February felt long this year, even though it usually passes by so quickly for me. However, a definite turn was taken for the better about a week and a half ago, when we glimpsed the first tulip bulbs poking out through the soil and made a spontaneous trip on Friday afternoon to the garden store for seeds and then went out for dinner after. Ever since we’ve been able to see the definite signs that spring is, indeed, finally descending upon us, the bleakness of winter and of being cooped up inside so much of the time has started to lift.
I was sick a bit this month as well (luckily I was the only one in the household who was), which sapped a lot of my motivation even when I was feeling normal again. All that said, February should have been more productive than it was, but I’m going to make up for this month by setting about twice as many goals (ha ha).
No, but really, everything seems brighter and better now that the days are finally getting lighter and a little warmer, and I think March is going to be a good month for us and a good month for goals.
First, though, here’s how February went down:
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February Goals
File taxes- We got this done early on, so we were able to get our tax return back before the end of the month. Our return was a good one this year, so we were able to make some good headway on our 5 big financial goals, which I posted about last week.
Decide on Hyrum’s blessing date- We actually ended up blessing Hyrum on Sunday, so it’s all taken care of! It was a beautiful day filled with support from family and friends, and I was so touched by all the love we felt from so many. (In case you’re curious, in my faith, children are usually given a blessing and officially entered onto the records of the church before they turn one. This is different than a baptism, since you need to be at least 8 years old to be baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.)
- Order birth certificate for Hyrum (and maybe Raven, too?)
- I did at least look into this, and I discovered it’s quite a bit cheaper to just go to the local health department and get one there since it will save us about $10 in shipping and processing costs. This is a rollover goal for March (and I’ll need to do it for sure, since we’ll need these when we fly to Hawaii next month).
- Open savings account for Hyrum
- Nope. I had opportunities, but logistically it’s a bit challenging to run certain errands with all 3 kids still, so this one still hasn’t gotten done. I’m hoping to brave this errand while Raven is at preschool so I’ll only have two kids to worry about while they set it up (and cross my fingers that it doesn’t take an hour to do like it did last time).
- Build bean/pea trellis
- We TALKED about this a lot, but nothing actually got accomplished. Rollover goal.
- Finalize plans for raised beds + garden
- Hmmm…we’ve finalized the early spring vegetables (as we’re starting those seedlings this week), but we haven’t finalized anything after that. We’ll have to continue to work on this.
Get knives sharpened- Every time I do this, I swear to myself that I won’t wait so long to do it again because it seriously makes the biggest difference. (I actually ENJOY chopping vegetables and other things for dinner prep when our knives are freshly sharpened!)
- Replace fridge filter
- Rollover to March.
Buy tickets to Hawaii + book rental car- We’ve officially done both! It’s really happening, folks!
- List Mazda
- I at least made marginal progress on getting one of the parts of the form done that we need to send in for a replacement title. Baby steps are apparently the only way this is going to get done in my lifetime.
- Finish writing thank-you cards
- I wrote some, but I have a couple left I want to send.
Make 4 recipes from Two Peas and Their Pod- Did you catch my post last week on the 12 cookbooks I’ve chosen as part of my monthly challenge to “cook from my shelves” more? I was able to successfully make four new recipes out of this cookbook in February, and all four were hits. The recipe for Huevos Rancheros was so quick and easy that it might just become one of our new go-to meatless meals, especially in the summer when I don’t want to turn the oven on.
Switch over Matt’s Roth- I still need to set up the direct deposit transfers into this, but we did successfully switch this account over to the firm who handles mine, which has much lower fees than the one he was with before.
Start a read-aloud with Raven- We started Charlotte’s Web, and the experience has been a resounding success thus far. Raven begs me daily to read her multiple chapters, and she loves that I encourage her to draw or color while she listens (as that’s been shown to help many listeners focus better). Our read-aloud time has given me many opportunities to teach new vocabulary and tackle some tougher topics in a natural way, too. I’m already trying to choose what to read next!
- List 5 things on Ebay
- Major fail. I didn’t list a single thing! I’m going to have to find a system to help me with this, as it’s one of my 2020 resolutions to sell all the vintage clothing my brother gave me to put on Ebay.
- Read The Age of Innocence
- I started this, but I’m still only about a quarter into it. Furthermore, I become slightly more convinced every time I pick it up that I’ve read it before (in a college class), but as it would have been over a decade ago and I obviously don’t remember enough of it, I’m pressing on so I can cross the final classic off that I need to complete for one of my 101 in 1001 goals.
- Make 3rd family photo album
- I bought the next album and started putting the pictures for it into a folder on our computer, but I have yet to find all of them and still need to order prints. As March’s budget is largely earmarked for other things, I’ll probably be putting off printing any pictures for these albums until April or May.
