Since it does appear that today is indeed April 1, it's time to check in with my March goals. And my April goals will be coming on Wednesday so you have that to look forward to. Ha!
1) Clean out our fridge and WASH IT. And the freezer too.
Our last afternoon of March Break was spent accomplishing this goal. The kids did an amazing job of washing out and drying drawers so it was perfect. And our fridge is sooooo clean!!!
I can't claim that the freezer is as cleaned out as I was hoping but we did use up some older food so we're getting there...
2) Finish reading The Secret Garden to Rachel.
We accomplished this goal at 8:37 last night so we just made it! I remember loving The Secret Garden as a kid but, reading it to Rachel I realized how long and involved it is. I may have first read it myself at around age ten. I think more of the story than I would have liked was going over Rachel's head. Rachel seemed to mostly like it, when we weren't reading the "boring parts" that is.
We rocked this goal!!! You can read all about our March Break here. It was a good break and the perfect balance between relaxing and having fun. And the kids were gone enough that I got a good amount of work done too. Yay!
4) Invite two families over for meals.
We had three different sets of people over for meals during March Break. It was a great time of connecting. One group was a family of six and we even extended our table for the very first time. I didn't get any pictures with the people but I did get table pictures - Ha!
While I read 21 books in March, sadly none of them were off my personal TBR. However, my library holds are down to eight and I only have five books checked out so I'm going to work on my personal TBR this month. There's a 24 hour readathon on Saturday which should help :)
My sad little book piles :(
6) Deal with 300 hundred e-mails in my one e-mail address (currently at 857 and counting, 253 unread -- seriously ridiculous).
I am so happy to share that I ROCKED this goal! This e-mail address is currently sitting at 52 total with 8 unread. I decided I wasn't going to respond to a bunch of blog comments from three years ago and I filed a lot of e-mails. Just for laughs, I thought I would share some of the e-mails which were still sitting in that inbox.
1) From December 2007, the receipt and shipping confirmation from my wedding dress which I ordered online from Target. (Full disclosure: I still haven't moved that one out of my inbox...)
2) From January 2008, the official receipt from paying for Dave's second term of grad school.
3) From October 2009, a confirmation e-mail that the below picture of Sam was officially entered in a "Cutest Fall Baby Contest." I have no idea what the result was, nor do I remember what inspired me to enter.
4) From February of 2012, the original inquiries into what would become our rental house for a year when we moved back to Ontario.
5) From January 2016, Pinterest ideas for how to make a salad in a mason jar. I thought this was one of the more random e-mails since I have NEVER EVER been interested in making salad in a mason jar.
7) Do our taxes.
While we decided to be responsible and buy a few more RRSPs this year, we decided to leave it until the last minute and buy them at the deadline. This means we are still waiting on a few last receipts so we did not do our taxes this month. Boo.
8) Go through the travel bag.
I was able to get this done. The process of sorting was a bit of a disaster...
...but I was very pleased with the final product!
9) Shred the paper in the basement.
I'm so thrilled to say this is DONE! Whooo hooo!!! The kids loved helping me with this one so every day they'd ask, "Can we shred paper now?" and it got done so fast.
1) Complete a Project 365.
Well, I missed my first photo of the year in March. But other than that, this project is still going strong. And I'm loving taking more pictures.
My photo from March 15
2) Read through my whole Bible in one year.
Oh, do I need to make this a priority. I am not doing very well at this one. But I want to be doing well at it, if that makes any sense.
3) Write more book reviews on the blog.
I had three book review posts on the blog this month. I think I have been doing a better job of this.
4) Read out loud to the kids more.
While I finished reading The Secret Garden to Rachel, I am realizing that this might be too much pressure for me this year. The kids would much rather read to themselves. I am thinking that maybe instead I need to be more aware of all of us spending more time reading together but independently, if that makes sense. I'm going to think about this a bit more...
So there is the report for my March goals. Did you set annual goals? Do you set monthly goals? How are you doing?
Really good job on your goals! I'm impressed with how much you covered! I have read some articles that even into middle school it's important to still read out loud to your kids. Trent's teacher last year made a point of mentioning it to every parent during our spring conferences - what I've read is that even proficient/avid readers don't necessarily comprehend everything which is why it's good to still read aloud to them. I struggle with this because Brent refuses to read to them and Paige is still nursing at bedtime, so if I want to read to everyone at bedtime, I'm stuck reading and doing 3 bedtimes. Trent does usually prefer to read to himself, so if we read Harry Potter (we're in book 5!) 2 or 3 times/week I call it a win, and I probably read to Drew 4-5 nights/week. Although it's really important for her since she's RIGHT THERE with being able to read on her own.
ReplyDeleteThe cute baby probably inspired you to enter the cute baby contest :)
ReplyDeleteI should probably set more goals. I usually just set a financial goal of savings for the year. Not very exciting but it keeps me in check in terms of how much I can afford to travel, how often I can treat myself, etc. I also try to read 12 books a year - one for each month (which in comparison to you probably seems like nothing!), but some months I read 5, and then I'll go 3 months without picking up a book. So far I'm failing miserably at that this year but exceeding my financial goal! Can't win them all I guess.
Ha! Thanks for the "cute baby" feedback :)
DeleteA savings goal is a GREAT goal. I should look into doing a "no spend" month at some point. I'd probably be shocked at how much we could save by not spending unnecessarily in a month.
Even one unread email gives me anxiety so I'm so happy you conquered yours! Also, I distinctly remember the day you were tackling the blog comment section because I got like 15 emails from you in 15 minutes, lol. Also, I, too, am really slacking on the Bible reading. I feel like I can either read 50 books this year OR read the whole Bible and honestly the non-Bible books are more interesting right now... which definitely says something about my messed-up priorities. Hmm. Typing that out really makes me feel bad.
ReplyDelete