Goals - 2013

It wouldn't be a new year without a post on GOALS for 2013.  You can read about my (lengthy, ambitious, mostly failed) goals from 2012 here.

We're a few weeks into the new year and things already feel a bit derailed... so far we have had one unconfirmed case of the flu, one preschool case of the flu, and one toddler ear infection.  Luckily, the man of the house has remained unaffected and since he is the major "GET THINGS DONE" driver, activities haven't come to a complete standstill around here.  So far we've mostly been organizing drawers and closets, throwing things out, rearranging furniture, and in general accomplishing some of those "dude, get on that already" projects.

Overall, I have decided to simplify a little bit this year; I need to feel some success!

Blog:

I am was going to attempt Project 52 (i.e. posting a photograph each week), but since I am already on week 3 with nothing to show for it, I might not make that this year.  Instead, I am just going to focus on blogging more often and more consistently.  Last year I had very specific goals and even scheduled out some posts for myself, but this year I am going to take a simpler approach and just post as often as I want, on whatever topics I want.  Something I struggled with all of last year was wanting to make a post "perfect" before posting it.  "Perfect" came to mean that the post fell into a specific category, was medium length, and had a related photograph (taken by me, of course). I am not going to try so hard to make each post a major undertaking.  If I've got pictures, I'll post them with the text, but it's not always bad to keep it simple!  The whole purpose of the blog is to document our lives, and if my quest for (my own very narrow view of) perfection is standing in the way of recording memorable events, well that's ludicrous.

Food and Cooking:

We are generally good at making meal plans and only buying groceries that we need, but I want to continue to cook healthy foods and look for a few new things to try (Pinterest is helping, especially since some of the people I follow consistently pin wonderful recipes).  Additionally, I am going to try Whole30 (for the whole 30 days) in the early spring.  I made a brief attempt at Whole30 way back in August and it was quite successful, especially considering I only did it for about 2 weeks.  However, the improvements I saw in August slowly disappeared as I succumbed to holiday indulgences starting at Halloween.  It's been a lazy couple of months.

Exercise:

We are having trouble working exercise into our schedule since we aren't even able to eat dinner together more than 50% of the work week so I am solo with the kids quite a bit.  However, I am going to commit to running at least once per week, whether early in the morning or during lunch at work.  The best bet will probably be on the weekends, if we can coordinate it.  I also aim to use my work-gym membership that I faithfully contribute to like a 401K.

Photography:

My primary goal in my photography this year is ORGANIZATION.  I have a vast backlog of partially completed work (from 2008 to 2012) that I have been hesitant to tackle, but I vow to complete photo albums for those years as soon as possible!  If I can get a habit established, I am confident that I will feel less overwhelmed.  I also received Adobe Lightroom for Christmas and am going to work on learning how to use it and figure out the most streamlined work flow for myself.  One snafu - the computer on which I was planning to install Lightroom turns out to not have the appropriate requirements, so it is still uninstalled.  Perhaps a new laptop in my future?  Yikes, this hobby is getting expensive.

House:

I've got a HUGE list of things I want to do in our house.  Some items are simple (move couch to other room) and others are much much bigger (re-do all of kitchen).  Some fall in between (create wall gallery for living room, choose photos for said wall gallery in living room), but all are *mostly* achievable.  I think I am going to write a few posts about what we are up to in the home improvement arena.  We are attempting to DIY quite a bit, but with my husband working 50-60 hour weeks almost constantly (plus grad school) it is slow going.

Children:

Well this blog is called "Mostly the Kids" and so far on my goals I have talked mostly about myself!  Sappy goal as related to my children: show them as much love as possible as often as possible and to have oodles of fun with them.  Practical goal: for me to be very intentional with my time and my words and to become more consistent/effective in disciplining.  I promise those two seemingly disparate goals actually go hand in hand (how fun is it to be around out of control kids or parents?).  This year, I plan to write a few posts on things that have worked for us... from potty training to how we deal with food.  It will at the very least serve as a record for what happened during these crazy years, and if anyone who happens to read it finds themselves in similar circumstances, maybe it can provide some insight.

Here Goes, 2013.

Good luck to everyone who set New Year's Resolutions!  What is your most ambitious goal for this year?

Goal Update - February 2012

The Night Shift seemed to be an overwhelming presence in our lives in February.  I functioned primarily on survival mode and focused on keeping everyone fed, clean, and clothed.  That seemed to take up most of my time and energy, so I did very little else in the way of goal accomplishment.  If I did anything, it was during my lunch hour at work, as I couldn't bring myself to work on much once I got the kids in bed each night.

