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12 Goals for the New Year

My Big List of Goals I’m Going to Accomplish in 2022 Week 22 of 52

By Mavis Butterfield on - 22 Comments

Here’s my big list of things I want to accomplish in 2022:

Remodel The Kitchen

Cabinet guy is coming out this week to measure {hooray!} and so now we just have to finalize the whole drawers vs doors thing. {I’m leaning towards more drawers than doors. 

Sell Enough Rugs to Buy an AGA Stove {$15,417.40 of $22,000 earned so far}

I made another sale, selling one of my *new* rugs for 2022 in my Etsy shop this past week and will be adding more items next Saturday at 6pm EST. I’m about 70% of the way to my goal… and that feels good! 

Fill the Canning Cupboard 

Last week I canned 2 new recipes! One in the pressure canner, and one using the water bath method. I’ll share more about the recipes next week. 

So far this year I have canned:

Not canned but in jars:

Earn Enough Money Selling {?????} To Pay For Our 2022 Grocery Tab By The End Of The Year.

I think I’ll just have to wait until things calm down before I list my beach finds. 

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables.

We are still working on the wonderful box of fruits and vegetables my in-laws sent. YUM YUM. 

Keep The Crafts… In The Craft Room.

I made it through a 5th week with no crafts in the dining room. 🙂

Tap Our 2 Maple Trees and Make Maple Syrup {DONE}

It was a good experience, and we’re going to do it again next year {although I would like to find a few more trees to tap so our yield is a bit higher}. 

Make a Quilt Top

I made zero progress on my quilt top this past week. But I have until the end of the year to complete this goal so I’m not too worried about it. 

Be More Intentional With My Time

The HH and I went on a last minute date yesterday and hung out with some goats. More on that later. 

1 Craft / Blog Free Day {I’ve had 19 craft/blog free days this year so far.}

Keep My Husband Busy 

It was a busy week for the HH. 

He got the dock in the water, launched the dinghy, finished tilling up the garden for me and mowed the back 40. Next up are garden boxes for the front of the house and building a new set of stairs down to the water. 

The HH’s Honey Do List {so far} for 2022

  • Take over cooking {I’ll still do the baking and canning}
  • Cut down the cluster of trees in the backyard DONE
  • Build a new set of stairs down to the water. 
  • Fill the field {with soil} 
  • Remodel 1 bathroom
  • Replace fireplace tile
  • Build window boxes for the front of the house
  • Build an arbor for the wisteria {We decided to move the wisteria to another location instead}
  • Order 4 cords of firewood by the end of May and stack them in an artful way {like they did in the book Norwegian Wood}.
  • Sand the floors in the entire house DONE
  • Install new garage door openers {new addition}
  • Build a wood shed {new addition}

My House Projects For This Year {so far}

All house projects are on hold right now as I finish up my planting. July always seems like a good month for house projects as it’s usually when everything has been planted and there isn’t too much to harvest until the end of the month. 

Once I get everything planted {fruit trees, squash, beans for drying} then I’ll bust out the paint cans. 

  • Finish painting the outside of the house
  • Finish painting the inside of the house {working on it}
  • Make something to hang above our new console table
  • Make it look like people actually live here HA HA HA
  • New window treatment for the kitchen window

Try 24 New Recipes {9 down, 15 to go}

Still no oven… but I do plan to share another canning recipe in a few days. 

So far this year I have shared the following recipes:

Listen to 12 Audiobooks {11/12 so far}

I think The Boys has been my favorite book so far this year. The audiobook selection isn’t very exciting this month so I don’t have another book lined up yet. Maybe next month when the library adds more titles something will catch my eye. 

Audiobooks I’ve listened to this year:  

Get a Fishing License and Catch a Fish

But first, we have to get the dinghy in the water.

HH if you are reading this HURRY UP and get us some fishing poles!!!

My List of Garden Projects For This Year I want to Accomplish

My {sad} little order of sweet potato slips arrived on Friday and I got them into the ground yesterday after the HH finished tilling. I hope they make it. I’ve only planted sweet potato slips once before and while we got a nice crop, the slips looked much better than the ones we received this time around. 

