February Mini-Goals Wrap Up

For a broad overview of this month: I did ok. I didn't cross everything off my list of goals, but I did accomplish some things (and generally they were the most important and time sensitive things).

1. Maintain my current weight: Well...Henry's birthday was yesterday. Before all the birthday celebrations started I was back to my current weight, but as of this morning I most definitely was not. With a lot of water and some walking, I think I have a good chance of making it back there!
2. Stay caught up with homework: Done. Thank goodness, this month was easier and less time consuming, so I am comfortably caught up and hope to remain so.
3. Make a trip to the recycling center/Goodwill: This didn't happen. I'm hoping to convince Henry to tell me what I can take soon so I can take this trip in March, rather than continuing to haul all my stuff for the recycling center in my trunk.
4. List all the TV shows from my brother: Done. I shipped out quite a few of them, and the last two days are the first since I listed them that I haven't had outstanding orders that I should be shipping. There's still quite a box full, though. I also shipped a few things out for Henry, and I hope to keep working on that!
5. Cross one more thing off my list: Done, finally! I threw a nerdy board game party for Henry's birthday, which I am fully counting towards my "throw a nerdy board game party" item.
6. Pull off a good birthday celebration for Henry: I win. Not only did he like all of his gifts, I successfully through him a surprise party and took him out for dinner as well.
7. Get rid of one large box of my stuff: Pretty much done. I got rid of one medium-large box of stuff (to the trash), and set aside enough to fill the rest of that large box in items to go to Goodwill. I will keep working on this!!
8. Stick to my budget: Done. I transferred $850 into my savings account on top of my tax refunds, which is making things look quite nice. 

February Goals Update

I did not make a whole lot of progress on my goals this week. Most of the time I'm relatively fine with my never-ending list of things to accomplish, but every now and again I still hit a "rebellious teenager" phase and decide I'm tired of accomplishing things and I just want to sleep in and do nothing. That definitely happened to me this week! So, rather than working on my goals, I went out for dinner, went bowling and watched a lot of episodes of Hell's Kitchen. Today I'm back to homework, but it was a nice little break!

1. Maintain my current weight: I gained some weight this week, but we'll see whether it sticks around or whether it was a temporary result of my bad decisions!
2. Stay caught up with homework: For now, I'm still on track with this. After putting in so much time in January, things have slowed down quite a bit. I still have a lot of panic moments where I feel like I MUST be behind since I'm not putting in 30-40 hours a week anymore, but I'm pretty sure I'm still caught up.
3. Make a trip to the recycling center/Goodwill. Not yet--I think I'm going to try to get to the recycling center this week. We'll see how much stuff I can get out of the house!
4. List all the movies/TV shows from my brother: I mailed out a few more last week and have a few more to go out this week already. Also, Henry has sold a few items on Craigslist and eBay, so his house is starting to (slowly) empty out!)
5. Cross one more thing off my list: Not yet. I did make some progress on a few items (made some new recipes, read Les Miserables, attempted and failed to get 120 points in bowling) but nothing to cross off yet.
6. Pull off a good birthday celebration for Henry: Eight more days! All his gifts are bought, and now I just have to figure out if HE has any plans before I make plans for him.
7. Get rid of one large box of my stuff: This is also on the docket for this week. 
8. Stick to my budget: Depending on how I do this week with grocery shopping/gas/other expenses, I should either be right on target to make my savings goal, or just under. I had previously planned to buy my nephew's birthday gift next month, but decided to move it up to make sure it got here before his birthday, which might shift the budget just enough to reduce the amount I put in savings. If this happens, it shouldn't be a big deal--I'll just increase the amount for next month!

February Mini-Goals: Update Week 2

Things are going slower in February than they did in January, but I have to say I'm really enjoying the slower pace! Friday I went to my nephew's school play and then went out with friends, AND yesterday I spent a few hours reading a book that wasn't a textbook, and I'm not behind yet! After such a hectic January, that feels absolutely wonderful. So, a quick update to keep me on track:

1. Maintain my current weight: I think I'm doing all right on this, but the scale has been a little screwy lately so I'm not 100% sure. I'm trying very hard to cut back on chocolate and sugar now that the worst of my stress is hopefully over (yes, even though the timer for my chocolate cake went off just as I was typing that...) and I've gotten in a few more times of walking lately. 
2. Stay caught up with homework: Still a success! A few very difficult things fell into place the last few weeks, so I think there's a change I'm actually a little bit ahead. It's a blissful feeling.
3. Make a trip to the recycling center/Goodwill: Not yet. But I did list some of Henry's nicer electronics on eBay at his request, and it looks like they'll be on their way out of the house soon!
4. List all the movies and TV shows from my brother: Done. Three of them are already on their way to their new owners, and I sold two more over the weekend. 
5. Cross one thing off of my list: Not done yet. I'm adding some updates this week, though, as I make some new recipes from my cookbooks (hence the chocolate cake--at least, I'm willing to blame the chocolate cake on my goal!)
6. Pull off a good birthday celebration for Henry: Still on track, although it's a few weeks away.
7. Get rid of one large box of my stuff: Not done yet, although I was looking around this week and getting some ideas of things I can clean out.
8. Stick to my budget: I ran my budget a few days ago and it looks like I'm still on track! I'll have to keep behaving myself for the next couple weeks as I buy the rest of Henry's birthday present, but I should be able to meet my goal if I did all my calculations right.

And now...I'm running out of reasons to postpone my last bit of homework for the weekend. Time to get back to it!

February Mini-Goals: Update

I haven't made progress on a lot of my goals, but I'm still feeling like a huge success because I finally just submitted one of the most time-intensive homework projects I've ever done! The project I just turned in (which I had exactly a month to do) might have taken me more time to complete than my capstone project for my Bachelor's degree.

1. Maintain/lose weight: I'm successfully maintaining so far--and hoping I'll be able to exercise an extra day or two this week!
2. Stay caught up with homework: Success! This is the first time since I've started school that I actually feel caught up. After turning in my assignment this morning, I have actually finished everything that's due this week. I have another project that I need to start on, but it's a pretty great feeling to know that if I take today off from homework, I'm not going to be causing trouble for myself.
3. Make a trip to the recycling center/Goodwill: I haven't done this yet. But--Henry let me clean out all the old clothes from his closet and dresser to have a garage sale sometime this spring. At least we're getting prepared!
4. List the movies and TV shows from my brother: I haven't done this yet, but am hoping to get a start on it this week. 
5. Cross one thing off my list: No progress yet--to be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to try to accomplish this month!
6. Pull off a birthday celebration for Henry: I picked up about half of his birthday present and decided where I'm going to take him to dinner (I think,) but if he doesn't come up with any more plans I might try to plan something else for him, too!
7. Get rid of one large box of my stuff: Again, I haven't done this yet.
8. Stick to my budget: I'm not sure how well this is going. I picked up about half of Henry's birthday present, the birthday present for my nephew and a few other things that I probably didn't need (my 2011 photo book, and a new book to reward myself for finally finishing my assignment). That took care of most of the things I was planning on buying, though, so hopefully the rest of the month will be easier. At any rate, I did submit my taxes yesterday, and I'm certainly excited to get a nice refund to add to my savings account!

And now, off to finish a few more productive things before we head out for a Superbowl party!

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