March Goals checkup

So my friend Christa wrote her goal checkup post last week and this is the picture she used to describe it…

Yep, I feel the same way!   Don’t even want to look at this list.  And worse yet we are 1/4 of the way DONE with 2012 and I am no where near 1/4 of the way through my goals

I declared March “the month to get things done” and you know what, it just didn’t happen.  It was a busy month with many activities and I just don’t know it was gone before I knew it.  I actually think I have gotten more done in the first 9 days of April than I did in all of March.

So anyway here goes – lets call it the goals I didn’t get done in March update.

You can read my original goal post here – this is a summarized version so I can so I can comment on which ones I still need to work on and which ones I have made progress on.

Goals are in bold, progress is in italics…

2012 GOALS

Grow in my relationship with the Lord

• spend daily time in His word and in prayer –working on this
• read through the Bible in a year – working on this
• read devotional books – hmmm..need to work on this  still need to work on this!

Nurture a loving relationship with my husband

• date nights every other Friday night – did this!
• find ways to encourage him (notes, spoken words)- wrote 1 note, plus started writing notes on the bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker (btw, I told showed him the marker and said he could write me one back but he hasn’t yet 😉
• find ways I can make his life easier (pack his lunches, clothes ready for work) – working on this
• make meaningful conversations a priority – had some good talks on our car trips to church but still need to work on “not working” in the evenings as much.  Going to make it a goal this month to have 1 evening each week (not counting a date night) that I don’t work in the evening and we spend meaningful time together.

Challenge myself to become a better woman, wife, homemaker.

• Read at least 12 books this year – read The Money Saving Mom’s Budget in January, but haven’t finished my February book or March book – gotta work on that
• Take better care of myself (exercise, eat healthy, go to bed earlier) – this one was sort of a bust last month, BUT I have definite plans to work on this as a habit this month.  Going to try to start an exercise routine and develop a daily schedule (set bed times/wake up times) – none of this happened this month
• Get my home organized and clean – did a little more purging this month but it is still no clean  Check out my before and after Simplify posts.
• Develop and maintain a weekly cleaning schedule in our home – I did develop a schedule, but maintained it ??– hmmm…guess that is this month’s project still need to work on this  – habit I hope to form this month (more below)   didn’t happen in March
• Keep the main living area of our home 30 min. to company clean – have done better with this in February.  Having company helped get it clean and then helped me KEEP it clean!  this was half and half done – sometimes it was good, sometimes it was horrible
• Learn to LOVE where I live – working on developing thankfulness in all areas of life.  (see below.)  really love our house in the Spring – excited about some new projects on the agenda!
• Make homemade laundry soap – will work on this later this year…
• Learn how to make Artisan bread in 5 minutes – plan to do this in the next couple weeks  didn’t do this in February, so maybe this month?  again didn’t happen
• Menu plan, menu plan, menu plan – STILL got to get better with this!  another fail
• Challenge myself to grow in the kitchen with new recipes, making things from scratch, etc. – made several new things this month  nope, this either

Grow my blog and have FUN with it!

• find balance in home life, home priorities, and computer time is my # 1 goal under this priority – work in progress

Fun things I have planned to do and share on The Frugal Homemaker in 2012 (and I am sure this list will grow as the year goes on.)

• Do and blog about a monthly Pinterest project – yay, got this done!      
  –January’s project (Hang my measuring cups)
  -February’s project (Make a DIY Clothespin wreath)
  -March project – did 2 (Spring Green wreath and DIY plate hangers)
• Make a DIY scarf – need to go buy some material still need to do this, but it might be more of a spring scarf now so I guess this is either not going to happen or happen in the fall
• Make pillows – bought some fun material on Saturday for this! now I just need to make them  hoping to make them this month!
• Write several series  – wrote my “Simplify” series and have a fun project coming up later this month with some other bloggers  
  -did the Bloggy Progressive Dinner 
  -and currently working on two new series How to Yard Sale and
  –Sprucing up the outdoors for Spring
• Continue to work on room re-dos in my house – Kitchen, Half bath, Guest bedroom, Master bedroom, Master bathroom as budget and time allow – some of these are in the beginning stages – hoping to have one close to done by end of April
• Work on re-doing several pieces of furniture in my garage –will start this once it gets a little warmer outside  yay, it’s getting warm so hoping to get some done this month! worked on yesterday! 
• Learn how to use my camera better – work through several series on how to take better pictures – having fun with the P52 project!  Still need to get my camera OFF auto!

