December Goal Results

December Goals

Christmas Traditions that We Were Able to Enjoy

One night a friend took us around to look at Christmas Lights (all except the Ref).

We had Blueberry Pancakes and Pigs in Blankets for Breakfast Christmas Day

A tiny bit of Eggnog showed up in our frig.

WE did a tiny bit of Christmas shopping - I hope everyone enjoyed their gifts!

We still have ONE Christmas to go ... the one with our best friends.

Blogging -
1.  Kiddos With Kindles - Write at least 25 Daily Kindle posts (that allows me to forgive myself if I miss a few).  ....  WONDERING .... is this blog worth the time and effort that I am putting into it?   I really cut back at times on this bog - and I plan to continue to do it mostly for a few friends and Story and Song.  A relative has offered to give Scholar their unused Kindle (it's a few years old).  So I will continue the blog ... but without as much effort to get it "just right" each day.
2.  Eagle Nest - Write at least 25 Other Posts on Homeschooling, Crafts, and such.   ---  Considering a series ... Alphabet Christmas???  Wonder if I can come up with enough ideas?   I hope the Christmas Alphabet was enjoyed?   ....    It became quite a family fun event as well scrounged to find items to add to it each day.
3.  O 'Scarlett - Write at least 4 book reviews  
4.  Wings - my personal scrapbooking blog - Write at least 8 posts and Christmas Letter  I think I did more than 8 posts ... but I've got a whole stack of Christmas posts to do.  I actually caught up with the pictures I had on hand!
5.  Try to skim Google Reader daily.  I've been able to do this latey, easily.... then I realized that many of the blogs I followed were not posting in December.  .....  I need to really cut down and cull out the blogs that I'm following.


Project Household Settled1.  Work some more on Sunshine's room - Declutter   
2.  Work more on Scholar's room - Declutter

We were able to do a fairly good declutter of both rooms - but it needs to be done again - and work harder to find a place for everything!  It's also going to be a LONG haul project to teach the kids to be diligent about putting things away again.

3.  Work on Craft supplies

4.  Work on Kitchen / Living room / Videos   This one got a LOT of attention - but you can't tell we did ANYTHING!

5.  Work on Master Bathroom organization

6.  FIGHT roaches!  We are loosing this battle - even the "really good poison" seems to be feeding them rather than killing them.  Heavy sigh.  It was nice to be almost 3 years without seeing them - why did they have to return?

Food
1.  Keep using up the food in the freezers.  We didn't get as much out as we have been.  It's getting down to some pretty strange things that we've been given and not really sure if we know what to do with it!

2.  Go through freezers again later this month and refill the ones next door - trying to empty the big chest freezer for my Dad.   

3.  Make meal plans to use up as much odds and ends of stored food as possible - to keep the budget down. 

Personal
1.  Be in bed before Midnight - WITH the lights off.   Complete BUST - I don't think I was asleep before 1am even a single night!
2.  Have all of the kids in bed by 10pm - and asleep.  Kids were often still awake at midnight - as we tried hard to get Christmas gifts made and wrapped.   Song and Story were far less than enthusiastic - so every project took so much longer than it really should have.   We just are so emotionally drained - and physically exhausted!
3.  More consistent devotional times.
4.  Don't gain weight. I did pretty good here - my weight went up and down around where I am currently weighing - so I'm happy with it.
5.  No eating after 8pm.  Mostly was able to do this ... other than a few late night suppers and occasional chocolate when I was feeling extra stressed.
6.  Walk a two miles at least 4 times each week.  Weather turned really bad - so we've not been out much the last several weeks - too cold, wet, and windy.  We are chilled to the bone within 10 minutes.  So ... we walk on sunny days.

7.  Get a schedule in place for chores and routines for the household (minus the Ref).  And get it posted somewhere.

Christmas:

1.  Isolate all of the cards and addresses from the last year or two into a findable location. - Get cards in mail or handed out to save stamp money.  Still have a handful of cards to mail or hand out.  Sigh.

2.  Research ideas for Acts of Service Coupons.  We gave out a few ... and then ran out of time.

3.  Research ideas for other gifts to give for Christmas.

4.  Make a list of everyone to give a present to for us and Scholar and Sunshine.  Mostly succeeded with this one.

5.  Make presents

6.  Wrap presents

7.  Copy lots and lots of cassettes from our OLD tape collection to give to nieces and nephews on MP3's

Most everyone got a present from us - some were better received than others.  Watch for pictures in our Peek at Week that I hope to get posted.

In all - December was hugely stressful for us - we did enjoy giving presents and cards, but felt tired and rushed the whole month.   There has GOT to be a better way to survive.

On top of all that ... I lost my Dayplanner ...and I've been struggling all month.  One day it was on my desk, and the next it was missing.  Go figure.