Inspired by this post and this post, I want to formally document some goals for April. I have about a million things in my head that I want to get done, but the weeks go by so quickly and I know organizing and sharing my thoughts will help me accomplish more.
Home: Conceptualize Playroom
I’ve decided that I want to turn our “office” (aka useless room full of junk that we never use) into a playroom for James. I want to do this for two reasons: 1) He is getting more interested in toys and I know his toys will get larger with time; I’d like to prevent them from taking over the house. 2) Since he sleeps on a floor bed, I plan to remove most toys when he starts to crawl to support him in sleeping at night. I’ll leave some books and calming toys, like a stuffed animal, but don’t want anything too stimulating in there as he adjusts to his new freedom to move around the room.
I plan to keep it very simple with a couple of toy shelves and a reading nook. All I want to do this month is start cleaning out the office and identify / select what I want to purchase for the room…keeping it manageable over here 🙂
I’ll share pictures when it’s through but in the meantime, if you’re looking for inspiration, check out this post – I love her ideas!
Home: Prepare Garden Beds
I’ve mentioned before that I am terrible with plants. However, I think gardening is such a great activity for children and have grand visions of working with James in the garden when he’s older. I feel like I should have some clue as to what I’m doing before I involve him, so the time is now. Thankfully, my mom has agreed to come help me start a garden (woohoo!). Outsourcing, my friends.
She’s really busy and traveling a lot in April, so we’re going to try for the beginning of May. This month, I want to prepare the garden beds so that everything is ready to go. I want to plant two small flower beds around trees in our backyard, and one medium herb / vegetable garden. I have no idea whether I should do raised beds, or what to plant, so I have some research to do!
Family: (Re)Start Family Dinners
In my former life, I really liked to cook. I enjoyed the whole process from browsing recipes, to grocery shopping, to the actual preparation of meals (and obviously, the eating). These days, it honestly seems more like a chore and we have lots of nights with no set plan where I eat eggs and my husband concocts some sort of taco creation.
We’re both fine with this, but I’m hoping to get back into cooking real meals at least 4-5 nights a week so that we can model family dinners for James now that he is beginning to eat solid food. I’d like to get back into the habit of this now, rather than waiting until he’s ready to eat what we’re eating.
Leisure: Watch less TV
I have three episodes left in my current Netflix obsession (The West Wing). I’m committing to not starting a new series at least for the month of April. It’s so easy at night when I’m tired to just zone out and watch tv, but I know I would be happier if I spent more time reading or just hanging out and chatting with my husband.
Reading over this list, I kind of feel like I should strive for something loftier, but I’m going to resist that temptation. For now, I’m going for manageable. If I check these off the list this month, maybe the momentum will help me accomplish more the next month. Or maybe not. For now though, this is enough.
Do you have any goals you’re working on?
12 Comments
I think these are great goals 🙂 Especially the gardening one. I am awful with plants too, but have always wanted to grow my own herbs and vegetables. That’s great that your mom is going to come over and help you! Do you have a lot of room in your yard? That’s my current issue – although I have a huge yard, I am not allowed to plant anything in it because my association is super strict. So I’m pretty limited to planter boxes on my back porch. One day though!
That’s frustrating about the restrictions! We have a fair amout of room – we have a normal sized back yard and have done nothing to it lol. I plan on starting small though so I hopefully don’t kill a bunch of plants. Baby steps!
Great goals! I’m working on balance and trying to fit everything in:)
I hear you, balance is so hard because it’s always shifting. Thanks so much for reading!
Yay glad you were inspired! I find that the seemingly less lofty goals are just as important to achieve! I think these are all great!
Thank you!! We’ll see how it goes, but so far, so good!
Cooking dinner is a great goal! I too used to love it but oh my gosh meal planning, prepping, and cooking after work all day or chasing around a wild child, not what I enjoy!! But I’m going to copy you on that goal 🙂
Exactly…not quite the peaceful experience of listening to music, sipping wine and leisurely cooking up a meal anymore 🙂
Love the goals!! Great job with them. I can’t wait to hear how they go!
Thank you, thanks for the inspiration!!
Family dinner is foundation at my house too. We are so busy, but we still make time for dinner together.
My goal is to read a novel. I read stuff for work all the time. I read articles, non fiction, cookbooks even! Ijust haven’t been able to 1) find the right book and 2) carve out the time to read.
That is a good one, I really want to get back to reading more too. My problem is the “getting into the book” part. If I’m tired, I don’t want to put in the effort to get into a new book, but I love reading once I’m past that.