Resolutions: June Update

Resolutions; May Update

Resolutions: April's update

April's update on my Resolutions

1. Cease drinking soda. Vince did bring in a bottle of Pepsi for Pizza night early this month. I was tempted and poured myself a glass the following day. I found that I did not enjoy the taste, the fizz or the bloated feeling I had after drinking it. I am better off without soda!

2. Do not purchase new clothes for one year. Temptation was here! I was out with friends and visited the NEX (the department type store on the Naval military base in Millington) and was looking at summer skirts. I do not wear shorts because I really am uncomfortable in them, so I like skirts in the summer. I do not seem to have any casual ones, so I was looking.....but did not like the colors. Then I realized that I have some fantastic fabric in my studio that will make wonderful skirts! Unfortunately, I never found the time to whip up a skirt....I guess my motivation left me. At least I did not buy anything new!

3. Save the savings. Okay, I had very few coupons to use in the grocery store, so my savings was $1.00. However, I did save 10% on my batting order at Jo-Ann Fabrics because I am a member of AQS. All together, I saved $8.20 this month.

4. Reduce my personal belongings. More progress! I freecycled the electric fireplace logs that have been sitting in the utility room for more than a year. I also freecycled the hanging lamp that we removed during our renovations.
The large blue area rug that we have not used since we lived in Clarksville has finally left the building!
That is three large items that have left the house!



5. Read at least 3 books to improve my teaching skills.
URK. I have not moved along on this resolution at all this month. I did read several novels, but nothing that required much thought. I may bag this one until the summer gets here. My pile of books is growing faster than I have time to read!

6. Keep my tax records more organized for 2010. I realize I need to put my school purchases receipts in the folder. (Now....I wonder where they are????)

7. Walk 10,000 steps each day. I have not worn the pedometer this month. Sigh.

8. Reduce my fabric stash. Okay. I counted my stash during Spring Break. The unfortunate part is that I have almost as much fabric as I did when I initially counted my stash. However, I did reduce my stash by 3.5 boxes of scrap! But those scraps were not in the original yardage count.
The weather did keep me away from Paducah, so I did not purchase any additional fabrics for my quiltaway weekend in June. I still need to do that, so the count will increase when I make the journey to Memphis in May.

9. Make time for ME! Ha. This month, with being sick, I had a lot of 'me time' to rest and read.

10. Blog about these resolutions every month. DONE!(a little late, but DONE!)

Resolutions: March Update

March's update on my Resolutions

1. Cease drinking soda. Hmmm..No soda this month! I do think about Pepsi from time to time, but have not purchased any single serve bottles (thus one less plastic item) and have not consumed any from what Vince purchases! Nor have I caved in and taken my reusable cup into the Shell station to fill up at the soda dispenser! I may have achieved success here!

2. Do not purchase new clothes for one year. Nothing here. I did purchase a skirt at the thrift store. It is new, so would that qualify as buying something new.?? I did buy it at a thrift store! So, technically it is a second hand item.

3. Save the savings. Huh. No grocery shopping trip this month. My shopping trips were small, and nothing saved! We are actually planning our shopping trip for tomorrow morning.

4. Reduce my personal belongings. Did well here. I gave my rubber duck collection to a friend of mine who is going to Nicaragua on a mission trip. She also received my mini-beanie baby collection that I have not used (although I did try to find a school use for them!) I also freecycled a plastic water bottle with an insulated sleeve, and a candy thermometer (it was an extra one!)

I also freecycled two loads of styrofoam packing peanuts and bubble wrap.



5. Read at least 3 books to improve my teaching skills.
URK. I have not moved along on this resolution at all this month. I did read several novels, but nothing that required much thought.

6. Keep my tax records more organized for 2010. Things are filling in nicely here. We even have our 2009 taxes filed and the check ready for mailing. (Yes, we owe money again this year!) I did put our receipts from the accountant into the 2010 file.

7. Walk 10,000 steps each day. I wear the pedometer every day that I am not home. I have been wearing it around the house more. I am still averaging 7,000 steps a day. I took a walk with the puppies the other day. We walked through the woods...up and down small hills....I am sorry to say I was tired when we finished! I also planted the flower bulbs I purchased last year.

8. Reduce my fabric stash. Hmm..after looking at last month's status in this category, I am disappointed to see I have not sewn a stitch since them! Perhaps the illness I contracted has affected me more than I thought!
I did go through my scraps and boxed them up and posted them on freecycle. No takers as of yet.
I also acquired more fabric! The lady who took the styrofoam pieces gifted me a huge bag of fabric in exchange! YAY for fabric!!
Oh wait. I am supposed to REDUCE MY STASH! Guess I did not meet my goal this month! I can say that in April I will again increase my fabric acquisitions....the Paducah quilt show is fast approaching and I am headed up that way to gain inspiration. I also plan to purchase some fabric to finish the mystery quilt fabric requirements for my June Quiltaway.

9. Make time for ME! Ha. This month, with being sick, I had a lot of 'me time' to rest and read.

10. Blog about these resolutions every month. DONE!

Resolutions: February Update

I spent last weekend nursing my cold and so I did not get to post this update! However, with a month filled with Snow Days off from school, I have had time to make more progress on some of these resolutions!

