home.

3) Enjoy being outside.

I feel like we did a good job of this. We tried to get outside a lot even when it was cold. And I tried to find my playful side.


4) Keep making progress on the Camino walk.

Well, at beginning of January I was here...

...and, as of last night, I was here:

I'm pretty excited that I managed to make up 25 kilometres in January. I am only a month (and a bit) away from finishing this challenge and I have already decided that I will sign up for another one when I'm done this one. And Dave is probably going to do it with me!

5) Figure out new ways to share what books I've read with people.

I was planning on writing book blog posts for January 15th and for the end of January. However, I had only read two books by January 15th so writing a blog post didn't feel worth it. I have a lot going on blog wise this week so my January book review post will be coming out next Monday, I think. I'm hoping to get better at this in February.

6) Have a weekly family game night and eat take out that night.

This was really fun and, what made it work really well, is that each person got to "host" one night. They decided what we were eating for takeout and which game we were playing. We enjoyed this so much we're going to continue it in February too!

7) Help the kids stay in touch with family and friends more through email.

Rachel wanted me to put this goal down and she wrote a few emails to some of her great-aunts, wrote a letter to my parents, and phoned her grandparents a few times. So I think she was happy with how this goal went. (I think from now on I won't put down goals which I'm not involved in!)

8) Organize the basement.

This did NOT happen. We were too busy relaxing, doing a few puzzles, and walking (either outside or doing workout videos) so the basement is still a disaster :(

9) Participate in the "I Spy" photo challenge.

I published a post every Saturday in January for this challenge. I really enjoyed doing this and will continue it for February (and probably beyond).

So now on to February's goals...

1) Pick out January pictures for the calendars.

And I'm sure none of you are surprised by this goal :)

I think this is a memorable January photo!

2) Respond to blog comments within 24 hours.

I love getting all of your comments and I feel like such a slacker when I don't respond to them. If you don't have your email connected to your blogger profile, I respond to your comment in my post. However, if I have access to your email address, I send you an email instead. Thank you for continuing to read my blog and leave comments. I love the interactions I have with all of you.

3) Get my personal email under control. Right now I have 72 unread emails and over 300 emails sitting in my inbox. It's time to respond to them or file them as necessary.

I think this goal is pretty self explanatory. Time to read (and write!) some emails.

4) Get out for a winter hike each weekend.

We are just so much happier when we've had some time outside. Except for this coming weekend (Hello Readathon!!!), my goal is for us to get out for a walk (and hopefully in nature areas or on trails or through woods) every weekend. It's so easy to just sit inside in the winter, especially.

5) Organize the basement and the playroom.

Well, we didn't get the basement done in January but we can absolutely do two rooms in February, right?!?!? Maybe I'm insane, but March Break is coming and I want the kids to enjoy the playroom that week since we won't be going anywhere!

6) Read non-library books off my physical TBR.

My stack is getting way too high again and I need to reduce it. Time to read some of these books. I think I'll try and start with books which I've borrowed from other people.

7) Do a better job of tracking my water intake.

I want to see measurable progress of this. I have a cute water tracker in my new day planner -- I just have to use it.


8) Deal with loads of laundry within 24 hours.

Everyone in our family is working on an issue they struggle with. Rachel is learning to put herself to bed, Dave is trying to go to bed earlier, Sam is trying to be more engaged in family life, and well, my struggle is laundry. Sometimes a load sits in the washer for two days. Sometimes it sits in a basket waiting to be folded for a week. Sometimes it's hanging up dry in the basement for a few days. It's not great. So my goal is to get it from the washer to hanging up within twelve hours and from dry to folded and put away within 24 hours. Let's get this laundry train moving well people.

9) Deal with some ironing and my mending pile.

I've had a button I need to sew onto one of Rachel's sweaters for ages and a few other small things like that. I also have a few Perler bead creations I need to iron for the kids. Honestly, these things will take me about half an hour so I am going to find that half hour this month and get those things off my mental "to do" list. It's dumb because I've clearly spent more than half an hour thinking about doing them. Ugh.

So those are my February goals. Do you have any laundry tips? How do you respond to blog comments? Are you offended when a blogger doesn't answer your comment?

