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April 1, 2009

My Report Card: End of 1st Quarter 2009 Round-Up

Now that we've passed the vernal/spring equinox, here's my first quarter 2009 round up:

-Started up my ebay store again
-Have been writing often on my blog, and shredding some of the "paper" ideas and places to visit that I've clipped and saved
-Have learned computer stuff in the process, like "widgets" and "feedburner"
-Learned to burn CDs from my computer, print labels, and sent both sides of the family a disc of geneaological info
-Am doing 30-60 sit ups most days, and walking the dogs for an hour every day I'm not working, right now walking them separately for a total of two hours daily
-Am struggling with a failing car and likelihood of adding a car payment back into my budget this year
-Landlord is breaking the lease I still have another year left on by raising my rent
-Am coming up to date on everything medical (new glasses, mole check, exams) before April 1st
-Have begun scanning a page a day of my photo albums so I'm building a digital backup in the event of emergency house evacuation. Has led to great conversations with family.
-Spent last year doing basic landscaping and soil prep so am now able to enjoy regular gardening again. Put in small strawberry patch, blackberries, raspberries. Herb garden, canna bed, amaryllis along side of house, tomato seedlings doing well. Dogs love the grass that was put in as seed in Dec.!
-Taught myself to knit this Jan. Will tackle purl after I finish the first scarf!
-Got a water bath canner and am teaching myself to can. This led to meeting one or two neighbors as I try to scrounge up free produce to can
-Am making greater effort to get to know people outside of work, so doing group events a couple times a month
-Completed 2008 taxes and put $2000 from return into my IRA
-Grooming my dogs' nails myself, instead of taking to groomer, and doing it more regularly, rather than waiting for them to get out of control
-Haven't used my credit cards since I paid them off last September
-Just put my Netflix subscription on "hold" so I won't be charged for three months. If I don't miss it, I'll cancel before it reactivates

For next quarter:
-Complete clean up projects at the house, like paint trim and finishing bedroom laminate tile flooring, finish patio outside
-File upgrade for work that will allow me to work in a higher category and just generally get back to looking for work more seriously
-Continue fighting my paper/filing obsession, and get rid of more stuff! Buy a waterproof/fireproof safe and stock it appropriately
-Finish the knitting so I can get back to my stained glass hobby
-Train one dog in off leash, continue to do both dogs' nails weekly or twice weekly
-Lose just a little weight
-Get comfortable on my bike so I can take dogs along on bike rides

I'm forever struggling with balance. I have an embargo against "projects" but some days I do better than others with this. Anyone have tips for me? Let me know your reactions in a comment below.

1 comment:

  1. Wow- you got a lot done and included a lot of new interests as well. Congrats.

    I'm always struggling with balance and how many projects to take on, just like you. I think we just have to learn to enjoy the process and dump projects that lose their allure.

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