Setting goals by the month turned out pretty well for me. While I accomplished a lot of things on and off my list, I will admit I sometimes felt stressed by the list. There were moments when I was sitting on the couch thinking, “I really need to get up and make some pillows.” While I thought this I never actually got off of the couch to work on anything but I still thought it.

Let’s review my January Goals:

*Have a Date Night with Husband – check and check! We actually got babysitters twice during the month.

*Keep downstairs clean & ready for visitors – check! – The upstairs might have looked like a bomb went off but it didn’t matter to me. My floors were vacuumed, counters straightened, and toys were off the floor. My definition of clean would probably not be what someone else’s was but the house always felt clean enough in case someone dropped by. In other words, the mad dash panicked cleaning lady did not have to make an appearance.

*Complete Valentine Bingo game for etsy – check!

*Sew pillows for my bed – check! You will see the results soon.

*Add 20 items to my 143 Acts list – check! – #1, #2, #3 – bought bags of food for homeless at store #4 – gave unopened bottle of champagne to neighbors #5 – complimented stranger on her skirt #6 – gathered carts in grocery store lot and put them away #7 – sent email to teacher I used to work with telling her we still use the baby gift she gave us nine years later  #8 – dropped off clothing at Goodwill  #9 – sent in supplies to teacher #10 – sent in teacher wish list items #11- complimented mom at Kindermusik  #12 – told mom her daughter was well behaved #13, #14, #15, #16 – waited for a moment so could hold door open for mom coming into school with stroller  #17 – shared Angry Bird Valentines I created  #18 – returned extra grocery carts #19, #20 – complimented a mom on outfit

*Try one new recipe – check and check and check! Three new recipes in one month! Who am I? Julia Child? We tried the Bacon Cornbread Muffins, a Jambalaya recipe, and these very tasty 15 Min. Sticky Buns.

*Complete bathroom redo – check, sort of – the pictures need to be hung tonight

*Knock $100 off monthly food bill – Fail! In a huge way! – completely over budget – spent entirely too much money – remember those 2 times we went out by ourselves? We ate at mighty expensive places and indulged – add 2 girls nights out for me with expensive trips to Costco and it just spelled failure for us – hopefully we’ll do better next month.

*Scrapbook 10 pages for Caroline – check – I actually completed 19 pages so this is a huge weight lifted off my back. I kept stalling on working on Caroline’s baby book but always felt guilty since the boys have several books. Now I can proudly say Caroline has a scrapbook now and she’s already 5 months old in it. Hey, if I hadn’t started she still wouldn’t have anything so I figure this is a great start.

Alright, this wraps up a pretty good month for me in terms of accomplishing goals. While I felt some mild panic set in around January 20th , I persevered and finished many projects. Did you accomplish anything your excited about this month?