Challenge myself this fall!

...but the reason I didn’t accomplish much on this list is that I became quite ill in October, and spent the rest of the year either housebound or hospitalized.

Dealing with the illness (a nasty bout of Crohn’s Disease that ultimately required surgery) was plenty challenging, so I’m marking this as Done.

Have set myself a goal for the next couple of days: to reorganize my 43T goals list and get cracking on some of them.

I did finally reach goal #1, albeit not until this spring: I’ve replaced that wretched bed. Also, I lost 45 pounds—but my “diet” isn’t one I’d recommend!

Am still off work until next week, so maybe I can knock off the “Walk a labyrinth” and “Clean my closet” boals. Have resumed reading a fascinating book that I bought and started last fall called Language Logic: Practical and Effective Techniques to Learn Any Foreign Language, by Robyn Matthew. This in turn has inspired me to dig out the learning-Spanish CDs and books I picked up last year, but didn’t get much of a chance to work with.

wants to join me in a team for the goal “Challenge myself this Winter”? I have a lot to accomplish, and would love to do it in good company.

Also, I’m retiring this goal. I’ve completed a number of goals here, but the biggest ones (for me) were:
1. Finishing school
2. Finishing my clinic shifts
3. Getting a passport
4. Going to Europe for the first time ever.

Happy New Year all!

I’m moving over to Challenge myself this winter!, but I want to write a review of the things I’ve accomplished and the things I’m still working on…

Since I last wrote on this goal, I’ve finished a lot of long-term goals, namely…

1. Go to the Galapagos. Went! It was really wonderful there. I’m still processing through pictures and writing out the story for my journal. If you’re thinking about going, do.

2. Reduce my junk. A rousing success! I now have a [mostly] free corner and all of the things I meant to get to people went to their rightful owners. From now on, no pile!

3. Leave the house more. My new year’s resolution from last year, and I’m clearly an overachiever. I’ve gotten a job outside of my house and rallied people together to go to a few museum exhibits [need to do more of that, actually], but I’ve also visited Alaska, Hawaii, South Carolina, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Toronto and Ecuador.

4. Make my Christmas presents. I wrote only briefly about this, but yes, I made almost all of my Christmas presents this year. The exception was a last-minute gift box to my uncle’s kids, which was mostly candy and gift cards. I don’t really know them very well and they live in a warm part of the country, so I’m not sure how to make them things… Still, people to keep in mind for next year…

5. Spanish. I was on Ecuadorian TV [as a random turista], so I guess I learned enough that I was comfortable speaking to strangers. My boyfriend and family were very grateful that I could converse with people, and it made little things much easier. My mom’s luggage arrived after we’d left for the islands, so we had to quickly buy her t-shirts and underwear, which is much easier when you know the words for “Mi madre desea una camisetta, por favor”. I rarely had to say anything very complicated, but it was good to really know what people were saying, rather than guessing. Even in the airport, I helped a few older people when they didn’t understand the airport announcements in English. [“Soy de groupo cinco tambien.”] I’m going to focus on getting my French up to speed for the first semester of this year, but I’d like to keep going with Spanish. Even today while I was out shopping I heard people speaking all around me, and it’s just nicer to be able to say “pardoname” when you knock into someone accidentally. Besides, I was listening to the clerks talk in the next aisle over, and they were switching back and forth. It was really cute! It’s not like I’m really very useful as a Spanish speaker, but I enjoy being part of the club, and I’d like to keep going once I get my French back in good shape.

6. Knit for charity. Still going, but I’ve accomplished a lot on this goal. This is one of the ones I want to keep long-term. I enjoy making things for strangers in need, and I think it’s a good use of my time, talents and treasure, as Celtic_Christian once had on one of his goals. I feel like I overwhelm this goal, since I post a lot more often than other people do, so I might keep track of what I’m doing on my own knitting blog or on ravelry instead and then write a summary when I ship things off, or something… I enjoy making simple things for strangers as much as I enjoy making fancy things for the people I know.

All in all, pretty good. Onward!

to winter

There has been oodles of progress on many, many things since that far away September when I first threw myself into the fall goal knockdown. I worked hard & kissed a lot of goals (big and small, frivolous and long term) goodbye, every single one of them was worth it, so in that sense I’m batting 1000. Fall has long since fallen, so before I check this off, I’ll recap and update.

Ten recent goals I’ve completed :

• Share in the 2007 43Things holiday card exchange

• Thank Flirt for Organizing the Holiday Card Exchange

• Go sledding

• Donate 10,000 grains of rice through freerice.com

• revive the eyeball brigade and have another eyeball avatar week!

