So, last year I was inspired / intimidated by Kizz to make a list of 108 things I wanted to accomplish in 2008. While making the list was kind of fun, I’m not going to do this again for 2009. Being able to check a bunch of stuff off the list is certainly satisfying, but I didn’t find that the list was present enough in my thinking to really impact my thinking or motivate my actions. Regardless, here’s one last look at the list; an assessment on how I did is in bold at the end of each entry.
1. Go on vacation with my family. Preferably to someplace warm and with almost no agenda or schedule. We did this – a couple of times -and it was wonderful!
2. Use lotion with sunscreen every day. Kizz’s head cleavage of 2007 inspired this one. I’m better with this, but I’m still not every-day consistent.
3. Eat more veggies. Sort of.
4. Eat out less. I think we failed on this one. It’s one I want to continue to work on, though; we spend a lot of money in restaurants.
5. Try more recipes. I’ve got literally shelves of cookbooks and cooking magazines, many of which have Post-It flags indicating recipes that intrigued me. It’s time to start testing them. Yep. I even opened a blog for my favorite recipes.
6. Make wills/trusts. The financial part of this is easy; deciding who would take custody of the girls should Mr. Chili and I… erm… co-decease is a little harder. Any suggestions? Any takers? Nope. This bothers me perhaps less than it should.
7. Encourage / facilitate the completion of the upstairs bathroom and the back deck. Um…
8. Find and hire a contractor to replace the siding on the original part of the house and to replace the original roof. The roof was replaced; the siding will get changed in the spring (hopefully).
9. Have the yard landscaped (and have those pathetic, snow-broken front bushes removed). Um, nope.
10. Schedule physicals for Mr. Chili and myself. Check.
11. Get back in to the flossing and Lysterine-ing habit. I was good with this for most of last year, but I got lazy. That leads me to… I’m still lazy about this. I’ll start again today.
12. Go to the dentist. Check
13. Stop procrastinating so much. I’m getting a little too good at avoiding things, to the point of it stressing me out. I know this is a vague and general goal, but I’m going to try to put a check next to it when I review this list in 2009. I’m better at this, though I still need some work.
14. Visit my grandparents once a week. We were pretty good at this until the holidays.
15. Visit my mom once a week (or, at least, call her once a week). I was inconsistent with this, and it’s something I want to work on for 2009
16. Spend more time with my sister. I think this is a check, though I’d like to get MORE time…
17. Go to NYC for a weekend with Kizz. Sigh. Nope.
18. Meet at least ONE blogging friend in the real world. Any takers? I did this, TIMES FOUR! I met Bo and Seester in March, and was able to have lunch with Michael in the early summer and spent a bunch of time with Gerry in the late summer!
19. Vote. CHECK!
20. Be consistent in my classroom policies. If I say I’m not going to accept late work, I’m not going to accept late work, dammit! Yep.
21. Meditate once a day for at least five minutes. Sigh. Nope.
22. Walk three times a week for at least half an hour… when the weather is warmer. I did this for a while, but the allure wore off.
23. Establish a family game / movie night. We’ve got Scrabble and Boggle and Sorry and Uno and Monopoly and a ton of DVDs; I want to have a together-time routine established before the girls get too far into the pre-teen thing. We didn’t establish a set night, but we DID spend more focused time together last year. I think it matters.
24. Clean out “my half” of the basement; set up a sewing table; purge and reorganize seasonal/holiday stuff. Sort of.
25. Keep up my grade book. I’m not bad at doing the grading, but I kind of suck at entering the grades and attendance on my computer. This falls under the “procrastination” heading, and is something that I end up dreading because I put it off for so long. I got better at this last semester and have found that the extra effort is WELL worth it.
26. Balance our checkbook every month. This isn’t such a big deal as our records are kept online, but I’d like to have copies in my accounting software, just in case. Nope.
27. Open a savings account and direct a certain and as-yet-to-be-determined amount each month into it. Nope.
28. Pay at least an extra mortgage payment for the year. I don’t think it works out to a whole payment a year, but I do pay extra every month, so this one’s getting a “done.”
29. Invite my in-laws to dinner once a month. I think part of our relationship troubles stem from our not spending sufficient time together. I could be wrong about this, but it’s worth a shot. It wasn’t as regular as once a month, but we did stay in good touch with them, so I’m counting this as done.
30. Double-check our homeowners’ insurance to make sure we’ve got sufficient coverage. Find out whether big-ticket items need to be catalogued somewhere. Nope.
31. Complete professional development workshops at TCC. As an adjunct, I’m not required to do this, but I want to take advantage of the credit hours for my licensure. I went to PD workshops for as long as they had them.
32. Write to my biological grandmother once a month. Nope.
33. Move my IRA CD to our investment account, and encourage Mr. Chili to consolidate all of our investments under one statement. I made the request, but I can’t attest to the status.
34. Have the cars regularly maintained; oil changes, tire check-ups, annual super-cleaning, that sort of thing. Yep – for my car, at least.
