August Update – New Year’s Resolutions

In January I published my New Year’s Resolutions, and every month I have been updating on my progress in order to keep myself motivated.

Here is where I am on my list.

1) Leave the country – We went to China!!! We were there from Sunday, March 16 until Thursday, March 27. You can read the announcement of our trip, our arrival in China, our trip to the Great Wall, Beijing and the 798 Art District, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven Park, Nanluogu Xiang and the Hutong and the Lama Temple and Natooke. After writing those posts, I decided to fit all of the events in one day per blog post. The posts from our time in Shanghai are by date: March 20, March 21, March 22, March 23 and March 25. There are two posts on the day we spent in Hangzhou here and here.

2) Write at least one post a month in Spanish -I was hoping to get more posts written before school started, but I did not accomplish that. I am at least keeping up with my resolution. If you can read Spanish, check out my project list, Lista de proyectos, and a recap of what we accomplished last year in Enero,  Febrero,  Marzo,  Abril, Mayo, Junio, Julio y Agosto.

3) Move more – In August I walked for six hours, biked for two hours and fifteen minutes, paddled a boat for one hour and fifteen minutes, and kneeboarded for thirty minutes. that gets me in right at my minimum of ten hours. I need to improve in this area, but I have been moving a lot more than the “official” hours that I count. Carrying all the boxes around for the yard sale was quite a workout.

 

4) Visit one of the last six states on my list – We went to Maine! It was a wonderful, last-minute trip at the end of the summer. Although we were not there for long, it provided us with some much needed rest before heading back to work.

 

5) “Finish” the kitchen – Before we ran into a problem with the electrical, we had removed the old countertops and had templates made for the new ones. We had a new countertop installed, and I refinished the cabinets and hardware,  organized the cupboards, and installed under sink tip-out drawers. Then, in June we had the outlets rewired. When July rolled around, we made the final decisions on tile, prepped the walls for the tiles, tiled the backsplash and then grouted. There are still things to do in the kitchen, but another large item is nearly checked off our project list. In August the project stalled. We still have not sealed the grout or caulked. I hope to get on that this weekend, but there is a lot on my list. I promise to at least finish the backsplash this weekend.

6) Take better care of the garden – The first steps were taken in April to prepare the garden for summer.  Then, I planted the garden when my mother came to visit for Mother’s Day. While I was in Oklahoma in June, my loving husband built me a trellis for the green beans and sweet peas. By July, we were eating the garden goodness, and that trend continued in August when we were harvesting more green beans than we could possibly eat ourselves. There are two bags of beans frozen for Thanksgiving and we continue to eat them nearly every day.

On a sad note, someone stole the loofah off of our front trellis. It was premeditated or it was done by somebody that carries a knife around with them because it was cut and not pulled from the vine. I am saddened that somebody would do that.

 

7) Do more for Douglas – Our trip to Maine was an important one for him. He now believes that we should make it a habit to go away the weekend before pre-season sports begin. However, the trip that we took earlier in August to visit Douglas’ family was the best for him. It was nice to spend some time with his parents, sisters and some of our nieces and nephews, and it gave Douglas the chance to really relax for the first time, fishing, boating and kneeboarding.

 

8) Finish cleaning out and organizing the basement – I made some progress down there in early May, and nothing was done in June. I worked down there a lot in July and August and posted an update a couple of weeks ago. Then, we had a yard sale on the weekend of the 23-24. The basement is about 90% cleaned out and organized. Soon, I will be ready for the full reveal.

 

9) Paint all of the trim in the living room and dining room – This still has not happened. At least the coat rack is now hanging on the wall!

 

10) “Finish” the dining room – Unfortunately, the table did not sell in our yard sale. I have posted it on Craigslist and received a couple of responses, but it has not sold as of today. Everything else is on hold in here.

11) Regrout the tile in the bathroom – We started this last weekend. Here is a sneak peek. Sorry that I still have not written that post, but the experience was truly traumatizing.

 

I have decided to continue calculating my random percentages as to the amount of work I have accomplished. With these calculations, I figure that I am now 59% through my resolutions, as opposed to 37% last month. I am pleased with my progress. Here is how I did my calculations.

1) Leave the country – 100% complete

2) Write one blog post a month in Spanish – 75% (My goal is to write 12 and I have written 9)

3) Move more – 67% (We are only through the eighth month of twelve.)

4) Visit at least one of the remaining six states – 100% – We went to Maine!

5) Finish the kitchen – 47% (There were eight items on the to do list for the kitchen, and we have finished 3.75 of them.)

6) Take better care of the garden – 80% (There are about five months that we can be working in the garden, and we are through four of them and going strong.)

7) Do more for Douglas – 67% (Same reason as was given for #3.)

8) Finish cleaning out and organizing the basement – 80% (This is just a random number that I assigned myself give all that I want to accomplish down there. I actually lowered it a bit from the 90% I gave myself earlier in this post.)

9) Paint all of the trim in the living and dining room – 0%

10) Finish the dining room – 0%

11) Regrout the tile in the bathroom – 30% (There are four walls, and we only regrouted one and a half of them so far and we have not even finished.)

If each item on the list is out of 100% there are 1100 points total, and I have completed 646 of 1100 earning a 59%.

Happy Homemaking!