Personal Goals

1)    Photography:

I am staying very current on my photo sorting and editing!  I haven't gone back to catch up on my backlog yet, but I am still confident that I will see great progress in 2012.  My next goals are to get some "deliverables" taken care of... I have seen quite a few ideas for decorating with portraits, and I also have a mini project I told my mother-in-law I could do for her.  Time to start getting things ready for printing!

2)    Sewing:

Sadly, I made no progress on sewing in February.  I blame The Night Shift.  Maybe I will complete project #1 in March? {Note: That didn't happen.  In March either.  Or April.  Maybe May???}  I did end up purchasing some material for a new project I have in mind (a computer bag), but I haven't done anything with it so far.

3)    Physical Fitness:

I have run exactly twice and done yoga a grand total of ZERO times in February.  February fitness was sadly better than January (in which I ran once), though obviously not where I want to be.  Brandon and I are going to work on a rotating early morning routine so we can both run more frequently during the week.  Saturday runs generally prove to be more difficult as one of us (ahem, Brandon) has to run with the double jogging stroller.

4)    Blogging:

I am still doing fairly well on this front.  I have more or less stuck to my calendar of post ideas, and I am working on building up a few "extra" posts in my drafts folder so I can make sure I post something every week, even if I don't have time to compose something new.

5)    Reading:

I have still been reading quite a bit.  Reading is one of the only activities I can manage to accomplish in the evenings as it requires very little physical effort.  Sad, but true.  I am not going to list out all of the books I have been reading because there is not much worth recommending.  Maybe I will eventually get ahold of something worthwhile that I can share with everyone, but for now let's just say my "free book" trend continues.

Team Dierschke Goals

1)    House Cleaning:

Again, I blame The Night Shift for the failure of this goal.  Things have stayed generally straightened up (especially thanks to Brandon getting some child free time at home), but we haven't been diligent about dusting etc.  The bathrooms and kitchen are the only areas that we clean consistently.  We are having some people over to the house in March, and that should light a fire under our rear ends to get things both clutter free/organized and spic and span.

2)   Monthly Date Night:

Two months in a row with a date night!  Hurrah!  We didn't do anything exciting, just went to a movie, but we take what we can get.  Once again, we wanted to see Sherlock Holmes 2, but we couldn't find a showing compatable with our schedule, so we opted for "Safe House" (with Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington) instead.  It was a very entertaining movie, and I enjoyed all of it except for the hand to hand combat/stabbing scenes.  I don't mind violence but punching and stabbing always makes me cover my eyes.  We are hoping to start branching out with our date nights in the coming months, trying something more active than movie watching.

3)    Monthly Time with Others:

Once again, we exceeded our goal.  Which is actually remarkable for such non-social creatures as ourselves.

- BIL Birthday Dessert:  This event was supposed to happen in January but was postponed due to travel schedules and changing reservation times.  The group dessert was s'mores at Tillman's Roadhouse... with homemade marshmallows that you roast at the table!  It was quite fun and delicious.  The only downside was that we didn't really know anyone except my sister and her husband.  We have met and spent limited time with many of their friends, but we haven't been around them enough to know them very well.

- Super Bowl watching Party:  After being out of town for the weekend in Rowena, we rolled into town just in time for a Super Bowl party with other "Young Adults" from a church we have been visiting.  Once again, we didn't really know people, but everyone was very welcoming.  The pastor's wife introduced me to several people and I was caught up in pleasant conversation all night.  Everyone was very nice but it did seem like 90% of the women I met (with kids) stayed at home.  It is shockingly difficult to meet other mothers who work outside the home, especially at church, and it is always a little bit of a bummer to be invited to a weekday midmorning event knowing you can never go.

- Gender Reveal Party for "Chuck":  My sister is having another baby, whose inutero name is inexplicably "Chuck".  She and her husband decided to reveal the gender of the baby via cake cutting at a gender reveal party.  There were decorations in turquoise (for girl) and orange (for boy), and most of the snacks color coordinated.  The room was silent as they cut the cake and.... ORANGE.  Baby is due in early May.  {Update:  baby has been born!}

More updates to come on what has been happening in March, April, and May in the Dierschke family... we've been busy folk!

