Goals for 2015

January is culturally a time of setting (unrealistic) expectations for ourselves in the coming year. I like to think that my goals are more centered in reality, but being an "NP" (INFP), they're probably not :) I'm OK with this because goal setting always helps me move forward. And sometimes I surprise myself, like reading a four-book series by Charlaine Harris in six days so I could pass the books along to another friend of the books owner.

So here's some goals for 2015 and how we're coming along on them as of today!

1. Produce 75-pounds worth of harvest. This will be an increase over the 50+ pounds we harvested from our garden last year. We forgot to weigh the last couple of harvests as we were closing down the garden for the season, so this shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. 

2. Sell $2000 worth of stuff. The decluttering process continues 19-months after taking the Voluntary Simplicity Vow. In order to ensure I'm not getting lax in my efforts, I'm tracking how much we make from the sale of such things I've been holding onto "just in case" or have just outgrown. This amount will not include donations or things which I'll give away for free. That's just too numerous to count! Here's how we're doing so far: 

• $20 for a TI-85 calculator from my high school days... it was a hot item. If you have one I suggest starting the bidding at $25.
• $20 for one of Shaun's Fossil watches from his high school days. It was the watch he wore when we met in 1998.
• $10 for one of Shaun's Fossil watches he wore while working in retail, so it was pretty beat up.
• $10 for a B.O.B. stroller carseat adapter. Since we don't plan on having any more infants in the house, and we no longer have that Graco carseat, this was an easy sell. 
• $75 for some storage containers we had
• $20 for a wireless Xbox 360 controller
• Totally $155 so far.

3. Learn to play five hymns well enough I can sing along. There's a piano teach in hOur Exchange Ypsilanti (time bank) so I've begun taking piano lessons again with the hope of playing hymns :)

4. Spend 1000+ hours outside. After following a local mom's blog  I feel inspired! Total so far is 1 hour...