I came up with 12 goals I’d like to accomplish this year with the hopes of being able to cross one off my list per month to make them more manageable. I thought a great way to hold myself accountable to the things I want to accomplish this year would be to do a weekly update.

After all, we all need a little help staying motivated sometimes. Here’s how I am doing so far:

1. Clean, de-clutter and organize my entire home in 30 days or less. – So far this year I have cleaned my closet, organized my kitchen, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. This week The Girl and I are going through all her clothes and putting the ones she plans on taking to school in bins and all the others in a giant bag for the Goodwill. Purging is fun! 🙂

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. Monkey Boy cleaned out the garage over the weekend and for some strange reason I was inspired to hop on the elliptical machine. 30 minutes! I thought I was going to die. Gaaaa. Not sure if I’ll be trying that again.

3. Travel.   So far this year The Girl and I have been to Boston, London, Paris, Portland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia and now Victoria B.C.

Would you believe my next little mini adventure is already planned? It will be more work than adventure, but I’m still hoping to sneak in a little fun.

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. I’m good. Really, I am.

5. Get 3 new teeth. – I went to the oral surgeon and got the GREEN LIGHT to go back to my dentist and get my new teeth. Wahoooo!

6. Pay off my car. Done!

7. Finish this primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. Finished! It took me 6 months but I’m done. When I started I had no idea I was making a rug for Lucy. 😉

I started another rug, it has a turkey on it so I’m hoping to get it done in time to set out for Thanksgiving. We’ll see. I placed an order for some more wool {bad Mavis!} so I’ll probably be busy hand dying wool next week and then list the extras in my Etsy store.

8. Do something together as a family ever Sunday. Monkey Boy got his licence this past week and so Sunday was spent negotiating driving times with him. Ahhh boy and cars. It’s a magical thing, isn’t it?

I don’t remember being nearly as excited to drive when I was a teen.

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Done! – I’ll tell you about it at the end of the month.

10. Secret Plan #2 Making progress.

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. I was at The Home Depot yesterday and somehow wandered over to the flooring section. I had a nice chat with the flooring lady and ended up going home with a few free samples of wood. You know, for our house in Colonial Williamsburg that we don’t have yet.

When I asked the HH which one he liked best he just got this bemused look on his face and then wandered off. Our 20th anniversary is coming up and I keep hinting…. we’ll see how it all pans out. 😉 I believe in miracles, don’t you?

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. Sweet mother of all things good in this world, my dog likes kale. Can you believe that? So lately I’ve been sauteing a little bit for breakfast and mixing the leafy greens in with a few eggs for her. No wonder she now refuses to eat canned dog food. What a life.

So there you have it, my goals for the new year.

How about YOU? How are your 2014 goals coming along?

~Mavis

P.S. YES, I know I wrote down 13 goals. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to attain one of them. {gee, I wonder which one?}  But I wanted to add it in there anyway because I believe in miracles. 

I came up with 12 goals I’d like to accomplish this year with the hopes of being able to cross one off my list per month to make them more manageable. I thought a great way to hold myself accountable to the things I want to accomplish this year would be to do a weekly update.

After all, we all need a little help staying motivated sometimes. Here’s how I am doing so far:

1. Clean, de-clutter and organize my entire home in 30 days or less. – So far this year I have cleaned my closet, organized my kitchen, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. So far this week The Girl and I have gone through all shoes and tossed the really junky ones and stuffed the others in a bag for the Goodwill.

Also on our list for this week is cleaning out the bathroom cupboards again. We did this about 6 months ago but it’s time to do it again. How does all that stuff get in there anyway?

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. We got some serious mileage in on our pedometers when we were in Victoria over the weekend. One day we walked 11 miles. Wowza. Who knew walking around town looking for pastries and tea shops could be such a workout!

3. Travel.   So far this year The Girl and I have been to Boston, London, Paris, Portland, Oregon Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia and now Victoria B.C. 

What’s next on our list? Nothing. 🙁 Unless of course you count the HH and The Girl’s road trip to college at the end of the summer. That one will be a doozy for sure. 3,000 miles? Umm yeah, I’ll be sitting that one out. {I’ll tell you more about that one later}.

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. At this point I’m too busy getting her ready for college like making sure she has quarters so she can do her own laundry, and working on other projects so I just don’t have any time to worry. So basically, stay busy and it will all work out. Right? Right. 🙂

5. Get 3 new teeth. – I’m suppose to go back to the oral surgeon later this week to see if I can finally get the green light to make an appointment with the dentist to get some teeth. Wish me luck! 😉

6. Pay off my car. Done!

7. Finish this primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. Finished! It took me 6 months but I’m done. 🙂 I started another rug, it has a turkey on it so I’m hoping to get it done in time to set out for Thanksgiving. We’ll see.

I also started my first ever cross stitch and I think I’m either

A. going to go blind trying to finish it or

B. Just stop altogether. To say cross stitching is time consuming would be a HUGE understatement. 😉

8. Do something together as a family ever Sunday. The Girl and I were out of town this past weekend but word on the street was Monkey Boy and the HH had a great time driving around town and eating BBQ.

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Done! – I’ll tell you about it at the end of the month.

10. Secret Plan #2 Making progress.

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. Our 20th anniversary is coming up and I keep hinting…. we’ll see how it all pans out. 😉

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. I am totally diggin’ the weather here in Western Washington lately and was able to get quite a few things planted this past week. Green beans are up and we’ve been picking raspberries like mad. Life is good!

So there you have it, my goals for the new year.

How about YOU? How are your 2014 goals coming along?

