End of Month Goals

My goals for February were as follows:

• Print out and follow my new February budget.  Done. This was a very tight month financially, so I had to be very careful. I ended up having to borrow money from savings, but have since paid it back. I also paid for a small gift card and paid for a birthday lunch. 
• Put away my seasonal dishes and exchange them for my everyday dishes by end of the month. Done
• Keep printing out the 10 minute decluttering tasks from Organizing Moms and try to incorporate as many as possible into my housekeeping schedule. This was a total fail. I have stopped printing them out to save on paper. If I want to resume sometime later, I will just bookmark the site and write in my journal. 
• Go through all my books and novels and purge as many as I can  NO
• Find more papers from my binders and filing box to shred          Ongoing
• Make another 25 cards this month     I don't think so. I made a lot of different cards, but I did not keep track. It is that accountability thing again. I need to become more disciplined.
• Put together one scrap book     NO
• Produce one homemade gift     NO, but working on it.
• Replace the flapper in my master bathroom toilet      Done. Yay for me.
• I discovered two slow plumbing leaks this past month. Try to fix the problem by tightening the fittings, before I need to call in a plumber. I did tighten the fittings and slowed down the leaks, but need to do more. I am afraid of breaking something.
• Buy some Spackle to repair some drywall areas in the house. Use a $50 gift card to buy required materials for this month's repairs.    DONE.  I bought it. I didn't say I was going to use it this month.
• Continue to send out at least 3 cards a week to keep in touch with family and friends. I think I have done pretty well so far but  I missed the week before my birthday. That may have been the week of many snowstorms, but I did mail out the valentines and birthday cards on time. 

So I did manage to complete some of my goals. The ones marked in green were done in the first week, while I was still very gung-ho on getting things done. My resolve slipped away as quickly as the rest of the month. I am just not in the mood for scrap booking or purging, and I know I will be so disappointed when spring arrives and I didn't do anything about it. I might as well not beat myself up about it. I want the book to be done well and not slapped together. I did manage to put together 14 pages so far. March could well be the month where I excel. Fingers crossed. 

End of Week Goals

Goals for the Week

• Print out Week 8 of the 10-minute decluttering tasks and do as many as possible. Didn't even print them out. I'm not doing any of them.
  

• mail out 3 "Thinking of You" cards this week     done

• work on my embroidery project for the satin pillow cases     did some

• work on the scrap booking project    NO

• dusting and vacuuming the downstairs floors and the staircase     hit and miss

• go through and purge the books from my computer room    NO

I was correct in thinking I hadn't done any of these. I was busy, but don't know what I did.  One of my overall yearly goals was to maintain better notes in my journal, and even that has fallen by the wayside. I think I am going to be disappointed when I check out my progress on my end of month goals. Stay tuned. 

Last Week of February

Where did the month go? Does anyone know what happened to it? In a couple of days I will need to report on my goals and accomplishments and I don't think I have accomplished anything.

I did not return home on Sunday. I stayed an extra day because of the weather. Sunday started with freezing rain, which turned into pouring rain and some flooding, and then we had gale force winds with blowing snow. I left Smiths Falls yesterday morning and got home about 11 AM. My son and DIL came out shortly afterwards to visit, do laundry, and stayed for dinner.  I will need a couple of days to get caught up with my emails, blog posts,  and messages.

This morning I watered my indoor plants, made a batch of yoghurt,  and cooked up a big pot of chicken and vegetable soup for lunches this week. I paid some bills on-line before heading out to shop. I stopped at the post office on my way out of town to buy a roll of 50 postage stamps ($50.85) , pick up my mail (there were two more birthday cards), and mail out two cards of my own. I picked up a bag of road salt from the Hardware store ($9.60) because I have used up the last of mine on my driveway. I stopped at my bank to take out my cash for household expenses and gas for the month of March. I picked up a few items at Shopper's and paid with a gift card I received for my birthday. I also picked up a very few craft supplies at the Dollar Tree before heading to No Frills for last week's sale items.