15 comments:

  1. I'm not offended by mom-replies. I just like to comment and I enjoy occasionally seeing comments on my posts too.
    I haven't read Howls Moving Castle, but I did read The House of Many Ways and it has a pretty funny long-running joke about laundry. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great goals! I look forward to your book posts. I drink two bottles of water a day, and it is marked by the hour so I know whether I'm on track to finish it on time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got better about water intake too! Love all your wintry snow - we're getting 2 ft today. Yay!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You did great in January and I love your February goals! I am NOT great at laundry but what is helping me is making the kids participate. I just give Trent all his clothes and he folds (or just shoves in his drawers) and hangs his own clothes. I do Drew's with her, but she's pretty self-sufficient, and I can direct Paige on hers ('Take these leggings and put them in your leggings drawer.') Why should I be the only one doing it?!?! I think I'm good at email b/c I sit at a computer allll day which makes it easy to respond ha. I've read several books in your physical pile and am excited to hear what you think. Danielle Steele's Jewels was made into a miniseries and my sister and I were OBSESSED with it in high school - have you seen it?!?! I'm still working on making photobooks for our whole married life. I got 2019 and 2020 done last year, and my goal this year is to do 1 a month which is aggressive given I did 2 last year, but really that's doing 1 month every few days, I just have to stay on-top of it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I struggle with laundry too. I keep saying "This maid we have is terrible, she is slow at getting the laundry back upstairs and put away" (there is no maid).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your last little bit made me laugh!!! Our "maid" sucks too :)

      Delete
  6. Sounds like overall you are doing pretty great on your goals. Love that you are aiming to get more water, less caffeine. You may be surprised what you accomplish with that goal as the year goes on... take this from a 3 cup-of-a-coffee drinker a day to going on two years of no longer drinking coffee at all girl. ;) My book stack looks A LOT like yours.

    ReplyDelete
  7. My husband laughs at me that I just can not leave emails in my inbox. I have 1 right now and that's only because it's tickets Alec and I need for an upcoming event. I tend to fold the day's laundry at night just after dinner while watching TV or reading a book. Our washer and dryer are upstairs so I just carry the baskets into my room and it's a nice quiet relaxing time for me. No one comes in because if they do I typically ask them to help and they don't want to! (which I know so I make sure to ask them knowing they'll leave me be) LOL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See, my inbox is my "to do" so it helps remind me of meetings or upcoming events. However, really there shouldn't be so much of that going on right now!

      And I love that laundry is your "me time." Maybe I just need to embrace the laundry and drink a cup of tea while I fold.

      Delete
  8. My water intake is just AWFUL. I have good intentions & then by the end of the night, see I drank may 16 oz. UGH
    I love a set game night!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have had to up my water intake too- it is soo so hard in the cold winter!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it MUCH easier to drink cold water in the spring, summer, and fall, but in winter I want hot drinks like tea!

      Delete
  10. I didn't realize I was a water bottle inspiration but so happy to hear that. As I type this, I have two almost-finished water bottles next to my laptop that I'm trying to finish. :) I think it's very neat that each of you is working on an issue you struggle with; I love when everyone can come together for personal improvement (whether or not that happens is a different story). My only laundry trick is to have less clothes; I am forced to wash and fold clothes regularly otherwise my kids literally have nothing to wear. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am so bad about responding to comments in a timely manner. I can't stand the red circles on my phone and laptop, so emails don't go unread. However, on my everyday to do list I have 'go through emails' because I like to keep my number of emails in my inbox less than 50. So I go through and either delete or file as many emails as needed to get it under that number.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Responding to blog comments within 24 hours is on my yearlist resolutions list and so far I'm failing miserably! Time to get that in check! I'm also trying to read more of my physical books this year. So far I've read 3/10, so it's a start. I track all of my books on Goodreads and on a tab at the top of my blog. This year I've started tracking in a Word doc so I can see what genres I'm reading most, which i always find interesting at the end of the year. I love reading book review posts so I'm going to check yours out now. Good luck with all of your goals!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for being interested in my life as I blog it and for leaving a comment. Comments make me happier than reading a good book and drinking a cold Coke. Almost :)