169 Days to Go - 36 things accomplished!!

Woo hoo!! I've checked off more than a third of my list!! That was my more realistic hope after having been at the list for a bit. And there it is! There is yet time to accomplish much, and I will keep at it. And I do think I will still do a list again when this is over.

I re-read my posts tonight. It was interesting to me the things that I repeated over and over and over. (Who on earth would follow this? How boring!)

Getting out of debt was huge in the beginning. And one of our greatest accomplishments. I had the same realizations over and over: that I perhaps reached too far with some goals; that I was ignoring my reading lists in favor of other reading material; that I learned to spend time with my children on a more individual basis; that my scripture study brought GREAT joy when I was consistent.

Good lessons. I am sure I have many, many more to learn. And if this is a means to learning those lessons, I am grateful for the journey.

276 days left

I have 30 things accomplished, when I check off my dates with my kids. I KNOW I've had more one on one time with them than I ever recorded. But putting it down on my list really made me focus on that, and that has been awesome.

There's still 71 things that AREN'T crossed off my list. And there's a lot of time left. Am I giving up? Nah. But I do keep looking at things in different ways. Growing, changing, deciding differently where the focus is...

I have discovered that I don't like "working the list" anymore. Revelatory for me. Working the list means I ignore the life.

Never ignore the life.

340 days and counting...

I have 26 things completed now out of the original 101. Really, it looks like I haven't accomplished very much. But there are always those HUGE things I set in mini-lists of themselves, like reading so many books or having 20 dates with each of my children... and those are yet in the works.

I'm pretty impressed that I finished two of my afghans on the list -- but haven't completed any of the movie things I set! Weird! Except that just means I'm watching OTHER stuff, because I always watch while I crochet, unless of course we are traveling. (I got a lot done on Colie's when we went to San Diego.)

384 left

The one-year-left mark is fast approaching.

I'm still doing Autofocus (although Mark calls it something else now, but I don't remember what, and I still like Autofocus) but I have finally put some of my 101 things on THAT list. Wow! It's on my mind more and I am sure that I will see more get accomplished than I was seeing before.

I have also put three Newbery books on my nightstand. :-)

Day 605 - 396 left to go

23 things accomplished. And all the "dates" and temple trips are well on their way and will most likely get accomplished. That's six more. I think if I get to one third of the list completed, that will be great!

I did learn how outrageous I was with the book reading and the afghans. Especially since I can't do those at the same time! I could really beef up my movie-list watching and sail through those afghans, though. But I've been on a reading kick, just not the Old Testament or books from the Newbery or Caldecott lists! Halfway through the Book of Mormon for 2010 and reading lots of great biographies and killer fluff stuff. (I have read the Twilight series W-A-A-A-Y too many times.) I put Newbery and Caldecott on the list so I would grab GOOD stuff... but these WERE good, because I enjoyed them so much!!

Day 573

Less than half to go, but still much time.

I have 20 things crossed off my list, and still making progress on many of the others. We didn't make it to the temple last month at all, which is really sad. I'm hardly reading anything right now and I'd really like to change that. Although, I am reading my scriptures a great deal more than I used to. I am particularly reading the Book of Mormon right now, but we just started the Old Testament again in Sunday School, so hopefully that will help me finally get past Kings.

I have other accomplishments that never made it to the list in the first place... that's a good realization. FLY things, relationships with my kiddos. We watch movies a lot less and play games a lot more. I am exercising tons more these days, even though I am not seeing much weight come off (I need to combine my exercise with some serious brownie-depriving tactics). My desk is clean more often than it is piled. I'm a lot more focused in my calling than I used to be.

Good realizations.

I'm going to start counting DOWN the days, like on my little counter on the home page. Time's a tickin'...

Day 538, 463 to go

I have 20 things checked off my list! How exciting!
I do think, at this point, that I'm really happy with what I've accomplished so far. There are still a few things that I can "knock off" in a single day, albeit a very focused single day. My dates with the children are going well -- and it's a bit of an eye-opener how I view the different activities with them.

I take Tanner to park more often than I used to. So I don't see that as a "date" -- it's just what happens. What qualifies as a date with him has moved up a notch since I am home most afternoons with him after school. However, Tasmin is RARELY around anymore, so a late-night movie totally qualifies. I don't do enough with my boys. Good things to see and notice from this challenge.

Matt and I upped our commitment to the temple since the children are older and babysitting isn't such a difficult thing. We go twice a month most months now. LOVE THAT! It also means we'll FINISH our 36 pretty easily with lots of time leftover, when what I committed to was once a month for the approximately three years that this challenge takes. Cool.

The reading lists just aren't happening. Neither are the classic movies or the DVDs on the prophets. There's still time, but I see that they aren't "important" enough to me to really motivate me to do them. Many other things on my list jump out at me as "I REALLY want to get that done!"

There are also things on my list, the travel things, that were impossible to do before we paid off our consumer debt. I don't think I can squeeze them all in with a little over a year left now. But there's not much better than knowing we CAN, now that the debt is paid off.

I wish I'd made different goals on some things: the losing 30 pounds continues to fluctuate and I keep feeling like "Oh, I'm back where I started" and I get completely disgruntled. I know goals are supposed to be quantifiable, but I think next time I'll do something like "Eat healthy 5 days out of the week" or "Walk 30 minutes 3 times a week." And that "Go to the gym 6 times in one week"?? That was when we HAD a gym membership and I was walking 2 miles on weekdays and 8 miles on Saturdays. I have a lot of building back up to do...

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my progress. And yes, I will totally make another list when this one is over.