Pearls & Peridots

Wow – this is a lot of posts for one day lol. Sorry about that:)  This is my last one for today – I swear.     So – I know it’s March 8th already but I still want to have goals for this month to get this off to a great start so here goes. I am going to take this list and put each item into Goal For It so that I receive daily reminder emails. I think that will go a long way to keeping me on target.

Ongoing Goals (read more about these here)

• 65 Help Dave launch his first cookbook
• 77 Weigh less then my husband & 79 Reach my goal weight of 180 lbs – Cut back on slurpees and chocolate
• 88 Start a monthly date night – Plan 1 date night for March
• 73 Read the entire Bible – Beginning the Reading The Bible In A Year plan
• 1 Pay off the van – This month make the regular monthly payment
• 6 Put $10 in savings for each task completed – Decide where to save this money and get started

Goals To Work Towards

• 23 Finish reading Preparing Your Daughter with Ariel – Make time to read a chapter each week (3 chapters in March)
• 89 Read 5 Christian marriage books – Finish reading Every Woman’s Marriage
• 51 Put together a Relay for Life team – Find at least 5 participants and sign up our team
• 99 Start journalling & complete all the prompts on http://journalingprompts.com/ – Journal 6 times per week (18 times in March)
• 67 Help Dave open his restaurant – Complete at least 3 sections of the business plan

Goals To Complete

• 14 Bake cookies and bring them to Grandma – That’s pretty straight forward right? Spring break is this month so I am going to add it to the to do list for that week.
• 22 Start doing devotions together as a family – I am going to sit down with Dave tonight, talk about this and decide how and when we want to do this so we can get started.
• 68 Relaunch the Invitation Atelier – This basically involves getting the website back up and running and then starting to promote it. It’s something I have wanted to do for a while but I keep putting it off.

Goals To Save Towards

I have decided not to use this section yet. I am not going back to work full time until next month so money is tight and I don’t want to add to the stress with yet one more thing I want to find money for lol. This section will come once I am working again.

Each month I will be tackling specific goals but there are a few goals on the list that are long term goals that I will be tackling on an on-going basis. When I do my monthly posts I will mention them and any specific steps I plan to take or have taken but I figured I would touch on each of them here first:)

1 Pay off the van – We are currently making monthly lease payments which makes this an ongoing project. We will also have a $1500 buy out to pay in Summer of 2011 that we will need to save for.

6 Put $10 in savings for each task completed – Pretty self explainatory right? I don’t know what we’ll use this money for but I think we’ll probably use it to do something special to celebrate when I finish this list. IF I complete all 101 items, I will have $1010 saved up:)

65 Help Dave launch his first cookbook – For those who didn’t know, Dave has a blog at Dave’s Kitchen Revolution where he shares his recipes and cooking experiences. Our goal is to eventually create a cookbook. This is an ongoing project and right now Dave is concentrating on developing recipes and readership at his blog. Our hope is to launch the first cookbook in Spring of 2011.

73 Read the entire Bible – I am going to use the Reading Through The Bible in A Year Plan and I will keep you updated on how it is going.

77 Weigh less then my husband & 79 Reach my goal weight of 180 lbs – Both somewhat related lol. As off right now, my goal weight would put me 10 pounds lighter then Dave and I need to lose 55 pounds to make that happen. I am tackling this goal in small steps with lifestyle and eating habit changes rather then with drastic diets

88 Start a monthly date night – This is on the Ongoing list because its something that needs to be done every month – forever and ever. Well, at least until the end of the 1001 days lol.

Hello Ladies:)

I finally finished my 101 list this morning – and will admit I had to read through a lot of other people’s lists to get the last spots filled lol. Overall – I am pretty happy with my list.  You can read the whole list here but here is a summary:

• Financial Goals – 7
• Family Goals – 17
• Hobby Goals – 7
• Household Goals – 12
• Environment Goals – 2
• Organization Goals – 4
• Giving Back Goals – 8
• Learning Goals  – 5
• Career Goals – 6
• Spiritual Goals – 8
• Fitness Goals – 8
• Relationship Goals – 8
• Just Because Goals – 9

I like dividing them up that way but I also divided them up on my own into categories based on what the requirements are:

