The New Year

Nothing too glamorous in this post. A little, okay maybe long, itemizing of my goals for this year and because I'm totally obsessive this way, organized by category.

Food

1. Limiting eating out to once a month.
2. Because we'll be limiting our going out, make sure I've made snacks and easy to travel food so we don't end up going out simply because we're starving and not at home. 
3. Get back to making bread, crackers, and granola bars on a weekly basis.
4. Track where we're spending our food money. Continue to move as much as possible to local food sources including fruits and veggies, dairy, and grains. Limit those things that cannot be provided by local sources. Exceptions to include olive oil, Asian food ingredients that cannot be sourced locally, and nuts. 
5. Continue to put up as much food as possible. U-picks, trades, and canning/prep parties are good things. 
6. Renew my love for reasonable portion sizes.

Household

1. Maintain and track budget
2. Get back on a regular cleaning schedule
3. Follow the 5-5-5 for reducing, reusing, and recycling from each room. Do again quarterly
4. Tackle mundane house projects that will vastly improve quality of life i.e. cleaning and organizing the basement, painting, and ultimately remodeling the kitchen. 

Consumption of non-food items

1. Buy nothing new that can be thrifted, traded for, or made ourselves. Exceptions are socks and underwear and Justin's work jeans. 
2. Prioritize making/building projects and do the most important rather than the most interesting (assuming they're not one and the same) first.This will help ensure that we don't end up buying something we need because we haven't gotten around to making it.
3. Set aside specific time each month for making small household necessities such as cloth napkins and mama and family cloths.

Garden

1. Deal with the front yard. Get it cover cropped so that it's usable next year. 
2. Get back yard weeded and try to keep in some reasonable order. 
3. Plan and plant a small but functional garden focusing on those things that we like to put up for the winter and don't get in large enough quantities or appropriate varieties from the CSA. Onions, tomatoes, peppers, pickling cukes, etc.

Homeschool Goals 

1. Be more mindful of the educational opportunities inherent in everyday activities. 
2. Involve Rosy Girl more in defining and planning her learning goals. 
3. Find creative ways to teach math that don't put me right over the edge.

Parenting

1. Continue to practice positive parenting and try to add more tools to my parenting toolbox
2. Find a way to work more effectively with The Master of All Things Wood rather than constantly working against each other when it comes to parenting.
3. Make a point of having consistent distraction free time with each kid.

Personal Goals

1. Independently study math towards the goal of being able to take MTH111 in the next 2ys and then Stats so that I can finally finish my degree. 
2. Finish acquiring my essential midwifery texts and study.
3. Practice piano on a regular basis again.
4. Finish at least one garment a month for myself including participating in the Colette Handbook Sew-along.
5. More consistent aerobic exercise as well as yoga and meditation. Find ways to involve the kids in them so that I'm not constantly having to put off doing them because I can't get time away from the kids.
6. Unplug from the computer more. This is a consistent problem for me. Limit of 1hr per day unless working on "school" or waiting on something truly important. 
7. Write at least one letter a month. This doesn't include thank you notes or other more obligatory forms of written communication.
8. Find a spiritual community.

I realize that to people who don't know me well, these seem like far too many and far too specific goals to actually be achievable but as most of them are things that I already do to some degree or have done, even all at once, it's not actually that unachievable. Mostly what I need is to make them habits again. Of course a key part of this is unplugging from the computer more. While I'm not just sitting in front of it all day, I do spend a fair amount of time back and forth on it all day long and I would imagine that if you added up all that time, it would probably amount to 4-6hrs a day. Just think of all the things I could do if I spent that time in other ways. This is also probably the most difficult goal for me as the computer is the only way I have of maintaining regular contact with some of the people I love best. I don't plan to drop the blog (although clearly it hasn't been a priority) but I probably won't post more than once or twice a week. I would like to use it to track some of my progress on these goals. And on that note, I should go do something that doesn't involve the computer, namely getting ready for a much anticipated few hours with friends we haven't seen recently.