Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season!

It seems like all I write on here anymore are my new years goals!  Last year I started grad school, and I greatly underestimated how much it would take over my life.  After two semesters of extreme stress, I adjusted my plan of study, and I think I've found a balance between work, school, and life.  Unfortunately because of this, I wasn't able to fulfill a lot of my goals for 2014.  But this is 2015, and I have a feeling it's going to be a great year!


Here are the goals I've set in 2015:


- Maintain at least a 3.5 GPA.  Pretty self-explanatory.


- Give 5 speeches for Toastmasters, get my Competent Leadership award, and finally organize the finances.  I've been the Treasurer for 2 years, and everything is still a mess in the box that the previous Treasurer handed me. 


- Complete all of my half-done house projects.  Oh, there are so many.  The banisters and stairs, the backyard renovation, the built-ins.  I am very bad almost finishing a project and then moving on to the next thing.  I want 2015 to be the year of finishing what I started. 


- Run a half marathon.  This was one of my incomplete goals from last year.  I just didn't have time to train because of my crazy school schedule.  But I've been running more recently, and I think I can handle it this year. 


- Stick to meal planning.  I did really good at the beginning of 2014, but once again, once school got crazy I kind of gave up, and started eating more frozen foods and quick meals.  I want to start cooking and eating real food again.


- Be better about staying in touch with people.  I generally like to stick to goals that are quantifiable, but this is important to me.  I've always been bad at keeping in touch with people I don't see on a regular basis, but it doesn't mean I don't want contact!  I'm going to try to keep in better touch with people.


So there it is!  My 2015 goals.  Does anyone else have any goals for the new year?  How did you do on your goals for 2014?

Goals for 2014

I’m not going to set as many goals for myself as I usually do, mostly because I’ll be starting a fairly rigorous graduate school program in March (while continuing to work full time).  I like challenging myself with goals, but I don’t want to stress myself out by overextending myself.  Here’s what I hope to accomplish in 2014.

 

House:

 

1) Finish my office before I start grad school.  I really need a place where I can organize my materials and study.  I’ve already painted the walls and got a new desk.  I still have to:

-paint the ceiling

-install the new light fixture

-install closet doors

-put up trim

 

2) Build a coffee table, end table, and kitchen cabinet.  I’ve already started building the coffee table.  Hopefully I’ll have nice weather again at some point so I can finish the job.  I’m also planning on making a counter-height moveable kitchen cabinet for next to the refrigerator, where we used to have the pub table.  

 

Health/Fitness:

 

3) Get back into running, and run another half marathon.  I got a stress fracture after I completed my first half marathon, and I was forced to take 6 weeks off.  I just started again, and it’s been rough getting back into it.  I absolutely loved running the half, though, and I want to do more in the future.  I’ll probably be able to do one again by next fall.  

 

Professional:

 

4) Maintain a good GPA with my grad school classes.  

 

5) Continue to perform well at work. I don’t want my job performance slipping because I’m spreading myself too thin.

 

6) Get my CC and CL from toastmasters.  The CC stands for Competent Communicator, and I only have 2 speeches before I reach this goal.  The CL stands for Competent Leadership, and I have several things I need to do to obtain this.  

 

Personal:

 

7) Volunteer at least 10 hours a month with Habitat for Humanity.  I recently started volunteering with them, and I think it’s a great cause, and would like to continue throughout the year. I know 10 hours/month is not very much, but it seems like it’s a reasonable amount that I can give, without giving up time for work or school.  

 

8) Improve my vegetable garden from last year.  I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started my veggie garden last year, so this year I’m going to do more research and figure out how to get the best produce before I plant.  Hopefully I’ll get more food from it this year!

 

So those are my 8 goals for this year.  I think they will be challenging, but are also attainable.  I can’t wait to get started!

2013 Goal Review

Since pretty much the only thing I update anymore are about my yearly goals, here’s a recap of my 2013 goals.

House Related

1) Finish the first pass on the inside of the house.  We’re still working on it! We’ve gotten some small things finished which I’ll try to update on here soon, but it always seems like we’re adding to the list!  At this point I’m just really trying to get my office done before I start grad school (in March!).

2) Go through the house and purge every closet, drawer and cabinet. This was really hard to do this year since we ended up selling my mom’s house.  My brother and I spent every weekend during July going through the house to get it ready to sell, and then many weekends between when we accepted an offer and when we closed in October cleaning everything out.  Obviously I had no desire to go from cleaning my mom’s house to cleaning my own, so I kind of neglected my house this year.  Plus I accumulated a lot of things from my mom’s house.  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to be more organized in my own house in 2014.

