Review of February's Goals

Instead of making "New Year's Resolutions" this year, I came up with a couple of lists of things that I wanted to accomplish.  One list was of fairly large projects that I would have to find time for over several days/weeks.  The other list was of habits I wanted to develop.  I decided that I would tackle one thing from each list each month.  My hope was that by doing bit by bit I could make permanent changes to my daily habits and not be overwhelmed by my large projects.

February's Big Project:

For the month of February I chose balancing the checkbook as my large project.  Now for a more organized person, this would take 15 minutes.  I used to be one of those people.  Then I had three children.  I hadn't balanced the checkbook since December of 2010. 

I mostly accomplished this goal.  I went through all our bank statements, adding transactions I had missed originally and correcting a couple that were entered in twice.  I have not technically balanced the checkbook, as I am waiting for my next bank statement so I can actually have it all up to date.  But, since I am now in the general ballpark of what my bank says I have, I'm calling it good enough for now.

February's Habit:

The habit I chose to develop this month was to write regularly in journals I keep for each of the kids.  Even when my oldest was a baby, I found it hard to keep his baby book updated, and I couldn't find the "right" spot for so many of the things I wanted to remember.  So I bought a cute little notebook for each of them, and when they do or say something memorable I jot it down.  In theory.  In reality I can go for months at a time without writing anything for anyone.  And thus was born February's habit.

I started out thinking I'd write in one book each night Monday through Wednesday and then which ever I felt like Thursday nights, since those are the nights I'm home alone in the evenings.  After about a week and a half I saw that wasn't going to work.  Some nights I just didn't have anything I special I wanted to document, and I didn't my journals to turn into reports of what we did each day.  The rest of the month I took a few minutes to reflect at the end of the day and wrote in who's ever book I felt like.  Some nights I wrote in all three, other nights I didn't write anything.  But at the end of each week, each child had at least one memorable thing recorded in each of their books.  I'm happy with that and I am planning to continue it in this way.  I've found that I've been a lot more aware of the new things the kids are doing and that is an added bonus.

Bonus habit:

I bought a roll of dental floss.  And I've been using it almost every night.  As someone who does not enjoy flossing, I am quite proud of this accomplishment, so I had to add it.