Last year, I had an overarching goal for the year -- a big project to work on -- a fundamental change in our daily lives. This year... as I sit contemplating the (finally) still, white landscape... all I can think of are little things. I want to bring more plants into the house -- and not kill them. I want to figure out how to make a wall look homey instead of... blank. Last year I lost 30 pounds of baby weight, but I still have 10 pounds leftover from the twins that need to go.
And I need to go to the dentist.
In other words, nothing very exciting. Just a lot of little, domestic projects that might properly be filed under MAINTENANCE.
And, just in case you're like me and enjoy reading all the little domestic details that anyone cares to post, here are some of the possibilities I have in mind for this new year.
Around the House
- Painting -- kitchen, family room, and living room, which oh so badly need it. Painting is a joint venture between Andy and I: I declutter and help prepare the walls; he paints. I'm not such a good painter. Sometimes the kids help.
- Finish wallpapering the little boys' room
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Put up shelves in the new "pantry" to make it more of an actual pantry
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Put up corkboard in various places to display the kids' artwork and images for reference and inspiration
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Put up more shelves in the dining room to display 3-D artwork
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Find a bookcase for the kitchen that will fit into a 33.5 inch space in the kitchen to hold cookbooks and gardening/farming books.
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Hang pictures, etc. on the walls
Farm and Garden
- Turkeys, ducks, guineas, meat chickens... people add more to the list every day.
- The poultry will need to be housed.
- Get our seed/poultry orders in earlier this year, as it's likely more people will be buying seed, birds, etc.
- The garden is ALWAYS an ongoing project... this year I want to add more grow beds for our heat-loving plants, provide trellises for the cucumbers, and we still need to train the grapes.
- Indoor gardening! I want to amend my ways when it comes to houseplants and try to do better job of remembering to water them. Or only grow succulents, one or the other.
- Herb garden. I really want to start carving out space for an herb garden. Will need to find a way to tempt children to tear out many wheelbarrows full of ivy, though.
Food
- I want to learn to make yogurt.
- Breakfasts need revamped.
- Working our way toward once-a-month shopping remains a goal. (Or to at least cut it down to every two weeks.)
Finances
- Our only debt is our mortgage, but wouldn it be nice to pay it down even faster?
General Organization
- Well, I always have goals in this area. The old goals are just carried into the new year.
- Time management -- need to get a better handle on the schedule again, mostly waking/breakfast times and computer time for me.
- Chore organization... we've made progress, still more to make. Kitchen, bedrooms, shelf clutter, etc. etc.
- I made a Home Reference Manual! (Not exactly a Home Management Book, but we'll see if it works.)
School
- Investigate 4-H... maybe (gulp) even start our own club.
- Try to figure out a way to get the kids swim lessons.
- Give the big kids responsibility for their own farm/garden project.
- Keep going with the Reggio/project approach.
Now, I don't expect that all of these things will get done this year. Life is too unpredictable, which is why I don't RESOLVE to do anything. But I do keep things in mind as the year goes on and as we're able, we work on the projects that seem most important or most interesting or most timely. Sometimes we're handed new projects. And sometimes just staying alive is our only goal.
(It's a good thing this is a blog, because I have no idea how to wrap up this post in an interesting way. So I'll just say: it's past time for me to get the day going -- even if it is "vacation" -- and I have a little one to rescue from time out, so I had better get going. Hope your year is off to a good start!)
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