Health/Fitness

3) Run a sub 30 minute 5k.  I’ve done this, but I don’t have an official race time.  My best time per my Garmin was 29:13, and I've done it on the Treadmill several times.  I just haven't run a 5k in over a year!   

4) Complete a half marathon.  I completed the Trenton Half Marathon in November!  I actually loved it, and I hope to do more half marathons in the future.

5) Get to my goal weight and maintain.  Working on it.

6) Have a general physical, dental cleaning and eye exam.  Done!

Professional

7) Get my LEED AP.  I passed!  It was an awful test to study for, and I’m so glad it’s over. 

8) Do five speeches for Toastmasters.  I didn’t quite make it – I’ll be doing the 5^th speech on Jan 7^th.

9) Take the GRE and apply for grad school.  Done!  I was accepted into 5 programs, and I’ve decided to go to Indiana University.  I start in March!

Personal

10) Change my name.  Done!

11) Start an IRA and contribute the max.  Done!

12) Make 3 changes to decrease my carbon footprint.  I did!  We made a compost pile and have been composting regularly.  We’ve also been using fabric baggies for snacks, instead of plastic bags.  I also had a vegetable garden in the summer and grew some food.

13) Don't buy any clothes in 2013.  I didn’t buy clothes for about 6 months.  Then I did.  It was rough. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplish in 2013.  I'm looking forward to 2014!  Happy New Year!

Weekend To-Do List

So this is the last full weekend to do work before we host my brother's graduation party.  We invited our friends and family, some of whom haven't seen our house yet.  There are still some things I want to get finished before the party. 

1. Finish the bookcase.  I have procrastinated on this for a really long time, mostly because it involved spackling, and I really hate that.  But I spackled last weekend, so this weekend I need to sponge, paint and put the shelves back in.  The annoying part will be painting the shelves, since they need about 3 coats on each side, and I can only paint one side at a time. 

2. Finish the trim in the living room/dining room/kitchen.  At this point most of the trim is up, and it needs to be filled, caulked and painted.

3. Install curtains in the dining room.  Once we finish painting the trim we can install the curtains.

4. Finish the base cabinet in the kitchen. 

5. Install trim in the upstairs hallway.  We really want to do this because it will look so much better from the downstairs.

6. Finish going through the closets and decided what stays and what is donated.  I am sick of having so much stuff everywhere.  A lot of it was in boxes from college that I never unpacked and just brought to the house.

So with all this stuff to do, you will hopefully be seeing a lot of updates from me in the next week.  Wish us luck!

Organizational Update

So it's day 3 of planned activities, and I think it's going better than expected!  I have been finding that not only am I getting the things on my list done, but I'm doing additional tasks that I wasn't even planning for!  Before I tell you what I've been up to, let me give you a little picture of the sad rut that Matt and I have gotten into. 

We usually both get home between 5:00 and 5:15 (yay for living within 5 miles of work!).  We go to the office, turn on our computers, and turn on the tv.  We'll usually both get snacks and eat them with our computers on our laps and the TV on in the background. At around 7 I'll start talking about dinner, and we'll probably start making it at 7:30-8.  Dinner on nights like this is usually something quick and unhealthy because neither of us feel like making anything else.  Then after dinner I might read a little and Matt might go practice guitar, and then we'll go to sleep around 11-12. 

What a huge waste of time!  There are 6 hours between 5 and 11, and we have been wasting them!  So far, the chore schedule has been hugely beneficial in holding us accountable for how we're spending our time.  Here is how the past 2 days have gone:

Tuesday 8/16:

I got home from work, and started filling the holes in the bathroom trim.  I got them all filled, and noticed that the bathtub was looking a little dirty, so even though cleaning day wasn't for 2 whole days, I decided to clean the bathtub!  When Matt got home he told me that he had been meaning to add some extra nails to the bathroom trim, so he added those.  Then something unexpected happened... As I was waiting for Matt to finish nailing the trim, I noticed that we had a lot of laundry piling up, so I started a load!  Even though I could have waiting a few more days!  Miracle of miracles!  And at this point it was still only 6:15!  I was actually shocked at how much I had accomplished after being home only an hour! 