35. See some of the movies that I’ve bought but haven’t yet watched. Yep. The wisdom teeth removal helped with this.
36. Schedule one do-nothing day a month. Nope. I MUST work on this.
37. Read non-stop; never be without a book. This is pretty easy, what with my literature classes and the Dark and Stormy Book Club, but it’s going on the list anyway. Yep! I might keep a list of what I read in 2009.
38. Inventory and either purge or use the items in the freezer. The ice storm forced this one; I probably wouldn’t have done it otherwise. Still, though, this one gets checked as “done”!
39. Buy and install a new dishwasher and refrigerator. Nope.
40. Go swimming with the kids (mine and the Bowyer boys) this summer, either at the health club pool or at one of the several lakes within striking distance. We spent a week at the lake this summer, and I swam quite a bit.
41. Learn how to work the gas grill in the back yard. I’m too dependent on Mr. Chili for burgers and steak in the summer. Nope.
42. Take the girls (or all the kids) to the Museum of Science for a day. Yep.
43. Forth of July on the Charles? Nope.
44. Be more sustainable / less wasteful. Bring canvas bags to the grocery store, use my Nalgene more often, that sort of thing. At the present moment, I have five insulated and four non-insulated bags in my trunk. I use them for every grocery trip.
45. Reduce the soda habit to one or two cans a week. Yep.
46. Plant perennials in the yard, especially in the back yard where I can see them out of my kitchen windows. Nope.
47. Take a multi-vitamin. Yep.
48. Encourage my family to take a multi-vitamin. Yep.
49. Send my husband love notes when he least expects them. I sometimes seek out his car at the Local U. parking lot and leave stickies on his driver’s side window.
50. Tuck love notes in the girls’ lunch boxes when they least expect them. This makes me just as happy as it makes them.
51. Call my friends for no good reason other than I miss them. I did this. It was great. I’m going to keep at it.
52. Organize the garage and build “soda shelves.” The garage got cleaned a couple of times, but still no soda shelves.
53. Take more pictures. I took some great pictures this year, though I still want to be better at this.
54. Try to say “yes” to my children more often. I’ve made significant progress on this one.
55. Drink more water. Green tea counts, right? If so, then yep!
56. Remember friends’ birthdays – even far away friends. Mostly, yep!
57. Attend a Pride event. Yep!
58. Become a member of my NPR station. I’m ashamed to say, nope.
59. See Laura once a month. Nope. This is on my agenda for this coming year, though.
60. Get to know Tonks better. Yep! Love her.
61. Moisturize my cuticles once a day. I’m not quite at once a day, but several times a week counts.
62. Have the prongs on my rings checked. Yep
63. Have the cats’ shots updated. Nope
64. Get flu shots for the family. Yep
65. Go through my closet and purge anything not worn in a year. I did this. It was quite satisfying.
66. Complete YNG training. Yep!
67. Complete the Holocaust Studies fellowship. Yep!
68. Coordinate a kick-ass Constitution Week activity at TCC. This didn’t happen, mostly because TCC is closing and there’s almost no one around.
69. Establish a home yoga practice. I started this, but it didn’t stick.
70. Include Mr. Chili in that yoga practice. This didn’t stick, either.
71. Sit in on a culinary class at TCC. Nope.
72. Sit in on some colleagues’ classes at TCC. Nope.
73. Take a cooking workshop offered through TCC. Nope.
74. Eat at TCC’s restaurant. Nope.
75. Spend time with the girls in the kitchen. Teach them to make one reliable recipe that ISN’T mac and cheese from a box. Yep!
76. Read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Yep.
77. Go to a faire with Tonks and Bowyer. Nope.
78. See a jazz concert with BoBo and his Mrs. The whole year went by without our getting to do this. Dammit!
79. Take my husband on some dates. Maybe once a month? Nope – missed this one, too. Dammit!
80. Establish a manageable housekeeping routine. Do a little every day. Mostly done.
81. Plan something special for our 12th anniversary (June 29th). Done! I planned a weekend away for Mr. Chili and me, and it was singularly lovely.
82. Plan a fun birthday party for Beanie in March… Done
83. And for Mr. Chili in May… Done – I planned one, but it didn’t quite go off as I’d hoped.
84. And for Punkin’ Pie in June. Done
85. Keep my computer’s address book updated. Done, though the address book on my iPhone is the one that updates the one on my computer, rather than the other way around.
86. Purge stuff we don’t use anymore and either donate it or have a yard sale. This gets checked as “done,” though it’s really an ongoing process. It’s the law of the Universe; as you move shit out, new shit moves in to take its place.
87. Read Memoirs of a Geisha. Done. Enjoyed it quite a lot.
88. Rent and watch The Queen, The Kingdom, and Retribution. I only got to The Kingdom (which I bought and enjoyed quite a lot). Huh.
89. Keep my Amazon wishlist updated. Done
90. Do Boot Camp with my kids at Beanie’s elementary school. I didn’t do this, though I offered to lead some yoga sessions for them, neither Mr. VeryTall nor Mr. Gym Teacher took me up on it.