Other garden projets that need to be completed this summer:

  • Map out this year’s garden by April 1st – done
  • Plant apple or pear trees – We bought pear and plum – just need to plant them
  • Plant raspberry and blueberry bushes 
  • Plant asparagus and rhubarb – 
  • Grow 500 pounds of food
  • Expand the lasagna garden We created a new garden plot instead
  • Finish clearing the front of the property
  • Get some garden pots for the front an back patio/porches

Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns and/or Kits Done! {16 out of 12 finished so far}

New Rug Hooking Patterns/Kits For 2022

Have All My 2022 Ornaments Finished by April 1st. Done!

I’m done with garden markers and ornaments for the year. Yipee!

52 Walks {We’ve gone on 12 of 52 so far}

Ciggies and Fireball. It looks like someone bought the 10 pack and had a goooooood time. It’s too bad they threw their empties on the ground and walked away though….

They could have turned those puppies into some serious cash {and bought even MORE Fireball} had they only known they could turn those empty containers into salt and pepper shakers. 🙂 🙂 🙂 

Thanks Tanya for the picture. You made my day. Ha!

Visit 12 Towns in Maine That I Haven’t Been to Before

Washington, Maine! 🙂 What a fun little town. Now that the weather has warmed up, we’re looking forward to getting out more and exploring. 

So far we’ve visited:

How about YOU? How did you do with working towards your goals for 2022? 

~Mavis

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Comments

  1. Mel says

    It has not been a good week in the goals department. One of our last projects to knock out in the nursery was getting our flooring replaced. We had measurements done in late Fall and signed off on an estimate then as well. The flooring people said we could install any time–they just needed 3 weeks notice to start. We’ve kept in touch about that to make sure the timeline wouldn’t change, and it hadn’t. We contacted them last week to finally move forward, and they had no recollection of our estimate, contract, etc. and tried to raise the price we locked in by 30%. So, we’re now starting over on flooring with a different place (all the way back to measurements), and it will be a race against time to see if we can get things done before the baby arrives. There’s also apparently no hope of matching our other existing floors, so we will likely be paying a ton of money for something that clashes (and we can’t do anything to the other floors right now). There’s not much alternative though since we have extremely limited time and our old carpet is well past the point of keeping.

    Reply

      • Mel says

        Yeah. We’ll just see how far we get. Since we can’t match our hardwood anyway, I’m hoping we can just pick whatever can ship the fastest to at least speed up the timeline.

        Reply

        • Kippy says

          I second the Flor suggestion. A friend gave me a bunch of near new squares when they remodeled. Very durable, super easy to install. You could put them down now and not feel rushed to get the new wood flooring.

          Reply

    • Laura says

      Have you considered using those carpeting squares, Flor? I think that is the name. Maybe you could replace the carpet in the nursery with those and table the whole wood floor thing until a better time. (There will be better times ahead, right???). I think you could install those squares yourself without too much trouble. Thought it might be a good stop gap solution for you. Good luck!

      Reply

      • Mel says

        It’s a good idea, but carpet of any kind really isn’t an option for us. It’s not just the nursery but two whole floors plus two staircases that need to be replaced. There’s no way we could do it ourselves, and the cost of new carpet is comparable to what we’d spend on the vinyl plank flooring anyway, so it would nearly double the costs. And there’s no way to only tackle the nursery because the carpet is 10 years old and pulling off the floor. It’s also too matted to be properly cleaned or even thoroughly vacuumed. It wasn’t installed correctly, and it is also just very cheap and old, so I trip over it all the time, and we can’t really delay replacing it any longer. We planned to replace it years ago but then had to put it off due to the pandemic. In short, it’s kind of all or nothing at this point.

        Reply

    • Debi says

      Why is the store not honoring their quote? I am assuming it is in writing. By law they need to honor it. Check with your state’s regulations and turn in a complaint to the state attorney’s office.

