May 1: Merry Month!

 

To make goals or not?  You might or might not have noticed but lately I'm taking things a good deal easier than I did in years past.  It's not that I don't feel well, because I really do feel very well indeed.  It's just that since I'm supposed to be 'retired' I feel I can and should enjoy the leisure that years of laboring hard and long daily have earned me.  I'll never be one of those who just sits about day after day with no ambition or desire to do a thing but get up and go to bed daily, but by the same token, I just feel like it's okay to slow things down a bit.  To sleep in if I don't sleep well, to putter gently in my daily tasks, and yes, sometimes to work hard, but always with a stopping place or three to cool down and rest so that my ambitions remain steady and I don't run out of energy before I've reached the finishing point.

Goals?  I am going to make them, I think.  It gives me a loose parameter to work within to see that I get tasks done I've noticed most need doing.  And I love the feeling of accomplishment when I can check things off a list.  I'm just geared to perform that way!  Lists and goals and checkmarks just keep me plugging right along. 

As near as I can tell, I did well enough on April's goals.  I'm still working on some of them and that's quite okay.  At least I've been making progress on them, even if they aren't all completed.  That's what I like to see, that I'm making progress. 

So, let's make some goals for May!

1.  Date out with John twice.  We've somehow quite gotten out of the habit of having dates.  I think it's partly due to the fact that in winter we just would rather be at home than go out when it's freezing and/or rainy and cold.  I know that mowing season is upon us and we just naturally tend to cut down on dates during the warmer months because John is busy at least two days each week with lawns.  But it's not amped up to full capacity just yet so I'm hoping I can lure him out of the house to go on a picnic at least once.  I have two lovely places in mind, one next to a rocky river and another near a lake.   And I'd like to go out to eat at least once to any one of our favorite places.

2.  Possibly keep the two youngest boys for two days and nights.  This is all up in the air without a firm plan just yet but if Katie does need to do job training, I'll be keeping the boys.  This will occur about the time school lets out, so Caleb won't be missing any time at school.

3.  Two birthdays this month...six next.  Also 1 wedding, 1 wedding anniversary, and 1 graduation this month.   I need to buy cards and get my budget in gear for the onslaught of one of our busier celebratory seasons.  

4.  Put $100 of my May grocery budget aside for next month's Sam's Club visit.  I figure if I divide the amount I'd typically spend between the two months it would help to keep my budget from getting so very tight in the month I do go to Sam's Club.

5.   Continue working on flower beds, pots and porches.  I want pretty and inviting outdoor spaces and lots of flowers and pretty plants.  I'm going to try to add at least two perennials to my spaces this month.  Perennials are more expensive, but they are also the bigger bang for the buck since they tend to return year after year.  Right now, I've got Asiatic lilies, daffodils, forsythia, roses, daylily, iris, phlox, Dusty Miller, chrysanthemums, Gaia, Coreopsis, Rudbeckia and Sweet William that return year after year, and it is well worth the expense to add more perennials in my opinion.  

But I also want to get some coleus, a fern for the back porch, and a few inexpensive annuals.  I especially like coleus and other annuals that allow me to snip a portion and start a new plant and multiply it all through the season.  Impatiens, Moss Rose and coleus are especially nice for this reason.

6.  Plant the tomatoes, parsley, and dill that Katie gifted me.

7.  Get my head back into Bible Study.  I do not know what this has been so challenging to me this year.  I truly could not even think to begin my day if I hadn't done Bible study first thing and for the whole of this year, I've struggled to do it all, much less in the morning hours as I was accustomed to do.  This month, I'm going to put my bible in the bedroom and not come out each morning until I have taken time to do that daily reading and journaling.

8.  Switch to warmer weather menus.  I've been slowly transitioning but it's getting hot, too hot to make sheet pan meals and too hot to consider turning the oven on for long periods of time.  This is the time of year when I start to rely on appliances and not on the stove.    And I also switch to lighter sorts of meals and have a big salad meal once a week instead of soup.

9.  Get back into zone work.  I've been so scattered these last few months.  Not feeling well with the flu and the aftermath and then going right into a month of the kitchen being partly in the living room and partly in the kitchen, etc.  But I do not want to get caught finding myself working as hard as I have at times lately trying to catch up tasks that had been neglected for too long.  I'll try to do one deep cleaning job in each zone this month.

10.  Make self-care a priority.  I'm fine on face care these days but skin care overall is abysmal.  I'm lackadaisical about manis and pedis.  I tend to skip shaving and exfoliation.  Honestly none of these things take more than minutes but I'm downright lazy these days about doing anything that relates to my personal physical self-care.  Frankly, I miss being well groomed.  I also miss feeling I look my best even if I'm not going to be going anywhere.  And it seems it would be a lovely reward to myself for doing so well with this eating plan.  

That's it.  I'll not plan a thing more.  Between normal visits, grocery shopping, meal making, standard housework, the unexpected, etc. I'm sure I'll be busy enough.  But...I don't want to forget to take time to read, journal, enjoy my hobbies, and just sit on the porch and listen to the wind and the birds and admire the pretty flowers.

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