Resolutions – March 2012

Here’s how I did in March:

Every Month Goals:

stick to my new budget

Hey, I made my budget!  The month started off a little shaky, but I buckled down in the second half, did my reconciling and planning on time, and took out my spending money in cash (grocery, household, dog food, a little entertainment money, etc.).  

That actually worked like it’s supposed to.  Go figure, huh.  Using cash instead of whipping out my check card for every little thing really made me conscientious about what I was spending, particularly at the grocery store.  It’s too easy to swipe, swipe, swipe and buy whatever I want or think I need.  Seeing my small bit of cash dwindling before my eyes made me second guess some of those “needs”.  

spend time with family or friends I rarely see

This month was pretty easy, in that I got invited out a lot.  Well, a lot for me.  My dear friend Toni invited me to the movies; twice!  We did dinner and a show the first time; we saw that one where the two guys are fighting over the girl, which I can’t remember the name of now.  And just this past week we caught an afternoon showing of The Hunger Games (too many kids at that viewing – why weren’t they in school?).  Also this month, my great friends Terri and John invited me to see Third Day in concert, which was just phenomenal!  I got to see my aunt Mart a couple of times again, and my cousin Jim for a few minutes, too.  It was a good visiting month!

go someplace different or go to an event (in other words, get out of the house!)

Did you hear about how I went to the movies this month – twice?  And how I went to a  Third Day concert?  Well, I did.

do something randomly nice for someone

I didn’t keep track of how many nice things I did, and it feels weird to keep track of that anyway.  But I did go out of my way to do things that were purposefully helpful.  I have a tendency to guard my personal time rather jealously, so this month I worked on focusing my attention away from the negative feelings associated with losing “me time”.  Instead, I directed my attention to how good it feels to help someone else.  

That small shift from self to outside of self feels like an important step to me.  I can say no when necessary, but I’m thinking that any time I can lift someone else’s burden even a little, then that time is well spent.  And though there were a few things this month that I didn’t necessarily want to do, I carried them out with an awareness of the joy I felt in service.  Any time I thought something like, “I wish I could just go straight home,” I purposefully added, “but I’m sure glad I can help.”

Did you know that joy is a blooming kind of emotion?  Before the tasks were done, I found that joy was all I felt.  In the end, something that I didn’t want to do turned into something that I was truly glad to be doing. 

Resume:

Being Thankful

I transcribed January and February and they are all caught up, but now I need to update my March page, too.  Time does fly by!

writing more substantial blog content

Um…  Yeah, I think that about sums it up.

the Queries

No Query this month.  I have so many interviews recorded, but just haven’t had the time to transcribe it all.  I’ll try to get a new one up in April.

To Do:

adopt healthier eating habits

This is going very well, and at this point I’m eating healthier meals at least 75% of the time.  I had a hard time in February with chocolate cravings, which I don’t normally care about; I’m more of a crunchy/salty kind of gal.  But for some reason, I haven’t had chip or salt cravings at all.  Luckily, the chocolate cravings subsided in March!  

I’ve done really well with food preparation, so I’ve had healthy foods at my fingertips all month.  I even tried out some new recipes and have found some things that I really like.  Towards the end of March, I’ve also become more aware of what my body is feeling at different times of the day and as a result of the different energy needs I have on different days.  That should help me do some fine tuning in April.

exercise

Still no exercise to speak of, but it’s getting closer to happening.  No, really, I mean it.

de-clutter my house

I set a date (well, a month) with my mom to have a big yard sale, and when my aunt found out, she decided to give me a whole bunch of her stuff to sell.  She’s having new kitchen cabinets put in, and also trying to clear her house of years of collecting and saving, etc.  It was super nice of her to give me items for the yard sale, and her quick work has been an inspiration to me.  

So, I’ve got my yard sale boxes started, with items cleaned and priced and ready to go.  Okay, mostly it’s her stuff, but it’s a start.  The need to organize and re-box her items has spurred me on to clean out another cupboard and it’s motivated me to be more willing to part with things that I wasn’t sure I wanted to part with.  The name of the game is less clutter and more organization!

take a photography class

Hooray, I started my first photography class.  This is just the camera basics, mind you, but I’m learning new and wonderful things already!  Click here and here to see some pictures.

go to bed at the same time every night

I’ve had some good nights and some bad nights.  I’m mostly going to bed early, but not being able to sleep.  The biggest obstacle is my work schedule.   I get home at 3pm one day, 6pm the next, and 11pm another day.  There is no consistency with my schedule, and then you throw in other obligations and I’m all over the place.  Maybe I need to work on getting up at the same time every day. The problem with that is it makes for a really long day when you get up at 6am and don’t get home from work until 11pm.  I am just dragging myself through the end of my work shift, which is not good for me or my job.

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March wasn’t bad at all!  Come on April, let’s see what you’ve got in store…

♦