I came up with 12 goals I’d like to accomplish this year with the hopes of being able to cross one off my list per month to make them more manageable. I thought a great way to hold myself accountable to the things I want to accomplish this year would be to do a weekly update.
After all, we all need a little help staying motivated sometimes. Here’s how I am doing so far:
1. Clean, de-clutter and organize my entire home in 30 days or less. – I know what you’re thinking. Mavis, is that a bunch of crappity crap in your dining room?
Why yes, yes it is. I told you I was on a mission to de-clutter. 🙂 30 days or less? Heck ya I think I can do it.
2. Fit into the same jeans I wore 8 years ago when we moved into our house. Yesterday I clocked 6.31 miles on my fancy shmancy pedometer. And I didn’t even do anything exciting like go on a real walk. Nope, just walking around the house, digging in the garden and doing normal stuff.
3. Travel. The Girl and I cashed in nearly all of our frequent flyer miles for this years trip. Wahoooo! Anyone care to guess where we are headed?
4. Send my daughter to college without having a nervous breakdown thus spending a week in bed sobbing.
5. Get 3 new teeth. Well, first I need to get my chipped tooth fixed. 😉
6. Pay off my car. Here’s a video of us when we bought it last summer. I made a double payment this month!
7. Finish this primitive folk art rug I started 4 years ago. So far 18 stars have been completed. I was planning on filling in the background color {black} after each star but as I was going through my wool strips I noticed I was all out so I had to order more. Which is a dangerous thing if you ask me. {More about that later}.
8. Family Day. Do one thing together as a family. This week we went out to dinner. A rare occasion for us that’s for sure. I don’t know about you but I think you get the biggest bang for your buck at mexican restaurants. Loading up on free chips and salsa before your entree comes it awesome.
9. Secret Plan #1 – Working on it. 🙂
10. Secret Plan #2
11. Secret Plan #3
12. Convince the HH we should buy a Salt Box Style House in Colonial Williamsburg. No new letters from the colony this week. 🙁
13. Spend at least 1 hour a day working in my garden. – So far so good. Yesterday Lucy the Puggle dog and I pulled up some parsnips and carrots from the garden. If there is one thing that dog loves, is digging up vegetables.
So there you have it, my goals for the new year.
How about YOU? How are your 2014 goals coming along?
~Mavis
P.S. YES, I know I wrote down 13 goals. I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to attain one of them. {gee, I wonder which one?} 
But I wanted to add it in there anyway because I believe in miracles.
Heidi P says
Awesome job so far. I know you can do it! #4 will be difficult maybe even easier then #12 but just remember to breath:) I only have one daughter and she is now a senior in college. It was really rough for the first year. I think I cried every time someone mentioned her name for about 2 months. Why doesn’t anyone prepare us mothers for how difficult this process is? Somehow we all survive this passage into adulthood.
Heidi P says
Ahhhh,,,, I meant harder then #12
Felicia says
I’ve been decluttering my little heart all all month! And just yesterday I said to myself, “Wow, a little here and there is really adding up!”
Loving your rug, I think it would be equally beautiful if you just did a border of the stars, and a solid in the middle! So if you start running out of time for making stars, you could go that route too!
Linda says
I got my pedometer this week. I didn’t hit 10,000 steps yesterday but here’s to hoping I can do it today.
Mavis Butterfield says
You can do it! 🙂
Delores says
I’m guessing you all are heading ‘across the pond’ to England. Then again, maybe somewhere totally new!
tc says
Well Mavis, if you are heading to Jolly Old England, say hi to my Mum in Lincolnshire and could you bring me back some Maltesers, bounty, Bassets liquorice allsorts please?
My Goals
clean up the garage
Get rid of paperwork
Lose 15lb
Get on regular exercise schedule
Simplify my life
Spend more time in the garden and with my chickens
I am sure there will be more
Julie Ann says
Oh, YES! That is an awesome way of keeping your s**t in order!! I need a “12-Step Process” into Personal Order, too! Oh, yeah! Up High! *smack* (I’ll just pretend I got a real high-five 😉 )
I need one, last goat to keep a closed herd – a buck. That’s a process.
I’m trying like the dickens to get a nearly dry, *free* dairy goat back into production – THAT’S a Process!
I need to start planning and planting my garden – BIG process!
I need to organize my embarrassing stash of destroyed jeans for sewing projects! *tears* …Which reminds me that the girl teen and I need more cloth pads made… Which then reminds me I need to GET MY MACHINES OUT! *boo-hoo!*
Lisa says
Nothing counts as decluttering until you you downsize to a 960 square foot home with no garage! Not as a single person, but a family of three, all adults, plus three dogs, a cat, a guinea pig and two rats (it was some road trip!)
Piles of what was “treasure” becomes trash. Piles (huge piles) of objects you though you needed, but gave away on Craigslist. Or had in the closets or garage for years and finally realize if you didn’t use them in 1994 you won’t ever use them. Hundreds of books sold to the used book store.
It’s amazing how much you really don’t need, and how much of it you really aren’t that attached to.
Danielle O says
well… I went to Albertson’s & got 6 free cans of veggies. So, we have 6 cans of veggies for our bug out bags. We’re doing pretty decent on upping our intake of vegetables, but not doing so hot on cutting out eating out. We need to work on it. And I’m on Day 4 without Facebook! I’ve made two birthday cards, kept the house relatively clean & today I spray painted boxing gloves for little Juniper’s post-chemo photo shoot… & will start a hollowed out book by the end of the day. *thumbs up*
Margaret Thele says
Great Mavis – having a goal planning meeting with a friend tomorrow night – she said she was feeling like she was just treading water…which forced me to make a little plan and goals myself. As I run a small nursery, I have to be well organized and scheduled with seed sowing, transplanting etc. and I can do a far better job this year. Made 13 goals including starting a CSA/coop kind of buying arrangement with friends – working on that!
poppy says
I can’t believe how much you do…it’s awesome. What is a “typical” day look like for you. I want the energy you have. 😉
Stacy says
I would LOVE to hear your daily report on how you are decluttering, tips, tricks, what you accomplished, what you did with things, etc…anything like this would be of great help as we are doing the same thing…
Thanks! 🙂
Allison says
This year so far, I have purchased and redecorated my daughters room, de-junked the kitchen! It looks soooo good that we had p
Puerto Vallarta for diner last night just because I didn’t want to mess it up. Haha. I love reading your blog.
Mavis Butterfield says
Ha! I love that place. 🙂
Crystal Snedegar says
Awesome job on you goals so far, Mavis! 🙂
My goals this year…
1. Try 200 NEW recipes this year. Currently at #20, with 2 new tonight and Amish friendship bread starter finishing in a few days, so I can try 8 new variations. 🙂
2. Eat more fruits and veggies. Ideal for my build/exercise level is 4 fruits and 5 veggies daily. I get more like 4 total. 🙁 I am making it a habit, and by the end of this year, I want it to be routine.
3. Get caught up scrapbooking through the end of 2013. At this rate, I have to make 15 pages per month to reach my goal. Total pages for January is 13. 🙂
4. Perfect my Ranch Dressing. My hubby is SO picky with Ranch! It is his favorite, but he doesn’t like ANY store bought. (We literally bought one of each kind one month, and he didn’t like them. So the kids and I ate them.) Well, there are like 15,000 recipes online for them. *sigh* And last week, I tried 4 different ones. And one was the winner!!! So I can check this goal off!