Baker's Dozen check in - March

Because of the time I was without a computer, I didn't get to do my check in at 2 months, but that's okay, it's probably boring to read about if I'm reaching my goals every month.  That's okay, I write this for me, not for you. 

It's funny because I always have more aspirations.  I mean, daily I think of projects I want to start and things that would be fun if I completed.  So, I've already started working on my list for 2014.  Probably, some of the goals below will also be on that list...and I haven't decided how many things yet to put on the list.  So, we'll see how this year goes first.  

I wrote my new year's goals in December... remember?  So, time for a check in to see how I'm doing so far... 

1. Build the bookshelf.  This was always more about having the money than anything else.  And I think we are FINALLY caught up from our end of the year and having a baby bills.  I actually measured the bookshelf and took a picture of it to send to the person I want to build it.  Now I'm just waiting for an estimate.

2. Finish knitting sweater.  This will probably be the goal I finish first!  I have both sleeves on and I am working on the collar.  I've worn it in its incomplete state and it fits!  I'm so excited to finally finish this sweater...just in time for summer! haha

3. Paint Sadie's room.  This is another one that I'll complete soon.  Grammy sent her big girl quilt for Sadie's birthday.  We got the changing table and painted it green.  I've picked out colors for Sadie's walls.  When Grammy comes to visit in a few weeks for Spring Break we'll paint the walls and hang the valance and Sadie's room will be completed!!

4 & 5. Do a triathlon & run 3 charity runs.  My feet have reached a point where it no longer hurts to put on shoes.  Yay!  So, I'm taking a break from the podiatrist.  I started the Couch to 5K running program...and then I caught a cold.  So, I need to start over now that I'm feeling a little better.  It's hard to find the time to run, but Ezra's starting to sleep better and more consistently, so I might start getting up early and leaving him in bed with Brian like I used to do when Sadie was little.  As for the charity runs, we were going to do Broxton's run as a family, but Sadie had a horrible night and we just couldn't make it.  I've signed up for the Ryan House run this weekend, but I'm going to walk the 5K with a friend.  And I'm thinking of bringing Sadie with me.

6. Put family pictures up.  I am starting to have big ideas for this... I've actually opened the boxes and reminded myself of what there is.  We'll see how far I actually get with this.

7. Make my own pasta/tortillas.  I made tortillas.  I rolled them out and put them in the frying pan and we actually ate them.  But it was a lot of work, and they weren't great.  Did you know there is such a thing as a tortilla press?  You put your little ball of dough in the middle, press down and voila! you have a tortilla!  And some of them are even like a griddle and they'll cook them too!!  I want this gadget for Christmas. (I'm gonna have to put remodel the kitchen on my list next year to make room for all my gadgets!)

8. Organize Sadie's paperwork.  Haven't even thought about this.

9. Home Management Binder.  This seems to be working out well with my new planner.  I'm keeping track of our menus and notes on Sadie's therapies and appointments.  I just started a list in the back of important phone numbers too.  It's sufficient to keep us on the right track.

10.  Try at least 3 new recipes each month.  I've been planning a menu a month at a time.  It was working well until it wasn't.  I think the last 2 weeks of February I completely changed.  Oh well.  I'll maybe try planning a couple weeks at a time for March.  Anyway, we tried some new things in January and February... Mexican lasagna in the crockpot (it was okay), some different casseroles: one with black eyed peas, and a couple with quinoa, and some different soups: cream of tomato, cauliflower cheese, and potato leeks.  Also, in my quest for the perfect homemade veggie burger, I made sweet potato quinoa burgers.  They were good, but not perfect.  However, on that journey, I've found the perfect hamburger bun recipe.  And a chickpea pot pie!! ...not a success.

11. Keep a Housekeeping schedule.  I've given up on this.  I'm hiring a housekeeper.  I just can't keep up, and soon Ezra will be crawling and I am grossed out at the idea of what he might put in his mouth that he finds on the floor.  It's worth it to me to pay someone.

12. Budget.  We're doing pretty well with this!  We've managed to actually put away some money in savings in January and February, so I feel like we're back on the right track!

13. Write my kids monthly letters.  Sadie had a birthday in January, I didn't write her in February.  Here's Ezra's for January and February.  The reason I got out the boxes with the family pictures in them and opened them is because that's where Sadie's baby book is.  I've decided to take these letters, write them on paper and include them in their baby books.  Also, I have decided to only write monthly for the first year (I wish I had done this with Sadie), and then every year on their birthdays thereafter...and when the mood strikes me.

