My Life Game, revisited

Now that it's March (well....already well into March), let's revisit the 2011 goals that I outlined at the beginning of February. Things that I didn't comment on haven't been accomplished yet.

1. Healthy Mind & Body

• Get out of the grocery store
• go to the farmer's market at least once a month: February, check...at least twice! And I found my favorite grass-fed cheese!!
• Build a chicken coop for the backyard in the spring: The wheels are turning! We went to a seminar last night (put on by Local Food Cleveland and E4S) all about backyard livestock. It was great to do a little networking and learn a bit more about keeping chickens!
• Build a raised bed to expand our garden
• Read more often
• Read at least one book every two months
• Get a library card: check! although, I need to forms of ID with my new address to prove I live in South Euclid - the address on my driver's license is three houses old and I don't get any bills mailed to my new home. Not sure how to get around this one.
• Make more food items that I would normally buy
• Choose four food items to MAKE instead of buy this year: success on my first endeavor - homemade english muffins!
• Learn how to can/preserve foods we've grown

2. Family First

• Visit home more often: visited once this year already!
• Appreciate!
• find out the birthdays of my aunts, uncles, cousins
• Make homemade (+ HANDWRITTEN) birthday cards for everyone: I didn't do this for Tanja's birthday, but I made her scarves instead
• Stay in touch: there haven't been any holidays since I first posted these goals, but I did get to speak with my great-uncle (who is like a Grandfather to me) for about 45 minutes a few weeks ago. That conversation absolutely made my evening!

3. Experience Life and Follow My Passion

• Meet new people: An ongoing goal, for sure. Does meeting people on Twitter count? I participated in the  #CLEfit chat and I feel like I got to get to know a lot of other Clevelanders. Oh and the backyard livestock seminar can get counted as well! 
• Explore photography
• Do some research on community college classes
• Save up for a dSLR: yep, been putting away money every paycheck!
• Travel, and stand on my head
• Visit two new cities this year
• Go to a new place, store, restaurant, etc.  in a city I've already been to: Check, the Pourhouse in Hoboken, NJ. Awesome because they have my favorite beer and bingo for Sunday morning brunch!
• Run one destination race this year, outside of Ohio

4. Simplify

• Create more than consume
• create/make/invent four things this year that I would normally buy at the store: again, Tanja's scarves. I'm still proud of this!
• Keep a "want but don't need list" and do not buy items on that list until they’ve been there for at least a month. Try to make some of these items: I started keeping a list, but I haven't made (or even really wanted to buy) anything on it.
• Don't buy clothing for one year. It's March and I haven't bought myself a single thing. Race shirts from races do not count. I'm not running for the shirt.
• Get rid of "stuff". 
• Go through wardrobe (both winter and summer) and donate anything that I haven't worn in 6+ months
• Get rid of unused appliances and any other "things" that do not serve us 

5. Be Vulnerable

• Speak up:
• At work, make at least two comments or ask at least two questions at every meeting: I haven't been counting but I think I'm doing well with this. 
• Ask questions
• Make eye contact. I'm doing SO much better at this! It's the toughest to do with the people I'm close to (I don't know why) but I'm making a conscious effort. 

Alright, that's where I'm at. Thank you all so much for your support and more importantly, for keeping me accountable. I will check back in in a month or two to show you where I've gone from here.


How are you doing with the goals you set for 2011?


Peace, Love & Bagels,

My 20 Minutes A Day Challenge

While perusing my Google reader, I came across a great idea:


Pick something you want to accomplish and announce it publicly. Then spend 20 minutes per day working on it.

Michael, from Sustainably Creative was the genius mind behind that one. You can find his original post here.

Some ideas for accomplishing your challenge task that he suggests are:

• get a dedicated timer
• stop at the end of your 20 minutes
• reward yourself at the end of your time
• if you can't do it 7 days a week, at least do 3 or 4

So right here in this post, I'm going to announce to the world what my 20 Minutes A Day Challenge task will be.

I knitted Brandon a scarf for Christmas. Well, I knitted him 3/8 of a scarf. My task is going to be to finish knitting his scarf so he can finally use his Christmas present.

But here are some other 20 Minute Challenge ideas:

• read (this is definitely going to be my next one, as it is also part of my 2011 goals)
• paint a picture
• exercise
• write
• clean or declutter (ahem, another goal)
• learn something new
• work on your car (if that's your thing - I just know someone who is building a motorcycle from scratch)

What will your 20-minutes a day challenge be?

Peace, Love & Bagels,