Posts Tagged ‘accomplishing goals’

Green Goals

April 30th, 2011

In my list of homemaking goals, under the subheading “Garden” lies goal #7:

“Mow a lawn with an old-style mower”

I am happy to say that today, I turned the text of Goal #7 gray…and wrote after it “DA: April 30, 2011″

Date of Accomplishment: April 30, 2011.

Because today, I went to my local Menards and bought myself a lawnmower.

Old-Style Push Lawn Mower

I came home and assembled my lawnmower; then I mowed my front and side lawns.

So I’ve checked something off my list–but even more excitingly, I am now the owner of an old-style push lawn mower.

Which means I can mow my lawn the green way–any time I want!

I’m ecstatic.

(I’m also eager to see if my theory holds true that mowing with a manual mower is more allergy-friendly because it doesn’t kick grass particles quite so high into the air….I’ll keep you posted.)

Which reminds me of a little Jeopardy-style question I thought up in the tub a few days ago.

Answer: 510 nanometers
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Question: What is “Green Energy”?

Tags: accomplishing goals, ecofriendliness, lawnmower
Category: Homemaking ◊ Comments (3)

Epic Project: 4.5 Years

March 5th, 2011

I’m a sucker for epic projects.

And I’m not exaggerating.

epic
of unusually great size or extent
Trying to read every book in her local library is a project of epic proportions

Yes, I definitely go for epic projects.

I’m four-and-a-half years into this one–and probably not even one tenth of one percent done. (Purely a guess, I have no idea how massive this project is. I don’t know how big my library’s collection is–and I don’t know how fast it’s growing either.)

But I am moving towards my goal, reading with unabashed abandon.

Library Item Use in Past 4.5 Years

	Per Year	Per Month	Per Week	Per Day
Total items	550	45.8	10.6	1.5
Total books	468.7	39.1	9.0	1.3
Books (excluding children’s picture books)	200.7	16.7	3.9	.6

Notes on Each Category of Books

	Items over 4.5 years	Items in last 6 months	Notes:
Juvenile Picture Books	756	160	Authors “Babcock” through “Bartoletti”. Reviews found under the category Reading My Library
Juvenile First Readers	49	0	I have not read a juvenile first reader since September 9, 2009
Juvenile Chapter Books	79	0	I have not read a juvenile chapter book since October 22, 2009
Juvenile Fiction	243	5
Juvenile Nonfiction	76	8	I’ve read more juvenile nonfiction in the past 6 months than I did in the year prior.
Adult Fiction	323	26
Adult Nonfiction	523	20	I’m reading nonfiction at less than half the rate of last year. Then again, last year was my year for “exercising my mind towards the things of God”
Videos/DVDs	137	12	About two per month, not bad for someone who really doesn’t DO movies.
Cassette Tapes/Compact Discs	227	70	More than I listened to in the entire year prior-It’s amazing what a commute can do for your listening practices.
Periodicals	57	0	Although I’m going to add another in the next 6 months, since I found the quilt I’ll be making for my little nephew in a quilting periodical!

So there you have it–4.5 years into an epic project (and still going strong!)

Tags: accomplishing goals, goals, read every book
Category: Books ◊ Comments (5)

Tie-Dye Faith: A Metaphor

February 15th, 2011

Tie-dye can be a frightening proposition.

Folding fabric, dying sections, waiting hours before you can see how it’ll turn out.

It’s no wonder the girls were so wary. It’s no wonder they felt more comfortable free-hand drawing their designs.

Freehand dyed shirt

Tie-dye takes faith–seeing the finished product in your mind’s eye even when what you’re looking at has little in common with your intended result.

I believed in tie-dye and started using the technique from the get go.

Why?

Because I’d read a book of instruction. I’d seen illustrations of how to fold and what the finished result was supposed to look like. I’d had a friend show me his finished product and describe how he’d gotten it.

The girls hadn’t seen this yet. They didn’t have the evidence I’d seen to support my faith.

They were skeptical.

They’d stick with what they could see.

I forged on in faith, evangelizing my little brood liberally. “How about you try a real tie-dye on this next one?”

They made slow steps–little scrunches tied here and there. Still mostly sight.

But as they saw me walking out my faith, as I continually brought my book and its illustrations to their minds, they started to believe my witness.

Tie-dyed pants, in progress

They chose to act on their fledgling belief.

They folded, dyed, and left their shirts–still folded and tied–with me.

When I rinsed out their shirts, seeing the first fruits of their faith, I was in awe.

Bullseye Tie-Dyed shirt

My own faith strengthened, I determined to tie-dye even more, to convert more to tie-dying.

And so their faith and mine mutually strengthened one another.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
~Hebrews 11:1

Tags: accomplishing goals, Faith, my girls, tie-dye, tie-dye party
Category: Family & Friends, Following Christ ◊ Comments (3)

Snapshot: Tie-Dye Party

February 13th, 2011

I can officially check one more item off my list.

I’ve thrown a tie-dye party.

Girls at Tie-Dye Party

It was just four of us–Esie, Krystal, myself, and Taylor (left to right in the photo above)–but we had a blast!

We made ourselves custom smocks out of trash bags, we folded and drew on and dyed our shirts (and my pants and skirt), we laughed over the unfortunate placement of a certain bit of yellow dye and the new-tire smell of the black vat of dye.

And we drank tie-dyed Koolaid.

Tie-dyed Koolaid

Here’s to accomplishing goals–and to getting to know some great girls!

Tags: accomplishing goals, Koolaid, my girls, parties, tie-dye, tie-dye party
Category: Family & Friends ◊ Comment (1)

Snapshot: Baking Baklava

January 9th, 2011

If you’ve ever read my lists of life goals, you know that I have a lot I’d like to do. (And I’ve truncated the list for the web.)

It just so happens that one of those items was “Make baklava from scratch”.

And it just so happens that once upon a time Seth was reading my list of goals and saw that one. He sent me a quick e-mail to say that he had a great recipe and if I was interested he could send it to me.

I said sure.

Well, all sorts of things get in the way of such intentions and for whatever reason, Seth didn’t send me the recipe–and I didn’t really think about it.

Then it was the day before my New Year’s Eve party and I was coming up blank on ideas of what to make as a sweet snack.

And, lo and behold, I found an e-mail from Seth in my inbox, with recipe attached!

Baklava