My year of goals is up – results are mixed

Done

• Buy a bicycle
• Go canoeing and not ride in the middle
• Try sushi
• Make a loaf of bread from scratch
• Go one week without Internet
• Volunteer at a food shelf
• Go geocaching
• Play nine holes of golf. Twice!
• Make apple butter
• Organize Connor’s closet
• Visit Journey Inn

Almost done

• Finish my 2006 scrapbook. I’m only a few pages away and have kept up to date with the current year in the mean time.
• Fit a car into my garage. Twice I made this happen but as of now, it no longer does.
• Use all the gift certificates currently in my possession. I still have three.

Not done

• Get at least one more mom’s group member. I’ve given up on this whole project.
• Learn to play one song on the piano by memory. Nope, and the piano is no longer in the house.
• Create a will
• Roll-over old 401ks
• Get a nontraditional massage (reflexology, reiki, etc)
• Grow something edible, and eat it
• Climb the REI rock wall
• Donate my formal gowns
• Jog a mile without stopping
• Go through a corn maze
• Buy prescription sunglasses

 

To do: 30b430 update

I’ve crossed several items off my list lately so I’m going to do a full list update rather than separate posts for each. Items with new comments are in red.

Get at least one more mom’s group member — This is not looking too promising. I’ve sort of given up on it. Maybe in fall I’ll give it another go.

Learn to play one song on the piano by memory — I need to get on this now that I have extra time.

Buy a bicycle — DONE! We bought a used one at Express Bike Shop in St. Paul but I haven’t ridden it yet

Redo our bathroom floor

Finish my 2006 scrapbook — I’m making progress despite having yet to decide what to do about the photos we lost

Go canoeing and not ride in the middle — DONE! My mom and I went on a short canoe ride upriver while on vacation and I steered.

Try sushi 2/13/09

Create a will

Make a loaf of bread from scratch 3/18/09

Roll-over old 401k to new one — Well, now I have two to roll-over and have to figure out the best way to do that. Any experts out there who want to tell me what to do?

Go one week without Internet. 12/31/08

Volunteer at a food shelf. 4/25/09

Donate platelets — I can no longer do this so I replaced it with “Go geocaching,” which I did two weeks ago at Fort Snelling State Park with a friend. It was pretty easy and a lot of fun. I hope to do it again. If you want to learn how to geocache, check out the several MN state parks that will lend you GPS units and tell you what to do. Except for the park sticker, it’s free!

Get a nontraditional massage (reflexology, reiki, etc)

Grow something edible, and eat it

Fit a car into my garage

Play nine holes of golf — DONE! I went while on vacation. I think I did pretty well for my first time. I got frustrated to the point of giving up only once. I’m even willing to play again some time. I think I would do better now that I have some idea of what the heck I’m doing.

Proofread a book for UIP

Watch 10 Best Picture winners

Find a favorite wine. Well, I guess this one is also out. I’ll have to think of a replacement.

Climb the REI rock wall

Donate my formal gowns

Make apple butter 3/18/09

Use all the gift certificates currently in my possession (Juut, Blockbuster, WA Frost, Texas Roadhouse, Culvers)

Jog a mile without stopping

Go through a corn maze

Buy prescription sunglasses

Organize Connor’s closet. 1/19/09

Visit Journey Inn. 1/6/09

Write a blog post when each of these goals is completed

I completed yesterday’s to-do list, but my father-in-law did the strawberries for me, so I updated my resume instead. I’m not creating weekend to-do lists, so here is Monday’s list: Apply for one job, do laundry, apply for WIC and food stamps.

 

To do: Volunteer, and teach my kids to do so also

When my company started furloughs in February, a coworker suggested we make something good come of a bad situation by finding a volunteer opportunity during that time. I’d been wanting to check out what Neighbors was all about because our church is a big supporter, and I had “volunteer at a food shelf” on my 30b430 list.

So I went Feb. 27, while I was home alone and on furlough, to meet with the volunteer manager. He said they didn’t need food shelf volunteers because that is where most people need to work. They were in need of people for the Clothes Closet, which had just extended it’s Saturday hours. And it would be a place I could bring the children along if I ever need to. So I’m counting this on my list even though I didn’t get to work in the food shelf. I at least got to see how it works during my meeting/tour, and I am helping the food shelf because the money the Clothes Closet makes goes to support the food shelf and Neighbors’ other services.

