Seeing as we’re all settled now I suppose I could share with my few readers some pictures of our new place in sunny San Diego! The place we got is a small cottage (550 sqft) and living in such a small space has been an adjustment.
The Northern end of the Living room with boardgame fireplace, bookshelf mantle, and computer cubby
But, we’ve been here for about a month and I’ve already come to find the smaller space superior to a larger house in many ways: its cozy, easy to clean, I have less stuff, it doesn’t feel cluttered, etc. There are some downsides as well; we don’t have a dining room and entertaining guests would be difficult but these aren’t deal breakers and over-all I think there are more positives than negatives with the place.
Our bedroom with south facing windows
The cottage, I think I should come up with a name for it has a simple floor plan the front door faces east and opens in on the living room which is connected to the kitchen by a long narrow hall that terminates in a full bathroom.
The kitchen with Jake
The bedroom is shares its eastern wall with the living room and its western with the kitchen. Another nice thing? The cottage seems centrally located and, so far, I haven’t had a need to spend more than ten or fifteen minutes in the car driving anywhere.
What does this have to do with New Year's resolutions? Not much...
So, at the end of last year I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish in 2011, you can find that list here, or you can just continue reading as I’m going to be self-evaluating how well I’ve done accomplishing the items on the list here.
It’s been a little iffy these past few weeks but I think it is safe to say Spring is finally here! Spring is the herald of many things (one of the best being Easter candy; I’m looking at you Cadbury egg) what it means in our household is spring cleaning and spring planting. The cleaning is all mostly done (I’ve just got to steam clean the carpets) so, that means it’s time to get our hands dirty in the garden.
Before we could plant we had to take everything else out. The winter garden still had celery, spinach, chard, arugula, and carrots in it; they all had to go:
After harvesting, all the greens had to be cleanedTiny carrots are yummy. I think we grew them too close to each otherOnce cooked all this spinach will fit in a one measuring cupArugula is delicious. This was previously unknown to me
We kept the celery in the garden because it seemed so happy and I have no idea what to do with 4 heads of celery… Once the winter plants were out all the ready compost out of our composter and went in, along with a bag of manure fertilizer, and soil to revitalize the plot. Then we laid out where we were going to put everything. Learning from last year we picked up fewer tomatoes and zucchini plants and got more cucumbers. We’re also attempting beans again this year to see if we can do better than the single green bean pod we got last year.
Everything in its place.I swear I helped put this garden in. It wasn't all D.
Beer traps in Sluggo spread. It begins!
I’m hoping that we do get a lot of produce this year. D and I are both looking forward to learning how to can and pickle vegetables! I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all the celery. As it is we’re putting it in absolutely everything.
This post was supposed to go up two weeks ago, but life has a way of driving you 500+ miles away from your home and dropping you in the middle of “the Happiest Place on Earth” during the “Busiest Time of the Year” (more on that later.) In the last post I reviewed my goals for 2010, in this post I will be talking about what I learned from making goals and then trying to spend a year accomplishing them.
1. You have to care about the goal – If you are mentally and emotionally invested in the goal you’ll never meet it. This was the problem with my skydiving and SCUBA license goals. These are two things that would be fun to do but they were really just whims, things I’d like to do but have no real reason or purpose behind doing them.
2. Make goals that can be done with others – Doing things on your own is hard, especially when the task is difficult. Surrounding yourself with other people makes it easier, they can provide encouragement, advice, support, someone to compete with, etc. Humans are naturally social (yes, even nerds need occasional human interaction) and harnessing that in-born desire is a great way to insure you meet your goals. Better yet let those around you know this is a goal and they’ll be sure to provide even more help!
3. Make goals that make sense for tomorrow, not today or yesterday – Do you know where you are going as a person? What are your professional aspirations? What do you do in your spare time? Who are you hanging out with? These might not seem like important questions when it comes to goal making but they are! Two of my goals last year (Painting armies and making a gaming table) didn’t happen because the gaming group I used to spend a great deal of time with split up and my tabletop wargaming came to a dead halt. With no one to game with there wasn’t any incentive to spend my limited free time painting tiny metal soldiers. I knew that before the goal was made, but felt guilty having these things lying around and not using them. That is a perfect example for planning goals for yesterday instead of tomorrow.
4. Make goals that scale – New Year’s resolutions or goals are supposed to be life altering acts of improvement. Not your to-do list for the first month of January. You can make said goals but there isn’t much of a point putting them on a list. A goal to get in shape, while on everyone’s list, is perfect as a year-long goal. It scales nicely and is easily broken down into steps.
And that is it. If your goals/resolutions follow these four guidelines you (and I) should find meeting your goals easier than you thought. It goes without saying that it won’t be easy to change your life, just easier than it would have been before you read this =P