      Reply

      • Mel says

        I have no idea why. It’s very odd. I think legally we could probably hold them to it, but practically it’s likely not worth it right now with everything we have going on. It’s a hassle to start over, but it’ll be fine.

        Reply

        • Anne says

          Because building materials are still sky high? But lumber futures are falling again, so…?

          Good luck. Our son had a nursery like this and it did not get fixed. He just didn’t go on the floor. But he’s five now and fine. ❤️

          Reply

          • Mel says

            True, but the contract we signed already accounted for those factors. It was already double the usual price and guaranteed for a year. And claiming to not be able to find a contract we have a copy of makes me think it’s not an actual cost issue for them. I’m not worried about the nursery specifically but more how many times I trip on the stairs each day and nearly fall, how bad our allergies are, how futile carpet shampooing is at this point, etc. The only way the nursery figures in is that all the carpeting is connected, so we really have to do it all at once, and we really don’t want renovations happening after the baby arrives.

  2. Connie says

    I know you are good to do research. I would love to have big wide drawers instead of my cabinets for pots and pans, mixing bowls, glass storage bowls.
    I am fortunate to have lots of smaller drawers.

    As you age, you will appreciate the ease of drawers.

    Reply

  3. Diana Nazaroff says

    You’re right – those sweet potato slips look sad. I don’t see any roots on them either. Before you planted them in the ground, you might have stuck them in a jar of water for a couple of days to revive them and get some roots going. For next year, if you want to use the same variety of potato, keep one or two of the potatoes and set them partly in a jar of water and let them start their own slips. I’ve been doing that for a couple of months and am looking at my last one, lol. Once the shoots on the potato get about 3-4 inches long, I pull them off the potato and stick them in water to get some roots going. I currently have about a dozen sitting in water now – some for me and some for my neighbor. I like to plant them in reused 3gal nursery pots. I get about 3lbs or so per pot. Great to do for those who don’t have ‘religious plot’ sized yards, lol.

    Reply

  4. HollyG says

    Today is laundry day. Mr. Bigger Dog (who is just recovering from a case of hemorrhagic ickiness) finished his dinner last night and the found the pint jar of chicken grease that some idiot (me) had thrown into the garage garbage can. Let’s just say we have many, many towels to hose off and launder. Luckily, he seems to be fairly good this morning after spending the night in doggie jail (the laundry room with vinyl flooring).
    I do have to figure out how to clean the braided rug from the dining room. It’s been too cold and rainy to pressure wash it and let it dry outside. I my just spot clean it, then fold it up and store it in the garage until summer finally arrives.

    Did you call about the sweet potato slips? – those look like you deserve a refund.

    Reply

  7. Debi says

    Thank you for sharing the rhubarb cinnamon jam! Our neighbor shares his rhubarb crop with us. I’ve made a few loaves of bread and put some in the freezer, but now I’m going to try the jam… sounds delicious! Have a good week!

    Reply

  8. sandyf says

    Make twinkle lights out of the weird/crazy/only in ME-fireball bottles. I am sure some crazy person wold love stringing fireball lights across the outdoor bar in the yard…

    I am on the hunt for undercounted drawer refrigerator/freezers, as I have a 1915 original kitchen, with no place for a refrigerator. We have gotten by with 3 commercial undercounter frigs ( 2 frigs/one freezer) but they are leaking, and hard for my over 60 body to continue to crouch down. So-I thought-frig drawers…little did I know it could cost $10-17K! Yes, $17,000 was one quote from Subzero. And a year to get them in stock. Back to the drawing board… there are cheaper versions but I want good ones, built to last. And a dream would be one with an ice maker ( I know what a pipe dream right?) Oh historic preservation…isn’t for the faint of heart.

    Reply

    • Mavis Butterfield says

      Twinkle lights would be funny! I love the idea of undercounter fridges / drawers too.

      Reply

  11. Melissa Greene says

    Late to this post and off topic, but do you happen to know the source of that beautiful kitchen photo?

    Reply

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