Things I'd Like to Accomplish: The 2012 Editions

I remember this post like it was yesterday...except it wasn't yesterday. It was a year ago. But, I did read it yesterday...and the day before.

As I revisited the 2011 goals yesterday, I thought it would be kind of silly to do it again today. So, I'm not going to...but it might feel a little bit like I'm just re-doing the 2011 goals all over again. I swear I'm not...but some things are just so good that you need to do them again and again.

So, now I bring you the List of Things I'd Like to Accomplish: The 2012 General Edition.

1. Clean the House. Yes, I realize this was something I wanted to accomplish in 2011 but it's something that (1) didn't happen and (2) is something that seems to be forever ongoing in my world. This is a very broad, general goal of mine...and it's really kind of ambiguous on purpose. What I would consider "clean" may not be what others consider "clean." I'm okay with that because, really, it's our own standards that matter. Ultimately, what I'd like to do is go through every room in the house, including closets and the basement, go through every drawer, box, and piece of anything that is around and decide if we (1) need to keep it (which is the case with anything paper related to my grandparents business until 2016 - then we can burn it), (2) want to keep it, or (3) are willing to part with it. Once that's done, we need to decide that if we want to keep it, (1)why do we want to keep it, (2) can it be replaced by something else (I'm thinking of furniture, in particular), and (3) where are we going to put it (i.e., is this the space it belongs in or would it be better served elsewhere). If we decide we want to part with it then we need to decide in which manner we want to part with it: (1) sell online via Craigslist or a garage sale or something like that, (2) give away via Freecycle or Craigslist, (3) donate (school, St. Vinny's, Goodwill, etc.), (4) sell via another group (Wisconsin Rosemalling Association for my grandmother's remaining extensive collection of rosemalling, or a Buy & Sell shop for the antiques) or (5) just throw it out . This is going to be a very long, extremely tedious process that will probably require several trips to St. Vinny's, pissed off garbage collectors (and maybe a dumpster), many hours of photographs, and many hours of posting ads on Craigslist and/or Freecycle...and probably some other stuff like time involved. It's going to take me more than a year and it's something that can go on as often as necessary.

2. Organize The Paperwork. I started this out in 2011 by buying a hanging file rubbermaid container (okay, it's Sterilite...but whatever, same thing). I have that filled with different hanging files and file folders labeled with such things as "Medical: Little Man" and "Condo Crap" and "Taxes" and "Old Taxes" and "Medical: Little Man's Metabolic Disorder" and all sorts of things. There's even a file for things that we should keep but don't know where to keep them...like the receipt for Husband's Ducati 848 EVO (i.e., the red motorcycle) and receipts from Home Depot for when they installed things like the new countertop and the new tile floor (which is almost finished, by the way)...you know, things we should keep but we don't necessarily know what to do with them. This year, I'm going to take it a step further. If we won't need it for taxes but it's something we should keep, I'm going to scan it and save it to either my desktop or to a jump drive (and probably both, to be honest). We get so much paperwork from the insurance company, for example, and we need to keep it in case of disputes with payments but, really, we don't need to keep hard copies of. So, I'm going to scan all of that and shred the evidence, so to speak. Things that we need for taxes will have to still be hard copies but we can get rid of 90% of the paperwork just by using a scanner. To get it started is going to be quite the PITA but once it's established, it should be fairly easy to maintain as long as I scan stuff once or twice every week. We'll see how well that goes.

3. Organize my Books. I have a lot of books...almost as many books as skeins of yarn. Now, most of my books are in one of four locations: the hallway long closet system (a series of four half-closets with long section above with four sliding doors), Little Man's bedroom, the office/guest bedroom, or our master bedroom. This is nice in that they're not completely scattered throughout the house. However, I need to somehow go through these books, figure out which ones I want to keep and put them in a centralized location. I have a built-in glass-front cabinet in the office/guest bedroom that I could probably use for my books. I plan to keep most of my college books but I don't want them with the "regular" books...so they'll probably stay where they are in the top portion of the hallway long closet system. My cookbooks will probably also not be with the "regular" books but, rather, in the kitchen. That's another whole ball of wax that I'll get to in a moment. But, back to the books at hand. I used to read a lot and since I had Little Man, I haven't had as much time. I'm not saying that I want to get rid of all my books but I need to really take a look at my books and decide if they're something I'm going to read, something for Little Man to read, or something that I can get rid of. And before you ask, yes, knitting/crochet and other "crafty" books are included in this organizational process.

