Happy Monday, friends! I am back from my oh-so-fun cruise. I have vacation recaps planned for the end of this week and next week, so stay tuned! I cannot wait to talk about all the fun stuff my mom and I did on our cruise because it was surely one for the record books.
But before we get into that, I thought I’d talk about my monthly goals. After four months of my current goal setup (Biting Off My Yearly Goals and Nagging Tasks), I’ve decided to take a step back and instead join up with Feel Good, Dress Better’s Small Goals (thanks to Kate for suggesting this linkup to me!) monthly challenge. My plan is to make four goals that are directly related to my yearly goals, as well as two smaller “tasks” to accomplish.
But first, let’s take a look at how I did in April:
Biting Off My Yearly Goals
> Go to a movie alone. Not complete. This goal didn’t end up working out this month. I’m not much of a movie buff, so I have to really want to see a movie in theaters and there wasn’t anything that called to me in April.
> Make an appointment with a therapist. Not complete. I continue to put off this goal, ahh. I think it’s just the fact that I’m kinda overwhelmed by the process of finding the right therapist since my last attempt at therapy didn’t go well. But I know that therapy is exactly what I need and I have to stop resisting the steps to get there.
> Buy a book about the Enneagram. Not complete. Oops, once again, I forgot about this goal.
> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos. Not complete. Ugh. Will this wedding album ever get made?
> Write 3,000 words a week. Not complete. I really tried to make this goal, but writing 3,000 words a week is not a small feat! I’m averaging about 1,500 words per week.
Nagging Tasks
> Schedule a carpet cleaning. Complete. Finally, finally, finally! It literally took the cleaners all of 20 minutes to apply the cleaning solution and clean my carpet (I only have carpet in my bedroom and my bed takes up most of the space). The carpet looks perfect now… you’d never know my elderly dog spent the last year of his life peeing all over the carpet. 😉
> Figure out my nighttime routine. Complete-ish. I started going to bed at a more decent hour last month (closer to 9:30 than 11, at least), but I could still be better about implementing a nighttime routine. It’s a work in progress.
> Hang up my mirror. Complete. Yay!
> Mail my donation to Locks of Love. Complete. Such a simple goal, but one I kept putting off because it took a bunch of little steps: finding an envelope, addressing the envelope, driving to the post office, etc. And, damn, just writing that sentence made me realize that I am incredibly lazy. Ha.
> Clean my oven. Complete. Oh, my oven looks so beautiful now and I’m so glad I finally got this task accomplished! The stuff I used was potent, though, and I had to be super careful about how I removed the cleaner after letting it sit in the oven (I wore gloves and covered the floor with towels). It also made my apartment smell the first few times I used my oven after cleaning it (and, of course, made me freak out that I’m going to ingest some of the chemicals and die because I’m really logical most of the time). I think I’m going try something more natural the next time I clean the oven – I hear baking soda and water does the trick, too!
So, that was a fun experiment, huh? I didn’t complete any of my goals related to my yearly intentions but got all of my nagging tasks accomplished. Interesting!
Six Goals for May
1) Lose the cruise weight. And then some. I was doing pretty well with my weight loss efforts, closing in on that first 10 lbs gone, but then I kinda fell apart right before my cruise. I don’t have any good reasoning for it, other than I just didn’t want to eat my same ole healthy meals anymore. So, I stepped on the scale yesterday morning to find out that I need to lose 3 lbs to get back to my pre-cruise weight. It’s not as bad as I imagined, so I’m pretty certain I can lose the cruise weight and hopefully another few pounds along with it!
2) Make a file on my computer with my mom and stepdad’s engagement and wedding pictures. Step one: download all of the photos off my camera, step two: organize those photos into files, step three: download the engagement/wedding photos my mom has on her computer, step four: organize those photos into a file. Okay, there. I have a plan! I can do this!
3) Email two therapists. Back on the list for the fifth month in a row. Let’s see if I can actually schedule a therapy appointment this month.
4) Write 1,500 words a week in my novel. Every month, I make a goal for writing 3,000 words a week and I never make it happen. It’s not even like it would take me a while to write 3,000 words – maybe three hours tops. But yet, it eludes me. So, this month, I’m going to take it easy on myself and only try to write 1,500 words a week, which I often do during my weekly writing dates with my friend M.
