March Update: New Year’s Resolutions

It has been hard for me to get back into the routine of my daily life. We have done some work around the house, mostly in the yard, but not much. It has been hard for me to get the posts that I have planned written, and I am behind in my grading and lesson preparation at work. This weekend we are headed to Texas for my dear cousin’s wedding. I cannot wait to see my family, but there is so much to do before we leave! I did manage to review my progress on my New Year’s Resolutions for 2014. As you know, I like to revisit the list every month to keep my goals fresh in my mind and hold myself more accountable. I know that if I have to share my progress with you, I will be more likely to get things done! So, here it is.

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 and our trip to the Great Wall. I will be writing more posts about our trip every Monday for the next couple of weeks.

2) Write at least one post a month in Spanish – So far, I have published four. I wrote a version of my project list in Spanish, Lista de proyectos, and a recap of what we accomplished last year in January, Enero del 2013, February, Febrero del 2013 and March, Marzo del 2013.

3) Move more – I was moving a LOT in China. Especially while we were in Shanghai, we were walking almost all day long. We also took the subway, and it is my policy to always walk up and down stairs rather than take the escalator. I walk up and down a lot of stairs at work, but even so my legs were aching in China.

It is hard to know just how much walking I did while I was there. I should have bought a pedometer before going, but it is too late now. I decided to average two hours a day for the ten full days that we were there and not traveling.

Before leaving I did two and a half hours of yoga and walked Kahlua for two hours and fifteen minutes. That gives me a total of twenty four hours and forty five minutes of exercise for the month of March.

Here I am ascending the stairs up to the Great Wall of China.

4) Visit one of the last six states on my list – I still have not visited Maine, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii or Alaska. Boo.

5) “Finish” the kitchen – We were making progress in January and February. We 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 March, we experienced a big disappointment when we learned that our electrical needs work. Progress in the kitchen is on hold until we can get an electrician to come look at the wiring. Hopefully, we will be able to resume renovation soon.

6) Take better care of the garden – Work in the yard and garden begins in April. Soon, we will break out the seeds I harvested last year. I am looking forward to fresh produce!

7) Do more for Douglas – I took him to China! What more can he ask for?

8) Finish cleaning out and organizing the basement – Still nothing in the basement. It continues to look worse than it does in this picture. I need to start working!

9) Paint all of the trim in the living room and dining room – No trim has been painted. This needs to start soon since we are not able to work in the kitchen right now.

10) “Finish” the dining room – No work has been done in the dining room, and we will probably wait until summer.

11) Regrout the tile in the bathroom – Still nothing.

We are a quarter of the way into the year, and I am happy with our progress. I would have liked to have more done by now, but we were in China for two weeks. Now we are home again, and it is time to get back to work… or it will be when we get back from Texas!

Happy Homemaking!