Monday, January 4, 2010

2010 Goals

I'm a little late, but here is just a quick recap and reflection on how I did with my 2009 goals...

- Get organized... we've made many small improvements throughout the year. I bought and hung a few of these Daily System organizers from Pottery Barn in our kitchen, which has helped a lot in keeping our monthly calendar in order, our bills all in the same place, and a place to throw random mail, magazines, etc. The addition of two new china cabinets in the dining room just after Christmas has helped a lot, too. I was able to get my kitchen cabinets organized again (rather than feeling over-filled and overflowing) by moving some stuff to the china cabinets, as well as unpacking many boxes in the basement with different serving pieces, crystal, real silver, etc. So that is one step in the right direction in helping to get the basement more organized.

- Be more creative... I did tons of crafts with Carson and did get some of my flower gardens designed out and re-done this year. I also have been learning new techniques for photo editing, though I haven't had as much time to play around with photos as I'd like to. I never did learn to use my sewing machine, though. And I only did a very small amount of scrapbooking.

- Read more often... I've read many, many books this year. These last couple of months, I've had less time to devote to it with Kevin being gone and then the holidays, but I've already been getting back into my old routine of reading for about a half hour before going to bed each night.

- Love authentically... Kindness, Patience, Forgiveness, Courtesy, Humility, Generosity, and Honesty... I have been working on each of these qualities and do feel I've made improvements, but I want to continue to make improvements.

- Get healthy... it was a slow process through most of the year, only losing 16 pounds... then I joined the Biggest Loser Challenge at work and have been lighting a fire under it to lose another 10 pounds during December.

- Eat less processed foods/make more homemade food... I canned some new things in '09 - black beans, mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup - that helped to eliminate some of the canned and processed foods. I don't by frozen meals anymore, or frozen chicken nuggets or anything like that. If I buy chips, crackers, cookies, or something that on the rare occasions... they're always either organic or all-natural with no GMOs/HFCS. So we're doing a lot better.

- Eat more organic/local food... Probably about 95% of my pantry/freezer/fridge is organic. Maybe even a little higher percentage. I buy very few conventional items anymore. I rarely shop at Meijer or the other big-box grocery stores anymore. I do about 99% of my shopping at farmers' markets, Horrocks, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods Market. All of the meat and chicken that I buy is locally raised (we consider GR local still - that's where our beef is from).

- Eat more vegetables... We have at least one meatless meal per week. I want to increase this to two meals per week this year. And we eat a lot of veggies. Carson loves his veggies and eats them very well.

So, all in all, I think I did pretty well in '09 with achieving the things I hoped for. Here's what I'd like to do in 2010... divided into Kitchen and Personal goals.

2010 Kitchen Goals:
- make homemade sausage, english muffins, vanilla wafers, cheese crackers, wheat thins, tortillas, pita bread, buns, pasta
- buy another locally raised, organic/natural lamb
- buy a Nutrimill grain mill and start grinding my own fresh flour
- bake fresh bread weekly (or as often as we need it), stop buying bread from the store completely
- can more beans - black, pinto, cannellini, baked, chili/ranch-style, great northern
- can more cream soups - mushroom, celery, chicken, broccoli
- can homemade pickles
- can more condiments - ketchup, mustard, chili sauce
- try making some homemade cheese

2010 Personal Goals:
- lose 30-50 pounds by March 30th and win the BL Challenge at work!
- continue to lose a total of 75-100 pounds by the end of the year
- run my first 5k on June 9, 2010 in Flushing, MI
- run in the Crim in Flint on August 28, 2010 (5k, 8k, or maybe even the 10mi... we'll see how it goes)
- run a 5k for Breast Cancer - gotta look one up still
- buy a nice cross-training bike (for both road and off-road use)
- start training for a sprint triathalon in the late summer/fall (or duathlon if I can't train for the swimming)
- continue to read at least one book a month
- continue making progress on reading the entire Bible
- continue to get organized - get the basement situated and organized, throw away or donate stuff I don't need
- learn to use my sewing machine
- do more scrapbooking
- and most importantly... be the best mom I can be for Carson!! And the best wife I can be to Kevin... And the best friend and family member I can be.

2 comments:

Mary Voogt said...

Nice work on last year's goals! And great goals for this year as always :) I don't know how you do it all. You're superwoman. Good luck with the training. Maybe someday I'll try to do some races...maybe for a good cause. Good motivation :)

I didn't get to my sewing machine either! And I really want to. I somewhat know how to sew (at least I used to). I just need to figure out how to thread the machine! I'vr already got ideas of stuff I want to make. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon. We've got the homemade food down pretty well. Now it's on to homemade other stuff...clothes, linens, etc. :)

Sara said...

You should totally do some races!!! They're usually for good causes and you get a fun new t-shirt out of it! :) You're competitive, so you'd be running to win or beat your last time. Me.. I'm just going to run to do it and say I did it. :) It'll be tough to get the mental picture of my old distance track and x-country coach out of my head... yelling at us and honking her horn in her car to keep us running and not taking any breaks to walk. :)

I haven't sewn since 8th grade when we were taught to use a sewing machine in Home-Ec. I did pretty well then, but all we did was make a pillow! :) I want to learn how to make curtains, dish towels, aprons, and other simple things.