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. Last week I cleaned the blinds. This week The Girl and I are going to clean all the light fixtures. Isn’t spring break RAD? 😉

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house.  – What can I say, it’s a work in progress. I’m back on the pedometer wagon again and Lucy the puggle dog and I are still taking our long walks every day.

3. Travel. So far this year The Girl and I have been to Boston, London, Paris and now Portland, Oregon. Canada is still on our list as well as a few other places.  Stay tuned.

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. No comment.

5. Get 3 new teeth. – Nope, not yet.

6. Pay off my car.  Done! – If you know me in real life then you know I despise driving. I do like my car, but I can barely make it to Target and back without breaking out in hives, so on our latest adventure to Portland, The Girl did all the driving {over 500 miles}. Weeee!

7. Finish the primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. –  Last week I made the decision to turn my the giant rug I’ve been working on into a more manageable 4’x2′ front door rug instead. I made some pretty good progress last week too and I’m hoping to have it finished by June.

8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family every Sunday. – We ate dinner together, does that count? 🙂 The Girl and I got back late from our road trip so we didn’t hang out with the boys to much. But from what I hear they had a pretty wicked weekend doing yard work together and bonding over video games.

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Working on it.

10. Secret Plan #2 – Still plotting away.

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. – Not going so well. But, it’s not stopping me from pinning stuff on to Pinterest.

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. – Lucy the Puggle dog and I spent the day yesterday deadheading all of the daffodils in the front yard. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand looking at brown daffodils. Today we’ll finish sniping the brownish flowers in the backyard.

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. Last week I cleaned the gazillion little crystals on my dining room chandelier. This week I’m going to work on cleaning the blinds. {Blech}.

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house.  – I can’t give up sweets. There, I said it. I tried last week and only made it 3 days before I made a blueberry pie and then ate the whole thing. I think if I could just give up sweets I could wear those stupid pants. But I can’t.

So I’m back on the pedometer wagon again. Lucy the puggle dog and I have been going on long walks practically everyday for about 2 weeks now. It’s amazing what walking around town for an hour or two will do for you mentally. Seriously, you should try it. Now, if I could just turn off the list making switch in my mind the walks might actually calm me down a bit. But that’s another story.

3. Travel. I am 75% sure we are going to go to Victoria for spring break. After all, what’s not to like about walking around museums and drinking tea for a few days?

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. I’ve pretty much given up on this one. Everytime I start to think about it I start bawling my eyes out.

5. Get 3 new teeth. – Nope, not yet. Although apparently my oral surgeon reads the blog. {Awkward!}.

6. Pay off my car.  Done!

7. Finish the primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. – I made a decision. I don’t want to make a giant 4’x6′ coffee table rug anymore.  I seem to be hooking everything BUT this particular rug lately so I am going to pull the extra wool strips out,  trim the linen backing and just turn it into a 4’x2′ front door rug instead. All I need to do to finish it now will be to hook the two remaining stars and then fill in the background with antique wool strips.

It was a good idea, but I really just don’t want to waste my energy in making something I am totally not 100% in love with anymore. Does that make sense?

8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family every Sunday. – We were suppose to go to the Tacoma Rainiers baseball game on Sunday. But at the last minute the HH decided he didn’t want to go. So instead we all wandered off and did our own things. 🙁

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Working on it.

10. Secret Plan #2 – Still plotting away.

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. I could dress up everyday in a colonial dress and give tours of our vegetable garden and home and he could hang out in the cellar/man cave with all the other men from the community watching tv and playing with their electronic gadgets.

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. – What would I do without this dog? She is the coolest thing ever. Seriously. Having Lucy around in the garden makes everything so much better.

And yes, those are my husbands shoes I am wearing. 😉

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, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. Last week I organized my arts and crafts closet. This week I’ll be cleaning the gazillion little crystals in my chandelier.

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. I just went to go try on the pants and take a picture for a before and after photo. I can’t find the freakin’ pants!!! I still want to be able to cross this goal off my list by the end of April so I’m starting a new plan. Yes I know I said that last week. But this time I mean it.

3. Travel. We still have not figured out if we are going to Canada or Virginia. Most likely it will be Canada though because there is no chance of snow. 😉

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. I hear they offer adult pottery classes at college. Maybe I should go with her. I’ve always wanted to learn how to raku.

5. Get 3 new teeth.  It’s been almost a month since anything has fallen out of my mouth. Shocking, I know.

6. Pay off my car. Done! 🙂 🙂 🙂

7. Finish the primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. Blast! Another week has gone by and all I’ve had a chance to work on is the pumpkin rug. So much for quick projects. I see many late nights ahead in my future just so I’ll be able to cross it off my list by the end of the year.

8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family every Sunday. Last weekend we all took Lucy the puggle trouble for a walk around the harbor then stopped and got 2 to go orders of fries. The HH grumbled the whole time {big surprise} and Lucy loved every minute of her walk 3 mile walk.

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Working on it.

10. Secret Plan #2 – Still plotting away.

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. – Right now I would settle for any type of house on the East Coast.

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. – Check out our the espalier pear tree. Ain’t she dandy? We planted 2 of these trees along side the house last spring and so far they are doing really well. I need to trim the viburnum hedge that’s planted in front of it but I think I’ll wait until it blooms first.

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, decluttered my bathroom, organized my office, gutted the garage, and tackled the laundry room. Last week I touched up the floors and cabinets with my favorite wood stain pens. My cleaning task for this week is to go through my Arts and Crafts Closet. Which let me tell you Bob, is going to take a while.

2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. – Here we are 3 months later and I still can’t fit into those pants {and the shirt I so badly want to wear}. I have fallen of the pedometer wagon and I’m mad at myself for continuing to stuff my face with sweets. I want to be able to cross this goal off my list by the end of April so I’m starting a new plan. Today. But you’ll have to wait until next week to read about it. {Sorry}.

3. Travel. – The Girl and I are trying to decide if we should take a road trip to Canada for spring break or fly to Virginia to look at Colonial Homes. It’s a tough one.

4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing. Notice how I said a WEEK in bed sobbing? so if I only spend 6 days and 23 hours in bed I still get to mark this goal off my list. Right?

5. Get 3 new teeth. – Nothing new to report. Still waiting to mouth to heal so I can get some chompers. The good news is, nothing fell out of my mouth last week. {Think silver lining}.

6. Pay off my car.  – Done! Paid it off earlier this month. I never want a car payment again. Ever. Here’s a video of us when we bought it last summer.

7. Finish the primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. – What started out as an innocent little {okay, not so little} idea to finish a massive area rug using the supplies I had on hand, hasn’t exactly panned out. Not at all. In fact had I know when I began that I would end up spending a ridiculous amount of time {and money}  “finishing up” the rug, I may not have started.

But, on a positive note, I have come back {with full force} to a hobby I once loved. Which is good. Mostly because it is keeping my mind off things that are out of my control right now. {More about that later}.

8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family every Sunday. – We set a rat trap in the attic. Hows that for quality family time?

9.  Secret Plan #1 – Working on it.

10. Secret Plan #2 – Still Plotting

11. Secret Plan #3

12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. – Status Update:  Not going well.

13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. – Last week the weather was gorgeous! This week however it’s suppose to rain. Every.Single.Day. so it looks like I might need to get Lucy Puggle a raincoat so we can continue to clear the raspberry patch and not get drenched.

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.