5) Go on a spending freeze for the rest of May. Vacation always means that my credit card takes a bit of a beating, which I don’t regret, but it means I need to be diligent about paying it off and not spending unnecessarily. This means no more one-click Amazon orders or Target trips or takeout orders. Time to buckle down with my spending!
6) Take my car in for a checkup. My car is due for an oil change soon, and I think I’m going to take her into the dealership so they can do a full systems check to see if there is anything I need to replace or repair. She’s got 110,000 miles on her now, so I’m crossing my fingers that there isn’t anything major to replace!
What’s something you’d like to accomplish in May?
Excited to see you taking part in Nicole’s monthly goals link up! 🙂
Yay! I think I needed an easier goal-setting template and this works great for me right now.
Isn’t carpet cleaning the best?! My dogs are not elderly and don’t have that excuse (except for Ruffles who came from a mill), but Dakota thinks the carpet is a great place to pee when we’re not home (because he’s just a jerk)! We bought a carpet cleaner for that exact reason and we just cleaned the carpet in Caleb’s room yesterday. It looks and smells so fresh now. Ahh!
Dogs are just so precious. HA!
Oh gosh, I think that’s just something to be expected with dogs! We had to use carpet cleaner with Dutch when he was younger, too, because accidents just happen! It’s just one of those realities of owning a doggo. 🙂
I was just talking to a friend about how difficult it can be to find a therapist. One tip she mentioned was including in your email or phone message that if they’re fully booked if they could refer you to someone else they know. So you’ll have a few to choose from. Good luck!
That’s a great tip! I’m trying to only look for therapists that are accepting new clients right now, so I’m not really running into that issue. Mostly just dealing with my own unease with making phone calls. Sigh!
Good job on getting your not-so-fun goals done last month at least! Sometimes those are the ones that just need to happen. And you didn’t gain too much, especially for being on a cruise. Women tend to wobble back and forth with weight anyway. I’m currently trying to lose weight and I’m kind of going up and down by a few so it’s annoying, but it happens. Good luck on all of your May Goals!!
-lauren
That’s so true! In the grand scheme of things, gaining 3 lbs isn’t something to be upset about. That’s basically water weight, ha!
That’s great that you knocked off all those nagging tasks! My oven got cleaned in March. It was desperately in need of it as I roasted a bunch of tomatillos last summer and the juices sprayed all over. Then anytime we used the oven, the smoke alarms would go off! I used the self-cleaner option to get it partially cleaned and then my mom scrubbed it when she came to help out with Paul in March. Since it’s a self cleaning oven, she just had to use some elbow grease to get the insides clean. 😉 But she did use water and baking soda on the glass on the door!
My goal for May is to get my garden planted. I thought I was going to get that done yesterday but the water at the garden hasn’t been turned on yet. It’s going to be warm here this week so I didn’t want to risk having some of my plants die so I am going to hold off and plant later this week when the water is on!
My oven has a self-cleaning feature, but I’ve been too afraid to use it because the oven is, like, 30 years old and I’m not sure how it would handle the job. Ha! But I’m glad I finally got it cleaned and it looks good as new again. But next time, definitely going to use baking soda and water for something more natural.
I hope you’re able to get your garden planted this month! I’m so glad you guys are having some better weather in Minnesota. Finally!
I love how diligent you are about keeping track of your goals! One goal I have for this month is to price compare some new tires for my car.
Ugh, new tires is one of those things that makes me really wish I didn’t have to own a car. They are just so expensive and necessary! Good luck!
You guys are always so organized with your monthly goals. I am not saying that I don’t have a running list, but I could be much better at working on specific goals each month.
I love making monthly goals, so that helps! I understand they’re not for everyone, but I do really enjoy coming up with a little list of goals to work toward every month.
I really, really need to clean my oven. It’s pretty gross in there. I think I’m going to try some natural solutions first and then go in with heavy hitters if that doesn’t work. I also really, really need to get my yard in shape now that it’s spring.
I would highly recommend starting with something all-natural and see if that works! The heavy-duty stuff I bought was so potent and I was scared to use my oven for awhile, haha.