65 in 365-first month update:

ok gotta be honest, i don't think much was accomplished. guess we'll see as i work my way down the list. if by some odd chance anything was completed, i will bold it and mark it as done. things that have been started and are still ongoing will be bolded and marked as ongoing (and i'm pretty sure nothing has become routine yet). anything that is recurring and numbered will be updated. and there will be some random comments for things i absolutely blew off. this will be humbling but a good accountability check!

House-Projects:

1. paint and redecorate master bedroom
2. paint and redecorate master bathroom
3. repair tile around master bathroom tub
4. redecorate living room
5. redecorate screened back porch
6. have entire wood trim around house exterior and leaky window replaced
7. create desk areas for the girls

(all but one are pretty major projects, no surprise that this was a complete fail)

House-Organizing:

8. purge and reorganize girl's room-(a major purge has been done, but with kids it is forever ongoing. haven't gotten to the reorganizing part yet)
9. purge all unused items-trash, donate or sell-(ongoing, quite a bit is gone, still a long way to go)
10. make use of storage space efficiently and creatively-(i've gotten several organizational items-boxes, files, toy, shoe and hanging clothes organizers. have not used them yet. ongoing)
11. organize and file away important papers
12. order prints and update girl's photo albums (0/2)
13. get caught up on laundry and maintain a regular laundry schedule

Family Time:

14. have a movie or game night 1x per week
15. read a novel with the girls every other month (0/6)
16. date night with mr. h 1x per month (1/12)
17. date with kelley 1x per month (1/12)
18. date with bethany 1x per month (1/12)
19. go to a concert
20. take a family vacation
21. visit 2 theme parks (0/2)
22. go to "the nutcracker" ballet next fall/winter

The Girls:

23. start and complete kelley's dental work
24. start and complete bethany's chiropractor appointments
25. enroll bethany in gymnastics
26. convince girls to play spring softball and sign them up-(DONE)!
27. order ladybugs and butterflies for kelley's gardens

Me:

28. read all actual books i still have and then stick to my sony reader (2/??)
29. start skin care routine-(started but not a habit yet)
30. get a haircut
31. keep feet pedicured and toenails painted-(pedicured, painted and ongoing)
32. start taking vitamins and supplements daily
33. make dentist appointment and actually go
34. make oncology appointment and actually go
35. use wii fit plus daily
36. walk daisy 3x per week
37. get a new tattoo
38. find good homes for the kittens (3/5, bethany has claimed one as hers. ongoing)
39. catch up on 3 tv series on dvd (0/3, just got most recent season of house-can't wait to watch it! ongoing)
40. see 3 movies at the theater (0/3)

Socializing:

41. take all extended family out for dinner
42. call a friend or family member 1x per week
43. meet up with 2 friends i haven't seen in years (0/2)

(too bad email doesn't count. so far i've tanked on this. but have added a new thing-i love and miss actual "snail mail" so i'm going to start sending real letters to people. ordered cute sets of personalized note cards, stationery and labels)

Creativity:

44. learn how to use my DSLR camera and then use it exclusively
45. learn how to edit photos with photoshop
46. learn how to operate flip camcorder and make videos with the girls
47. get a personalized blog template-(switched templates but not a custom one yet, ongoing)
48. set up a crafting area
49. restart learning to sew
50. make a gift for each family member next christmas
51. start writing a book-(set up a private blog to work on this and started brainstorming topics, ongoing)

Money:

52. reopen ebay store
53. have ebay items all listed by back to school time
54. cut back on shopping for girl's clothes by at the least half -(trying to show restraint with spring and summer wardrobes, ongoing).
55. pay off credit cards, charge nothing to already paid off cards (1/4)-(Major FAIL, bought fairly expensive item for mr. h and charged it to paid off card. ugh.).
56. open savings accounts for both girls (0/2)
57. cut back on usual spending next christmas
58. start saving for a fun family "luxury" item

Cooking:

59. have home cooked dinners 5x per week
60. bake with the girls 1x per month
61. host meal for extended family
62. grow an herb garden and use fresh herbs when cooking

(i have a start of a meal plan and grocery list, just need to go grocery shopping. too many convenience meals. bad!)

Techy Stuff:

63. set up my itouch
64. set up ipod for the girls
65. save all pictures, music, patterns and documents to portable hard drive

ok, so not great at all. i better step it up for the next update...

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10 days into the new decade, and i...

haven't done much. *blush* bad me! ok in fairness it hasn't been 10 days since i came up with my ambitious list for "65 in 365", full of lofty goals. however, the intention is still with me and so for accountability i am checking in and outing myself.

now is where i share my excuses. ok, well really some are valid, while the rest are just plain excuses. i don't like to bring up my cancer experience much on this blog, i try to keep it on the caring bridge site where it belongs. but because it is affecting the here and now i will bring it up. during the diagnosis and treatment process, i tried to be calm, strong and brave. i *think* i did ok with that. there was always a lot of fear about treatments not working or the possibility of a relapse. nowadays i just try not think about it. but i never knew then and am still miffed now at how hard it would be to live after the fact. i didn't count on permanent damage to my heart and the major veins that drain into it. i didn't count on the fact that cancer killing treatments kill healthy things as well leaving behind pain. i didn't count on the fatigue that seems to be everlasting.

it's the fatigue that i offer as my excuse today. to explain i can go out for a day, either a nice calm day or a very long and active day-it doesn't matter. but the next day is always rough, as in feeling like you've been hit by a truck rough. in the weeks and days leading up to christmas i was really busy. christmas eve and day actively busy. and then an out of town trip for new year's. all of this equals a very bad crash. last week the girls went back to school, i had high hopes for accomplishing much. but no, i crashed big time. within a day or two i accepted it for what it was and put all of my big goals away. i saved my energy for doing the necessary things that are needed each day. i am hoping that this coming week will be very different!

