February 2014 Report Card

February went by far more quickly than even I thought possible, and here we are at another report card. I think one of next month’s resolutions will be to make fewer goals so I don’t bite off more than I can manage. :)

Bust the Clutter: Downstairs | C
I actually made pretty good progress on this one and got things looking a lot neater in the living area at the back of the house. However, the front living room got a little MORE cluttered, and there are still several piles and boxes that need to be thoroughly conquered and put in their proper place (not just shuffled about or straightened).

Wash Eggs Daily | B
To be honest, I didn’t wash the eggs every day, but this was mostly because our hens’ production plummeted and we were only getting 2-4 eggs some days. To consolidate the process, I sometimes let the eggs accumulate until I had a full dozen to wash and put away, however this worked fine because of the small numbers, and I never had an egg overflow problem like last month. I gave myself a B for following the spirit of the law, if not the letter.

Purge the Closets | B
I was able to go through quite a lot of our clothes and cull a whole pile, but I still have a little ways to go before this goal is complete.

Write a Cleaning Schedule | D
I promptly forgot this was even one of my goals, and so I didn’t even make an attempt to sit down and write out a formal schedule to follow each week. I did, however, loosely follow the schedule recommended by the Fly Lady anyway, so I won’t fail myself completely.

Prepare Taxes | A
I helped Will make a spreadsheet for us to track the year’s farming expenses, and was able to give him all the receipts I had filed away so he could sort and enter them. Will worked tirelessly at using these raw materials to prepare everything and turn the resulting information over to the lady who does our taxes. We accomplished this goal – hurrah!

Balance & Maintain Checkbook | F
I didn’t even make a beginning on this task, besides storing away the receipts to be entered. Bad Erin. Guess this will have to be a March rollover goal.

Recurring Resolutions

Blog 2-3 Times Per Week | B
I only blogged 1-2 times per week this month, however, I think that’s probably a more achievable goal for the time being and works better with the other responsibilities I have (and the lack of internet at our house). Since failing to fully complete this goal helped me realize how I need to adapt it in the first place, I’m giving myself a B.

Read the Bible Daily | A
Still current and trucking along through Numbers! Having read daily for an entire two months seems like a huge accomplishment (even if it’s a rather small one) and has been really encouraging.

Journal Daily | F
Failed again. Oh the humanity! I actually did write one more entry, but that is still pathetic. Get it together, Erin!

Read Four Books | A+

• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer | This book was more violent and adult than the first book in the series, and I didn't like the character of Scarlet as much as I like Cinder (who appeared considerably less). On the other hand, the plot continues to thicken, the world is interesting, and the story is fast-paced and pretty intriguing. Hopefully there will be more of Cinder in the 3rd installment.
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (audiobook) | One of my very favorite stories, and it grows richer and more beloved each time I revisit it. The narrator was excellent and this story really seems almost meant to be read aloud. :)
• Good Things for Organizing by Martha Stewart | I know some people can't stand Martha because of course all the houses in the pictures are unattainably pristine and organized, but after I chuckle at the airy laundry rooms and vast linen closets and 18th century armoires (which are apparently available everywhere), I really do feel energized and challenged to see how I can put some of the concepts into practice. Many of the ideas are actually very do-able, and I feel inspired to get busy organizing and decorating with what I have (I can always dream about that mudroom...). :
• The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope | A well-written, interesting, old-fashioned sort of story that seamlessly wove together historical fiction with the more treacherous and obscure world of The Fair Folk.
• Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede | A fun, light-hearted spin on the classic fairytale model. This book would probably be an especially good hit with younger readers.

I actually went above and beyond this month, but of course this is one of my most enjoyable goals. :) My reading list was definitely a bit on the lighter side too, but the one housekeeping book I read was really inspiring and gave me lots of good ideas. The Perilous Gard was definitely my favorite out of all my fiction selections.

Finish Writing Thank-You Notes | D
I made good progress but still have far to go on the wedding notes, especially if I want to get them all sent off before our anniversary (eep!). I have to really settle in for a last great effort in March.

Overall Grade | B-
Well, I managed to scrape by with a B- again (barely!), but I'm not terribly surprised considering the disproportionately large number of goals I gave myself for the shortest month of year. I'll try my best to restrain my fervor and give myself a more manageable list for next month.

