1) Figure out cloth recycling.
Let me backtrack a bit here. Once I had written my January goals post, I started making a list of February goals as I ran across other things I wanted to get done. The day after I wrote this one down, a flyer came home from the kids' school. They are collecting clothes and shoes to be recycled as a fundraiser. WHAT!??!?! Check out this amazing organization here: www.bag2schoolfundraising.com
In Edmonton, we could do cloth recycling through the city. (We could recycle EVERYTHING in Edmonton -- it was awesome!) However here, we can't do anything with cloth but throw it out. If clothes are in good enough condition, we send them to the thrift store but jeans with holes in the butt, shoes with holes in the soles, underwear (I know some people who donate underwear but not me), etc, we just have to throw out. So I'm excited that I now have a garbage bag full of hole-ly clothes that will go to a better cause.
I feel like this is a bit of a cheat goal but I still need to take a close look at the kids' clothes to see if there are any others that need to go in the bag for the school.
2) Go through the play room.
About twice a year, we try to go through the playroom. We usually try to do it right after the holidays (Christmas/Channukah) as they bring an influx of new stuff, and then again in the summer. We didn't get to the playroom during the holidays and it's looking like a bit of a disaster.
Yes, it's also messy in this picture but I think when there's less stuff in it,
it will be easier to keep a little cleaner.
3) Go through our room, especially my clothes.
If we're talking about going through rooms, I want to go through ours. It's not too bad but I do need to force myself to look through my clothes with a critical eye once in awhile. And it's been a bit too long since I've done this. Plus it will make one of my March goals a little easier. Ooooo -- the suspense :)
4) Print out 2018 pictures.
Yes, I still print out pictures on an annual basis. Since Rachel spent a lot of time in January going through all of our photo albums, it reminded me that I need to print out 2018 pictures. Also, it will help clean up my photos folder on my computer which will also help clear out my mind -- if that makes any sense.
Our photo albums take up a whole shelf in our living room.
5) Think about Sam's birthday party -- when/where/who?
Sam's birthday is at the end of March which is coming sooner than I want to admit. I'd like to have a plan in place by the beginning of March, especially since we need to get his invitations out before March Break.
Didn't he just turn 9?!?!?!
This is just a good life habit that I really suck at. Since I'm writing this post on February 3 and I haven't flossed yet, I can tell this one is going to be a challenge. Ha! Maybe I'll go floss after writing this post.
7) Get outside every day.
I'll be honest, when it's winter and cold and dark, I'd much rather curl up under a blanket and read then go outside. But I'm happier when I've been outside. So that's my goal -- spend a good amount of time outside every day -- no matter the weather. Emily has inspired me here :)
8) Make homemade challah every Friday.
Speaking of Emily, and inspiration... I think you all know that Dave is Jewish, right? One of the important things in Judaism is marking the beginning of Shabbat (Friday night) with blessings over wine and challah and by lighting candles.
I've been buying frozen unbaked challah from a deli near us and baking it on Fridays. Emily started baking challah last year and sent me the recipe so, for February, I'm going to try and bake challah every Friday that we're home. Friday night was my first attempt and, thus far, I'm off to a good start.
Plus, if I make challah every Friday,
then Dave can make challah French toast every Saturday.
Win-win!!!
So those are my February goals. They're short and sweet because February is short and sweet and we're gone for six days this month. Now I'm off to floss. Ha!!!
All the heart eyes to your photo albums. That made my heart so happy! (It also made me go look to see when our albums are going to arrive. I ordered them last week!) And flossing is a hard habit to learn. I think I can finally safely say I'm regular at it, but I still HATTTE it.
ReplyDeleteThese are great goals! Okay here's a really long, pointless thought about the cloth recycling (which sounds like a GREAT school fundraiser- I am seriously jealous!!). So I also struggle with what to do with old nasty tshirts, undies, etc. A year or 2 ago, I heard a Planet Money podcast that talked about the cycle of donations/second hand clothes (it was fascinating, i recommend). So it was saying that everything that gets donated at Goodwill or Salvation Army or wherever (well, maybe not "wherever"...maybe it's different at a smaller/local store than it is for these big chains) goes first to a sorting center. Human beings (not robots or machines, haha) do the sorting, and they sort things into different groups, like (totally guessing at the names here) 'first rate' (reasonably stylish stuff in good condition that will be resold in their retail stores, 'second rate' (things that are in decent condition but not very stylish- like your kid's Fun Run shirt they wore once but it has the school name/date of fun run on it)- these things get packaged into huge bundles and sold by the pound and mostly shipped overseas to resell in less developed countries. And then there's a third (or maybe there was more, but for our purposes...) category that was gross/damaged/torn/stained stuff that would not be suitable for using as a shirt (or underwear, or towel) again, but those items were sold in bulk as material to other companies, and reused eventually as, say, fill for dog beds, etc. SO. My sort of take-home from that was that it is still worth donating the paint-covered old t-shirt, because thought it will not be useful to resell as a tshirt, it could eventually make its way out of there as being sold as material for other purposes. If I just throw it in the trash, it is 100% likely to go to a landfill. So, thanks for attending my Ted talk. Hahahahahaha.
ReplyDeleteI too have been trying to floss more, and I'm FINALLY enjoying it. It sounds silly, but I upgraded the floss. It's been helping! I used to use the cheapest, but I've been using Oral-B Glide. Good stuff. :D
ReplyDeleteAlso I got so caught up in my previous super long comment that I forgot to verbally drool over that challah. Can we come over for Shabbat??! Since it's such a distance, we will also need to stay until Saturday french toast, thanks.
ReplyDeleteLOVE these goals! First of all, I'm crazy intrigued by the clothing recycle. I won't let our family throw away any clothes, because I read that the big thrift places (Salvation Army, etc) have built-in programs to send deteriorating clothing to get recycled. Problem is, I don't actually know if that's happening with our area thrift collections, so while I'd like to think that our clothes are being recycled, I don't actually know that's true. This would be a great program to put in place in our local schools; we already do color-cycle (crayola takes back old markers to recycle) and this would be an even better greening initiative. I'm bringing it up at our next PTO meeting.
ReplyDeleteOther goals... do you not do this daily because you don't want to or because you forget? When I first got myself in the habit, I would keep the floss on top of my toothpaste so whenever I reached for my toothpaste, I'd get the floss first. However, if it's just you don't want to (time/effort), then all I can suggest is watching a few videos about dental health and you'll really want to. :)
Get outside - YAYYYYYYY!!!!!! I think you already do a great job about this but I love it as a concrete goal.
And the challah - I'm so happy you tried it! I hope you make it again without the vanilla extract and IG/blog about your tweaks. :)