This goal setting and accomplishing is so motivating!  Making realistic goals is the key – only several things to focus on for the month works the best for me.  The kids’ schooling can change so quickly so I need to be flexible and be available to help when they’re home on quarantine.  So, holding these plans loosely and having an entire month to complete them is working well.  

February’s goals are finished and it feels so good!
*Finish the Salvation Army donation and deliver
*Make birthday cards 
*Clean exhaust fans in all bathrooms
*Pantry re-do 

I’m in love with my pantry!  Sometimes I leave the doors open just so I can look at.  At first glance maybe it doesn’t look a lot different.  But to me, it’s a huge change.  We can see what we have and find things so much more easily.  I bought a few new containers and lazy susans to help organize, put all of our extra items in the basement to allow more space, moved everything the kids need to shelves they can reach (why has it taken me so long to do this?), put like items together, and finally labeled containers.  It’s a bit busy visually but definitely looks better than it did before.  Finishing this big project has definitely motivated me to keep working through the house, little by little.  

Before…

After!

For March I’m hoping to:

*Continue making cards and envelopes to send to family and friends.
*Purge and re-organize the book shelves in the front room.  This is going to be a big project.  Kenny and I have collected many books over the years and it’s time to get rid of some.  I’ll need his help to go through his things, and the kids to go through all of the games and their books, but hopefully we can finish this over the course of the month.  
*Deep clean the kid’s bedrooms over spring break. 
*Make changes to blog.  I’ve been dreaming (for years) about updating the blog and it never feels like a priority.  This, again, isn’t urgent, but I’d like to begin work on it.  My goal is to make it easier to find past posts by creating categories.  After blogging for ten years we have quite a number of posts and sometimes it takes me quite awhile to find something.  

Anybody else working on projects along with me?  Tell me about your goals and what you’re working on!

Several weeks ago, parents were allowed in to the ballet studio to observe again.  I just can’t help myself – each time I take a ton of photos of Anna.  She’s working so hard! 

At the end of January, we decided to let Anna add a few ballet classes to her week which would allow her to perform in the May recital.  Thus far we’ve eased into ballet – for several years Anna took one class a week.  Last fall we added a second class per week, and now decided it’s time to see if Anna enjoys performing.  We have now committed to three full ballet classes a week and a short conditioning class following one of them, so we’re driving to the studio three times a week.  It’s a big commitment for this family who values time at home together and not running every night of the week.  But, Anna needs to see how much she truly loves ballet and whether performing is for her.  If she doesn’t love it, we’ll drop back to one or two classes a week.  If she loves it, then we talk about really committing to ballet for her.  So far she’s handled the adjustment very well.

On the way to ballet, Anna and I play games in the car and I love it.  Our favorites are I Spy, Name That Tune (“I can name that tune in four notes”; one person hums the first four notes of a song and the other tries to guess), I’m Thinking Of…(one person thinks of something, names the category – types of dessert, for example – and the other person has five tries to guess it), and the old standby, Truth or Dare.  

There are times during my week with the kids that I think to myself, “I’m going to miss this one day.  Enjoy this moment.”  Driving to ballet, standing at pick-up after school, quizzing Anna on spelling words, watching the kids make lunches each night, James studying for a quiz over breakfast.  It’s going by so fast and I’m trying hard to appreciate each moment and stage.