Whew, February usually goes by pretty fast (ya know, short month and all), but this year I feel like it went by glacially slow.
I blame the snow. The endless, endless snow.
We haven’t seen our grass since November, and we also haven’t seen temperatures above about 40 degrees since November. Most of the time lately, it’s somewhere in the 20’s and overcast.
Not exactly motivating.
However, we did our best to stay busy. I finished up teaching the community class I offered through our local college (all on cut flower gardening…so much fun!), Matt and I decluttered a seriously insane amount of stuff from our house (and are now reaping the results on a daily basis as it’s SO much easier to keep clean), and we did the usual flower farming chores that go along with February (which you can read about on my other blog, if you’re interested in that kind of thing).
I will say that although the eterni-winter has not been my favorite, we are beyond excited about the amount of precipitation we’ve gotten this winter. We’ve been stuck in a horrible drought for several years now, and this winter has finally started to help us claw out of it a bit. So even though the view of snow outside my window day in and day out has gotten kind of old, I AM excited to see what kind of phenomenal spring crops it’s going to give us 🙂
Here’s how February went:
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February Goals
File taxes- I got the document I needed right near the beginning of the month, so I got them filed soon thereafter. We’ve actually already received our refunds from both the federal and the state and allocated them accordingly 🙂
- Potty train Hyrum
- This is…not going well. My older two kids were excited to embark on this next milestone when it came time, but Hyrum is extremely resistant. Right now we’re just trying to create positive associations with sitting on the potty and then I’ll try more hardcore when we can at least manage that first hurtle.
Finish up Onyx’s vaccinations- An easy win here, and now he’s good to go for another year.
Fill out microchip info for Onyx- Once I actually sat down to do this and discovered that it took me maybe five minutes total, I was embarrassed that I put it off for so long, ha ha.
Apply to be a certified grower- I have filled out the application, but I haven’t heard back yet about whether or not I’ve been accepted.
- Set up plumbing appointment
- The new eterni-goal. However, we really don’t have this in the budget at the moment, so it’s going to have to be put off. Hopefully the leaks we know about aren’t as serious as they potentially could be…
Make a decision on dishwasher- So we’ve made the official decision to replace it instead of repair it, but the question now will be when. We were hoping this would happen in the next few weeks since we got some extra income thanks to the cut flower course I just finished teaching, but it’s now looking like we’ll need that for other things. Sigh. Hopefully we’ll be able to replace it sometime this year.
Go through one box or bag in storage basement- Here’s a goal we really blew out of the water! Matt and I were both feeling all sorts of motivated one cold and snowy Saturday, and we cleaned out half the room. It already looks so much better, and now that the finish line is firmly in sight, I’m hoping to finish this up in March. (It helps that the kids are begging us regularly to get this done because they’re hoping to claim that area as extra play space!)
Take a load to the donation center- We actually made two trips, and both were rather large loads. It feels pretty fantastic to have so much stuff we didn’t need out of our house 🙂
Get eye exam done and order contacts- Done and done. And this is actually the first time in my life I’ve regularly worn contacts, which has been interesting. Nice, but interesting…
- Finish three books
- My reading life is definitely off to a slower start this year, but I guess I’m not surprised. I did finish two books in February: The Flower Hunter and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I’m also in the middle of a few others.
Publish post on 2023 house/yard projects- Sure did, and you can find it right HERE.
March Goals
I will officially hit the third trimester early this month, and lemme tell you, I’M FEELING IT. I’m keeping the goals list short and simple for this month since it’s about all I can handle. We also have a fun trip planned up north back to our old stomping grounds to see some old friends, which we’re excited about. That will be over the kids’ spring break. Oh, and Matt has a man trip planned with just his brothers and dad, which will be awesome for them.
Basically my main goals are just to not fall behind on flower farming stuff, to potty train Hyrum, and to keep this baby inside for another month. Fingers crossed.
- Potty train Hyrum
- I think once he finally gets a few successes under his belt that he’ll probably catch on just fine, but it’s just getting there that’s proving tricky…here’s hoping that we can make this happen in March!
- Get a haircut
- Because my last one was in September. The boys are probably due for another one this month, too.
- Order compost
- We order our compost in bulk for the whole season, and we usually like it to be delivered by the end of March, just because this is when we’re usually prepping all our beds for planting. Of course, we’re still under a foot of snow, but fingers crossed it all melts so we can finally get some stuff done around here.
- Prep garden beds for planting
- Clearing out dead annuals, weeding, covering with a fresh layer of compost…you get the idea.
- Put down silage tarp on new perennial area
- There is a super weedy patch of our yard that’s between some of our old raised beds and what used to be a cow corral. The plan is to smother out all the weeds with silage tarps, put down cardboard and fresh compost, and turn this into another perennial area for us.
- Make one trip to the donation center
- Our decluttering speed has slowed, but it hasn’t stopped, so let’s keep this on here for now to see if we can ride out the decluttering motivation just a little longer.
- Finish going through the basement storage room
- If we end up actually doing this, we will have a TON more stuff to donate.
- Get oil changed in van + brakes checked
- Always need some easy wins.
- Finish three books
- I’m keeping this on here even though I was 0 for 2 in the first two months of the year. Maybe the third time will be the charm?
Less than three months until baby gets here…will I conveniently get the nesting urge in time? 🙂 What’s on your list for the month? And are you still buried under endless snow?