Be a good steward of our finances.

• Save even more this year by managing our money better –amazed this month how keeping better track of our finances and spending has allowed us to save more!
• One specific savings goal – save 75% towards the purchase of a new-to-us car (hoping to purchase in the fall/end of next year) – saved March amount

Find ways to minister to those around me.

• have guests in my home once a month – yay, accomplished this goal in February!  Had a couple over for Sunday dinner and then spur of the moment invited another family over too!  Plus co-hosted a game night at my brother’s house.   So I didn’t have anyone over this month but I did a meal for someone at church who had surgery, a meal for a family member that had surgery, and another meal for a family member whose kitchen was torn apart due to a water leak so I guess I will count those.
• minister to others – wrote notes to all our college kids, brought meals to 3 families

I also made 12 specific HOME goals:

1.  Add a gallery wall in our entryway- maybe this month? maybe this month

2. Work on our kitchen – thank you so much for your cabinet advice!  Working on finding a deal on some cabinet doors.  Hubby said he might make my cabinet doors.  And a shopping trip is planned to pick out some other kitchen things.

3. Re-do our 1/2 bath – priced some options at Home Depot –trying to decide on beadboard or a board/batten treatment  think I have decided and hope to work on it next week

4. Continue to spruce up the outdoors (in the spring) –cleaned out the flower bed but planning on a lot of work this month busy with lots of projects – check them out in my series – new post tomorrow.

5. Make our bedroom a sanctuary – been pinning some ideas,thinking about a color scheme, and we went furniture browsing on Valentine’s Day – still deciding

6.  Transform some furniture – should be warm enough this month – hoping to get at least one piece done!  one piece almost done

7.  Paint – repainted above the mantel  none this month except for outdoors

8. De-clutter and simplify – about 90% done with the BIG Simplify project and cleanout but plan to keep on doing this throughout the year house is still feeling way too cluttered  so still working on this

9.  Make our home more “us.” – been doing this a little by getting rid of things we no longer love, need, or want  – got rid of lots more in February!  work in progress

10.  Focus on making our home a place we can minister in the area of hospitality – did better this month and had people over! have still got to work on this

11. Keep our living space (downstairs) 30 minutes to company clean. – did better, but still need to be more consistent

12. But most of all, learn to LOVE where we live – excited and content with where we are in our house/life right now.

So a little progress but not much.

I wanted to try to work on developing a habit in March:  develop and practice a time schedule in my life.  Not sure if I have mentioned it or not, but I quit out of the house job right before Thanksgiving and now work strictly from home.  It has been hard to get in a routine since every day of my week is different – some days I am watching 3 kids, some days I work online/around the house most of the day, etc.  BUT I need to develop a  bare bones type schedule.   Go to bed at a set time (although as I type this post it is 12:10 am – that is why I need to work on this!), get up at a set time, and have a bare bones schedule/blocks of time during my day set aside for certain tasks.  (Whew…this might be a 2 month project!)  Any suggestions from any stay at home/work at home women or moms?  and I pretty much failed.  so I still need to work on this  – might try to make some baby steps this month.

I declared March “The month to get things DONE!”   and yet I didn’t “get things done”.  So I declare April “the month to REALLY get things done”

In fact I have made some mental notes of things I want to accomplish this month:

1. spruce up outside (a few projects planned for this and in the works.  I want all my major spring sprucing up/outdoor projects done by Mother’s Day in may)
2. refinish 2 pieces of furniture in my garage
3. complete either my guest room or my 1/2 bath
4. start some major work in the kitchen
5. have a yard sale (weed out more stuff for this although I already have a large pile in the garage)
6. clean out the garage

So maybe that will help me stay on track a little better this month.

Thanks for reading this book of a post! 

{cj}