Is January a hard month for you? I have a long history of not feeling warmly towards this particular month—I always seem to get the blues amid the seemingly endless winter, with day after gray day all seeming the same.
This particular January was especially hard, as my husband was away for much of the weeks for work, and I was on my own in a brand-new town, not knowing hardly anybody.
I found that, unsurprisingly, my hard month emotionally translated into feeling a distinct lack of motivation to work on goals. You’ll see in my January recap that I had one of my worst months on record for getting stuff done.
However, February is already looking distinctly better as it looks like Matt will no longer be staying away from us during the week for work (knock on wood). That in itself has made this past week or so feel about 1,000% more bearable. And we’ve had a few beautiful sunny days in the past week too, which have allowed us to more easily spend more time outside.
Here’s hoping that things only get better from here!
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January Goals
Order rest of seeds + bulbs- Well, this one at least got done! It was significantly helped along by the fact that I’m pretty much living for spring and for sunnier days at this point, so yeah. For the record, we ordered the vast majority of our flower and vegetable seeds through this company and then I snatched up some peony tubers from Home Depot to see if I can’t get them in the ground before spring. We shall see. (Note: I wanted to prioritize getting the stuff for our garden NOW because if you’re into gardening at all, you’ll know that stuff is flying off the shelves right now. So many things are already sold out! It’s totally insane.)
- Map out planting schedule and garden plans
- I did make progress on this, but it is not complete yet. I want to finalize these in February. (I’m using this book as my guide, in case you’re curious.)
List Buick- Yes, but it’s complicated. I’m seriously considering taking a reader’s suggestions (thanks, Amy!) and just selling it through peddle.com, even though we won’t get as much. Ugh, I hate selling cars!
- Buy Command hooks and hang artwork
- Nope. Because we ended up purchasing a car last month, we didn’t have the room in the budget for this or much else, thanks to all the expenses that went along with that.
- Finish unpacking and setting up furniture on main floor
- We made significant progress in the playroom and some progress in our room and closet, but we are not finished with this. Rollover goal.
- Spray paint 3-legged stool
- The problem with me setting all these paint goals was two-fold: 1) I didn’t think about how it was snowy and cold outside and how it wasn’t the best month to be tackling a project like this (since I’m not going to be doing this in the house), and 2) We’re basically almost totally burned out of house projects right now, so we really need to just focus on finishing what we’ve started and call it good for awhile.
- Spray paint old light fixture
- Ditto.
- Touch up paint on blue dresser
- Ditto.
- Touch up paint on gray and white dresser
- Ditto.
- Finish flooring in kitchen (including repairing subfloor)
- I’m disappointed that we didn’t make ANY progress on this. I would really like to have a floor in my kitchen! We need to put a higher priority on this in February.
Finish flooring in playroom- Matt completed this near the beginning of the month (he only had a couple strips left to do), and I’m loving it! It’s been such a blessing to have that room available for the kids to play in and to (attempt to) store their toys in. We still need to put up baseboards in there and come up with some kind of organizational scheme, but I love having one more room that’s fully functional.
- Finish putting kitchen back together
- Matt did some prep on the drawer fronts, but we’re lacking the screws we need to get them back on. Rollover goal.
- Buy baseboards
- Nope. See 1) budget restraints, and 2) burnout. While I really should put this as a rollover goal for this new month, I’m more concerned with just getting a plan to have a kitchen floor again. This can wait until March or April.
- Get oil changed in van
- I almost didn’t leave the house at all, so I kept forgetting about this. Rollover goal.
Find a family doctor and schedule 12-month checkup for Hyrum- Finally, something we completed! (And he already had his checkup and vaccinations, so we’re good there, too!)
Get a library card- Yes, and it’s already being put to regular use 🙂
For some reason, I don’t have the complicated feelings towards February that I do towards January. For one, it’s a short month. For two, the days start getting noticeably lighter, which is always a big boost to my mental health. For three, we start our seeds at the end of this month, which I’m just over-the-top happy about!
So even though January this year was kind of the pits, I have no reason to believe that February will follow suit.
February Goals
- File taxes
- February wouldn’t be complete without this as the first line item! I’m hoping to file early in the month so that I can get our refund in time to buy the majority of the other stuff on this list 🙂
- Buy a stick vacuum
- Now that we live in a house where half the main floor is LVP or tile, I decided it’s time to invest in a stick vacuum. Anyone love their stick vacuum? I’m looking for recommendations! (I’ve been seriously considering this one but I want one with a good detachable handheld option and don’t know that I love this one for that, so seriously, drop me a comment below if you have any experience with stick vacuums!)
- Have a special Valentine’s dinner with the kids
- We usually do this the day after the holiday to take advantage of everything being on clearance at the stores, but since we live so far away from stores now, I don’t know what this will look like this year! Nevertheless, it’s nice to have something fun to look forward to 🙂
- Buy a paper shredder
- I’ll probably just try to get this one secondhand since there are a ton listed in the local classifieds for relatively cheap.
- Figure out seed-starting set-up and buy supplies
- I’ve made a list of supplies I want to get…now I just need to find the best quality ones at the best price. Once again, if you have recommendations for things like growing lights, let me know!
- See if we can get our peony tubers in the ground
- You’re technically supposed to put peony tubers in the ground in the fall, although you can put them in the spring (though you will be behind a year in their growth if you do that). Since we didn’t have a chance to put them into our new yard before the winter, we’re going to see if we can not lose that year of growth and sow them now. Fingers crossed.
- Finalize garden and seed-sowing plans
- Rollover goal.
- Print off photos for third family album
- One of the (few) unplanned things I got done in January was to pull together the next batch of photos to print off for our next photo album. It’s a 101 in 1001 goal to print off family photo albums through 2020, so here’s to making progress on that!
- Find different dentist for the kids
- Ugh, I can’t believe I have to do this. I had booked an appointment for our kids for a family dentist here, but I failed to double check to see if they took our dental insurance until we showed up for our appointments. Rookie mistake.
- Take donations to the local thrift store
- Our usual donation center is located pretty far away now that we’ve moved, but it looks like the thrift store in town takes donations, so I’m hoping to finally get some of the hundreds of things we’ve decluttered out of the back of my van.
- Finish unpacking main floor and move dresser
- Rollover goal.
- Book a contractor to repair the kitchen subfloor
- Rollover goal.
- Put kitchen drawer fronts on
- Rollover goal.
- Do caulking in kitchen
- Rollover goal.
- Purchase at least one rug
- We definitely will only be able to do this if we get our tax return, but we are in desperate need of a few rugs now that we’ve replaced much of the old carpeting on the main floor with LVP. Can you believe this will be my first time ever buying a rug?! I basically know nothing!
- Get oil changed in van
- Rollover goal.
- Sell Buick
- The Buick’s not worth much, so we just need to find a way to sell it quickly. First step? Finding the title….ugh, I’m seriously the worst at keeping track of our car titles!
Welp, that looks pretty daunting when you lay it all out like that. Wish me luck!
P. S. If homeschooling is, will be, might, possibly could be in your present or future, I wanted to let you know about the Ultimate Homeschooling Bundle flash sale before it was too late. It’s only good through Thursday 2/4 until midnight, and it seriously was some of the BEST money I spent on our homeschooling curriculum. Plus it’s a total steal—you get a ton of resources (many of which I used daily in our lesson plans), and the bonuses alone cover the cost of the bundle. Anyway, check it out and grab one for yourself before the deal is gone forever (which it will be after tomorrow!).