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Speaking of next month, I should have my March Goals up at the beginning of next week. Do you all have any goals you'd like to complete in the coming month? Please tell me about them in the comments, or write a post on your blog about your own Monthly Goals Challenge and share the link. I'd love to hear about them!

Unbroken

I haven't read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand yet, but it's one of Will's favorite stories and I've been meaning to read it for quite some time. After watching this Olympics preview for the upcoming movie, I'm even more inspired to read it. I think I'll definitely be putting it on my book list for next month.

Speaking of which, are there any books you've read recently that you really enjoyed? I'd love if you left me a suggestion in the comments. :)

Currently...

Happy Wednesday! Instead of posting another photo of our snowy yard, I've devised a new form of torture for my readers for those times when I didn't prepare a post. :)

Eating...

Ice cream. I am currently writing this post from a chair tucked behind a soft-serve machine at an ice cream show. When he's not guiding tours, my husband also works with marketing and developing new ice cream flavors for Country Dairy (which literally has the best milk and ice cream on the planet). This naturally has its perks (and dangers... imagine unlimited access to chocolate milk and ice cream... imagine...). One of these dangerous perks is going to ice cream shows, which is great for networking and making sales and all that, but it's also great for eating more free ice cream than you could possibly want. The key is pacing yourself. Personally, I can eat salt and vinegar all day but my threshold for sweets is pretty low, so although Will has been plying me with little cups of ice cream all day, I had to decline after the 6th or 7th sample. Besides Country Dairy (which is always good), I think my favorite was the Dole Whip (orange). It tasted just like an orange sherbet push-pop (amazing). :)

Feeling...

Sore. In general, I have an incredible aversion to exercise - an intolerance so severe that it borders on an allergy. Sometimes I fancy that I would like to be fit, but my body immediately panics and sirens start going off in my head... total revolt. However, I also like to be able to get the car out of the driveway, so the record snowfall has sabotaged my body's Automatic Exercise Shut-down Response. I've actually been glad that it's gotten me out of the house though and the exercise and fresh air has really felt good. I think my tiny biceps might even be benefiting.

Enjoying...

Fleece-lined tights. I've been wistfully pondering them ever since the snow began to fall, but last week (encouraged by this lovely lady's recommendation) I finally broke down and bought a pair from T.J. Maxx for about six bucks. Where have they been all my life? I've been trying to figure out how to wear skirts and dresses this winter without sacrificing warmth, and fleece-lined tights seem to do the trick. :)

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What are you all currently up to these days? :)

Monthly Goals: February 2014

A new month of exciting possibilities. Here we go! :)

Bust the Clutter: Downstairs
Since February is a short month and I have a long list of projects I’d like to work on, I’m going to focus my de-cluttering efforts to the downstairs living areas that still need work before I tackle the upstairs bedrooms.

Wash Eggs Daily
We currently have 30 laying hens, and although the snow and cold temperatures have definitely put a damper on their production, we are still getting 8-15 eggs a day. That may not seem like a lot, but after the first few weeks of novelty, washing the crud off that many eggs and disinfecting the sink every day lost some of its fairy-tale charm, let us say. This month, my goal is to wash them every day. Bleh.

Purge The Closets
I've been working on this a little in my spare time, but I'd like to go through our clothes this month and clean out our closet and dressers. I know my wardrobe could certainly use a good paring down, and I'd like to toss at least a few of Will's 20+ white shirts speckled with the interesting remains of chicken butchering (I think he deserves a fresh set for the new year). :)

Write a Cleaning Schedule
Before Christmas, reading the Fly Lady’s book really inspired me to work harder on de-cluttering and cleaning the house with baby-steps, but I got a little slack over the holidays. I’d like to jump back into my daily routines again and actually write out a weekly schedule to use as a checklist (as the Fly Lady suggests).

Prepare Taxes
Before I got married, my Dad has always helped me with my taxes (read: I was present but probably not paying attention), so I’m not exactly sure what this mysterious process involves, but I’ll try to help Will get our taxes ready however I can.

Balance & Maintain Checkbook
Balancing the checkbook is something that’s easy to procrastinate on, but because of the farm we have two checkbooks to keep track of and it’s even more crucial to keep on top of them. I need to balance them both for this year and make sure I ask for Will’s receipts and enter them either daily or weekly.