Goals for 2012 - January Update

One of the things I like about setting goals in many different areas of my life is that it allows me some room to struggle and grow while still feeling some success.  Although the fitness portion of my goals has been abysmal at best and our house isn’t as clean as I had intended, I am meeting or exceeding my goals in several other areas; my little blog is finally seeing some action, I’ve been reading up a storm, and we have actually had a date night!  Additionally, I knocked out some Thank You notes for Christmas gifts; I made them my “project” for the week and didn’t do any work on my other hobbies until they were all in the mail.  What a great item to check off on my to-do list the first week of the year!  Below is a breakdown of how all of my goals progressed (or didn’t) in January.  I am already looking forward to making improvements in February!

If you are just here for pictures, please scroll to the bottom for your weekly dose of Dierschke Baby eye candy.

Personal Goals

1)    Photography:

I have set aside time at lunch and a few evenings to do some photo culling and editing, and as a result have fairly well gone through photographs from October 2011 to January 2012.  Making this task a priority really helps me buckle down and get it done.  Although it will take some time to go back through previous years back to 2009, I am confident I can catch up with editing by the end of 2012 at my current pace!

2)    Sewing:

At my husband’s prompting, I lugged the sewing machine down from the closet, blew the dust off of it, and put it to use.  I am almost (but not quite) done with project # 1, which I actually started sometime last fall.  I will save all of the details for a future “Sewing Update” post, but suffice it to say that I am making positive progress on my sewing goal.

3)    Physical Fitness:

Fitness has taken a backseat so far in 2012.  I started out GREAT with a good Saturday run and I had lots of plans to hit the gym and attend a weekly yoga class, but one thing or another stood in my way (read: excuses) and I just haven’t been able to get going.  I knew going into this year that my goals in sum were a bit ambitious time wise, but I know I can get at least SOME fitness in my schedule.  I am looking forward to working on this particular goal more in February.

4)    Blogging:

Plain and simple, I have accomplished this goal and THEN some this month.  As my faithful readers are well aware, I have posted at least once per week in addition to a backlog of “Letters to Ellen” that I had previously composed.  I believe the key to my success here was deciding what I wanted to post about each week in advance and making a calendar to keep myself focused and on track.  As I progress this year, I can see how I might decide to post more than once per week or start to tweak my planned posts, but just having the calendar with posts already decided has really helped me to get over that overwhelmed “what do I write” feeling

5)    Reading:

My thirst for mediocre novels can apparently not be quenched.  I am on track to blow my original goal out of the water thanks to my new Kindle Fire and the trial period of Amazon Prime.  In mid-January, I searched for and downloaded as many free books as I could while our Prime membership was still in effect.  My criteria for choosing the books pretty much stopped at “free” and “mildly interesting.”  Honestly, I didn’t even read very many reviews.  Here’s a fun fact:  many of the free books on Amazon are self-published!  And often (though not always) poorly edited.  Below are quick reviews on the seven books I read in January.  You should know that I truly have NO SHAME by sharing the fact that I read them with you… if you ever read them yourself you will see why.  In general I recommend all of these if you want fast, mindless reading entertainment.

·         Confessions of a Call Center Gal - a little weak, but fun, light reading.  I liked the story in general but the last sentence was really stupid.

·         Waiting on Hope - a decent, though sad, story, but it was completely predictable with obvious metaphors and foreshadowing.  In addition to a few glaring grammatical errors, I found an inexplicable use of "anecdote" in place of "antidote" TWICE.  This is the only one I wouldn’t recommend this month.

·         A Previous Engagement – a typical romantic comedy with a predictable ending, but I enjoyed the characters and the pace of the story.  An additional bonus (especially after Waiting on Hope) was only one noticeable typo!

·         Fresh Powder - a Sophie Kinsella-esque novel that was actually pretty good, although some of the relationships weren't 100% believable.

·         Ferris' Bluff - an interesting story about a man coming to a small town and unraveling some mystery/suspicious events… I would actually recommend this one!

·         Son of Eden - a "paranormal young adult romance."  In some ways similar to the Twilight series, though I actually found the main relationship to be a bit less eye roll inducing.  The book was free, but I enjoyed it enough to spend a couple of dollars on the sequel.

·         Daughter of Earth – sequel to Son of Eden.  There is going to be a third book released sometime in 2012 (looking forward to that!), but honestly all three could probably be combined into one volume as none of the stories are really quite stand alone.  A quick but enjoyable read, and I will be glad to see how the story ends!

