Honestly, I want to do too much. That’s been a continuous thread weaved through my life. As a child, I didn’t go to the library to get one Babysitter’s Club book. I went to get ten. In high school, instead of being active in one or two clubs, I was active in about 10 and was on the swim team. I was a double major and double minor in college who worked a thirty hour per week professional job. I started graduate school working a full-time job and a part-time job. I kept that part-time job for 3/4th of the time I was at school, only leaving it during my final semester so I could focus on my thesis. Apparently though, that wasn’t enough for me, so Linsey Jayne and I founded Spry Literary Journal.

Honestly, I like to be so involved. Yes, at times, it does feel overwhelming. At others times, being overly involved keeps me motivated.

My only goal for this month was to create a to-do list and start accomplishing some of the items on the list. Simple, right? Well, I don’t have the complete to-do list right now, I only have scraps of paper that have tiny lists on them. Which is okay. It’s movement in the right direction, and I’m considering that a mid-month victory. I’m going to take all my tiny lists and create a bigger list. If I have too many lists, I’ll feel frazzled. A very long time ago, Kyla wrote a post about being overwhelmed and taking a step back to create an organized to-do list (this was so long ago, that I would honestly have no clue where to link back to). Basically, what she did was take some time to write down every possible little thing she wanted to accomplish, and then she organized that list. When I first read the post, I was intrigued, and thought an approach like that would really help me. So at the time, when I organized my lists, the categories were something like “work, school, home, gifts, finances” etc. So I then went through every item on my master list, and anything that related to school went on my new school list. After it was organized (it took some time!), I felt- for the first time in a long time- prepared. I consistently checked items off of my lists, and knew exactly where to add an item when something came up. It was my most successful attempt at list making/life management.

So, I think I’m going to approach the rest of the month in that fashion. I’m going to really concentrate this week on list making. I’ll spend the first few days coming up with a master list and the following few days organizing it. If all goes well, I’ll have a week and a half left to the month to accomplish as many items as I can.

Now, this might sound like a crazy idea to many of you folks with great memories and organized brains. Oh, well. I’m just a person who wants too much. Let’s see how much I can do.

This morning I told Phil that he really needed to get back to blogging. Yeah, I know. I’m no one to talk. I also need to blog regularly. So Phil and I are going to do this together. The problem lies in the fact that I don’t really know what to write about tonight. So I’m going to share some random thoughts with you.

Tonight I went to Wolverine’s first baseball practice of the year. I won’t lie, I love baseball. I especially love watching little kids play it.

I once ate fried green tomatoes. I ate them during a time in my life when I wasn’t the biggest fan of tomatoes. At the time I liked tomatoes in my pasta sauce and my salsa, but that was about it. Anyway, I’m getting away from the point. When I ate the fried green tomatoes, I thought to myself. “Hmmm, that was alright.” Now, this might not seem like an excited response, but to me it was. Now that I like tomatoes, I think I’d respond with even more enthusiasm to fried green tomatoes.

I wonder what Phil is going to write for his blog post tonight.

I ate pho for dinner tonight. I know I’ve written about pho so many times on this blog, but I just love it so much. I eat it on a weekly basis probably, but sometimes I wish I ate it even more than that. Speaking of food, I am pretty into peanut butter and bananas on toast lately. Best lunch ever.

I’m kind of obsessed with Candy Crush Saga. Darn. If you don’t currently play it on your phone, do not download it.

There is a bunch of horrible reality shows on television. I just get frustrated when I’m trying to find something to watch. I do like Bar Rescue, but all I seem to find are reruns that I’ve already watched. I love New Girl.

I’ve been trying to exercise. I was (note the past tense) doing an incredible job at this. I was working out about three to five days a week, and then I took a two-week break. That, my friends, was a really bad idea. I started working out again this week and everything hurts.

I really love baseball. I barely know the Red Sox anymore, but I can’t wait to be at Fenway Park at the end of the month.

Alright folks, I’m going to call it a night. I know this wasn’t the most exciting blog post I’ve ever written. I’ll work on that.

Dear Future Husband,

I have a tendency to get caught up in the everyday. I worry about household chores when I could be relaxing with you. I obsess over work instead of falling asleep peacefully. I make to-do lists in my head while eating dinner. I am an observant, appreciative person, but sometimes I am not very mindful.

I know sometimes it seems as if my mind is elsewhere. I know sometimes I may seem rushed. I just never want you to feel as if I take anything in our life for granted.

I might not always show it, but there is so much in our lives that I am grateful for. I relish the tiny ordinary moments. I love when I wake up in the middle of the night and hear your breathing wax and wane, to feel you near me. I love that you are a man of action; that you usually beat me to a sink full of dishes and ignore me when I request you leave them and let me finish. I love watching you smile when something funny happens on a tv show or a movie we like. I love seeing you play outside with the kids. I love how well you clean up the bathroom after shaving or cutting your hair. I love that you give me a hug and a kiss before you leave the house every day.

I want you to know that I might not always say it or show it, but I always recognize the greatness in you.

