On flunking 2015 goals before the end of 1Q

I was ambitious. A little too ambitious. And I’ve also been a little lazy.

My easy resolutions, or, rather, habits that I restarted in December have been mostly on point. Because hey, it’s not that hard to sleep 8 hours a night and keep a tube of lipstick or lip color in every.single.purse and pocket I own. The walking the dog bit has been hampered by the never ending polar vortex- we have a Yorkie, not a Huskie, and little Miss Mercy isn’t a fan of the exteme cold.

She basically just freezes up and refuses to move when it’s too cold or if she can’t get through the snow. I guess I can’t blame her. It has been hovering around zero degrees for weeks.

Here’s the status report on my list. Overall, I’m hoovering just above flunking. As you’ll see, I’ve nixed some on the list and tweaked others. Keith has some fancy project management name for this, like agile project manage my or something, so I am going to pretend that’s totally what I am doing, and add his project color coding status (RAG- Red Amber Green). You know. So I seem productive.

My goals for 2015 are organized into six categories: Faith/ Personal Growth, Marriage, Mothering, Creativity, Fitness, & Others.

Faith/ Personal Growth- Amber- not quite on track, but moving in the right direction.

• Wake up early and read bible while riding my stationary bike for 21 consecutive days in January (once I kick this awful cold)- ummmm I got a cold, then Sydney got the stomach flu, and then we all got colds again and I voted for sleep instead of extra cardio. I have, however, been faithful in getting up by at least 6 to read my bible. I’ve been trucking along with the If:equip groups weekday readings as well as my own bible study homework. So I guess this is sorta a win. Am I keeping this goal? Ehhhh ok I’ll try again in March to incorporate the bike riding, but I’m separating the goals into faith/ personal growth and fitness. It’s too hard to keep track of a multi tasking goal like this.
• Finish reading all the half read books on my Kindle- read a minimum of 10 minutes a day- I am soooo winning at this! I totally read a little bit every day, I finished one book, am rereading another and started a new one (ugh, I know I am a serial book starter! But I needed to read Love Does for a Valentine’s Day project!)
• Use prayer app daily- schedule just 5 minutes a day- I’ve been using the prayer app to keep track of things, but I am not consistent in spending purposeful time in prayer every day. 

Marriage- Green

• Plan a weekend trip for 1st quarter- we’re waiting for a sale at our favorite inn, so this is on hold.
• Plan a date night per month- I actually think we did this in both January and February! We are usually pretty broke in the beginning of the year- as we have several family birthday at the end of the year, plus Christmas and the traveling we did to visit family this past year. We don’t have a line in the budget for babysitting. I wish we did! Even just for me to be able to go to the eye doctor ALONE! But it’s not feasible and we’re at the mercy of free babysitters, aka, my mom. Hopefully she’s up for another sleepover next month, even though I am pretty sure she doesn’t sleep a wink with the kids over.
• Workout together once a week- this has been happening on and off, depending on schedules and sickness with the kids. We worked out together last Monday and did a push up contest the other evening. Ha!

Mothering- Amber

• Take Savannah to a painting class- the family classes at our local paint place are on Sundays and I haven’t found one that works with our schedule and that we like. I keep looking!
• Visit science museum once a month- Yes! We visited the science museum as a family in January and with some friends in February. 
• reinstitute chore packs and cleaning Saturdays- ehhh… we’re still working on this. There’s always a birthday party to go to on Saturday or something so I never seem to get everything done, but the kids are definitely taking their jobs to help take care of our home and their stuff seriously.
• develop a homeschool/ enrichment schedule for Luke- in progress

Creativity- Amber

• Participate in the 10 day Do Over Challenge – from John Acuff– total flunk, I don’t even know if I can do over the do over. I think I might nix this one!
• Sew one article of clothing for myself per quarter- on track to make two items this quarter- a pair of handknitted socks and a sweatshirt/ wrap/ cardigan
• try the “Year of Nothing New” challenge for clothing- I bought a shirt from Target. Then I remembered this challenge and RETURNED IT! Even though it was SEVEN BUCKS! Go ME! Then my two favorite pairs of jeans ripped in some rather unfortunate places in early January and they were deemed unwearable, but I have not replaced them.
• write 50 blog posts this year- ehhh… maybe? I’m at about 5, so I have some work to do. But I am starting to figure out that I can write a bunch of stuff when I have time, and post it or edit it later!

Fitness- Red

• Cut body fat to under 20%- holy hell, how am I going to do that? Because, carbs.
• Participate in #30daysnocheats with Jen, starting January 5th- so losing. Lets shoot for March.
• Help 2 people in their fitness journey- working with one who is having some amazing results!
• research personal training certificate- no progress

Other-

• Host an IF:Table- nope, not yet
• Host a monthly craft night- actually I think this is halfway happening, though not terribly organized, my friend Cyndi and I get together to do some things every few weeks, and it is fantastically fun.

At the end of the 1Q, I’ll be rewriting my goals for the year. Being an agile life project manager and all. Ha. How are everyone else’s goals coming along?

On Goal Setting for 2015

I don’t always set goals for the new year, but this year I felt inspired to do so.

I usually stick to my 3 resolutions every year- walk the dog every day, sleep 8 hours a night, and wear lipstick- and I restarted those on December 1st and have done pretty well. I like the combination of practical and fun resolutions that don’t require huge changes as I believe that one’s life is comprised of both big and little things. Small changes and habits can pay dividends.

