Progress report Q3: 2013 goals (making progress and having fun)

I’m happy to report that my daily to do lists have only 2 or 3 things on them these days.  Of course I still do the dishes every day, wash clothes, make dinner, etc, but I am charging myself with accomplishing 2 or 3 main tasks beyond that.  And that’s it.  When I get to the end of a day, I’m still tired but usually not exhausted.

Of course, I should mention that we finally got completely fed up with being woken up

every

single

solitary

night by my daughter and then not sleeping very well because she climbs into bed between us and talks and kicks and sometimes doesn’t go back to sleep.  We have also had it with a lot of other behaviors around here and so it’s been good to shape our home life and fill our days with what WE want them to be, not so much what one little person wants them to be.  Birds are singing, people.  It’s working!

Here’s how I’m doing on my 2013 goals.

SUCCESS

• Count my blessings and turn negative thoughts into positive ones.
• Continue compassionate action by focusing on the needs of others.  I am enjoying the 21-day kindness challenge as a reminder to step it up a bit.  Here is one of my fun projects that will completely take my friend and her family by surprise (they’ve had quite a challenging year and are celebrating good news by heading to Disney next month):

• Minimize wherever possible.  There is a lot of recycling and donating happening over here! It’s remarkable how much easier it is to straighten up when you don’t own as much stuff.  Any chance I have to make something disappear, I jump at it, within reason.  Here are items headed for Goodwill and for my nephew’s house:

Some things had to be given away surreptitiously… by hiding them on the side of the house so the little miss would not see them being taken and have a fit (even though we haven’t used this water table in over a year).  🙂 Ahem.

• Enjoy the creative process without comparing myself to others (too much).
• Mr. B and I took one of two overnight trips to reconnect, with another planned and coming up.
• Participate in One Little Word and find new ways to practice mindfulness and stillness.
• House redecorating wasn’t a goal for the year, but it’s taken much of my time so I’m happy that it’s pretty much done and I’m enjoying how bright and comfy our house is.  I’m waiting for our drapes and our new rug and then I’ll show you everything!

In general, I’ve been trying to follow this advice:

Do you get the Your Heart Makes A Difference e-mails? You should!

NEEDS WORK

• Try not to be influenced by the moods and actions of others.
• Try not to take very many other classes besides Life Book.  I’ve not only gotten 1.5 months behind in that, but I’m beginning two new classes this month: Shawn Ledington Fink’s Abundant Mama and Flora Bowley’s Bloom True.
• Be creatively brave.  I get all these gorgeous Somerset magazines and subscribe to countless blogs and see all the amazing creations and want so much to jump into this sphere.  But I am still holding back for some reason, probably fear (of success? rejection?).  This is from Beth Nicholls, Do What You Love:

Goals for the next few months: read more, breathe more, focus on the good more, create more, finish the house decorating projects, continue organizing closets and donating/selling unneeded items.  Oh, and have more FUN!

Tell me, what would you be interested in seeing or reading more of here? Please share what you like or what you want more of in the comments! I treasure hearing from you.