Thank you for being my partner in life.
Love always,
Your Future Wife

Goals… Where do I even begin?

I set a few reasonable goals in January. They were goals I could manage, and they were goals that I actually wanted to accomplish. Did I succeed in completing those goals? No, I did not. Well, not really. I did a decent job organizing Wolverine’s closet and my closet, only to let the contents become completely scattered and unorganized a week or so later.

My goal for this month is going to be simple: create a to-do list and then work on accomplishing the items I add to the list. I’ve been feeling disorganized and pulled in a few different directions lately. I swear by to-do lists, and since I don’t have a current one, I’ll bet that is why I feel so scatter brained.

I’m not aiming for perfection with this goal, just a little bit of action. Wish me luck.

It has been a while, and I’m not too sure what it is I want to share this morning.

For the past two months I’ve been trying to figure out what to share here. I’ve been beating myself up for missing my regular blog posts, like Weekly Internet Finds or Monthly Observations. Because of that, I took a step back from the blog. I think what happens is that I get so frustrated with myself for not posting, that I lose my words. Instead of sharing something–anything–I share nothing.

I started thinking this morning about how much and why I love Spring. I love new beginnings, just like I love the beginning of a new year. Spring is one big new beginning. It is the time when the weather changes, flowers bloom, it is lighter outside longer.

My word for 2013 is Embrace. I think I need to concentrate on that more. I’m going to embrace the fact that I’ve been lacking with words. I’m going to accept it, move past it and spend more time writing. I”m going to write more.

I guess that I’m just basically saying, “I’m back!”

January will be for embracing organization.

Do you like how I used my one big word for 2013 and my goal word for the month together in one sentence?

This month I have two main goals.

The first will be to prepare my correspondence for the year ahead. I want to sit down with a calendar and cards and organize myself so that I can mail out birthday, anniversary and holiday cards each month. Sending letters or cards is something I always say that I want to do, but I never remember to do so. This will be the month that I spend some time organizing my cards for the whole year. If all goes well, I’ll be able to grab my cards at the beginning of the month, write a personal note inside and then mail them.

The second main goal will be to draft a plan for the year. Molly from Stratejoy posted sometime last year about how she does quarterly check-ins, kind of like performace reviews, with herself. That idea has stayed with me since I first read it, and I’d like to start fresh with 2013. But I won’t be able to review my progress if I don’t have a plan. So this month (I’m not going to rush it and try to complete it all tonight) I’m going to zone in and draft my ideal 2013. I want to list the easy things I plan on accomplishing, to list the wild dreams I dreamt up for the year. I’ve said it before, but I have very high hopes for 2013. If there is anything I’ve learned in the past, it is that intention creates life. So I’m going to plot out my intentions.

I also plan on organizing some areas of my house. Organizing my stuff will be a goal you’ll see in the next few months at well. For January, I plan on tackling Wolverine’s room, my closet and my top drawer of my dresser.

In 2013, I’ll be checking in on my goals during my monthly observations I post on the last day of the month. I’m excited about my goal for this month and I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Where to start?

For 2012, I tried to pick one main goal for the month and focus my energy during those 29-31 days on that specific item. Some months I did really good, like in January when I wanted to waste less or February when I spent time organizing and removing unneeded items from my life or November when I tried to blog daily about the things I was grateful for. Overall, I worked pretty hard on my goals for 2012. The months that were the most successful were the ones I had really planned out ahead of time. In January and February, I had been thinking about being resourceful, not wasting, minimizing unused items for quite some time. The goals fit in perfectly with what I was prepared to work on at that time. The months that were the least successful were months I either didn’t pick a goal until the very last-minute or months that I was a bit unpractical with my goal. Like when my goal was to write something new every day toward the end of my thesis. I knew I was going to be editing more than writing at that point, and I couldn’t devote the time and patience and dedication needed to generate new material. One thing I think could have helped in 2012 is if I had a long list of goals I wanted to accomplish, so that when it came time to pick a new goal for the month, I would have an abundance of ideas. This is especially important for those months that I felt a little lost in my goal-picking. Some months were easy, but many would have benefited from a previously created list.

So that is what this blog post is all about.

During the month of December, I brainstormed goals that were important to me. My list is about 70% full of goals that I can work on one at a time, or at least devote one month to. The other 30% are goals that I’ll work on throughout the year. I’ll keep this list open, free to add newly generated ideas to as they come to me throughout 2013.

Like 2012, I plan on picking one main goal for the month, but I’m really going to keep this goal challenge as rule-free as possible. In fact, for January, I’m going to attempt a few goals at once, but I’ve picked a word to try to symbolize the overall goal. (Check back later tonight for a more specific post on this month’s goal). Basically, this year will be half super-organized and half fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants.

I haven’t figured out whether or not I should share my long list of goals for 2013 on the blog, or just list them as I tackle them month to month. If I decide to do so, I’ll just do a follow-up post with my goals.

I’m ready to embrace a year full of exciting challenges, strike with self-improvement, growth and love.