- Print photos for second “Quiet Book” for church
- I didn’t even start. As this will only require printing 15 or so photos, I’m going to rollover this one to March.
Other Notable Accomplishments:
- Matt and I started a little exercise program together, as we’re both wanting to lose weight at the moment.
- Our kitchen counters were totally cleared off for the first time in over a year and a half. Major victory for me! (ha ha)
March Goals
- Have a Green Feast for St. Patrick’s Day
- My sister-in-law does a Green Feast every year for St. Patrick’s Day, which I’ve always thought is such a fun idea. One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to celebrate a holiday I normally don’t, and this would definitely qualify as I’m super lame and often don’t even wear green on March 17th.
- Register Raven for kindergarten
- Yep, this is happening. So weird.
- Buy new swimsuit for Hawaii
- I’ve had my current swimsuit for almost a decade, and it actually doesn’t even currently fit as my postpartum weight loss has been much slower this time around than after my first two kids. I kind of hate to buy a swimsuit in this size because I don’t think I’ll be here much longer, but I don’t know another way around it except for to go on some crash diet between now and then, which I’m just not going to do. Oh well.
- Go on family hike
- I always want to go on more hikes and tell myself I will as soon as summer hits, but then I realize every summer that it’s usually just too hot to want to do it. So this year, I’m wanting to go BEFORE summer hits. (Plus, this one will also complete my 101 in 1001 goal of trying out 3 new hikes.)
- Send in request for Just Mercy book club kit
- I’m hosting my book club in May, so I need to get on this ASAP!
- Finish The Age of Innocence
- This will knock out my 101 in 1001 goal of reading 5 books off of my 100 Most-Recommended Classics list.
- Finish reading Charlotte’s Web with Raven
- This should be a shoe-in. The real question will be–what to read with her next?
- Read 8 books
- I’ve set my Goodreads goal to read 60 books this year (which averages to 5 a month), but I averaged 8 books a month for both January and February. Why not try to do it three times in a row?
- Finish studying October 2019 General Conference talks
- Twice a year, our church leaders hold a conference that’s broadcast to church members worldwide. I always try to study the talks from the previous conference just before to help prepare me spiritually. (If you want to check out some of the talks yourself, you can click here.)
- Go on first postpartum run
- It’s been a loooong time since I’ve been able to run, but I’m finally feeling up to it again! And, bonus–the weather right now is PERFECT for running outside.
- Plant early vegetables outside
- We’re planting some early spring vegetables inside this week in seed trays, and we’re planning to transplant them out by the end of the month. This will be our first time trying many of these–snap peas, lettuce, broccoli, leeks–but we hope we see some success!
- Get more chicks
- We’re planning on getting six more chicks, which will bring our total flock to 10 if they all survive.
- Build bean/pea trellis
- Rollover goal.
- Buy fence for chickens
- We used to let our chickens free range over our whole backyard, but then they started destroying my flowers. Time to buy a fence to keep them where we want them!
- Make four new recipes out of Our Best Bites
- This is my cookbook pick for March, and I’m super excited about it! I’ve made a lot of recipes already out of here, all of which were winners, so it will be fun to try even more.
- Replace fridge filter
- Rollover goal.
- Make spring cleaning list
- We actually got a good start on this prepping our house before we had everyone over to celebrate Hyrum’s blessing, but there are still some key areas I want to tackle.
- Finish writing thank-you cards
- For reals, though.
- Open up savings account for Hyrum
- Rollover goal.
- Pick up birth certificates
- Rollover goal that can’t wait any longer! I need Raven’s certificate to register her for kindergarten and both missing certificates for our flight next month.
- List Mazda
- I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.
- Make one sale (on Ebay or through a local classified)
- Maybe this will help me finally make some progress on this? To focus on making a sale rather than just listing a certain number?
- Get rid of cabinet in garage
- We have an old crafting/organization wood cabinet in our garage that I hit into every time I open the van’s passenger door in the garage. That cabinet needs to GO.
- Select all photos for 3rd family photo album
- I don’t plan on ordering these prints yet, but if I select all the pictures and put them in an online album, that’s most of the battle right there.
- Print photos for second Quiet Book for church
- Rollover goal.
- Fully set up second blog and publish one post
- So Matt and I have talked for a long time about starting a blog all about our project of “homesteading in the ‘burbs.” This is really just for fun and mostly a way for us to document our successes and failures and lessons learned, but I’ll make sure to link to it sometime when there’s actually something worth seeing.
And those are our plans for March! Have you got any plans yet for early spring?
