Reviewing January Goals

So it's time to be accountable and see how I did on my January goals. I'm also going to give a quick update on my annual goals -- gulp.

1) Refresh my resume

So this one didn't happen. It was on my list of things to do and then I moved it. And then I moved it again. And... now it's February 1 and this hasn't happened.

However, I did have the conversation at work about future directions, and my hours at work will likely be decreasing pretty significantly in the next few months. But Dave and I talked about it and decided it didn't make sense for me to start looking for more work when the kids will be done school for the summer in five short months. I don't want to be adding a whole bunch of hours just when the kids are home more. So instead, I'm going to be looking for more work during the summer which would hopefully start in September. Does that all make sense?

This all took the pressure off having my resume in order but I have been starting to think about putting out feelers to some people for potential work based conversations.

2) Sort out our Tupperware containers.

So I consider this goal half done. I found a Tupperware representative and left three phone messages. She finally texted our home (landline) phone a few days ago. I had a more substantial text conversation with her yesterday and now I need to send her pictures of our broken Tupperware.

When I wrote my January goals post one person commented that just this goal alone would take them all year and now I'm afraid it might take me all year too. Argh.

3) Read some books I actually own (or have borrowed from people).

 

In the picture on the left is the pile at the beginning of January. The picture on the right is the pile as of last night. I added one book (There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather) and read three books off this pile. There are another three books I think would be fairly easy to read from here so that will be another month's goal. 

4) Clean out the basket on my plastic organizer.

Left: Before, Right: After (so much better!)

As with my resume I had this on my to do list numerous times but other things always took precedence, which was disappointing. However, on Wednesday night, I took over the living room and check out my basket now. I'm so excited about it. It makes me happy just to look at it. And I tidied the rest of my office space too.

5) Deal with all the hand-me-downs in the basement.

The picture on the left is "before," and the picture on the right is "after." Again, it makes me happy just to go downstairs and see everything all neatly organized, labelled, and put away. Yay!

6)  Have some family games nights.

Sadly, we didn't play many games this month. A few unexpected demands on our time came up, and we just didn't have the free evenings I was anticipating. Boo. Again, this will likely pop up on my goals for another month.

 

7) Get on top of Rachel's home reading and Sam's daily spelling.

So I was really happy that I didn't say "I" needed to get on top of these things, although that may have been implied. I happily discovered that it works really well for Rachel to read her French books with Sam. That has helped her home reading so much this month. Rachel read French or English ten nights in January.

As for Sam and his French spelling words, well, he practiced them between two and three times a week so that felt like a win. And yesterday, Rachel took over that task too. It works really well because it helps Rachel learn more French vocabulary and it means I can do something else. Parenting win!

8) Blog three times a week, including two (or three?) book reviews.

I blogged fourteen times in January which I am thrilled about. I also reviewed The Ship Of Brides in depth (review here), listed some of my favourite books of 2018 (see here), and just yesterday, posted a mini review of each book I read during the 24in48 readathon this past weekend. You can see that post here. I feel like I might just have gotten my blogging groove back, but we'll see.

9) Work on drinking more water.

I feel like I knocked this one out of the park. I am down to two cups of coffee-hot chocolate a day (most days), I'm up to about three - four glasses/bottles of water a day (most days), and, except for this weekend's readathon, I'm down to about two cans of Coke a week (most weeks).

What really helped with the water, is I've been tracking my daily water intake in my day planner so I can see how much I've actually drank. That's been really helpful. And I'm at the point where I'm starting to crave water so that's really good.

10) Figure out the kids' Valentine's Day cards.

Sam's cards are figured out (they're hilarious!) and we will be working on them this weekend. Rachel can't decide if she wants a bunny theme, a baseball theme (she stuck with this one for a week and had it all ready to go (almost)), or a flower theme. But since we'll also be working on hers this weekend, she needs to FIGURE IT OUT already. Yikes.

And now for an update on my Annual Goals

1) Complete a Project 365.

I took at least one picture every day in January and most of them were with the DSLR (as opposed to the iPad), so I feel like this is going well. 

Just so this post doesn't get even more boring, here's my daily photo from January 6. Ha!

2) Read through my whole Bible in one year. 

I haven't looked at my Bible all month, except that I am worship leading this weekend so I needed to look up those passages. I need to get on top of this in February.

3) Write more book reviews on the blog.

I feel like I did pretty well with this one. And I have a couple of reviews ready for February already. Yay!

4) Read out loud to the kids more.

I ran out of reading aloud energy after finishing Harry Potter Books 1 (with Rachel) and 3 (with Sam) over the holidays. I have a book to finish reading with Rachel (The Secret Garden) but I need to find a good one to read to Sam. I'll have to work on that... 

So that was my January -- a few misses, a few "not-quite-yets," and a few where I feel like I crushed those goals.

And with that, bring on February!

How are your goals (monthly or annual) going thus far?