So there you go!  I think I'm doing well considering it's only March.  At least I'm working on them and not waiting until Thanksgiving and then being like, "oh yeah, I wanted to accomplish some things this year!"  I'd love to hear how your year is going!

Baker's Dozen Check in - 1 month

Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope that your night was safe and fun.  I chose to put grumpy and tired Sadie to bed early, then go to bed with Ezra.  I was out before 9:00 I'm sure!  I was so tired.

So, it's a new year and time for a fresh start for so many people.  I, however, started my new year's goals in December... remember?  So, time for a check in to see how I'm doing so far... (I know, it's only been a month, but it's accountability, right?)

1. Build the bookshelf.  Not anywhere close on this. However, I've THOUGHT about emailing the dimensions to the person I want to build it.  Mostly, this one's about money, it might have to wait a couple more months.

2. Finish knitting sweater.  I'm proud to say that I added 4 rows this week.

3. Paint Sadie's room.  I'm waiting for Grammy to finish her big-girl quilt.  Then I want to add her new changing table (that will be unfinished wood).  Then I think I know what I'm gonna do...big, wide, vertical stripes on the wall where the bed is.  One will be real pale pink, the other a light pink.  Then I'll paint the other 3 walls the pale pink.  And I was thinking of painting the changing table with the darker of the pinks...but now I'm considering a bright color from the quilt.  Hmmmm...

4 & 5. Do a triathlon & run 3 charity runs.  Well, I'm working on getting my feet healthy.  I saw the podiatrist a couple of weeks ago, who gave me cortisone shots in BOTH my feet.  I see him again on Thursday and we'll go from there.  The shots did help, so I'm hoping that I'm finally on my way to recovery...now it's about finding the perfect shoe.

6. Put family pictures up.  I got some more of them framed!!  That's a start, right?

7. Make my own pasta/tortillas.  I found a good recipe for tortillas and I feel like I am good enough with my rolling pin to try this before my next check in.  Pasta is still intimidating.

8. Organize Sadie's paperwork.  This is intimidating.  I need to check the Raising Special Kids website to see when their next seminar is.

9. Home Management Binder.  Well, I bought a new planner.  I planned out a menu for the ENTIRE month of January, and I'm keeping therapy notes in the daily squares on the weekly pages.  This leads me to the next 2 goals...

10.  Try at least 3 new recipes each month.  Last month I made eggplant parmesan (this isn't really new, but I don't think I was the one to make it in the past, so I'm counting it).  Then we tried a really yummy lentil stew and a vegtable bake over rice that was really really good!!  I also made some breakfast enchiladas on Christmas morning that were completely my own creation, and I successfully baked my first quiche!!  Not to mention, I also tried some new muffin recipes!

11. Keep a Housekeeping schedule.  I've written down my 2 week rotation and I am doing my best to keep it.  If I get behind (like yesterday, we were out of the house from 9:00-6:00 with therapies and doctor's appointments), I just do my best to catch up...or I just start over and worry about getting to the skipped stuff next time it comes around in the rotation.

12. Budget.  We've had to be pretty strict about this in December because of hospital bills and end of the year bills that we didn't realize we would have.  But we managed to stay under budget for December...even with Christmas!!  Bring it on, January!

13. Write my kids monthly letters.  You can read Ezra's here, and Sadie's here for December.

I feel like I'm doing well so far.  I think the hardest part about year-long goals is being constantly conscious of them.  I wrote them down in my planner/home management binder so I can continually refer to them and remember what they are.  I hope that you have some goals for the new year.  Whether they are big or small or you have lots or just a few, good luck and here's to great things in 2013!!

My 2013 Baker's Dozen

I have a friend who wrote a list of yearly goals last winter.  She called it her Twelve for 12.  I thought this was a fantastic idea, but Thirteen for 13 just doesn't have the same ring to it!  So, instead, I'm calling it my Baker's Dozen.  And technically, I started this month, so I have 13 months to reach my goals.

Here's my list:

1. Build the bookshelf.  Well, not me really, it's more like have the bookshelf built.  We have this really awesome bookshelf in our living room!  It even has this fun rolly-ladder, like in a library in Downton Abbey or something.  But, it's about 4 feet off the ground, and there's this weird space below it.  I'm sure the previous owner, who built this originally, had some piece of furniture there.  I want a custom-built extension of the bookshelf...and I think I've found someone to do it.  Now I just have to find the money!

