41 Before 41: The Rest Of The Story

This post could also be sub-titled "My Excuses For Not Doing Everything" but I thought the one I used was more... positive. So I have divided the rest of my things into two categories -- the "I Need More Time" category and the "I Kind-Of, Sort-Of, Maybe Did These Things" category. And I wrote it all in pretty colours so you don't get bored of the no picture post.

First comes the "I Kind-Of, Sort-Of, Maybe Did These Things" category. And as with yesterday, the links are to the posts I wrote about completing my goal:

5) Have a date night with Dave every two weeks. This will take some (a lot!) of planning. Gym night and fastfood supper – Jan 29; Les Mis movie – February 10; Romantic Dinner at home –March 1; King St Trio – March 14

I have to say that while I enjoyed spending more time with Dave, having a date night every two weeks becomes a lot of work. One would finish and we would already need to be planning the next one -- finding a babysitter, deciding what to do, etc. You will notice that we haven't had one since March 14. That is almost two months people. Obviously we need to remedy that. Also, if I were to do this again I would try for monthly date nights.

16) Blog weekly about Hymn of the Week. Done – Feb 3 and Feb 11 

Hymn Of The Week started because I got a book of my grandma's with the stories behind 150 hymns. I thought it would be neat to share some of those. My idea was that I would share a hymn we had sang in church that week and then blog about the story behind it. Sadly, the songs our church sings have shifted a lot over the past five years and we rarely sing the familiar hymns which I know and love. I'm not saying that new music isn't good but there has been a huge shift towards only newer music which is what I'm sad about. Anyways, all that to say that I haven't felt the Hymn Of The Week excitement I was hoping to sustain.

18) Write weekly e-mails to my New Mom's friends in Edmonton.
     (I want to do a better job of staying in touch with my Edmonton friends. This might be a good way to make it work.) 

I did manage to write a couple of e-mails to this group of friends but again, not weekly. Although I have now had personal contact with every one of them so that is a good result. I think I would switch this to monthly because again, there is not a ton to share from week to week. But my main purpose of this was to re-establish contact with them and that was successful. Yay!

19) Write updates to my virtual sisters' group every two weeks.
     (I am part of this group and horrible at writing updates. I just need to do it!!!)

Again, I started out strong with this and then fell off the excitement train. If I were to make this a resolution again, I would start out with writing them monthly.

33) Donate a can of food to the food bank EVERY time I go grocery shopping.

I did this a few times but often I would forget. I did buy a big bag of food one time and I also tried to donate a few items during other shopping trips. I would still like to figure out how to make this an integral part of my grocery shopping trips.

And now for the "I Need More Time" category. A few of these things are "almost done", "kind of done", "not close to done but I still really want to do them", so I am giving myself a grace period of the summer (until August 31, 2013) to get them done. And I added in the "2013" as a reminder to myself to not procrastinate further on these!

2) Write a letter to our sponsored child.
     (We have been sponsoring a child through World Vision for two years and we've never written him a letter. We suck and it's time to change that.) 

It's kind of sad that we need more time on this but it's true. I think part of it is that lately Dave and I haven't had a lot of time to spend together. Sam has been staying up super-late and demanding our attention and once he FINALLY falls asleep Dave and I are kind of done for the day too. We gotta work on this...

8) Get Sam toilet trained. (day trained only).

Sam is one stubborn kid. We finally declared a toilet training moratorium in April. It's still on-going. I am just at my wit's end here. THIS is the absolute hardest thing I have done (or not done - ha!) as a parent.

12) Have church small group kids over for supper in family groups.
     (This is something Dave and I talked about so we just need to make it happen. I feel like we just visit with the adults at small group and I want to get to know the kids too.)

Just haven't gotten it done yet.

13) Invite two families from church over for a meal -- not families in my group of friends.

Technically I had one woman over for lunch one day but that didn't really count. I'd made plans with another family but they had to cancel. Again, I just need to be more intentional about this.

14) Make a meal for "Meals for Encouragement."
     (This is our church's way of sharing meals. It's so easy to make a meal, why haven't I done it yet???)

I'm still asking myself why I haven't done this one yet. sigh.

23) Teach Rachel five animal sounds.
     (She doesn't know any right now. We'll see how this goes.) 

According to Dave, Rachel knows five animal sounds, she just isn't willing to share them with me yet. Although I did get her to say "cluck" yesterday morning for the chickens next door.

24) Surprise Sam and say "Yes!" to something he wants.
     (I feel like I'm often saying "No" to him.) 

It's surprisingly hard to find something to say "Yes" about that doesn't make it feel like I'm being a wishy-washy parent. (ie at first I say "no" and then change my mind.) It's also surprisingly hard to find something that feels "big enough" to cross this particular accomplishment off the list. For example, I've probably said "yes" about once a week to a snack I didn't feel like he should have at that particular moment but really, that's not what this one was supposed to be about.

29) Read 5 books from the pile on my dresser.
     (I have a stack of things on my dresser to do, I want to get rid of some of it.) 

I read two books. I still have three to go. And yes, this is a pile of books a friend lent to me last summer. It's time to read them and give them back.

32) Get my grandma's sewing machine to a repair shop. Done – Apr 9 

I waited way too long to get it to the repair shop and then their estimate of "two weeks" turned into "over a month" as I still don't have it back. But I do have the material to make what I want to sew with Grandma's machine if it is ever returned to me.
     32 a) Learn how to use it.

35) Perform five random acts of kindness.
     (Suggestions welcome. How to do this anonymously???)  Shoveled neighbour’s driveway and sidewalk – Jan 28; raking branches from the storm off of our street which was completely covered in them – April 15; pay for person in car behind me at drive through – April 18; left a Tim Horton’s gift card for our garbage collectors – April 19

The reason I've been struggling with this one is I can't think of what a good, random act of kindness is. Help a sister out, will ya?!?!

 

39) Don't yell at the kids, or lose my temper with them, for a week.
     (This is my major failing as a parent. I get frustrated and impatient and I yell. If I don't yell for a week that should help change my habits right?)

I think I've probably completed this one, I just didn't keep official track. I need to do that. One thing that I have accomplished with this goal is that I know I am yelling a lot less. (Notice I didn't say "not at all." Small steps...)

So, I'm sorry if you're completely bored of this, despite the pretty colours, but my "41 Before 41" will be continuing for a few more months. I'll keep you posted -- Ha ha ha!!!