~Mavis

P.S. YES, I know I wrote down 13 goals. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to attain one of them. {gee, I wonder which one?}  But I wanted to add it in there anyway because I believe in miracles. 

I came up with 12 goals I’d like to accomplish this year with the hopes of being able to cross one off my list per month to make them more manageable. I thought a great way to hold myself accountable to the things I want to accomplish this year would be to do a weekly update.

After all, we all need a little help staying motivated sometimes. Here’s how I am doing so far:

1. Clean, de-clutter and organize my entire home in 30 days or less. – So far this year I have cleaned my closet, organized my kitchen, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. Because the weather has been so nice around here lately I’ve been playing outside instead of worrying about keeping the house clean. Wahoooo for summer vacation is all I have to say about that.

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. {This is my BEFORE picture} I apologize if you were eating while on your computer and have now spat the contents of your breakfast all over the computer screen. 😉

3. Travel.   So far this year The Girl and I have been to Boston, London, Paris and now Portland, Oregon Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. This weekend I’m taking The Girl and her BFF Pocahontas to Victoria and let me tell you BOB, the girls are excited. Canada here we come!!!

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. Not even worried about this one anymore. 🙂 Seriously, I’ve got  a plan. And it is AWESOME.

5. Get 3 new teeth. – Someday…. right?

6. Pay off my car. Done!

7. Finish this primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. Finished! It took me 6 months but I’m done. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Now, I need to make Lucy a rug of her own so she’ll stay off of this one.

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Done! – I’ll tell you about it at the end of the month

10. Secret Plan #2 Still plotting away. Making progress though. 😉

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. Dear HH, I’ll settle for ANYWHERE IN VIRGINIA. Are you reading this? Anywhere!!! And don’t forget, our 20th anniversary is just around the corner. And trust me, after what you gave me last year…. a vacation home in Virginia would be a great improvement. 😉

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. The hedges alongside the house are monsters! Yesterday was the third time this year that I’ve trimmed them. What a pain in the keester I tell you.

So there you have it, my goals for the new year.

How about YOU? How are your 2014 goals coming along?

~Mavis

P.S. YES, I know I wrote down 13 goals. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to attain one of them. {gee, I wonder which one?}  But I wanted to add it in there anyway because I believe in miracles. 

I came up with 12 goals I’d like to accomplish this year with the hopes of being able to cross one off my list per month to make them more manageable. I thought a great way to hold myself accountable to the things I want to accomplish this year would be to do a weekly update.

After all, we all need a little help staying motivated sometimes. Here’s how I am doing so far:

1. Clean, de-clutter and organize my entire home in 30 days or less. – So far this year I have cleaned my closet, organized my kitchen, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. Blah Blah Blah… Sometimes it’s nice to have a messy counter. 😉 All cleaning chores have been canceled for this week. I mean c’mon, it’s summer vacation baby!

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. So something funny happened. I stopped worrying about what I was eating and how much I was walking and just started to consume tons of water everyday because of how hectic things have been over that past few weeks with graduation and travelling.

The day after I came home from our trip I stepped on the scale to see how much I had gained from all the delicious food we ate and was surprised to find out I had actually LOST 5 pounds. Weird, huh? Maybe it was stress, maybe we walked waaaaay more than I thought we did or maybe, just maybe the HH did something to that scale. 😉 Who knows, but I feel great. Ignorance is bliss, right?

3. Travel.   So far this year The Girl and I have been to Boston, London, Paris and now Portland, Oregon Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Now all we’ve got left on our “must see” list for this year is Canada. I’m not sure how we are going to fit it in before she leaves for college, but we are going to try.

Has anyone rode on the Victoria Clipper before? We were thinking taking the ferry might be the best way to see Victoria but I’ve never been on The Clipper before so if you have, please let us know about your experience.

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. Something pretty awesome happened on our trip to the East Coast that is going to make all the difference in the world when it’s time for her to go to school. I don’t want to say what it is right now, but I’m sure a few of you will totally be rolling your eyes when I tell you. 🙂 🙂 🙂

5. Get 3 new teeth. – I went to the Oral Surgeon on Monday hoping to get a clean bill of health so I could FINALLY get some teeth. 2 of my 3 abutments? sockets? holes in my mouth? were fine, but the other one? Not so much.

So the doctor gave me a few shots and then cut me. I’m scheduled to go back in a few weeks and if the area has healed, I’ll get the green light to go the dentist. Fingers crossed.

6. Pay off my car. Done!

7. Finish this primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. Gaaaa! You’d think I’d be done by now. Seriously, I only have one star left to hook then all be ready to finish the edges. I was hoping to complete this a few weeks ago but oh well, it will get done sooner or later, right?

8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family every Sunday. Did I ever tell you the HH has a little convertible? Well he does, I like to call it the Smurf car because it’s so tiny. But anyway… Last Sunday he took it out THREE times. 3. Who does that? Once by himself, once with Monkey Boy and once with The Girl. I guess that could be considered family time, right?

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Done! – I’ll tell you about it next month. 

10. Secret Plan #2 Still plotting away. Making progress though. 😉

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg.

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. Inspector Lucy and I have been hard at work in the garden since The Girl and I got back from our trip to the East Coast. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to plant in the garden bed where we dug up all that garlic. Beans? Beets? Cucumbers? Do you have any suggestions?

So there you have it, my goals for the new year.

How about YOU? How are your 2014 goals coming along?

~Mavis

P.S. YES, I know I wrote down 13 goals. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to attain one of them. {gee, I wonder which one?}  But I wanted to add it in there anyway because I believe in miracles.