Category: goals

Alright, I tried the whole 12 months of 12 goals thing because I thought it was a cute framework for the year.  But I’m ditching it!  lol.  Still, let’s see how I did for March.

1.  Bakes.  Well, not a new bake, but I did perfect an old bake!  A few months ago I made, arguably, the best oatmeal raisin cookies ever.  Admittedly, the bar was low because oatmeal raisin cookies are gross, but still.  lol.  The problem was the next time I went to make them, I couldn’t remember which recipe I had tweaked!  After a few disappointments, I went back to the gold standard, Betty Crocker.  Yesss!!!  These were the ones.  I will tell you that I refuse to use shortening, so instead of half butter, half shortening, I use all butter.  This makes the cookies almost lacey and super delicious.  To be fair, they also fall apart as you try to pick them up, but the taste makes it worth it!  I also do a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar because RaptorDad likes cookies better that way.  🙂
2. Dinners.  Nope.
3. Montessori Trays.  Big fat fail.  Which is extra sad because I even have a bunch of St Patrick stuff already made.
4. Feasts.  I did better on this one!  We made (The World’s Ugliest) King Cake for Mardi Gras along with a delicious gumbo/ etoufee hybrid thing that I made up.  Does that count as a new recipe?  Hmm…  Maybe I did better on my goals than I thought!  lol.  I also  bought the kids a box of Lucky Charms for St Patrick’s Day which blew their minds since I am generally the killjoy mom that doesn’t allow sugary cereal.
5. Hexies.  I made some progress, but I didn’t actually finish a block.  lol.  I did start (another!!!) epp project yesterday though!  I’m super excited about it.  🙂
6. Scrap.  I actually did get December 2017 done!
7. Project Life.  I did get February 2019 done!  And September 2018!  Look at me go!!!  I then decided that I was going to try to do a bulk order for November-January.  Still working on that.
8. Portraits.  Still need to get the bluebonnet pics done, but I actually took some portraits on the beach over spring break.  I didn’t manage to get a good one of the three kids together (naturally), but I did get some cute individual pics.  🙂
9. Quilting.  I actually got a lot done on the unicorn quilt!  I didn’t quite finish the top, but I got as much done as I can before me next sewing lesson.  So I decided to get cracking on my Christmas quilt!  And I’m loving it!  I got all of my half square triangles ready to be sewn together.  🙂
10. New Parks.  Oh my gosh, y’all.  The beach in the spring is amazing!  Love love love love love!
11. Blogging.  I love that I decide to ramp up the blogging and then only manage 2 posts the entire month.  lol.  Irony!
12. Health.  Well, I got 10k steps 11/31 days.  I was doing great at the beginning of the month.  lol.  Maybe I’ll try again in April.  I also only managed to swim a few times, but I did go swim today!

So…  What are my goals for April?  I’m glad you asked!  lol.

1.  Project Life.  Edit all of the pics to close the gap.  So, November, December, January.  Also, complete March 2019.
2. Scrap.  Finish January and February of 2018.  I’d also like to scrap our spring break trip while it’s fresh in my mind.
3. Sewing.  I’m hoping to finish both the unicorn and Christmas quilt tops.
4. Hexagons.  Finish 1 block.
5. Windchime.  Finish 1 block.
6. Applique.  Finish butterflies for Texas Quilt and prep some butterflies for Mia’s quilt.
7. Quilting.  I’d love to finish machine quilting my charm quilt!
8. Bluebonnet Pics.  Need to do these soon!!!  This weekend at the very latest.
9. Art Room Closet.  We’ve been reorganizing our house!  We’ve added loads more storage and I am loving it.  I need to get one more cube thing from Ikea for the art room closet and then I think we’re good!
10. Birthday Party.  I think I’m in denial that the babies are turning 4 (!!!!!!!) this month!

Hello March!  I’m not sure that I’m in love with having the same monthly goals all year long, but I’m going to give it a go for one more month.  First, let’s look back at February.