 Produce cost $35.63  (Frozen $25 and fresh broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms and cabbage cost $15.63)

 Dairy cost $14.30, but $6 of that was paid with a gift card.

 I paid $13.77 for a utility turkey that cost $1/lb.

Pantry cost $7.97 for a 925 gm tin of coffee, for  a grocery total of $71.70

Yesterday Was My Birthday

I "celebrated" my  69th birthday yesterday. I did not have a special dinner, have people over, or eat cake; but I received lots and lots of wishes by phone, cards, email and face book messaging. I have been receiving gifts since the weekend and I have been spoiled. My sister suggested I give myself a spa day but there was no uninterrupted time for that. I worked on my latest embroidery project between birthday greetings. And I waited until today to have my spa treatments at home. I first washed my hair and put in some Argon oil to leave in after my conditioning treatment. I wore a facial mask for moisturizing before slipping into a hot bath with a strawberry bath bomb. I used a pumice stone on my feet after soaking a good long time, gave myself a pedicure before slathering foot cream all over my soles, and finally put on some new fuzzy socks that was part of a huge gift from a good friend. She gave me lots of gift cards that I will be able to use over the next few weeks. 

I have decided to leave for Smiths Falls around 11 AM tomorrow, so I can accompany my SIL to Ottawa. My niece works at one of the museums there and she would like to give me a tour before we all drive back home for the baby shower that will be happening on Saturday. This afternoon I shredded and cooked a second cabbage to take with me, since I will be staying there until Sunday. I will wrap the baby's gift in a little while and pack an overnight bag. I am very much looking forward to a weekend away.

Yesterday I received my insurance renewals with the recalculated schedules. I am saving $80.50 a month by talking with my representative last week. Yay! That is a big chunk of change.

I probably won't be posting now until Sunday, so have a great weekend everyone. Stay safe.

Family Day: Daybook, Monday, Feb. 18/19

Canadians are celebrating a holiday today. Whether it is called Louis Riel Day, Islander  Day, Heritage Day or Family Day, it is a statutory holiday.  It only affects me because most places of business are shut down. Yesterday I made sure I picked up my prescription renewals on my way back from the restaurant where we were celebrating the birthday of one of my friends.  Today I prepared cards to place in the mail tomorrow. I wrote out 3 encouragement cards, 2 birthday cards and one "Thinking of You". I also got a phone call from a long-time friend (55 years and counting) and we talked each other's ear off. You know the kind of friend that you may not speak with for 6 months at a time, but when you do catch up with her it is like you just spoke with her the night before? That is the kind of friend I talked with this morning.

Outside my window.....it is sunny, bright and cold.

I am thinking.....of the wonderful time we all had yesterday afternoon in Rockport, where we gathered to celebrate the birthday of a friend. The restaurant was a casual dining place with a great stone fireplace and a kind of roadhouse feel. The company is always lively and engaging.

I am thankful for.....my many wonderful friends.

From the kitchen.....I made another batch of yoghurt this morning.

I am wearing.....the same thing I wore to lunch yesterday...black jeans, a turquoise and black checked shirt and fuzzy black socks.

I am creating.....a lot of kids' cards to have ready to send to my grand kids.

I am going.....nowhere today. Everything is closed.

I am hoping.....I have sent out my birthday cards on time.

I am hearing.....just the hum of my desk top computer.

Around the house.....my floors need vacuuming still. *blush* I have little shreds of paper being tracked through the house from my paper shredder which I was using again last week.

One of my favourite things.....lately, is my yoghurt maker.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include me being away for the weekend. I will drive to Smiths Falls on Friday afternoon to stay with my brother and SIL. On Saturday, she and I will attend a baby shower for her oldest daughter (my niece). I will stay over again on Saturday night and return this Sunday.