i didn't completely ignore my ambitions. in fact, i've done a lot of thinking, planning and really have lots of ideas. we are a family of four plus furbabies living in my used to be "batchelorette" pad. our space is precious, we like to have "stuff" and it's pretty hard to make it work. i truly want a place for everything and everything in it's place. last night i found some great deals on different storage items and can't wait for their arrival. now i have to confess that i don't normally visit walmart. in fact, i try to avoid it. i do browse their site from time to time and found that they are selling various storage bins at what appears to me to be a great deal! $15 to $20 for sets of 6, 10, 12, 14 (!) stackable bins in various sizes. i am sure that in the past i've paid more for these types of things in store. any money i did save though went to shipping costs, to have them sent here as opposed to "site to store". now i would have gone to pick them up, but it was actually the length of delivery time that persuaded me, it was a week or more difference in time. i also found some great deals on amazon for closet hanging shoe racks and clothing shelves, probably not the most sturdy but i'm able to picture a lot of saved space. and i splurged on some super cute magazine type holders from HSN for our important papers. i don't ever watch HSN but after browsing their site-they have lots of cute things! at this point i'm making myself avoid QVC's site. the big downer about HSN is their shipping costs and i actually had shipping deals. way.too.much.

on a positive note you can see that i've changed my blog template. it's not a custom template which is my actual goal. and thanks to the help from hazel nut and kevin & amanda i now have a cute little signature! making it transparent didn't work out, but a little color contrast is good right? =) so there's that. now i just need to go back and add my buttons and other thingies. i sure do wish it was possible to change looks without losing it. at the least though, i did save them all.

with all of this rambling, i'm just trying to say that i'm planning and getting ready to take action! next time i post an accountability check, i hope to have updated my "65 in 365" list.

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65 in 365...the *new* new year's resolutions!

i'll be honest, i've never been one to make new year's resolutions. and even if i did, i surely didn't have the discipline to actually stick to them. this year i'm going to try "65 in 365"...accomplishing 65 things that i need or want to do in the next 365 days. for accountability purposes i'll post the list here and update the list as i *hopefully* complete each thing. for routine things, i'll consider them done when i've kept up with them for three months-i'll consider it a good habit at that point. it's a fun way to motivate myself and i thank my friends alison, snarky mom, stephanie and tara for sharing the idea. i hope this sounds like fun to you so that you can cheer me on and maybe even start your own 65 in 365!

to start off in the right direction, i'm going to categorize my list, because oh holey crow do i need some organization in my life! though many things overlap in categories. here's my list...

65 in 365

House-Projects:

1. paint and redecorate master bedroom
2. paint and redecorate master bathroom
3. repair tile around master bathroom tub
4. redecorate living room
5. redecorate screened back porch
6. have entire wood trim around house exterior and leaky window replaced
7. create desk areas for the girls

House-Organizing:

8. purge and reorganize girl's room
9. purge all unused items-trash, donate or sell
10. make use of storage space efficiently and creatively
11. organize and file away important papers
12. order prints and update girl's photo albums (0/2)
13. get caught up on laundry and maintain a regular laundry schedule

Family Time:

14. have a movie or game night 1x per week
15. read a novel with the girls every other month (0/6)
16. date night with mr. h 1x per month (0/12)
17. date with kelley 1x per month (0/12)
18. date with bethany 1x per month (0/12)
19. go to a concert
20. take a family vacation
21. visit 2 theme parks (0/2)
22. go to "the nutcracker" ballet next fall/winter

The Girls:

23. start and complete kelley's dental work
24. start and complete bethany's chiropractor appointments
25. enroll bethany in gymnastics
26. convince girls to play spring softball and sign them up
27. order ladybugs and butterflies for kelley's gardens

Me:

28. read all actual books i still have and then stick to my sony reader (0/??)
29. start skin care routine
30. get a haircut
31. keep feet pedicured and toenails painted
32. start taking vitamins and supplements daily
33. make dentist appointment and actually go
34. make oncology appointment and actually go
35. use wii fit plus daily
36. walk daisy 3x per week
37. get a new tattoo
38. find good homes for the kittens
39. catch up on 3 tv series on dvd (0/3)
40. see 3 movies at the theater (0/3)

Socializing:

41. take all extended family out for dinner
42. call a friend or family member 1x per week
43. meet up with 2 friends i haven't seen in years (0/2)

Creativity:

44. learn how to use my DSLR camera and then use it exclusively
45. learn how to edit photos with photoshop
46. learn how to operate flip camcorder and make videos with the girls
47. get a personalized blog template
48. set up a crafting area
49. restart learning to sew
50. make a gift for each family member next christmas
51. start writing a book

Money:

52. reopen ebay store
53. have ebay items all listed by back to school time
54. cut back on shopping for girl's clothes by at the least half
55. pay off credit cards, charge nothing to already paid off cards (2/4)
56. open savings accounts for both girls (0/2)
57. cut back on usual spending next christmas
58. start saving for a fun family "luxury" item

Cooking:

59. have home cooked dinners 5x per week
60. bake with the girls 1x per month
61. host meal for extended family
62. grow an herb garden and use fresh herbs when cooking

Techy Stuff:

63. set up my itouch
64. set up ipod for the girls
65. save all pictures, music, patterns and documents to portable hard drive

Read more...