1.  Bakes.  This was a huge success!  I made a copy cat Chantilly cake from Whole Foods.  The icing was spot on, but I think the cake itself would benefit from a few tweaks.  Still, delicious!
2. Dinners.  ::sigh::  I didn’t try any new recipes this month.
3. Montessori Trays.  Well, I got 4 out of 6 done.  lol.  No pics, but they continue to be a huge hit, especially with Mia.  
4. Feast Days.  I wanted to do 3 or 4 feast days, but only got my act together for one.  That’s ok though!  It’s still better than the zero I would have done in the past.  🙂
5. Hexies.  Hmm…  I finished a block and a half.  To be honest, I’ve been wanting to work on applique in the evenings.  lol.  Still, I’m going to try to push through and get some done this month.
6. Scrapbooking.  I focused on Project Life this month, so I didn’t get much 12×12 scrapping done.  I’m ok with that though.
7. Project Life.  The main reason I’m ok with not accomplishing much on the scrapping front is because I killed it on Project Life!  I switched my kit club subscription to Citrus Twist and I was hugely motivated to get through some of my back log of Hip Kits before my new one came.  I only got 5 traditional layouts done, but I got 13!!! Project Life layouts done!!!
8. Portraits.  None this month.  Whoops.
9. Sewing.  I wanted to get the unicorn quilt top done, which didn’t happen.  But I did make a lot of progress on it.
10. New Parks.  No new parks, but we did revisit some old favorites.  And I let Kate set up the tent in the backyard for a few days while she worked on a badge.  She was planning to sleep out there, but she decided against it when she realized that none of us were willing to sleep on the floor when our nice warm beds were so close at hand.  
11. Blogging.  They may not have all been posted on Mondays, but I did post 4 times!
12. Health.  I tried to get back into swimming, but Mia got the flu and that seriously derailed my momentum.  That’s ok though!  I still swam 100% more than I did in January!

Which leads me to March!  I’m trying out spelling out my March goals to see if I like it better than trying to come up with them as I go.

1.  Bakes.  And I immediately fail because I don’t have any ideas of what I want to bake yet.  lol.
2. Dinners.  Ditto dinners.  But I’m considering some kind of crock pot beef stroganoff.  Also need some yummy fish dinners for Lent.
3. Montessori Trays.  My goal is to have some P is for Patrick trays done this weekend!
4. Feasts.  I’ll try to post more details about our line up on Monday, but my goals for the month include Mardi Gras, Saint Patrick, and the Annunciation.
5. Hexies.  Maybe I should change this to the hand sewing goals category.  lol.  I’m getting totally into applique, but I can’t let that derail me too much!  I’m going to try to get 3 hexie blocks done this month.  I’d love to get the hexies wrapped up so that I can play with my 3(!!!) new hand sewing projects.  More on that later.
6. Scrap.  I know this has been on my list for months, but I really want to wrap up December 2017.  Then I can put the Fall 2017 album on my shelf and move on!
7. Project Life.  Oh my gosh y’all!  I am in love with my new kit!  With that in mind, my goal for Project Life is to do February 2019 and then also wrap up September 2018.  I might try to alternate weeks, or I might just let myself play with the February goodies and then go back and work on September while I wait for my March kit.   
8. Portraits.  It’s time for bluebonnets!!!  My favorite portraits of the year.  🙂  I’m debating going for a more casual look this year, but I might get the girls new Easter dresses and use that.  Decisions decisions.
9. Sewing.  I’d really love to finish up my unicorn quilt top for Kate because I want to start on my Christmas half square triangle quilt.  I got the rest of the fabric for it and I’m dying to cut into it!
10. New Parks.  Well, I must be insane because I’m taking all 3 kids to the beach for spring break.  By myself.  Corpus Christi here we come!
11. Blogging.  I’m toying with the idea of ramping the blog up to 2 posts a week.  I’ve missed it!
12. Health.  Still keeping it at 2 swims a week.  And adding in 10k steps a day.  Not sure how this is going to go, but I got 10K steps yesterday.  lol.  We’ll see,

January is always my favorite month for getting stuff done!  I didn’t accomplish everything on my list, but I made a ton of progress on loads of things.  Let’s see how I did, shall we?

