2012 Aspirations Update

Thought I'd document, for myself and others if you're interested, how my 'aspirations' for the year are going...

1. Weight loss - UGGG!!!! Okay, not that I *really* expected this year to be different from all the rest, but I was hopeful. I'm pretty sure I gained the 3 lbs I managed to lose (probably a bit more too), but at this point I'm back down those same 3 lbs. Not where I wanted to be, but it is still in the right direction, so I'm going to take it and keep going. Trying to get out of the 'all-or-nothing' mind set with this.

2. Reading Goals - I'm doing really well with this:) (hince the sitting on my hiney and not loosing the weight!! :) I started with the goal of 12 books for the year, then upped it to 24 and then upped it again to 30. I've read 7 of those books so far, everything from books I had to really push myself through to ones that took less than 24 hours to read -and yes, some of those hours *should* have been spent sleeping and a LOT of those hours should have been spent cleaning:).

3. Stitching goals - I'm doing well with this, though I haven't had any finishes for a while, I'm still stitching away. I was having some problems being able to focus on my projects so I got my eyes checked and for the first time in my life I'm now wearing glasses. A pretty minor prescription, but it really does help on the close up things that I do. So while I'm still stitching I've decided to lower my goal on this for the year. I was hoping for 30 projects by the end of the year and now I am going for 24. This is still quite a step up for me and I think very realistic. I completed 5 in January, so even with no finishes for the month of Feb, I'm still ahead of the game. And I have one that is real close to being done and another that is getting there, but still has some time left.

4. Organization/housework - I never did a post on this 'aspiration'. I just wasn't sure what my goal would be for this. Surely I want to get 'more' organized and do 'better' with the housework, but I couldn't find a concrete goal to work towards. One thing that I have done is to create a school planner of my own. I bought a very pretty one at the homeschool conference last year and I really wanted it to work for us. I used it for months, though there are lots of pages I never touched, but it just wasn't flowing well for me. I know the creator of that planner made it with larger families in mind, ones that might need more reminders or lots of room to write plans and activities down, but we have an only child we are working with, and it just was too much for me. So I made my own, adding pgs that are relevent to me and dd specifically, and had it bound (for $4!!!). I just picked it up on Friday and have been super busy since then, so haven't gotten around to using it much yet, but will start today with it:) I put it together rather quickly, so I'm sure that next year's will be a bit different, but I'm really excited about it. And it has my daily chores in it as well as a blogging/crafting calendar (these pages will be riped out at the end of the year to leave us with a record of dd's school year), so this should help with the organizing and the housework all in one:)

I do hope to get more into blogging as well (hince the blogging calendar) as I really like being able to read back and see my progress with different things. It's also a good reminder for those things that I said I want to do, but never got around to doing. So while this isn't really an 'aspriation', it is something I'm working towards as well.

Well, that's all for today. Got to get dd to finish up her work for today as she has a 'communication/speech' class with a 4-H group later today. This has been a real fun way to practice public speaking for her.

TUSAL #2

A day late for my TUSAL update #2, but at least I didn't completely forget. I've keep meaning to join in for the International Hermit Weekend and also the Friday Night Sew-In and it just sneaks up and by-passes me before I even know it!!! I really need to put these on my calendar I think!! :)

So here is a pic of my TUSAL jar with a peek at our new addition to the family (10 guppies:)!!

I've still been doing lots of stitching, reading and also trying to put together a planner that will work for us too. Hoping for a stitchy finish here soon!!!

WIPocalypse

Running a bit late on my 2nd WIPocalypse post!! I've been doing a fair bit of stitching still.. so here's what I've got done.
The picture above is one that I took before I started working on this again. I should be doing that with all the WIP's so I can track how far they are coming, but this is the only one I've done it to so far. Below is where I am on it right now. This is from my 2011 Crazy Challenge projects.

And below is 'His Name Is Jesus' freebie found here. I got the 'u and s' in Jesus done and 'of Jacob' in the lower left corner done. This is on 28 ct over one, so it is more stitching than it looks like:) This is a project I started almost 2 years ago.

This is an update on my HAED. Before it was less than 1in sq, and now it is almost 2in sq. Just over 1600 stitches done so far!!!

And here are a couple that I finished. This is 'He's a Flake' from LHN. This is from my 2012 Crazy Challenge.

And this one is also from my 2012 Crazy Challenge. This is January Wordplay from With thy Needle and Thread. I love this series and am hoping to do all 12 of them at some point. Really trying NOT to start any new ones this year (except maybe a small one or two for exchange projects). But I did go ahead and order the Feb Wordplay, so we will see if I can hold off or not:)

That is it for this month, I don't think I did too bad:) Hoping to get lots more done for my next post!!!