• Elf myself

• donate 50,000 grains of rice through freerice.com

• make chocolate truffles

• create an altered book

• survive christmas

Progress with ongoing & long term goals :

be a good mother

go out on “date nights” with my spouse on a regular basis

find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

declutter my house

deal with this

write haiku on fridays

fund 43 microloans through Kiva.org

be part of a team that donates 1 million grains of rice through freerice.com

Hone my curves

knit

potty train my son

Additional goals I’ve managed to check off during the Fall challenge:

Offer a Microloan to someone on the Kiva site
give our son a haircut
stop the water that is coming through the ceiling
upload more photos to Flickr
Go to the current Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition
go to the Farmer’s Market
make gumbo
Nix the leak
clean out my fridge
dye my hair red
Track a bill
find my celebrity look-alikes
have synchronized walks with other 43thingers and post pictures here
Apply for the child tax benefit
Declutter my computer
Sudoku.
Invest
Get (or renew) a passport
Work on my Secret Goal
knit a scarf
buy a new toothbrush
go to the gyno
Learn to mat and frame pictures
beat social anxiety
clean out the garage
Promote Flickr’s Passionately Pink For The Cure Project
buy a television
join a gym
Nix the leak (#2)
Grief counseling
Opt out of supercheers
Switch web hosts
Help My 43T Friends achieve their Goals on 43 Things
Participate in the Parade of the Lost Souls
Carve a pumpkin
learn bookbinding
Get more sleep
Make a list of 43 things I know very little about, & then learn at least 3 things about each of them
post more pictures to flickr
clean out my email inbox
fix my neck
roll my coins
dye my hair red (again)
give our son a haircut (again)
sign the petition for emiliakaarina to bring the green hair back
get a flu shot

And of course, this goal. I can mark that off now too.

Worth it!
Worth it!
Worth it!

Cheers as we head off into the new year, all!

Worth doing! I worked in a very personal goal and I can say I did it good. No more concerns about selfish people.

1. write and illustrate a children’s book
I’ve identified the next publisher to send it to, & I’ve bought a children’s-book literary market guide to help me find an agent if those folks say no.

2. find a poetry class or workshop to give me a kick in the pants
Done. Yay!

3. have Creative Sunday Night at least 2x/month
Work on illustrations has languished; this fall my creative work focused on writing. I’m mulling over New Year’s resolutions & goal reordering, so likely I’ll soon have a new goal focused on my visual art.

4. lose 17 pounds
Done!

5. submit my poems to journals (monthly)
December’s submission (to a contest) will go out in the next couple of days.

6. grow my hair out
Still in process, of course.

7. write a poem cycle as my Christmas gift for my extended family
These will be typed up & sent to everyone tomorrow or Christmas Eve.

8. Chicago 43T meetup
‘Twas fun!

9. Hear 43 voices
More than accomplished.

Between now & New Year’s I’m going to take some quiet time to mull/pray over goals for 2008.

and I still have this goal skulking on my list. Obviously I became blind to it ages ago. Well, here’s the rundown.

Goals to Complete

Make a slipcoverDone!

Create an altered book have been working on it but not done yet

Do the 2007 TBR ChallengeYes!

Exercise 250 times

Exercise 300 times nope, seriously stalled and need to get back into a routine

Goals to Make Progress On

Publish a short story did nothing

Write another novel thinking of getting rid of this goal

Be a better correspondent doing lots better on this one

Knit for charity started a blanket and making decent progress now that Xmas knitting is done

Make cloth gift bags for the holidays made several

Repair the quilt my grandmother gave me Talked to a specialist and decided to do it myself, no progress since then.

Make a quilt for each of my kids no progress

Organize the Craft Area no progress

Photograph the alphabet 10 letters done

Potty train a child the child and I discuss the matter but she says she “can’t sit on the potty right now. She obviously isn’t swayed by my goals.

Organize my photos *making good progress on this one

Learn about classical music Continued this one

Truly celebrate all the holidays and special days in 2007. Yes

Learn more about wine gave up

Go to the Farmer’s Market more often nope

Make great mustard nope

Visit chocolatiers in Wisconsin believe it or not, no progress. what is wrong with me?

Exercise with The Firm at least once per week Nope

Lose 50 pounds Nope

Watch all episodes of “The Simpsons” ever made. Got rid of this goal but still doing this on lists of bests

Get laser hair removal Doing this

Send birthday cards on time Perfect so far

Organize my basement Yeah we did it but it’s in need of a little maintenance organizing

All in all, this challenge was helpful. I never got around to re-reading Lolita (for some reason I’ve been re-reading series (like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and A Series of Unfortunate Events), and I can’t stop in the middle of the series). But I promise I will soon.

I haven’t meditated in forever, which is upsetting, but lately I’ve been very busy preparing for concerts and exams, so I can’t beat myself up too much.

I’ll be starting another writing program in January, so hopefully that will give me a chance to finish up those two short stories (and start some new ones).

The Four Agreements are beginning to become a part of my life, especially the “Take nothing personally” one. I still need to work on being impeccable with my word, I think.

The next time I do a seasonal challenge, I think I will focus more on definite goals that are easy to impose a deadline on (like, it will be hard to say with any precision when I am completely accustomed to the four agreements).

Anyway, I’m proud to mark this goal as complete (for the most part).

I finished the list of things about me.

It’s so annoying, but I haven’t been meditating. I feel like I haven’t had time. But I’ll be on break soon, so hopefully I’ll be able to then.

I’ve walked home twice in the past week so that’s good.
**
1) Get back into meditating.

2) Maintain my improved posture.

3) Re-read Lolita.

4) Keep practicing bassoon regularly.

5) Finish a certain short story—ahem, make that two short stories…

6) Practice the four agreements.

7) Exercise as often as possible.