Spring Goal Check-In

I love reading other blogger's goal posts.  It's a nosy little peek into their lives.  It's inspiring and informative and fun, but maybe that's just me.

I also love writing goal posts.  It's a way to put my goals in writing, track my progress, see what I still have left to accomplish, and evaluate if each goal remains important to me. I abandoned a few goals last year...without guilt!

With a quarter of the year behind us, I figured it was time to do an update and include a few links and pictures. My goals are bulleted while my notes are written in teal.

• Experiment in the kitchen.  Try making my own granola bars, yogurt, vanilla, sourdough bread, and marshmallow cream.   

I accomplished much in the kitchen over the first quarter of the year.  The only item left on my list is vanilla.  I have the beans, but still I need to purchase the vodka.  I attempted other new recipes, too, like this delicious Giant Cinnamon Roll Cake.

• Eat at Chipotle.  (Am I the only one who hasn't been?!)

I crossed this goal off in February and I talked about it on the blog here.  I met a great group of friends for lunch on a cloudy mid-week afternoon.  The weather didn't zap our spirits. The conversation was fun and the food was delicious.  I've requested Chipotle as my pre-half-marathon dinner.  Yum!

• Run a 2-mile race with Brian.

We ran our race together on a cold, drizzly February morning.  Brian had a head cold and didn't feel at his peak, but he met his goal and ran the entire course.  I met both my conservative and my ambitious goals.  I shared another photo and details from the race here. 

• Train and run a 1/2 marathon. 

Brian says that 2 miles is enough for him and he'll leave the longer distances to me.  My half-marathon is in less than a month. I'm at the greatest intensity for my training right now, but I'll be entering the taper in about 2 weeks. I'm using a combination of training plans, but am relying most heavily on this one. This plan is different than many plans in that it has you running fewer days a week (3 days versus 4 or 5), but each workout focuses intensely on a specific area (speed, tempo, or distance).  To date, I've run 206 miles in 2014.

• Build my upper body and core strength.  Hold a plank for 4 minutes.

I started the 30 Day Plank Challenge  last November, but could not get past 2 minutes, 40 seconds.  Brian and I started The Challenge together in February, but we kept forgetting about it and lacked consistency.  Maybe we'll try again in April or May.

• Learn to change the oil in the van and learn to change the wiper blades, too.

No progress so far.  This is a leftover goal from 2013 and I will do this someday!

• Take each child out individually for a meal at a restaurant they would enjoy.

Accomplished...almost! We decided to pair up the kids who especially enjoy each other's company so I took Alaine and Maddie out for a Sunday afternoon lunch together.  A few weeks later, Brian took Ben out for pizza and a milkshake.  Tomorrow the two older boys have a planned dinner outing with Brian.

• Read 50 books-- not including books I read aloud to my kids or books we read for school.

I think this goal was too conservative.  I will be finishing my current read today and bring my total to 21.  In this quarter of the year (winter) I read more than any other time, but still... it will be surprising if I don't exceed this goal. 

I've added 2 secondary challenges to my goal.  I want to read most of the books from the 2014 Sisters Book Challenge I'm doing with my sister.  I've read 3/10.  Plus I've chosen 4 classics I want to read by the end of the year.  I've read 1/4.

• Develop a new chores system for the kids, including responsibilities for the two youngest.

Brian and I sat down in the first week of January and talked about how to reboot our chores system.  We both agreed that we wanted to require more responsibility and encourage initiative  We changed up which child was responsible for certain chores.  We added some new jobs.  We re-thought how we pay allowance. We presented our new plan to the kids and gave it a trial run for the remainder of January.  When we started back to school in February, it became official.  One big change: Benjamin (5) has a small list of chores he must complete on his own without reminder.  He is doing wonderfully! We decided to keep Alaine  (3) in "training mode." It doesn't mean she doesn't work or contribute to the family, but she does it close by my side.

• Take (or have someone else take) new non-candid photos of my kids. 

I've been waiting for warm weather before even considering this and the warm weather has been slow in coming this year.  My sister has volunteered to do the photography, but she is having surgery in April so maybe May or June.


I'll do another goal check-in at the end of June.  Did you make any goals this year? How do you plan to accomplish them?