Matt and I went to the gym after that, and we got a really good workout in.  We got home around 8:00, and we cooked dinner - a light and healthy made from scratch Asian pasta dish.  After dinner I painted the bathroom trim, and it looks so much better!  Since I already had the paint out I decided to paint some other trim that had been cut and was waiting to be installed in the dining room.  After showering, washing the dishes and folding the laundry I still had time to watch the finale of Master Chef (so happy that Christian didn't win!).  I am actually completely shocked that I accomplished so much on a weeknight! 

Wednesday 8/17:

I had my company softball game after work (we won and I got 2 runs!).  I got home around 7 and started making dinner.  Matt had spent the 2 uninterrupted hours he was home installing trim in the kitchen and around the window in the dining room.  This means that all I have to do is fill, caulk and paint the trim, and then we can install the dining room curtains! 

After dinner, Matt cut down the living room closet doors, so we're one step closer to having them finished.  I gave the kitchen base cabinet another coat of paint and cleaned up from dinner. 

I have to admit I'm loving this home-made dinner thing that's been happening.  We had done meal planning at our apartment, but had stopped after buying the house for several reasons.  For the first 2 months we were at the house every night working on it, and we did not have a working kitchen.  For the second month we were rushing to finish everything before the party, and didn't have time to cook.  For the past 2 months we've been really lazy.  Now that we're back to meal planning, trips to the grocery store are so much easier, and we're not wasting as much food, since we only buy what we know we're going to eat.  Plus, we both like cooking, and it's nice to be eating healthier.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the scheduling is going.  Hopefully we'll be able to continue like this!

Getting Organized

Have you ever felt like everything was getting out of control?  That's kind of how I've been feeling lately.  I've been super busy at work, and I've had some things going on with my family that have made it difficult to focus on the house. 

But that's going to change.  I've had several projects on the back burner for too long, and I'm going to get them done!  Here are the half finished projects that I (and Matt, too) have been procrastinating on:

1) The bookcase in the kitchen.  Oh my gosh.  It's been partially finished for almost 3 months now!  I still need to close in the bottom, re-paint the interior (I think I'm going to make it white, even though I originally thought grey like the rest of the kitchen) and paint the shelves.  Estimated time: 6 hours

2) The base shelves in the kitchen.  All it needs is another coat of paint and a shelf installed.  Estimated time: 2 hours.

3) Finishing the trim in the living room, kitchen and dining room.  We still need to do the window in the dining room, base in the dining room, 1 wall of base in the living room, and around the bookcase in the kitchen (see item 1, lol).  Estimated time: 5 hours

4) Installing curtains in the dining room.  Once the window trim is up we can install the curtains.  Estimated time: 1.5 hours

5) Installing closet doors in the living room.  Step 1: buy the doors, check!  We still need to trim the bottoms, paint them, and install them.  Estimated time: 4 hours

6) Paint the bathroom trim.  Once I finish this the bathroom will be done!  Estimated time: 1 hour

7) Bind the carpet remnant.  My grandparents recently had new carpet installed, and were nice enough to give us a remnant.  We're going to bind it to make an area rug for the guest room.  Estimated time: honestly I have no idea how long this is going to take... maybe 1/2 a Saturday?

So those are the main things that are bothering me at the moment.  With that in mind, here's a rough schedule for the rest of the week, factoring in other commitments. 

Tuesday 8/16: fill holes in bathroom trim, gym, paint bathroom trim
Wednesday 8/17: softball game, paint kitchen cabinet
Thursday 8/18: cleaning night! (seriously, I love having cleaning night on Thursday, because I don't have to worry about cleaning over the weekend)
Friday 8/19: gym, cut drywall for built-in, install studs in built-in
Saturday 8/20: laundry, yard work, visit mom
Sunday 8/21: install drywall in built-in, spackle/sand, 1st anniversary dinner :)

Already August?

Where is the summer going?  It seems like we just bought our house, but it's already been 2 1/2 months since we moved!  

With summer activities being in full gear, it can be hard to get motivated to work around the house.  While we’ve still been working, our pace has been a lot slower than it was when we originally bought the house. 

Matt and I are both on our respective company softball teams, so we each have games once a week.  We try to get to the gym 2-3 times a week.  Matt had band practice.  We spend time with friends and family.  We do chores.  When is there time for putting up more trim or clearing out the master bedroom?

While we were never expecting to have the house finished too quickly, it’s a little bit depressing to be living in an unfinished house.  At this point, we don’t have any room 100% completed. 

So how do you get motivated to keep up with your projects?  Do you have a system?  A list?  Do you just jump in and get to work?  How do you get out of a rut and start getting things done?  I’d really like to know.