April Update, posted in May...

So, you may have noticed that I have not posted an update of my goals in...a while. Oops. I thought it might be a good time to check in and hopefully jump start my motivation a little bit...Seems easiest just to go down the list and comment on my progress for each goal.

Creative Goals:

• Finish the girls' quilts (I'm going to call Lydia's done. I did quite a bit of topstitching and she's using it all the time now. I really need to work on Lexi's and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to do any more to Lydia's, so I might as well try to move on.)
• Sew a quilt for baby Isaac before he turns 1.  (Has not happened yet. Sorry Isaac! I've got until August 1st.) 
• Complete 2014 photo book (I have about 10 or 12 pages in my photo book for last year. I have gotten through May, so that's not too bad!)
• Publish a minimum of 2 blog posts per month (Oops)

Healthy Goals:

• Walk or run 3 days per week minimum (This is going pretty well. Been busy lately but I am finding myself doing a pretty good job of getting moving)
• Find an exercise partner to hold me accountable (DONE! Thanks Jacqueline!)
• Complete a spring/summer 5k and a fall 5k (Spring 5K complete! Signing up for another run at the end of May! Good job me ;))
• Eat a fruit and a vegetable every day (embarrassing but it doesn't always happen) (I am doing better at this! I definitely eat vegetables (usually salad) most days and now that decent looking fruit is appearing in stores, that's getting better too. )

Reading Goals:

• Read about 2 books per months but at least 24 per year (Ok. So I've read 3 adult books cover to cover this year. But I have also read two Animorphs books and probably half of the works of Tomie dePaola aloud, along with others. And we are almost done listening to the 2nd Penderwicks book on CD (we Franzen girls are loving the series!). And I've skimmed the majority of a book about cat care as well as a book about essential oils. So I'm consuming books...but I'm a messy eater ;) I need to find a novel that is impossible to put down. Cuz if I can put a book down, I usually just do.)
• Read the Bible every day (I can't say that I read it every single day, but I read it most days, and I have been doing a bit better staying caught up in my Bible study. Not gonna lie, it calls for 5 chapters some days. That is hard!)
• Find a new Bible study to participate in after current one is over (Pretty sure I am going back to Hello Mornings when my current Bible study is over. We shall see.)
• Find or start a book club and attend regularly (Well, I found a book club but I have not attended)

Parenting Goals:

• Have a one-on-one date with each child once per month (So far so good!)
• Spend one-on-one time with Lydia every day (Not doing as well as I should. I read to her every day but Lexi likes to listen in most days. Sorry Lyd!)
• Develop some kind of routine that involves the kids cleaning (No routine yet)

Marriage Goals:

• Go on at least one date per month (Can't remember if we did anything in March other than just hang out while the kids were at Awanas. But we've done well all the other months!)
• Fill in the couples journal together every week (Hahaha. The last time we filled it in, we were two months behind. It was kind of fun though.)
• Cook Tim a special birthday meal (His birthday was in February. I made lasagna, green beans, garlic bread and brownies and we saw a movie.)

Home Goals: So we have decided NOT to move! At least, not for a while. I'm glad. We're going to wait until we can afford a more significant upgrade. It's a relief! Looking at houses is exciting, but moving is a lot of work. And there are a lot of things I really do enjoy about our home and our location. So if we are going to go through the trouble of moving, we want it to be worth it. 

• Organize the basement (Hahahaha. Ha. Nope. We set up a desk for Lexi down there, so it's even more crowded.)
• Paint the kitchen (Done! Got the walls and the cabinets painted and new hardware installed. Looks MUCH better!)
• Donate the girls' old clothes (I want to check this off before we've done it, but the truth is, there will always be more old clothes...so I am crossing it off but it probably needs to be re-added and re-crossed...)
• Go room to room with a trash bag and purge as much as possible, selling anything decent on Craigslist (Well, we've bagged stuff up for purging but have not actually purged. We've sold a few things on CL.)
• Get the house ready to put on the market this spring!  (I'm crossing it off. It's not a goal anymore at this point. Boy, that feels like progress.)

What else have we been up to? 

Well, we got another kitty. Her name is Luna and she's pretty sweet. Arya alternates between licking her nonstop (like, uncomfortably long. it's awkward) and attacking her. It's a weird relationship. We planned to adopt a kitten from a rescue (we even named him Hiccup, awww) but he wasn't ready to go home yet. The rescue needed some foster homes ASAP for a few of the cats they had, so we offered to foster Deuce/Luna. When we realized how sweet she is and that she and Arya will tolerate one another, we decided to adopt her. It's interesting having another cat around. She's pretty scared of Tim. She actually runs to the kids when they are crying, which is sweet. She meows, which is weird for us because Arya is mute aside from her loud purrs. We're glad she was such a good fit! Little Hiccup will have an easier time finding a home since he's just a baby. 

I've cut back on my TV watching, in case you were concerned ;) The nice weather has helped with that. My current shows will be having finales in May, so that will help too. Actually, that just makes me a little bit sad.

The kids are doing well with school. We are about midway through most of our curricula (we started at a weird time of year! and we go year round) and just chugging along. The reading thing has clicked for Lexi and she is really enjoying that. I am too! It's fun to listen to her read, to have her stay up late to read, and for her to be able to do things independently while I do things with Lydia. Things will continue to get easier once she is a fluent writer. I'm planning to do a post on a Day in our Homeschool sometime soon, so I'll save other details for then. We will be taking some breaks this summer, but we'll also keep working too. 

So long for now :)