I did my first three-hour shift Feb. 28, working the checkout. It was kind of boring but we had a steady stream of customers. I completely forgot my second shift, which should have been March 28.

Today, I went in with Grace. She and Daddy had a rough night last night so I thought they could use a break from each other and I wanted to share something special with her. So I worked in the back sorting donations, while she sat nearby playing with the toys she brought along. After about two hours she got bored, and I read her a book and then she flipped through some of the books the store had for sale. Then she went back to playing with her toys (and some new ones that another volunteer fished out of the donation bags and gave her). She even helped me fill up the men’s shoe rack out in the storefront.

I was very proud of my little girl, who seems to be growing up very quickly lately.

 

To do: bake and cook some good stuff

I tackled two 30b430 items this week. My friend Lauren and I baked bread using the master recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes. It was all very easy, but our dough came out too dry so the final product is a bit tough. We used whole wheat flour instead of white but having read about the different types of flours, I thought that would be fine. We also half-ed the recipe. We are going to try again without deviating at all. I also want to try the English muffins. Grace had a lot of fun helping bake the bread, although one bite determined that she didn’t like it. Here are pictures of before and after baking:

We also made apple butter in the crock pot. The consistency came out wonderful but the flavor wasn’t quite as strong as I’d like. I’ve seen MANY different recipes so I’m going to try a different one next time.

And, I used a Sneaky Chef recipe to make hamburgers for the fam last night. I put a puree of spinach, broccoli and peas in it. Mark said he could taste the peas but that it wasn’t too bad. Grace at a whole burger without complaint so I guess she didn’t notice. (She also gobbled up a 1-to-1 mix of mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower that I made last week.)

 

to do: try sushi

Who would have guessed this would be one of the things to come off my list early on! Several friends took two laid-off former co-workers out for sushi before work today and I was coerced into coming along. They were all very encouraging about me trying new things, though I felt a little on the spot! What if I needed to spit something out? Luckily, I made it through without feeling the urge to purge.

We went to the downtown St. Paul Sakura, which has happy hour appetizer specials. I ordered fried pork dumplings and then sampled off others’ plates. I knew if all else failed I’d be safe with my order. I mean it’s pork, and fried. It did not disappoint.

I had one roll each of:
California (crab, mayo, cukes and artichokes). Pretty good. I’d eat it again.
Cucumber. I’m not a cukes fan and I got way too much wasabi on this one so it was not a hit.
Lobster and asparagus. This one was good too.
Raw tuna. At first I didn’t taste the tuna but then I got to the middle. I’ll take a pass on trying it again.
I was going to have a crab one as well but was about ready to burst by this point so I gave it back to the original orderer.

My biggest problem with the sushi in general (besides the seaweed which is a little too hard to chew) was shoving that whole giant piece in your mouth all at once. That’s just not my thing.

So, if I’m invited for another social outing involving sushi, I will not hesitate to go. But I’m not going to be picking an order up for my dinner any time soon.

(We failed to bring a camera, by the way. SIGH)

 

To do: Organize kids’ bedroom closet

Mark and I cleaned out and organized the closet in the kids’ bedroom the other day kind of by accident. I just started picking through a few things while the kids were watching a movie in our bedroom to wind down for bed. The next thing I know, we’ve got everything pulled out and a pile of stuff to donate:

We added Connor’s dresser out of the playroom; all the pictures and knick-knacks we don’t have room for right now out from under my desk; a box of childhood scrapbooks out of our bedroom; and the wrapping supplies out of our closet.

We moved the Halloween costumes, out-of-season outwear and a box of clothes that are too big for Connor to Grace’s closet (in the playroom) and a pile of blankets to the living room.

Finish product, with an empty shelf to spare:

And the next project:

 

Our stay at the Journey Inn

Journey Inn is an eco-retreat on 66 acres of prairie, hilly woodland with a spring-fed creek outside tiny Maiden Rock. I discovered it on a travel green Wisconsin Web site and wanted to go immediately. I put it on my listof 30 things to do before turning 30.

