Goals

For the last 10 years my life has been taken 2 years at a time... in 2 years I'll graduate high school..in 2 years I'll be in college...in 2 years I'll go to China...in 2 years I'll get married...in 2 years I'll graduate college...in 2 years I'll finish grad school...etc and I think most of my "slump" lately has been the lack of the 2-year plan. We're just in a holding pattern and it seems so strange to me after the quickness of the last 10 years. There just doesn't seem to be a whole lot on the horizon, so I decided that in their absence, I needed to make some things on the horizon. Enter: Goals.

Being that it's almost February, I will now publish my 2011 goals.

1) Run the Cap City Half Marathon on May 7th, and if possible, the Fontana Half Marathon on Memorial Day. I have planned on running these races for a while, but the reason why they are on my goals is because of the training I'm committing to. I am going to train hard. And I'm going to knock that sucker out of the park. Running it in less than 2 hours and training a minimum of 3 days a week.

2) Work on genealogy 2 nights a month. Every time I go to the temple I think about how great it would be to do genealogy so I could work with my own names. I've contacted the family history person in my ward 3 times this last month but we haven't been able to meet up yet. This goal will take effect in February.

3) Use/find more recipes calling for dried beans/legumes. Beans/legumes are so good for you and when you buy them dried, they are CHEAP. That last word is pretty much my mantra lately.

4) Give up dessert, cereal, and graham crackers. I know, I know, but it was just becoming too big of a crutch for me. I figured that I was probably consuming 500 extra calories a day from these 3 items and it was time I put mind over matter. Also hoping it helps me shed 7 lbs, making my weight 130 (which I don't think I've ever seen on the scale my whole life). Depending on how it's going, I might institute a "cheat day" one day a week in a few months. I've been doing this a week already and I'm surprised at how easy its been.

5) Keep up my old school journal. For everyone out there who doesn't have a real paper journal, I'd encourage you to get one. It really has changed my life and while I'm thankful for blogs and the digital age, some things are best in their purest form. I cherish my journal. And I've been writing 3 times a week for the last few months. I've even filled up my current journal and I'm oddly excited to pick out my next one. That will be my third journal filled front to back with entries.

6) Be a better friend. I know this isn't really something on the "horizon" but its something that I really want to be better at. Because we don't have any family close by, our friends literally are our family and I love those close friendships. I wouldn't change them for anything. But sometimes I feel like they are one-sided and I'm constantly calling friends (last minute) to bail me out when I have to take one of the kids to the Dr. and need someone to watch the other one, or some other situation like that. I swear it happens almost every week. That being said, I want to be better at helping before I'm asked and make a better effort to look for more opportunities to help our dear friends. They mean everything to us. And because when I'm helping, I'm happy.

7) Get my sewing machine fixed and find a desk on craigslist to make a "creative" space in the storage room of the basement. It's high time I had a working sewing machine and it will be so nice to have an area that I can keep on-going projects and not have to worry about cleaning it up every time I leave the room. I love sewing and I'd love to be able to do it more.

8) Only go to the grocery store 3 times a month. Another money saving initiative. This is completely possible, it just takes planning. And we could probably get away with only twice a month if it weren't for the serious milk drinkers we have in this house.

9) Earn enough money to buy bikes. I babysit my neighbor Grace a few times a week and I can't tell you how many times that money has bailed us out, but I'm hoping and praying that for the next few months we don't have any disasters and I can put aside all the money from babysitting and buy 2 bikes and a trailer. Spring, Summer, and Fall are the most glorious months in Ohio. They're just amazing and I'd love nothing more than to enjoy all those seasons on the river trails from my bike pulling the kids along. I grew up going on bike rides every Saturday and I'd love to have a standing routine on Saturdays of working in the yard in the morning (one of my very favorite things to do) and riding bikes in the afternoon.

And on that note, I'm looking outside at the snow and wishing, wishing, wishing it were lawn mowing weather.