Category: goals

January is always my favorite month for getting stuff done!  I didn’t accomplish everything on my list, but I made a ton of progress on loads of things.  Let’s see how I did, shall we?

1.  New bake.  My plan was to make a Chantilly cake this week, but somehow we were out of sugar!  I’ve since rectified that and will probably end up making it this weekend.  Kate and I ::did:: get to go to a cake decorating class so that’s baking related at least.  lol.  It was so much fun!
2. New dinner recipe.  I made the crockpot Chicken Tikka Masala and it was ok.  RaptorDad was a fan, but Kate thought it was way too spicy.  I’ve come to the realization that as much as I want to love Indian food, I’m just not a fan of cinnamon.  I made a bonus new recipe that I liked a lot more which makes sense since it involves tortillas.  lol.  I put some chicken and a jar of tomatillo salsa in the crockpot and it was amazing.  We had it with cheese and greek yogurt.  Delish.
3. Montessori Trays.  Oh my gosh, the babies loved these!  Especially Mia.  I’m almost done with our Valentine’s Day ones and I’m so glad that I made this a goal.  🙂
4. Feast Days.  We celebrated Epiphany!  It was so much fun that I decided to make up a monthly plan and share it with my moms’ group at church.  lol.
5. Hexies.  Well, I didn’t quite finish up what I had hoped for, but I did make a ton of progress.  I finished November’s super hexie (a block where I baste 3 extra hexies for each one in the block) and 2 of the 3 hexies made with pre basted hexies that I was supposed to finish in December.  I have also decided that I’m not making any more super hexie blocks for now.  I have enough hexies basted to get to 36 blocks and I’m sort of thinking that might be enough.  The current plan is to make some sort of wall hanging instead of an actual bed spread. Here’s a pic of my current hexie blocks (all 14 of them!)  spread out on my grandmother’s king size bed to give you an idea of how big they are. 
6. Scrapping.  I got November done!  November of 2017 that is.  lol.  But hey, I did this layout from last week so there’s that.  
7. Project Life.  I only got June done, but I did sort through all of the kids’ artwork on my desk and file it in the correct week so that it will be ready to go.  Fingers crossed I can get more done this month.
8. Portraits.  I didn’t get any of my kids, but I did take some maternity pics for my sister.  Does that count?
9. Sewing Project.  I got the whole Keroppi quilt top done!  And my grandmother (who is a saint) is going to quilt it for me.  Winning!  We decided to applique the hexies onto every other block and break them up with a green print.  I love how it tuned out. Here’s a pic right before we added the final green borders.  I can’t wait to see this finished!
10. New Park.  We went to Wonder World in San Marcos.  It was, um, interesting.  lol.
11. Blogging.  I did it!  I was tempted to schedule the posts for 3 a week towards the beginning of the month, but I’m glad I resisted and stuck with starting with each Monday before adding more midweek posts.  I’m going to try that again this month.
12. Get healthy.  lol.  This was a pretty big epic fail.  So this month I have a new goal.  I’m going to try to swim twice a week and then go from there.  We’ll see if I can keep that up, but I have my bathing suit all packed up to go to the Y after I drop Mia off at school.  Speaking of, it’s time to go!  How have your goals been going this month?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments.  (Looking at you mom.  lol. )

Historically, I just do monthly goals, and who knows, I may chuck this plan out the window in February and go back to that, but for now I’m going to attempt some big goals.  12 of them in fact.  Am I crazy?  I believe we’ve already established that.  lol.

1.  12 new bakes.  Roughly one a month.  Who knows what they will end up being, but some ideas I’ve been kicking around include roughly everything I see on The Great British Bake Off.  Except for that time they cooked with suet.  Definitely not going there.
2. 12 new dinner recipes.  Preferably something in the healthy range that doesn’t taste like garbage.  Now accepting suggestions.  lol.
3. 12 months of Montessori.  I used to be so good about making Montessori trays for Kate.  I even still have most of the stuff boxed up!  I need to get it all down and let Mia and Xander play with it.  I’m going to try to rotate the trays once a month.
4. 12 feast days.  We had so much fun during advent that I’m going to try to make it a more regular thing.  Who knows that all will go into it, but at minimum I’m thinking a themed meal  and craft.
5. 12 hexies.  I’m so far behind.  Y’all, I’m still working on November’s hexies!  But I’m going all in this year.
6. 12 months of scrapping.  While I’d love to catch up, that seems supremely unlikely, BUT I can make sure that I don’t get even more behind.  So in January, I want to finish January of 2018.  In February, February 2018.  Etc etc.  I’ll work on November and December of 2017 throughout the year.
7. 12 months of Project Life.  Same, but ideally I actually will catch up.  I’m still stuck in June of 2018 though, so we’ll see.
8. 12 sets of portraits.  I want to do better about taking “real” pics of my kids this year.  Bluebonnet and Christmas pics are obvious choices, but I want to get 12 full sets.
9. 12 finished sewing projects.  Goodness, I’ve only been quilting for a year and I’ve already racked up quite the list of unfinished projects!  I’d like to tackle that list and actually finish some of them.  First up is the charity quilt for my quilt guild which is due in February.  I’ve finally settled on a plan and ordered fabric.  And needlessly complicated it.  lol.
10. 12 new parks.  Time to explore!
11. 12 months of blogging.  I think it’s become clear that 3 kids does not lend itself to blogging on the regular, but I miss it so I’m just changing my expectations.  Instead of trying (and failing) to blog 3 times a week, my new goal is once a week.  Fingers crossed.  lol.
12. Get back to healthy habits.  Blah.  Definitely not the “fun” goal, but arguably the one that needs to happen the most.  Frustratingly, it doesn’t fit neatly into my “12” theme, but my rough goals are to swim at least twice a week, get 10K steps everyday, and track what I’m eating.