4. Organize my Recipes and Cookbooks. I have a few cookbooks. I don't have a huge, crazy amount...but I do have some cookbooks. What I do have a lot of are loose recipes from the backs of soup cans and from newspapers and magazines and hand-written recipes that have been handed down from my great-grandmothers, Margaret Mary (Michelbook) Green and Martha Louise (Fagerlind) Johnston (my mother's grandmothers); my grandmother, Agnes Lucille (Johnston) Green; and my mother, Shirley Ann (Green) Zerbel. The cookbooks I'm not as worried about as I am the loose recipes. My husband made the suggestion of making a document for recipes in GoogleDocs and while I might do that, I'm also thinking of making my own "family" cookbooks with the recipes from my family. I picked up a couple of those "write your own recipes in" cookbooks when Borders was going out of business. I'm thinking that might be a good way to go. We'll see...it's just an idea. The biggest problem I'm going to have with this is reading the old recipes. Many are written in pencil and have rubbed off in some spots.

5. Organizing Baby Stuff. I have several bins of baby stuff in the basement as well as equipment like a bouncy chair and bassinet. What I'd like to do is go through all the clothes and decide what I want to keep in case we have another one and what can be sold. I'd also like to organize the clothing by sizes (newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, and 9-12) and keep them in separate bins. This is going to be ongoing as Little Man gets older. I'm thinking of this more in terms of what do I want to keep or sell rather than the actual organization of it all. Something I noticed with Little Man was that he spent 90% of the first six months in sleepers. So, really, what are all those cute little outfits for and why do I need to keep them? See what I'm getting at?

6. Get back to Running or Some Other Form of Exercise. I don't want my only reason for wanting to get back into this to be weight loss because that's not what it's all about. Granted, if I get back into exercise, I'll probably lose weight. I have a couple of reasons for wanting to get back into exercise. First of all, Little Man is getting older and more mobile. I want to be able to take him to the park or wherever and be able to chase him around and not feel fat and tired. Secondly, I'm not exactly getting any younger and I'd like to be able to walk when I'm 40 and if I stay at my current weight (sans having another kid) and activity level, that's exactly what will happen. If I can even just increase my activity level, that will help. Or, at least, that's the idea. Also, since my new doctor informed me that my good cholesterol is low and that exercise would help, I think that might be a good idea...


And now, for something completely diff.......well, no, not different. It's the Things I'd Like to Accomplish: The 2012 Crafting Edition

1. Learn a New Knitting Technique. I'm leaving this one a little ambiguous because there are many things I'd like to learn but that I don't know if they are feasible with the time commitments. Some examples of things I'd like to learn and maybe will take the time to learn (in no particular order): mittens and/or fingerless mitts, afterthought heel for socks, entrelac, multi-color knitting (commonly known as Fair Isle but that's not always the correct term), intarsia, charts (without written pattern), and I'd like to get better with lace knitting (and, particularly, "reading" it).

2. Make at Least One Crocheted Item. Again, this is slightly ambiguous...it kind of depends on if I learn some proper crochet techniques in the first place. I know some of the basic stitches but I have to look at the directions to know how to do them correctly. So...what will I make? No idea. It'll probably be something simple to start with, like a scarf or a hat...but probably a scarf.

3. Finish Four Pairs of Socks. Since I have two pairs in progress right now, this shouldn't be overly difficult. But, we'll see. I have one pair that's over half finished (meaning I have one full sock and the beginnings of the second) and another pair that I just started. So, I would need to finish those pairs plus start and finish another two pairs. I think that sounds feasible.

4. Get my Yarn Stash, Roving, and Needles onto Ravelry. I've been working on this one slowly. I've got quite a bit of it on there already but I need to get the rest of it, plus the roving, and my needles. Honestly, this really shouldn't take that long but it's finding the time to actually do it that's the problem. Oh well...it'll get done, right?

5. Make A(nother) Sweater or Something. This sounds ambiguous, too, but I swear this one isn't as ambiguous as it sounds. At Stitches Midwest 2011, I purchased some yarn for specific projects and I want to make at least one of those projects this year: Classic Siclk Mayfaire Camisole, Freeport Vest, Making Waves Cardigan or the Austin Hoodie. The nice part about doing one of these is that I'll probably learn a new technique along the way so I kill two birds with one stone. Just sayin'...

6. Work on my Spinning. Actually, maybe just spin more often. I really do like spinning...but it's somewhat time consuming to drag out the wheel, roving, bobbins, and the Lazy Kate. I should really do it more often, though...

7. Baby Knitting. I need to work on things for babies...mine, especially. I want to finish his blanket, for one thing. Husband's SIL and his sister are also pregnant. Now, if I get around to actually knitting for either of them is another story...but the idea is there.



For now, I think that's quite enough on the "goal" front. I hope everyone had a safe and eventful start to the new year. My "new" year doesn't start for another week, though...more on that later this week...and probably a post about our Christmas trip to Washington DC to see my BIL and his family (complete with photos!).

I hope the new year has started well for all of you :)