Why the lipstick? I’m not entirely certain where this idea came from, but somewhere along the way I heard that the right lipstick should brighten your whole complexion and your disposition. Combine this fact with my life as a stay at home mom who’s uniform is ripped jeans and a t-shirt, or yoga pants and a sweatshirt, and a little lipstick can go a long way in making my reflection a little more pleasant. Vain, maybe, but it’s an easy thing to do.

I’ve categorized my goals for 2015 into six categories: Faith/ Personal Growth, Marriage, Mothering, Creativity, Fitness, & Others.

So without further adieu, here are my 2015 goals:

Faith/ Personal Growth-

• Wake up early and read bible while riding my stationary bike for 21 consecutive days in January (once I kick this awful cold)
• Finish reading all the half read books on my Kindle- read a minimum of 10 minutes a day
• Use prayer app daily- schedule just 5 minutes a day

Marriage-

• Plan a weekend trip for 1st quarter
• Plan a date night per month
• Workout together once a week

Mothering-

• Take Savannah to a painting class
• Visit science museum once a month
• reinstitute chore packs and cleaning Saturdays
• develop a homeschool/ enrichment schedule for Luke

Creativity-

• Participate in the 10 day Do Over Challenge – from John Acuff
• Sew one article of clothing for myself per quarter
• try the “Year of Nothing New” challenge for clothing
• write 50 blog posts this year

Fitness-

• Cut body fat to under 20%
• Participate in #30daysnocheats with Jen, starting January 5th
• Help 2 people in their fitness journey
• research personal training certificate

Other-

• Host an IF:Table
• Host a monthly craft night

I’ll be posting monthly updates on my progress, a-la-moneysavingmom.

Letting out a pair of jeans

I must have been delusional, buying the size jeans that I did. They were snug in the fitting room, but I had just shed a ton of baby weight after #2 was born and I figured I would keep losing.

Wrong. Well, sort of. I did lose weight, but I also gained muscle, so my thigh circumference remained the same. I have what a trainer at the gym called “diesel legs” the other day. His female colleague smacked him and told him to never tell a woman that; he backpedaled and started stammering about how hard I work out and how strong I am, yada yada yada.

I wasn’t offended. It was funny.

But yes. I have diesel legs. Quads. Glutes. Hammies. They are strong. Thigh-gap ain’t nevah going to happen here.

I’ve had the aforementioned pair of jeans in my closet for about four and a half years. Gone through another pregnancy and birth. And yet did I toss those jeans? Or give them to a skinnier leg friend? No. I just kept trying them on every so often and wind up hopping around in my bedroom trying to will these jeans to shimmy up my legs. I usually ended up falling over in a pile of defeat.

Then one day a few months back, it dawned on me, could I alter them?

I flipped them inside out and noticed that there was more than a half inch seam allowance on the outside seam.

To alter a seam, you need to rip out the stitches with a seam ripper. Take care not to rip the fabric and be sure to remove the wayward pieces of thread.

Iron your fabric to remove any creases before pinning a sewing the new seam.

Sew as close as you can to the serger stitches. It helps if your pinning is precise, so you get the maximum amount of fabric added to the width of the pants.

Wriggle and shake and get those jeans on! It worked!

Except once I had them on, I couldn’t move too well. I probably needed another inch. Oh boo. What’s the deal with me not giving up on these jeans!?! Sheesh.

Growing superpowers

I’ve seen wheatgrass shots at the smoothie bar at my gym and on television (I confess on the Kardashians, but I seriously only watched them a few times before the wedding special and I totally swore them off after the 72 day marriage). Heard about the amazing superpowers of this little plant. I thought about adding a shot to my protein shake at the gym, but it was wicked expensive.

Wheat grass… hmmm… we can grow that, yes? Then I guess I can grow my own superpowers.

After a little bit of research I discovered that you only need organic wheat berries to get started. I found some in the Nature’s Marketplace section of Wegmans (world’s greatest grocery store).

Because of the hard nature of the wheat berry (the seed), I soaked them in water for over a day until they started sprouting. Then we put some potting soil  in one of those clamshell containers that you get field mix in and sprinkled the wheat berries in.

Get a spritzer bottle to do the watering. Water out of the faucet will displace the seeds.

Close the top, put in a sunny window, and spritz with water every day. In about 2 weeks, you’ll have something that looks like this:

It may grow faster in the heat of the summer. Be on the lookout for mold at the base of the plants; overcrowded seedlings can have this problem.

If it looks good, take some scissors and harvest your wheatgrass!

I read about using a wheatgrass juicer, but because that costs dinero and I have a teeny kitchen… another appliance could send me over the edge on a bad day… I opted to throw the grass in the blender while I was making a green smoothie.

There’s spinach in there, too.

And that’s where I get my superpowers.

Actually, I only had it twice, but it was a fun project to do with my four year old daughter. She enjoyed the whole planting, watering, harvesting process. Using a clear container was great too because she could see the roots starting to grow under the soil.

 

First Silhouette Project

I got a Silhouette SD this week. My friend Tia has had one for a little while and now that the 12 inch Cameo has come out, there are some deals to be had on the smaller SD version.

I am more of a fabric girl, so I didn’t mess with the few snippets of scrapbooking paper I have and opted to make a simple freezer paper stenciled shirt for my first project. I used the Silhouette Software studio to write out the words and had the silhouette cut it on freezer paper. Then I ironed the stencil onto an old black tank and used some silver fabric paint to finish the project.

 

“With Bump, not Plump.” It’s my new gym tank. I love it. Donned it to Golds Gym this morning to do my Kim Lyons’s bicep workout. Which is killer, by the way.

 

Feeling winter white and definitely not as good as shape as I was for my brother’s spectacular wedding last July (nor as sunkissed!), but feeling pretty good. 21 weeks down, 19 to go!