I think I’ll update these and come up with the specifics once a month just like I used to with the monthly goals posts.  This will just give me more structure for the year.  Then hopefully I will add in blog posts about specific projects.

So, I never got around to blogging my October Goals, but I did set some!  Let’s take a look, shall we?

1.  Hexies. Finish September’s block and then stitch together 2 more blocks from already basted hexagons.  Done and done!  I actually stitched together 3 from already basted hexagons.  🙂  I have a whole blog post coming out about it on Monday.
2. Linus quilt top.  Have we talked about how I joined a quilt guild?  Because I did and it’s awesome.  One of the things they do is make charity quilts and one of the ladies actually makes kits so it’s easier.  I grabbed a kit at the September meeting and actually managed to stitch it together!  It’s the ugliest quilt ever, but hopefully some little kid will love it.
   
3. Costumes.  Kate came up with the awesome idea for all of the kids to dress up as breakfast, but then she ended up changing her mind and going as a zombie ballerina.  Mia and Xander were totally sold on the idea though and ended up being fried eggs.  lol.  It was hilarious.
   
4. As far as scrapping goes, I wanted to get April and March of 2018 done, but that didn’t happen.
5. For Project Life, I wanted to get March and April of 2018 edited and uploaded and I succeeded!  I even got May done too!  Yay me! I can’t wait for these prints to get here.
6. Name tag.  Apparently I need to make a name tag for my quilt guild.  I was planning to get that done this month but it didn’t happen.
7. Pot Holder.  Same deal.  We are exchanging pot holders at our Christmas party.  I have the design done in my head, but I need to execute it.
8. More editing.  I wanted to get June- Sept of 2018 done for the big scrapbook and I got it done!
9. Road Trip Activities.  Done!  Even though they didn’t see much use.
10. Work on super secret Christmas project.  I didn’t make any progress on it this month, but I think I’m still in good shape for a December finish.

And now for November.

1.  Hexie block #9.
2. Finish Jake’s stocking.  I’m so so so so close to being done.  I can probably finish it in an evening or two.
3. Pot Holder.  I’m planning to make a hexie flower out of some Christmas fabric that I have an then applique it to some white fabric.  Then beg my Mimi to help me.  lol.
4. Name Tag.  Same.  lol.
5. Teacher Gifts.  Now that all 3 kids are in school, I need to make a plan for some cute (cheap!) teacher gifts.  Now taking suggestions.
6. Order prints.  Now that I have the pics edited, I just need to upload them and actually order them.
7. Tree Counting Activity.  I want to make a little Montessori counting activity for the twins.
8. Scrap March and April of 2018.
9. Scrap March, April, May 2018 Project Life.
10. Edit June, July Project Life.  I’m not going to be ordering more prints any time soon, but I’d like to get some of the editing done so I’m ready to order next time they have a sale.
11. Family pictures.  Professional pics are not in the budget this year, but I still want to take the kids out and try to get something for our Christmas card.  I already have their outfits picked out.  Mia’s is comically too large, but I’m going to make it work!
12. Super Secret Christmas Project.  Um, I might have a few of these that need to be finished.  lol.

You guys! I’ve missed you! (All 3 of you. lol.) My blog self destructed back in June and I missed it more than expected. Luckily RaptorDad is the bomb and he got it moved over to a new hosting service and all fixed up. I’m just going to jump in with my (in progress) September goals real quick like, and then get back to scrapping during preschool time. That’s right sports fans, Xander is now going to preschool 2 days a week and it’s been amazing!!!

1.  Hexies. I got a bit behind last month so I actually need to do 2 hexie blocks.  I’m going to be writing a longer blog post re the hexes a bit later complete with a poll!

2.  Piece Quilt Back for Charm Quilt.  Actually, I’ve already scrapped this idea.  lol.  I ordered some backing fabric yesterday because I have too many other ideas to spend time piecing the back of a quilt.

3.  Halloween Costume Plan.  I’m open to ideas.  lol.

4.  February Project Life.  This is actually done!!!  Now I just need to order some more prints.

5.  Which brings me to this goal, edit and upload pics for March and April Project Life.

6.  Scrap June 2017.  Yes, I am that far behind…  Le sigh.  On the upside, I’ve officially finished this one and it’s on my shelf.

7.  Scrap May 2018.  This is on my list for this morning!

8.  I want to keep the progress going and try to catch up a bit!  So I need to edit more pics.  Whomp Whomp.  I’d like to get July, August, and September 2017 pics uploaded.

9.  Stretch Goal is to scrap April 2018.  Not sure if that’s possible, but hey, preschool!  lol.

10.  Make 3 hexie flowers for a super secret Christmas project.