Goal-Setting – Page 6

February 3 in 30

February 13, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Perhaps you noticed that I missed posting my 3 in 30 post for the first week of February, or that this post actually belongs to Sunday, but I’m not posting it until Monday. Or am I the only one keeping tabs on my procrastination. Actually, it’s not procrastination. I’ve just felt the need to actually relax on the past two weekends because the weekdays have been so very full.

I have set goals, however, even if I didn’t tell the world about them. And for the first week of February, well, let’s just say I haven’t done all that well with them, but I they are things that I am determined to change as the month progresses.

Getting to bed on time. This is something I did not perfect in January, and if anything, February has been worse. For one thing, I need to get my husband on board with this. There are so many distractions late at night, it seems. But I still maintain that it is key for me because it affects how my day begins the next day.
Get up at least an hour (preferrably an hour and a half) earlier than my children, who wake up around 7:00. This gives me time for some critical morning routines and some headspace to start my day with.
Get back to consistent exercise. I care about how I look and how fit I am, but lately, I’ve been sacrificing that for a little extra here, or a few more minutes doing something else. If I care enough, I’ll exercise.

Again, I’m ignoring some larger issues, like the packing and so on, but I know the rest will fall into place when my days begin and end well–kinda getting back to the basics.

January 3 in 30 Wrap-Up

January 29, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Not that I’m complaining–I’ve needed every minute of it–but has January seemed like a long month to you? I’m glad it’s just about over. I had a rough weekend. The aforementioned boxes from yesterday’s post are now mostly full, and I have yet to find space for my clothing or about 75 pounds of homeschool materials. At one point on Saturday, I walked into my room, closed the door and just sat on the bed and stared out the window. JavaMan was a little concerned about my state at that point, I think. He has promised to work his packing magic on some of the already-packed content in the hope we can still fit more in. Weight-wise we’re fine, but volume is a problem–not helped by the fact that the bins we usually buy for packing have been downsized by a number of inches.

I did eventually emerge from the room, but at that point, I just grabbed the nearest bin and began to shove everything in in an effort to make the move happen and postpone the puzzling over how to make it all fit.

Discouraged and exhausted at the end of the day, I didn`t want to write about goals. So I put it off to the very end of the day.

All in all, at the end of the day, I didn`t do too badly on reaching my goals, however:

Go to bed at 10:00 p.m. Okay so the last week, not so much, but I have been much more disciplined about this, and forming much better habits. I`ve conscripted JavaMan to help me with this one, and I`ve turned down opportunities to stay up just that little bit later and do one thing more in favor of being in bed reading at 9:30 or even earlier much more often than my normal modus operandi.
Spend at least one hour a day purging and sorting. Capacity problems aside, I think I handled this move much better than the previous ones, and allotted enough work to the days leading up to the move to make things more or less sane. I could have done with a few more child-free moments in the month, but I homeschool. Whaddaya gonna do?
Keep homeschool time sacred. Again, I think I did a pretty good job keeping things sane and reasonable for myself and the kids. Again, this week, as the move loomed closer, I did sacrifice homeschool a couple of days, but let`s face it, there was a LOT to do, and two days seems pretty reasonable in the grand scheme of things.

What will be a great relief is that by the time JavaMan and I rework the packaging issues and find ourselves places for those homeschool things and my clothes (details!), we`ll be better prepared for this move than any other, and there won`t be any last-minute scale juggling, staying up the night before a flight trying to cram in one last thing. THAT will be something to be grateful for. And the dark hours of January 28 will seem a distant memory. Right? Tell me I`m right.

- Carey Clark

Stick with it Saturday: Ups and Downs

January 28, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Earlier in the week I was thinking how good it felt to be exercising again. I finally seemed to be having a week where it all came together. On Sunday, I did 20 minutes of intervals on the mini-trampoline. On Monday, I had an early doctor’s appointment in Toronto, and didn’t have time to exercise in the morning. If I don’t exercise in the morning, it doesn’t happen. On Tuesday, despite another early appointment, I did 20 minutes of intervals on the mini-trampoline. On Wednesday, I did Turbo Jam for 20 minutes then turned it off and cooled down. Wow! It was pretty intense, I thought.

This is where things break down. On Thursday, I woke up feeling every minute of that Turbo Jam workout, and a few muscles I forgot I had. I was aching and had a lot of work to do. On Friday, I woke up feeling worse, and wondering how much of the achiness had to do with exercise, and how much had to do with the fact that I was obviously fighting some kind of head cold, due certainly to a lack of enough sleep this week. I also had this to deal with:

You’re looking at the staging area for THE BIG MOVE. Every possession we brought with us a year and a half ago, as well as everything we’ve accumulated since then must fit into one of those boxes, plus two suitcases. Every homeschool book, every toy, every article of clothing, every bottle of vitamins, every shoe, EVERYTHING. (Did I mention the homeschool books?)

It’s a daunting task. And you’re looking at the good part of the picture. If I were to turn the lens in a different direction (which I won’t), you’d see the rest of the horrifying picture–all the stuff that has yet to fit in. I was doing well until yesterday, when we found an additional bin lurking in a closet and remembered the one we sent on ahead to my parents which has a lot more homeschool things in it.

I wanted to jump back on the exercising this morning, but when I stumbled through the piles in the dark and came downstairs to look at this, I decided I had other priorities.

I’ll stick with it next Saturday.
- Carey Clark

January 3 in 30: Progress

January 22, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

It’s been a busy week, but I managed to stay mostly on track. I broke the going-to-bed rule a couple of times, but still managed to keep the days reasonably together. I’ve been kicking myself a little bit feeling like if I don’t demonstrate orderly routine to my kids that they won’t know how to get to work on time when they grow up. But then I get a dose of reality and realize our lives for the last few months have been a bit exceptional. We are in the midst of moving internationally, after all.

Go to bed at 10:00. As I said, I transgressed a couple of times this week, but for the most part, I kept it together. Late nights or ~~lazy~~ disorganized mornings meant only three days of exercise this week, but I still ended the week lower on the scale, and feeling good about where my exercise is going. I’ve even been adding a new habit to my life: getting up even earlier to write at www.750words.com.
Spend at least an hour a day purging and sorting. I am proud to say that there are areas on my desk where the surface is actually visible. I also deconstructed our homeschool space and sorted my summer clothing (the kids’ clothing is already sorted). I don’t think I’m being delusional when I report that we are more ready for this move than all the ones that have gone before it.
Keep homeschool time sacred. This has been accomplished mostly by trimming homeschool time to the essentials two days a week, and keeping the other days focused. We touch every subject once a week, but not necessarily even every other day. I thought I would hate this, but turns out, we all LOVE it. We may be onto something here…

The end of January (and move #1–to my parents’ home) is looming close! How are you doing with your goals?

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