1.  New bake.  My plan was to make a Chantilly cake this week, but somehow we were out of sugar!  I’ve since rectified that and will probably end up making it this weekend.  Kate and I ::did:: get to go to a cake decorating class so that’s baking related at least.  lol.  It was so much fun!
2. New dinner recipe.  I made the crockpot Chicken Tikka Masala and it was ok.  RaptorDad was a fan, but Kate thought it was way too spicy.  I’ve come to the realization that as much as I want to love Indian food, I’m just not a fan of cinnamon.  I made a bonus new recipe that I liked a lot more which makes sense since it involves tortillas.  lol.  I put some chicken and a jar of tomatillo salsa in the crockpot and it was amazing.  We had it with cheese and greek yogurt.  Delish.
3. Montessori Trays.  Oh my gosh, the babies loved these!  Especially Mia.  I’m almost done with our Valentine’s Day ones and I’m so glad that I made this a goal.  🙂
4. Feast Days.  We celebrated Epiphany!  It was so much fun that I decided to make up a monthly plan and share it with my moms’ group at church.  lol.
5. Hexies.  Well, I didn’t quite finish up what I had hoped for, but I did make a ton of progress.  I finished November’s super hexie (a block where I baste 3 extra hexies for each one in the block) and 2 of the 3 hexies made with pre basted hexies that I was supposed to finish in December.  I have also decided that I’m not making any more super hexie blocks for now.  I have enough hexies basted to get to 36 blocks and I’m sort of thinking that might be enough.  The current plan is to make some sort of wall hanging instead of an actual bed spread. Here’s a pic of my current hexie blocks (all 14 of them!)  spread out on my grandmother’s king size bed to give you an idea of how big they are. 
6. Scrapping.  I got November done!  November of 2017 that is.  lol.  But hey, I did this layout from last week so there’s that.  
7. Project Life.  I only got June done, but I did sort through all of the kids’ artwork on my desk and file it in the correct week so that it will be ready to go.  Fingers crossed I can get more done this month.
8. Portraits.  I didn’t get any of my kids, but I did take some maternity pics for my sister.  Does that count?
9. Sewing Project.  I got the whole Keroppi quilt top done!  And my grandmother (who is a saint) is going to quilt it for me.  Winning!  We decided to applique the hexies onto every other block and break them up with a green print.  I love how it tuned out. Here’s a pic right before we added the final green borders.  I can’t wait to see this finished!
10. New Park.  We went to Wonder World in San Marcos.  It was, um, interesting.  lol.
11. Blogging.  I did it!  I was tempted to schedule the posts for 3 a week towards the beginning of the month, but I’m glad I resisted and stuck with starting with each Monday before adding more midweek posts.  I’m going to try that again this month.
12. Get healthy.  lol.  This was a pretty big epic fail.  So this month I have a new goal.  I’m going to try to swim twice a week and then go from there.  We’ll see if I can keep that up, but I have my bathing suit all packed up to go to the Y after I drop Mia off at school.  Speaking of, it’s time to go!  How have your goals been going this month?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments.  (Looking at you mom.  lol. )

Historically, I just do monthly goals, and who knows, I may chuck this plan out the window in February and go back to that, but for now I’m going to attempt some big goals.  12 of them in fact.  Am I crazy?  I believe we’ve already established that.  lol.

1.  12 new bakes.  Roughly one a month.  Who knows what they will end up being, but some ideas I’ve been kicking around include roughly everything I see on The Great British Bake Off.  Except for that time they cooked with suet.  Definitely not going there.
2. 12 new dinner recipes.  Preferably something in the healthy range that doesn’t taste like garbage.  Now accepting suggestions.  lol.
3. 12 months of Montessori.  I used to be so good about making Montessori trays for Kate.  I even still have most of the stuff boxed up!  I need to get it all down and let Mia and Xander play with it.  I’m going to try to rotate the trays once a month.
4. 12 feast days.  We had so much fun during advent that I’m going to try to make it a more regular thing.  Who knows that all will go into it, but at minimum I’m thinking a themed meal  and craft.
5. 12 hexies.  I’m so far behind.  Y’all, I’m still working on November’s hexies!  But I’m going all in this year.
6. 12 months of scrapping.  While I’d love to catch up, that seems supremely unlikely, BUT I can make sure that I don’t get even more behind.  So in January, I want to finish January of 2018.  In February, February 2018.  Etc etc.  I’ll work on November and December of 2017 throughout the year.
7. 12 months of Project Life.  Same, but ideally I actually will catch up.  I’m still stuck in June of 2018 though, so we’ll see.
8. 12 sets of portraits.  I want to do better about taking “real” pics of my kids this year.  Bluebonnet and Christmas pics are obvious choices, but I want to get 12 full sets.
9. 12 finished sewing projects.  Goodness, I’ve only been quilting for a year and I’ve already racked up quite the list of unfinished projects!  I’d like to tackle that list and actually finish some of them.  First up is the charity quilt for my quilt guild which is due in February.  I’ve finally settled on a plan and ordered fabric.  And needlessly complicated it.  lol.
10. 12 new parks.  Time to explore!
11. 12 months of blogging.  I think it’s become clear that 3 kids does not lend itself to blogging on the regular, but I miss it so I’m just changing my expectations.  Instead of trying (and failing) to blog 3 times a week, my new goal is once a week.  Fingers crossed.  lol.
12. Get back to healthy habits.  Blah.  Definitely not the “fun” goal, but arguably the one that needs to happen the most.  Frustratingly, it doesn’t fit neatly into my “12” theme, but my rough goals are to swim at least twice a week, get 10K steps everyday, and track what I’m eating.