Mark and I each got a massage from the owner who is a massage therapist. (The other is a psychologist/life coach.) We read the books we brought while the other was getting massaged. The therapist, who specializes in energy work, found and cleared an “energy blockage” in my kidneys. I have no idea how this works or if it works but I find the idea intrigueing.

We were the only ones at the B&B because it was a weekday. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We spent a lot of time sitting in the main room by the wood stove, eating the organic snacks provided and playing Scrabble and Scattergories (Mark won both!).

We also went snowshoeing through the woods nearby, climbing down a small hill, over the frozen creek bed, through thick trees and on undisturbed but crunchy snow.

We stayed in the fire room. Like all the rooms, it had a comfy bed, big shower, private balcony (that it was too cold to use) and heated floors. We hope to go back and stay in the fire room again during a different season.

We had lunch at Liberty’s in Red Wing on the way home because all the small town eateries were closed.

 

Good to be back

So, how did I spend my Internet-free and nearly-kid-free week? A read a whole book (Thin is the New Happy, highly recommend it), watched three movies (none of which I recommend), did a few digital scrapbook pages, ran some errands I’ve been meaning to do for a while and slept a lot (yet still not enough). I also (with an assistant) installed a programmable thermostat and did some laundry, but that was the extent of the cleaning.

It was pretty easy to stay offline at home and the first day of work (Wed) when it was really busy. Friday during down time at work, I started reading a book I got for Christmas and have already learned a lot in theory. We’ll see if I can put it into practice. Saturday and Sunday were rough because there was not a lot of work to do, but somehow I made it through. Opening my e-mail Monday morning was a little overwhelming but I’ve finally read everything. (The women I met online mostly communicate through e-mail now, not on a message board so there was a lot to read.) I haven’t caught up on any blogs except digiscrapping download ones.

And now on to the rest of the week:

I spent Christmas Day in Onalaska with the in-laws and this past Sunday at my parents’ house for Christmas celebrations. A good time was had by all. And this week we made room for the new toys. We cleared out a few bags of things to donate and bought these boxes from Ikea and labled them (with words and pictures):

While sorting books, Grace told me she didn’t need a particular Santa book because:
“I know everything about Santa.”
Me: Oh, do you?
G: Yeah, like he comes down the chimney. But if you don’t have one, he can come in the front door.
Me: Yes, that’s right.
G: I learned that one from Grandpa, not from myself. Cause I didn’t know that afore.
(She did know right away that we didn’t have a chimney. That’s when Grandpa told her about the front door. She also made sure I didn’t put out the reindeer food on Christmas Eve because the kids weren’t going to be there Christmas morning and we didn’t want to confuse the reindeer.)

Grace likes the newly organized playroom. So much that she wants to keep prying parents away:

Although, she did let daddy in to hang up her art (and Connor’s on the right):

 

30 things to do before 30

Who doesn’t love a good to-do list? I must love them considering how long it takes me to complete them!

So, in lieu of New Year’s resolutions for 2009, I am aiming to do these 30 things before I turn 30. So please don’t ask me to do anything on Nov. 7, 2009, as I’m sure I’ll be very busy trying to make it look as though I gave it the old college try.

1. Get at least one more mom’s group member
2. Learn to play one song on the piano by memory
3. Buy a bicycle
4. Redo our bathroom floor
5. Finish my 2006 scrapbook
6. Go canoeing and not ride in the middle
7. Try sushi 2/13/09
8. Create a will
9. Make a loaf of bread from scratch 3/18/09
10. Roll-over old 401k to new one
11. Go one week without Internet. 12/31/08
12. Volunteer at a food shelf. 4/25/09
13. Donate platelets
14. Get a nontraditional massage (reflexology, reiki, etc)
15. Grow something edible, and eat it
16. Fit a car into my garage
17. Play nine holes of golf
18. Proofread a book for UIP
19. Watch 10 Best Picture winners
20. Find a favorite wine
21. Climb the REI rock wall
22. Donate my formal gowns
23. Make apple butter 3/18/09
24. Use all the gift certificates currently in my possession (Juut, Blockbuster, WA Frost, Texas Roadhouse, Culvers)
25. Jog a mile without stopping
26. Go through a corn maze
27. Buy prescription sunglasses
28. Organize Connor’s closet. 1/19/09
29. Visit Journey Inn. 1/6/09
30. Write a blog post when each of these goals is completed