Recurring Resolutions

Blog 2-3 Times Per Week: I’ll try to keep up my current blogging streak, and hopefully make things more interesting (aka, post things besides pictures of snow taken from our porch). ;)

Read the Bible Daily: I'll try to stay diligent in the daily readings with Will, as well as my individual reading and marking time. I was consistent with the reading and marking part last month, but I need to actually fill out my little “reading journal” for Bible Study with my favorite part of the reading more often.

Journal Daily: This was such an utter failure that I will even take weekly entries as a victory this month.

Read Four Books: This is a short month, but I'm looking forward to more reading. :)

Finish Writing Thank-You Notes: SERIOUSLY.

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What about you all? Do you have any goals you’re hoping to complete this month? If you write a post about YOUR monthly goals, I’d love to add a link to this post so you can share them and we can encourage one another along the way! As I mentioned last month, I got the idea to write monthly goals from She Learns As She Goes, and it really is a great way to stay motivated. :)

January Report Card 2014

As my four readers (we few, we faithful few, we band of brothers sisters...) may or may not remember, at the beginning of January I made a wildly optimistic list of goals for the month which I had moderate hopes of accomplishing. Well, January has flown by and it’s time to evaluate my goal-keeping efforts during the past month. In the words of Inigo Montoya: "Humiliation galore."

Blog 2-3 Times Per Week | A+
To my complete surprise, snow storms and all, I actually wrote 2-3 posts per week for a whole month. Hooray! This might have been a painful triumph for whoever suffered through the reading of them, but hopefully persistence counts for something. :) Since this is one of my few victories and I'm making up my own grades (mwahaha) I'm going to live it up and give myself an A+.

Read the Bible Daily | A
Will and I managed to keep to our “Read the Bible in a Year Plan” for an entire month! Sometimes this meant reading at midnight, and we each had our days of cajoling the other to read when we felt like going to bed, but we made it. I missed two days of my individual reading and marking through Proverbs, but we did read aloud together every day, so I’ll call that an A.

Journal Daily | F
I wrote one entry during the entire month. It read as follows:

“1 January 2014
Happy New Year!”

Clearly a very astute observation, and a really worth-while sentiment to share with posterity.
With this one, I really just have to laugh.

Bust the Clutter | C+
I de-cluttered our front room (including the especially daunting task of sorting through the mountain of paperwork and letters that had accumulated on Will’s desk) and made progress in the dining area and den, but this definitely still needs work. Good effort but need for improvement... C+.

Read Four Books | B
This month I ended up having more time to read than usual, so although I didn't quite finish, I was actually pretty close. This month I read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (a slow-paced read, but interesting) and Cinder by Marissa Meyer (a fast-paced young adult novel based on Cinderella, set in a dystopian future where she is a cyborg from the moon... not my usual fare but I couldn't put it down), and listened to Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (always good) on audiobook while doing chores around the house. I'm only a few pages away from finishing Bed and Board: Plain Talk About Marriage by Robert Farrar Capon (took me a chapter or two to get into, but Will and I have had a wonderful time reading and talking through it) so I'm going to be lenient here and give myself a B. I really enjoyed them all and am looking forward to next month's books. :)

Finish Writing Thank You Notes | D
I've written and mailed half of the Christmas thank you notes but still have a few left to write, and have a mountain of wedding ones to wade into. A tiny amount of progress, but I really need to get cracking on this goal as my top priority this month. It isn't a very difficult task, just an overwhelming one, and it weighs on my mind. I should probably make dinner ahead one day and just tie myself to a chair until I finish. Stay tuned....

Have Dinner Ready When Will Gets Home | B
This goal was a bit hard to measure. Some nights we had to eat later or were away from home, so overall it was difficult to keep track. I definitely had dinner ready and waiting more nights than I had previously, however, so I’m going to give myself a B for Noticeable Improvement.

Overall Grade | B-

Not shocking, considering my lofty aspirations and over-enthusiastic New Years zeal, so I'm actually not too disappointed. However, this leaves lots of room for improvement as I sally forth into the next month hopefully a tad wiser from lessons learned (though probably not much). The beauty of the monthly goal plan is that even if you have a disastrous month, a new one comes along in a few weeks where you can start fresh with just as much excitement, hope, and good intention.

Speaking of next month, I should have my February Goals up later this week. Do you all have any goals you'd like to complete in the coming month? I'd love to hear about them!