Team Dierschke Goals

1)    House Cleaning:

We started the year with a good cleaning once the Christmas tree and other decorations were boxed and put away, but we haven’t remained faithful to our “cleaning once per week” goal.  However, the swift derailment of this goal can be heavily attributed to Brandon’s transition to working on second shift.  We’ve survived two weeks so far, and for the next month or so, Brandon will be working from 6 pm to 6 am.  Since each of us has a 30-45 minute commute, this schedule essentially limits our face to face interaction to 30 (or fewer) minutes each weekday morning.  Ian is coping surprisingly well, and really I am doing fine too, although the evenings do seem rather endless.  My house elf (Brandon) is able to do some general clean up around the house after the kids and I leave in the morning, and sometimes dinner is ready via the slow cooker or prepped for me to cook really quickly (i.e. veggies chopped and ready to be steamed).  My evening routine has essentially consisted of: pick up kidsàfix dinneràeat dinneràclean up dinneràbathe childrenàput Ellen to bedàread 1000 booksàput Ian to bedàwash essential dishesàfix lunches/bottles for following dayàcollapse into bed

2)    Monthly Date Night:

Mission accomplished in January!  My wonderful parents are always willing to help us out in the babysitting department, so we drove up to Allen on a Saturday afternoon and dropped off the kiddos before hitting up the nearby mall for a movie.  We intended to see Sherlock Holmes 2, but it was unfortunately (and surprisingly) sold out!  After considering the many alternatives, we opted to see “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” in an attempt to maximize our "chase and blow 'em up" theater experience.  Afterwards we went to Japon, a hibachi grill/sushi restaurant.  The food was DELICIOUS and Brandon actually liked the sushi even though it had (GASP) CUCUMBER in it.  (He claims to despise even the SMELL of cucumber).  Due to the style of cooking, we ended up sitting at a big table with 2 families that were there together and were required to face our fear of forced small talk with strangers.  I am here to say we survived, and it wasn’t that bad.

3)    Monthly Time with Others:

We were able to squeeze in several social activities with others this month.  Even though it was “just” family, it was still nice to set aside time to spend with others.

·         BIL Birthday Dinner:  One weekend while my husband was hanging out with some friends, I spent the afternoon with my parents and the kids.  I helped some (and probably mostly distracted) while my parents worked to install an elfa system in their pantry.  Later that evening, we met with all of my immediate family at the Twisted Root Burger Company to celebrate my brother-in-law’s (32nd) birthday.  Overall it was very low key, but it was nice to get out of the house for the day.

·         Cousin Pizza Party:  Ian and Ellen’s Lewicki cousins came to our house to make their own pizzas and cookies… stay tuned for a future post for additional details and pictures!

Dierschke Babies in January

Goals for 2012

For some unknown reason, I have not historically made New Year’s Resolutions or concrete goals for the upcoming year.  As a result, I haphazardly start (and complete) projects.  Functioning in this way is both frustrating and unsatisfying, and I want 2012 to be different.  Life with a small child moves much too quickly for my taste, and I decided that I wanted to make the most of my free time in the upcoming year, whether before work, after work, during lunch, or on the weekends.  Although there are general things I would like to work on this year (have more patience, eat healthier, etc), I decided that my main list of goals would be measurable, or at least traceable, so that I could evaluate my progress periodically in a concrete way (hello, inner planner/engineer).  I also wanted to make them ambitious enough to challenge me while keeping them attainable (and thus keeping myself sane).  Ideally, I would like to go into 2013 maintaining a similar structure while upping the quantity and/or quality of projects and activities.

Personal Goals:

1)      Photography

a.       Complete (at least) 2 photography projects – wall gallery and photo book

b.      Sort through, edit, and print photos for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011

2)      Sewing

a.       Complete (at least) 2 sewing projects from my new book (1-2-3 Sew)

b.      Design and sew a nap mat for Ellen

3)      Physical Fitness

a.       Run 2-3 times per week

b.      Yoga once per week

4)      Blogging

a.       One post per week

b.      Organized/Scheduled Posts

1.       Feature goal updates once per month

2.       Feature Ian once per month

3.       Feature Ellen once per month

4.       Feature a rotation of photography progress, sewing progress, and cooking/recipes

5)      Reading

a.       Read 12 books this year (not counting The Hunger Games from the beginning of the year)

b.      Read the Bible daily

Team Dierschke Goals:

1)      Clean the house regularly

a.       Bathrooms once per week

b.      Dust ¼ to ½ of house once per week, rotating which portions are dusted

c.       Vacuum ½ or whole house once per week

2)      Have one date night per month

3)      Spend time with another family/couple once per month

Since I will be posting more regularly, and specifically about my progress on goals and various projects, I would appreciate it if you, my 2 to 3 readers, would keep me accountable and encouraged!  Happy New Year!  I hope that you are starting your new year rejuvenated and ready to tackle things that are new, challenging, and hopefully fun, too.