So far, as of mid-April, I have completed eight small things entirely.
#15: Take down & wash kitchen and living room curtains - started up my spring cleaning for 2015! This is really a very small thing but so annoying to me. Hah! I was glad to just get it done and having it on my list was good motivation to cross it off!
#17: Buy new plates - I've been meaning to do this for months! Finally on a Sunday that I had no kids with me in the car (rare!) I stopped at Walmart and perused their pyrex options. I picked up some no-frill white with blue trim plates and bowls. It is bizarre how gratifying it was to both purchase new everyday dinnerware and have a shopping trip with no children. Welcome to my life, friends - hahahhahha!
#27: Kid play date with Katie and Karpy - my two best friends and I with our kids in tow (6 kids all together) spent a wintery weekend in a hotel in Fredricksburg, VA swimming in the indoor pool and giggling over mini bottles of champagne and take-out food....basically my ideal weekend of all time. Read more about it on this blog post.
#31: Serve a meal at the Windber Area Community Kitchen - we completed this task as part of our March 12 Months of Kindness project. You can read about it more on this blog post.
#45: Make pysanky eggs - this one is being listed as completed although, my original item was to make pysanky eggs with my Pap who always made them when I was growing up during the Easter season. I had even set up a date that I was going to go down to his house with all the supplies and eggs so we could do them together. I was hopeful that somewhere in the recesses of his mind he'd remember right away how to do them even though dementia has taken a lot out of his recent memories. But the day before we were supposed to get together, he ended up being admitted to the hospital for pneumonia where he stayed for a week before passing away. It was with a broken heart that I made my first adult attempt at pysanky eggs without my Pap before taking them to be laid next to his headstone after his military burial service yesterday. They weren't perfect by any means, but it was a good first try again (remembering back to the times I watched him as a teenager) and I'll continue to work at getting better at them each year. Love you, Pap Pap.
#61: Take a picture of Gemma in my wedding dress - Gemmi and I got to playing dress up one evening while Brandon and Greyson were at basketball practice. She was so excited to try on her Mumma's "marrying dress." It was a tad emotional (hahaha, sappy momma) but also so fun to do this together and to know that someday when she gets to wear her own 'marrying dress' that I'll have these sweet photos of when she was only three years old wanting to marry her daddy just like mumma did. (okay, bye. crying).
#88: Camp out under the Christmas tree on Orthodox Christmas eve - a sweet tradition that I hope to continue throughout the years. The kids loved getting the sleeping bags out and we watched one final Christmas movie before the season ended!
#96: Remove TV from our mornings - this is one that I was afraid of to be totally honest..but I am happily surprised with how easy it was to remove TV from our mornings and also so proud of what it has done to transform our whole day actually! We've been TV free in the AM since the beginning of March and the kids have been markedly more inventive, imaginative, and pleasant throughout the day. I know, I sound like a weirdo hippie, but if this is a weirdo hippie, I don't want to not be one! If you need some inspiration to remove some screens from your kids' (and your) day - check out these hashtags on instagram: #childhoodunplugged #wildandfreechildren #screenfreekids
Not fully completed yet, but I've been continuously working on the completion of these six small things from the list:
#6: Finished 2 of 12 books (one chapter away from finishing book #3!) - I've upped my reading a little bit in the past few weeks because I've been reading aloud to Greyson from my own book to help him drift off to sleep at night. I'm hoping upcoming vacation and screen free week will knock at least three books off that list!
#18: I've started a Memory Box for each kid, but I've got a long way to go on their boxes, let alone even starting mine and Brandon's! This is an ambitious one, yeesh.
#19: I'm still working on finishing our 2014 family yearbook - I'm about half of the way done which is actually the worst part; just getting to a point where it even feels possible to finish it. I'm there now, I can see the end, so the second half of completing it is a little bit easier! hah
#21: 3 of 7 personalized stockings done. I already had a knitted stocking for myself from growing up, but I ordered a photo stocking for the dogs to share from Shutterfly, and I ordered a perfectly awesome camo and orange sewn stocking for Greyson from one of my amazingly talented blog readers/friends Tara (thank you!!)
#46: Watched 1 of 5 Documentaries: The Dark Matter of Love was about a family who adopted three kids at the same time to add to their family of one child already. It was an interesting look into the changes and emotions within the family and their relationships when everyone tries to figure out their place in it. I really enjoyed the film.
#54: Watched 3 of 15 TED Talks and I loved them all. Here they are linked up if you're interested in viewing:
How not to be ignorant about the world: Hans & Ola Rosling
Connected but alone: Sherry Turkle
How to overcome your biases: Verna Myers
So, the recap boils down to the fact that I need to up my game over here! Already almost a quarter of the year has passed and I'm feeling like I need to do a little better at gradually completing items so I'm not stuck with a mad dash situation come November, eek!
How are you doing on your completion of your 2015 goals?
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