• 26 Time Goals: These are goals that can’t be accomplished in a month and have to be worked on over time (like reading the entire Bible)
• 12 Big Money Goals: These are goals where the biggest hold back is money and they cost more then $500 (like buying a house)
• 23 Little Money Goals: These are goals where the biggest hold back is money but they cost less then $500 (like buying a better digital camera) or would be paid in amounts over time (like sponsoring a child or starting the kids on allowance)
• 36 Other Goals: These are goals that do not cost anything (or less then $100 if anything) and do not take much time (like hosting a couples fondue party)

So – realistically – in order to complete 101 things in 1001 days – you need to do 1 thing every 10 days = 3 per month. Each month I am going to set specific goals which will include:

• 3 Things I want to complete that month
• How much money I want to put towards saving for Big Money items that month
• 2-4 TIME Goals that I will work towards that month

Each month I will blog about my goals for that month and at the end of the month I will blog about what I have accomplished so far. I will also blog about specific tasks when they get crossed off the list. So – March’s goal post will be coming up next:) Enjoy!

So – September 2007 I started the 101 in 1001 – a list of 101 things I wanted to accomplish in 1001 days. It was a fun idea – but I had some HUGE goals on there. To many huge goals lol.  And there were plenty of not so huge ones that I just never did for one reason or another. Now my 1001 days doesn’t actually end until June 11th but I have decided to end this list early and give myself a fresh start. So on Monday I will be posting a brand new list.

In the mean time, I figured I would recap the things I did finish on this list. Enjoy:)

• #11 – Take the kids to the zoo
• #19 – Start a family night tradition
• #27 – Get accepted on to at least one scrapbooking design team
• #34 – Clean my carpets
• #41 – Get a recycling box and start using it
• #47 – Create a family activity schedule chart
• #49 – Make a chore chart for the kids
• #53 -Volunteer to deliver hampers with the kids
• #56 – Volunteer for a fundraising committee of some sort
• #58 – Finish College
• #68 – Write an eBook
• #75 – Teach Sunday School for a year
• #83 – Renew my wedding vows
• #88 – Watch the entire Heroes Season 1

There were also a few things that, as I look over the list – I did do and just never blogged about them:

• #26 – Get something I made published – I have had some of my ad designs published in magazines. That sort of counts lol.
• #51 – Vote in the next Federal Election – I voted, and the guys I voted for won.
• #99 – Get a tattoo, designed by Dave – SORT OF done, I did get a tattoo but I designed it myself. I am still getting one designed by Dave, probably in September.
• #101 – Make a new 101 in 1001 list - doing that now:)

Most of the stuff on the list that I didn’t do don’t bother me that much. Some were goals that were unrealistic in the time frame. Others are goals that became irrelevant as life and personal situations changes. Others are just not a big deal and were only on the list because I thought they would be fun some day. That being said, there are a few that I wish I could say I had done – and these will most likely be on my next list as well:

• #6 – Save 2 months income in an emergency fund – We really need to do this. We have no excuse – it just hasn’t been a priority. But it should have been.
• #7 – Start the kids on an allowance and teach them how to budget/tithe/save with it – I think this is an important part of basic parenting and my kids need this. We just need to DO IT!
• #14 – Have my parents over for a dinner date – You know, its not like I eat supper EVERY night. And it’s not like the mile between my house and theirs is SO FAR AWAY! GEEZ!!
• #15 – Bake something with the kids and take it to Grandma’s – Again, she lives SO FAR AWAY! A whole 4-5 blocks.
• #30 – Finish Lisa’s wedding album – You know, the one I am doing as a gift for her 26th Birthday? Did I mention she’s 28 now?

So there you have it lol.  This weekend I will post my new 101 list. Watch for it:)

So I realized today that I have completed a couple of my 101 in 1001 list!

#11 – Take the kids to the zoo

On August 3rd we took all three kids to the zoo along with Dave’s parents and two little cousins. This was Rayelle’s first time going to the zoo and Kahlan’s first time since he was 1. We had a TON of fun – watch for scrap pages coming soon:)

#27 – Get accepted to at least one design team

When I first made this list, nearly 2 years ago, I hadn not yet discovered the wonderful world of digital scrapbooking and just last week I was accepted on to my first design team! YEAH ME!!!!

#83 – Renew my wedding vows

In case you missed it – May 30, 2009: