You guys, I did it — I got through a January that I didn’t just feel like I had to grit my teeth through! In fact, I actually ENJOYED quite a bit about it!! This is a major, major win for me since I’ve had winter blues for about as long as I can remember, and January in particular has always been a real struggle month for me. I finally got smart this year and made myself plan out several things to look forward to during the month, and it made such a huge difference in how I felt. Sure, there were still some days I felt my usual lack of motivation and doom-and-gloom, but they were few and far between and I could usually pull out of them fairly quickly.
Some of the fun things about the month — the trip we took mid-month with my mom and stepdad down to Southern Utah, the class I started teaching at the local college on cut flower growing, and a flower conference I won tickets to and attended at the end of the month. The family vacation provided us all with some good fresh air and sunshine, and the other two things helped me to feel inspired and motivated going into our third flower farming season.
Now that I know what kinds of things really make a difference to my mental health in the dead of winter, I’ll need to prioritize doing them again in the future so I can successfully navigate this month without dreading the whole thing. Really happy about this major victory for me.
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January Goals
Start tax preparation- Not only did I start it, I basically completed 99% of it! I’m just waiting on one last form to come in before I can file.
Take Onyx to vet- Poor thing had to get neutered, but the whole procedure went fine and he’s back to normal now.
Register Mazda- Gotta love easy wins 🙂
- Call in plumber to look at leaks
- The plumber I initially called has never called me back, so it looks like I need to reach out again or go with someone else. Rollover goal.
- Deal with dishwasher situation
- Still haven’t done this — it just wasn’t in the budget. Honestly, it could be March or April or May before this is done, depending on how the finances shake out.
Clean out fridge- It wasn’t a super thorough cleaning, but we did clean out all the old food and I washed the drawers and shelves that were the worst, so I’m counting it.
Start doing FlyLady system again- I didn’t think this would happen until we dealt with our broken dishwasher, but I actually was able to start it up again this last month. I wasn’t great at getting all the dishes done every single day, but I usually kept on top of them enough that it wasn’t super daunting…most of the time. Keeping up on her daily tasks really makes a huge difference in how well our house functions for sure.
Open separate bank account for flower farm- This process took awhile, but it’s a relief to finally have it out of the way so that all business expenses and income can be totally separate now from our personal banking stuff.
Apply for flower farming grant- I was up against a lot of other worthy proposals, so we’ll see what happens. I should find out pretty soon one way or another if we got it.
Prepare lesson plans and handouts for cut flower course- Okay, so in true Torrie style, I’ve only totally completed the slideshows and class content up until the week I’m currently on. However, since I’ve fully mapped out my lesson plans and the content that I need to cover each week, I’m counting this as complete.
- Finish three books
- Eesh, I only finished one. I did at least start another fiction pick (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow) and got quite a bit further in one of my nonfiction reads (The Flower Hunter), but I’m still not done with them.
Publish book round-up post- I FINALLY did this, which felt like a huge accomplishment since I’d been working on it for months. You can check out that post HERE.
- Publish post on 2023 house/yard projects
- I blogged 13 times in January, which is something I haven’t done in about 7 years. And the funny thing? This house/yard projects post is literally the ONLY ONE on my editorial calendar that I wasn’t able to complete this month. I don’t feel bad though — I’m amazed I was able to publish so much in January!
February Goals
Weirdly enough, even though I usually dread January, I don’t feel the same about February. It’s partly because it’s a shorter month, partly because there’s a lot more daylight, and partly because I can start a lot more on farm chores and such. I also almost always file our taxes in February, which for us has always meant a decent refund. And even though I’m not super money driven, it’s always nice having some extra wiggle room to do some fun things with.
It’s also nice to have a holiday to look forward to, especially one that the kids get so excited about. We always celebrate the day after Valentine’s Day to take advantage of everything being half off, but the kids are already busy making cards for that. I also open up our bouquet subscriptions this month, which kind of marks the official beginning of our flower farming season, at least to the public (even though we won’t officially have flowers until probably April).
Lots of good things happening! And I’m not so pregnant yet that I can’t still enjoy most of them 🙂
- File taxes
- This should be a cinch once that last form comes in.
- Potty train Hyrum
- Gulp. I always dread potty training, but I’m REALLY dreading it this time around. While my third child is older than my other two were, he isn’t exhibiting as much interest and readiness as they were, but I don’t dare put it off any longer since he seems to be getting more obstinate as he gets older. Seriously, if I get nothing else done this month but this and the taxes, I’m counting February as a win!
- Finish up Onyx’s vaccinations
- One of the vaccinations Onyx got at the same time as his neutering procedure was a shot that required two doses, so I need to do the follow-up work on that.
- Fill out microchip info for Onyx
- While Onyx was out for his surgery, we opted to just pay to have a microchip put in so that we can more easily located him if he ever gets lost. Now I just need to actually fill the thing out and sync it online.
- Apply to be a certified grower
- I’ve been a member of the Utah Cut Flower Farm Association since the beginning of my time as a flower farmer, but now that I’m heading into my third season growing, I can apply to be a certified grower, which comes with extra benefits and visibility for me and for the farm.
- Set up plumbing appointment
- Rollover goal.
- Make a decision on dishwasher
- As of now, I don’t think we’ll actually DO anything with the dishwasher situation this month, but we at least need to decide if we’re going to repair it or replace it. So that’s this month’s goal.
- Go through one box or bag in storage basement
- After taking a bit of a break from minimizing and simplifying and decluttering, I’m 100% back into it, and I’m determined to make sure that 2023 is the year we completely clear out the “storage room” in the basement and turn it into an actual area that we can use. We’ve gone through quite a lot in there already, so if I can just knock out one box or bag per month, this should be done for sure by the end of the year (sooner if I can get my motivation rolling even more on it).
- Take a load to the donation center
- One of the best ways I know to make sure we declutter a decent amount is to make an appointment to go drop off a load to our nearest donation center. Since the center is almost an hour away, there’s definitely the pull to make the trip “worth it.”
- Get eye exam done and order contacts
- I’ve needed to do this for several months, but we now finally have it in the budget to follow through.
- Finish three books
- Let’s see if we can do better in February on this, shall we?
- Publish post on 2023 house/yard projects
- Rollover goal.
What’s on your docket for February?