91. Donate to Mr. VeryTall’s fundraising efforts on behalf of Special Olympics (damned fool is going to jump in the Atlantic on February 2nd!) Done
92. Keep up with my chiropractic care. Done
93. Visit my OB/GYN. Done
94. Teach during the summer term at TCC. Done. I managed to get a job with TCC all the way through this spring, even, which was something upon which I was NOT counting.
95. Update my resume. Done, though I need to do it again.
96. Apply to adjunct positions in other local colleges. I did this, but nothing much came of it. I got a job at Local U., though, which may prove a door-opener to other positions.
97. Look into applying for a Master’s in History at Local U. I looked into it, but didn’t act. I’m still kicking around the idea of another degree, but I’ve not made any firm decisions yet.
98. Get a pedicure (maybe as a treat for finishing # 66?) Nope. I do my own tootsies – I think I’m too cheap to spring for the professional job.
99. Buy Christmas or birthday presents whenever I find something that reminds me of someone instead of waiting until the proverbial last minute. I did this. I got Bowyer’s present for him when we were vacationing at the lake in June, even.
100. Send out holiday cards. (This one is harder for me than it seems; I’ve not been able to manage it for three years now.) Um, nope.
101. Spend some Mommy and Me, alone time with each of my daughters. I managed to do this, though it wasn’t as focused as I’d have liked. This is something I’ll strive for this coming year, as well.
102. Re-pot the house plants, including the ficus trees if they need it. I did this. The ficus trees didn’t need it.
103. Create at least two new step routines for class. I did this, and then promptly had my step class take from me. Whatever.
104. Scan and catalogue all of our family Christmas pictures. I’ve taken one a year since before Mr. Chili and I were married, and I want to make sure I’ve got them all. This item totally fell off my radar.
105. Go to Apple Harvest Day and have handprint tiles made of the girls to add to the collection started in 2005. Yep! Go here for a rundown.
106. Establish a chore routine for the girls, that includes an allowance, to teach them more about family responsibility and money. The chore routine was abandoned for the “things you need to do to take care of YOU” list. My thinking is that they need to be able to establish a baseline before we can expect them to go beyond their own selves. We’re working on allowances, and these will probably be a feature of 2009.
107. Spend book gift cards. Over the course of the year, I used all the book gift cards (and then some, but we we won’t talk about that).
108. Finish this list! CHECK!
Whew! Just reading this list made me tired and I’m just starting 2009.
No list for me.
Well, at least not one that long.
The sun is up, and the new year awaits . . .
I’m sure there are at least that many things I should be doing in the new year but I think I’d be depressed if I wrote them all down like that! I have some general goals. (I will continue my ongoing battle with clutter even though I think it’s winning. I want to get better at stained glass basics so I can get more creative.) I have a few indoor tasks I’d like to accomplish before the weather starts beckoning me outdoors. (The four year old told me I needed to paint his room because it looked like a “baby room”. Sigh. I guess it’s time to re-decorate.) That’s about the extent of it for now. I’m not starting on any of it until the kids are back in school / pre-school, though. Right now, I think I’m going to go take a nap!
Happy New Year to all!
I think just making a list like this is highly commendable. I am not sure I have the forethought to find 108 things to make a list about.
Very nice Mrs. Chili.
OK, that was a long list!
#106- something to think about rather than “allowances”. A colleague of mine shared with me something her parents used to do concerning money. Rather than giving allowances, they simply gave their children money because they were part of the family. She explained that her parents thought that an allowance seemed too much like a reward, and would soon become an expectation. Instead, her parents took the view that families help each other, and support each other, and that includes doing things around the home, as well as sharing finances. The kids were expected to help around the house because they were part of the family, and therefore dependent on each other. Likewise, the parents gave each child a set amount of money because they were part of the family as well. The word allowance was never uttered, and the idea that they were receiving money in exchange for work was never suggested. My friend said it really gave her an appreciation for family and the was a family needs to work together to survive.
Just a thought. It is something that never would have entered my mind, but I like the idea of it.
Betsy, I like that idea, too. Part of the reason we’ve not done “allowances” yet is just that – the kids could decide that they don’t WANT the money and, therefore, don’t have to participate in the family.
We are kicking around the idea of paying them to go to school. School, after all, IS their “job” at the moment, and we’re working on putting together a sort of merit pay system around their grades (so much for an A, so much for a B, that sort of thing) to be paid quarterly. We’ve not gotten the exact plan nailed down yet, but we both agree that we have to do SOMETHING, because neither girl has much appreciation for money at the moment.
Maybe “go to NY with Kizz and see Dingo” is something that you should try to do, list or no list.
I always want to try one of the challenge lists but I don’t have enough ideas. At least I don’t think I do. I’m very impressed with all you accomplished! Go Chili!
Betsy, I really like that idea! I’m totally stealing it to adapt at Wayfarer House. Please tell your colleague thank you from us!
I’m with Gerry: A list that is exhausting to read is a list that is exhausting to complete. I give you total props for making it, and for getting as much of it done as you did. My list was much smaller, and I don’t feel like I did as much of it as you did yours. Bon travail!