Goals for the Week

• Print out Week 8 of the 10-minute decluttering tasks and do as many as possible.
  

• mail out 3 "Thinking of You" cards this week

• work on my embroidery project for the satin pillow cases

• work on the scrap booking project

• dusting and vacuuming the downstairs floors and the staircase

• go through and purge the books from my computer room

In case you don't recognize them, these are the same ones from last week which I never got around to. Not only that, but I don't have a photo to share with you today. I am really slacking off.

Grocery Shopping on Saturday

I woke up early again this morning and just lay there in bed....unable to fall back to sleep. So after breakfast I left the house early to start my shopping. No-Frills is having another Dollar Deals sales event, so that is where I started. I ended up at Shopper's Drug Mart, where I knew my eggs would be on sale again for $1.88 a dozen today only.

Produce (fresh and frozen) cost $28.65  (four bags of winter veggies, 1 bag of oriental mix, 2 pkgs. of chopped spinach, 2 kg bag of strawberries, and 2 small heads of cabbage)

Meat cost me $12.57 (chicken legs with backs attached were $1/lb., 4 chubs of ground chicken were $1 a piece and smoked sausage was $1 a piece) I still have ham and pork chops in the freezer, so this will give me some variety.

Only the eggs were on sale, so I paid full price for milk and yoghurt but needed to buy them in order to make my own yoghurt. One tub of yoghurt is a starter for 3 batches of homemade. I bought one pkg. of no-name cream cheese. My dairy cost $14.59

Pantry items cost $5.52 (tinned tomatoes were $1 each and the no-name evaporated milk only cost me 88 cents a tin.) I also spent $3.99 on 12 rolls of Royale T.P. on sale for a total spend of $90.85  With money I saved this month, I bought a $25 gift card to send as a gift to someone, leaving me $21.75 in my household budget for the rest of the month. I still have $40 left from my gas allowance and 3/4 of a tank of gas.

Digging Myself Out

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. 

Tuesday I reported a snow storm was dumping snow over most of the province. The snow continued all through the night. Yesterday morning, the snow seemed to stop and I even made a comment to someone that I thought the advisory was over. I spoke too soon. It started up in our area again and continued well into the afternoon. I bundled up against the cold and wind and went out to tackle the bottom of the drive. It was the most and the heaviest of all snowfalls we have had yet this year. It was very difficult to move. I use my shovel to push the snow and I take lots of little breaks so as not to over extend myself too much. I stayed outside for about 2 hours, but only managed to clear the bottom of the drive.  (If I had to leave my house for any emergency, I would be able to drive out onto the highway). There was still the top of my driveway to clear, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do that until today. When I came into the house yesterday, I was very sore and physically exhausted. I did no housework, nor did I work on my scrap booking. I did make another card however. I just had to reheat leftovers from the night before. Mmmm......leftovers.  (I'm looking at you Bless)

I started today with finishing the driveway. There was still lots of snow, but the job  went more smoothly. My sister's birthday is this coming Tuesday, so when I realized this morning that it was Valentine's Day, it hit me that I should have mailed her card at the beginning of this week.  I can't believe this week is almost gone.  I walked to the post office to mail her card and picked up my mail. Among the envelopes was my insurance renewals for both my car and my house insurance. OMG! I thought last year's increase in the house insurance was bad news. This year was far worse. I wanted to cry.

I called to speak with a representative, but truly I didn't expect much sympathy. I called last year, but they did nothing for me. I guess it depends on the person you speak with, because this agent was absolutely wonderful. He worked with me for a good long time, asking questions and making recommendations. The final result of all the time spent on the phone, means that my premiums for BOTH my car and house insurance are less than what I paid last year. He is saving me a pile of money.  Yay!

Here is the sweet little encouragement card I made for one of my grand kids yesterday. I guess I should have drawn some little muscles on those skinny little stick arms, but I can't draw to save my soul. So it will have to do. She will think it's funny anyway.