I think I’ll update these and come up with the specifics once a month just like I used to with the monthly goals posts.  This will just give me more structure for the year.  Then hopefully I will add in blog posts about specific projects.

So, I never got around to blogging my October Goals, but I did set some!  Let’s take a look, shall we?

1.  Hexies. Finish September’s block and then stitch together 2 more blocks from already basted hexagons.  Done and done!  I actually stitched together 3 from already basted hexagons.  🙂  I have a whole blog post coming out about it on Monday.
2. Linus quilt top.  Have we talked about how I joined a quilt guild?  Because I did and it’s awesome.  One of the things they do is make charity quilts and one of the ladies actually makes kits so it’s easier.  I grabbed a kit at the September meeting and actually managed to stitch it together!  It’s the ugliest quilt ever, but hopefully some little kid will love it.
   
3. Costumes.  Kate came up with the awesome idea for all of the kids to dress up as breakfast, but then she ended up changing her mind and going as a zombie ballerina.  Mia and Xander were totally sold on the idea though and ended up being fried eggs.  lol.  It was hilarious.
   
4. As far as scrapping goes, I wanted to get April and March of 2018 done, but that didn’t happen.
5. For Project Life, I wanted to get March and April of 2018 edited and uploaded and I succeeded!  I even got May done too!  Yay me! I can’t wait for these prints to get here.
6. Name tag.  Apparently I need to make a name tag for my quilt guild.  I was planning to get that done this month but it didn’t happen.
7. Pot Holder.  Same deal.  We are exchanging pot holders at our Christmas party.  I have the design done in my head, but I need to execute it.
8. More editing.  I wanted to get June- Sept of 2018 done for the big scrapbook and I got it done!
9. Road Trip Activities.  Done!  Even though they didn’t see much use.
10. Work on super secret Christmas project.  I didn’t make any progress on it this month, but I think I’m still in good shape for a December finish.

And now for November.

1.  Hexie block #9.
2. Finish Jake’s stocking.  I’m so so so so close to being done.  I can probably finish it in an evening or two.
3. Pot Holder.  I’m planning to make a hexie flower out of some Christmas fabric that I have an then applique it to some white fabric.  Then beg my Mimi to help me.  lol.
4. Name Tag.  Same.  lol.
5. Teacher Gifts.  Now that all 3 kids are in school, I need to make a plan for some cute (cheap!) teacher gifts.  Now taking suggestions.
6. Order prints.  Now that I have the pics edited, I just need to upload them and actually order them.
7. Tree Counting Activity.  I want to make a little Montessori counting activity for the twins.
8. Scrap March and April of 2018.
9. Scrap March, April, May 2018 Project Life.
10. Edit June, July Project Life.  I’m not going to be ordering more prints any time soon, but I’d like to get some of the editing done so I’m ready to order next time they have a sale.
11. Family pictures.  Professional pics are not in the budget this year, but I still want to take the kids out and try to get something for our Christmas card.  I already have their outfits picked out.  Mia’s is comically too large, but I’m going to make it work!
12. Super Secret Christmas Project.  Um, I might have a few of these that need to be finished.  lol.

You guys! I’ve missed you! (All 3 of you. lol.) My blog self destructed back in June and I missed it more than expected. Luckily RaptorDad is the bomb and he got it moved over to a new hosting service and all fixed up. I’m just going to jump in with my (in progress) September goals real quick like, and then get back to scrapping during preschool time. That’s right sports fans, Xander is now going to preschool 2 days a week and it’s been amazing!!!

1.  Hexies. I got a bit behind last month so I actually need to do 2 hexie blocks.  I’m going to be writing a longer blog post re the hexes a bit later complete with a poll!

2.  Piece Quilt Back for Charm Quilt.  Actually, I’ve already scrapped this idea.  lol.  I ordered some backing fabric yesterday because I have too many other ideas to spend time piecing the back of a quilt.

3.  Halloween Costume Plan.  I’m open to ideas.  lol.

4.  February Project Life.  This is actually done!!!  Now I just need to order some more prints.

5.  Which brings me to this goal, edit and upload pics for March and April Project Life.

6.  Scrap June 2017.  Yes, I am that far behind…  Le sigh.  On the upside, I’ve officially finished this one and it’s on my shelf.

7.  Scrap May 2018.  This is on my list for this morning!

8.  I want to keep the progress going and try to catch up a bit!  So I need to edit more pics.  Whomp Whomp.  I’d like to get July, August, and September 2017 pics uploaded.

9.  Stretch Goal is to scrap April 2018.  Not sure if that’s possible, but hey, preschool!  lol.

10.  Make 3 hexie flowers for a super secret Christmas project.