2. Finish knitting sweater.  Last April I started a project.  I'm always good at starting projects...it's the finishing and following through that's the hard part!  I started knitting a sweater.  It's a cardigan, which are very practical here in Phoenix.  And it's not real heavy (also practical in Phoenix).  My goal was to have it by the time the baby came since that's when the weather would change.  Oops!!  So, I'm officially making it a 2013 goal to finish my sweater!

3. Paint Sadie's room.  Slowly I am going to get this house painted.  It's a lot of work (especially since I usually paint alone) and I want to make sure I choose the right colors.  8 or 9 months ago I bought this really cute fabric for Sadie's room.  I wanted to make her a valance and a pillow case and then choose paint based off the colors in this fabric.  The valance is made (but not hung), the pillow case is made (even though she doesn't really use a pillow), and I have paint swatches of colors of pink picked out.  I gave the leftover fabric to my mom to make Sadie a big-girl-bed quilt, and once I see that final product, I will choose colors for sure and decide what I'm going to do in there.  It's a small room and a good place to start.  I almost put Ezra's room on my list too, but I thought that might be a little too ambitious!

4. Do a triathlon.  I found one in July in Flagstaff... think I can be ready by then?  I might give myself 2 years on this one.  As long as I do it before I get pregnant again!!

5. Run at least 3 charity runs.  I really miss running.  It seems like I started when I wasn't totally healthy and since then I've had one problem after another.  As much as I want to be a runner, I'm just not built for it.  That's okay though, I can still do 5Ks, right?  That's not that far, and I could easily walk it if I needed to.  The first one I'm looking at is for Ryan House...in March.  Think I can run 3 miles by March???

6. Put family pictures up on the wall.  We've lived here a year and all our family pictures are still in boxes.  That's because I was going to paint before I put them up.  But then I got pregnant.  So, whether I paint or not, my goal is to get all of those out and start hanging them.  Plus we got all these nice, new family portraits, and we have a new baby...so now I have more pictures that need hanging on the walls!

7. Make my own pasta and/or tortillas.  I've always wanted to do this.  I kind of think if I put it on a list, maybe I finally will.

8. Organize Sadie's paperwork.  Raising Special Kids has a workshop where you bring all your child's paperwork (IEPs, IFSPs, medical records, etc.) and they give you a binder and teach you how to organize it all into one place.  All of Sadie's stuff is in one place...but organized?! hahahaa

9. Create a Home Management Binder.  This might actually be more like a Home Management Day Planner.  But I'd like to work on keeping everything in on e place and not scattered all over the house...especially now that I have a child who will soon have grabby hands!

10. Try at least 3 new recipes each month.  I told Brian I'd like to make something new each week and he thought this was too ambitious.  3 a month, though, is doable...it's too easy to get stuck in a rut with our menus each week!

11. Keep a housekeeping schedule.  You'll notice that my goal isn't to MAKE a housekeeping schedule!!  I'm good at making a plan (aka. starting a project), and then I stick to it for the first week, maybe 2 before my house turns back into a trash pit.  I made a weekly chore schedule, as I've done before, but, as I stood in the shower the other day enjoying my alone time, I realized I needed more off-days/catchup days.  Because sometimes things don't go according to plan!  I also realized that once I clean the bedrooms or bathrooms, they don't necessarily need to be cleaned the next week... they're probably good for 2 weeks.  So I rewrote my chore schedule to span 2 weeks instead of just one.  Here's my plan:

Week 1:

Monday - Bedrooms

Tuesday - Vacuum living room rugs

Wednesday - Mop

Thursday - Rest or Catchup (it's like building a leftovers day into your weekly menu!)

Friday - Kitchen (this is a weekly chore...it's gets really gross really fast)

Saturday - Errands and Groceries

Sunday - Rest or Catchup

Week 2:

Monday - Outside (including the car)

Tuesday - Bathrooms Day 1

Wednesday - Bathrooms Day 2 (we have 3 bathrooms and I often find I get 2 of them done and run out of time or steam, so I allowed myself to split this chore into 2 days.  I think I'm more likely to actually complete it this way!)

Thursday - Sunday look the same as week 1 above.

12. Stick to a budget.  Enough said.

13. Write my kids monthly letters for them to read someday when they're older.  I don't want to ever forget this time when they're little.  As they get older, maybe it'll just be on their birthdays...

There you have it!!  I look forward to updating you on this throughout the year, and I hope you are encouraged to make your own 2013 Baker's Dozen!