So, here we go, February's update on my Resolutions

1. Cease drinking soda. I had one glass of Coke from a bottle that Vince brought home. I did not actually enjoy it and found that I was drinking it very slowly while working in my studio.

2. Do not purchase new clothes for one year. One pair of jeans purchased!

3. Save the savings. This month's grocery shopping netted a whopping $1.75 in coupon savings!

4. Reduce my personal belongings. Four paperbacked books went to Gleaners. I did purchase 6 new books though. Two of them are for my Professional Development resolution, two were fiction and two are for school. I also donated 4 pairs of shoes to the Soles for Souls collection our class did.
5 pairs of jeans/pants left as well (although I did bring in one pair of jeans--unfortunately I needed a bit more room in my jeans!) These jeans along with 2 shirts are up on Freecycle.
I found a home for the Tupperware sifter (Thanks Cat!) that I had replaced with a metal one in December.


I also found a home for the extra Tupperware Quick Shake container (Thanks Sherry!)



5. Read at least 3 books to improve my teaching skills.
I am still reading "Differentiating Math Instruction", in fact I may have to start over as I have become lost in the technicality of some of the material. It focuses on a new teaching technique called Response to Intervention (RTI). My brain keeps shifting to how to apply this in the classroom as I am reading about it. I need to focus just on reading the book through before I focus on how I am going to apply it.

6. Keep my tax records more organized for 2010. Things are filling in nicely here.

7. Walk 10,000 steps each day. I wear the pedometer every day that I am not home. I do not wear it around the house as I know right now, I am not walking very many steps at home. Once the weather warms up I will be out and about while home.
I am still averaging 7,000 steps a day.

8. Reduce my fabric stash. I finished the Car Club projects (that used up 10 yards). I also finished the Cat in the Hat baby quilt for Amber (who loved it!). I started a baby quilt for Jennifer (using hexagons that I already had, and fabrics for the background and borders that I already have in the stash!)
Janice gave me some leftover fabrics that I stitched into a small girlie quilt. I used a yard for the backing. That quilt is basted and ready for quilting.
I put borders on a patriotic stack a deck quilt (1/2 yard) and located backing fabric for that one.
I pieced a backing for the Prairie Schooler quilt (2 yrds). That quilt is basted and ready for quilting.

So total used: 13.5 yards!
PROGRESS!


9. Make time for ME! Reading and quilting were this month's activities! I finished two of the books I received for Christmas. I also started the first book in a 12 book series of which Rob bought me the most recent one for Christmas. I am one of those people who cannot remember what happened in a series (especially one this long!), so I re-read the series from the beginning when the newest edition comes out!

10. Blog about these resolutions every month. DONE!

Resolutions: January Update

Well, while not perfect, I made some progress! Initially, I was angry with myself for not being more diligent, but then I realized that change takes time! I am happy with the progress I am making and as the month progressed, I improved!

So, here we go, January's update on my Resolutions

1. Cease drinking soda. I did (unfortunately) drink Two 2-liter bottles of Pepsi this month. It is here in the house and I drank it because it was here. I DID NOT purchase any Pepsi to drink in school, I DID NOT purchase any single serving bottles of Pepsi, and I DID NOT purchase any other sizes or types of soda. So, while I did drink soda this month, I did manage to avoid purchasing any new soda to consume! So, a little progress.

2. Do not purchase new clothes for one year. Messed up here too. The school had a small supply of polo shirts and sweatpants with the school mascot on them (Eagles). I did not need another polo shirt nor did I need a pair of sweatpants, but I bought them because they had the Eagles on them.

3. Save the savings. The grocery shopping yielded over $35 in savings. That is now tucked away in a special place!

4. Reduce my personal belongings. I did well here!! I took a copy paper sized box of items to the Gleaner's House Thrift Store. That took care of getting rid of one item per week. (There were 7 items in there). Included in that box were 5 shirts and a pair of sweatpants (so that takes care of getting rid of an item for each new item brought in---see # 2!) along with a sweater, and several knick-knack type items. I also Freecycled the ceiling light fixture we took out of my studio when Vince installed the new lighting fixture he got me for Christmas!

5. Read at least 3 books to improve my teaching skills.
I am still reading "Differentiating Math Instruction".

6. Keep my tax records more organized for 2010. I have the envelope labeled and several items in there already. I do need to put individual envelopes in there for the various categories and label them.

7. Walk 10,000 steps each day. I had to purchase a new battery for the pedometer. I wear it every day, but sometimes forget to put it back on after changing out of my work clothes. I have been averaging 7,000 steps per day.

8. Reduce my fabric stash. I did go shopping on January 1st for fabric. It was a one day 50% off sale. I am pleased to announce that I purchased coordinating fabrics for a baby quilt that I am working on and had purchased the focus fabric for in December. I also purchase red fabrics for my Mustang quilt. That is all. So, I only purchased fabrics for specific projects! Otherwise, my stash is about the same. I started the Car Club projects for their show in April, which will reduce my stash by several yards, but since they are incomplete and still here, it does not count yet!

9. Make time for ME! I think I watched 10 movies this month! With Vince's work schedule and the lighter paper work load from school, I have had more time. Plus it is cold downstairs where the studio is and I tend to stay upstairs, so I watch movies on my computer!

10. Blog about these resolutions every month. DONE!