Monthly Review of Goals for September

I really got a lot accomplished this month and I'm proud of myself. I was able to mark off another one of my yearly goals. 

Yearly goals:

1.     Reach my target weight by the end of the year. –  I did not eat sensibly this month and I have no excuse other than I didn’t want to. We also went on a cruise in the middle of the month and I tend to overeat then too. A friend of mine suggested that I carry some weights in a backpack while walking around the house. He has lost a tremendous amount of weight doing this so I’m giving it a try.

2.     Finish knitting my Fair Isle vest. – I finished my vest and I love it!

3.     Spin 4 lbs. of fiber for the year.  

a.     January – spun 4 oz. of Into the Whirled “Rhinebeck”, 4 oz. Hobbledehoy Gemmy Bats

b.     February – spun 4 oz. of Fiber Optic “Turquoise to Tangerine Gradient”; started on 4 oz. of Pumpkin Queen.

c.     March – spun 4 oz. of Miss Bab’s “Blackwatch” that I bought in 2011.

d.     April – spun 5.4 oz. of Loop’s Bullseye Bump in the “Somewhere” colorway and 4 oz. of Highland Handmades Masham fiber in the  “Talbot” colorway.

e.     May – spun 4 oz. of Brown Alpaca from a fleece that I bought from my friend Lisa.

f.      June – plied the Loop bump and the Masham fiber.

g.     July – spun 4 oz. of Leading Men Fiber Arts  in the “Steve and Andy” colorway.; 4 oz. Fiber Addiction “Freak Like Me” colorway.; started on a Loop Batt

h.     August – spun 4.8 oz. of a Loop batt (Raindance colorway)

i.      September – spun 4 oz. of Purple Fiber (282 yds.)

Total: 50.2 oz.

4.     Use at least 4 skeins of my handspun this year. –

a.     January - Basket Weave scarf

b.     February – Summer Shadows shawl by Angelea McGarrah

c.     March – working on the Oaklet Shawl by Megan Goodacre

d.     April – Finished my Oaklet Shawl by Megan Goodacre

e.     May – started on the Belle Greene Shawl by Nina Machlin Dayton

f.      June – still working on my Belle Greene shawl.

g.     July – Finished my Belle Greene shawl

h.     August – finished Don’s ribbed hat.

5.     Dye my own yarn or fiber – dyed some KnitPicks fingering yarn in indigo

6.     Walk at least 1200 miles this year.

a.     January - 157.71 miles (avg. 5.1 miles per day)

b.     February - 148.34 miles (avg. 5.3 miles per day)

c.     March - 182.63 miles (5.9 miles per day) I’m really happy with the mileage I got this month!

d.     April - 181.6 miles (6.1 miles per day) I really rocked on my mileage and my daily average this month!

e.     May - 165.82 miles (5.3 miles per day). I didn’t do as well as last month but I still did pretty well. I spent the last 3 days in bed with food poisoning, which really messed up my daily average.

f.      June - 151 miles (5 miles per day). This was a struggle this month but I was happy to see that I still did better in total miles than in February (I know! There were less days but the total miles was still better!)

g.     July - 172.03 miles (5.5 miles per day). I struggled with this because I like to walk early in the morning and it was hard to do this and get ready for work. Sometimes I walked half the time in the morning and half in the evening. It was also hard to walk when I got home because the heat this month has been horrendous.

h.     August - 177.82 miles (5.7 miles per day). I went over 1200 miles for the year already and I’m so proud of myself. On August 15, I had the highest mileage ever in one day (15.74 miles).

i.      September -  148.03 miles (4.9 miles per day). I didn't do as well this month as I hoped. I started out strong and in the middle i just fizzled out. 

Total: 1485.04 miles

Daily/Weekly/Monthly goals: Last year, I only had a 60% successful completion rate so I am aiming to do better than that this year.

1.     Daily – Name 3 things that I’m grateful for each morning. – I do this every morning before I get out of bed.

2.     Daily – A Photo A Day project – I’m proud that I'm still up to date with this. 

3.     Weekly – Contact a friend and tell them something nice. – I really like doing this.

a.     January - I went out to lunch with my friend Sandy one week and I’ve contacted others through Facebook.  

b.     February - Contacted long distance friends on Facebook and wished them happy birthday!

c.      March – kept up with friends on social networking and tried to schedule lunch with my friends Sandy and Sylvia but they were either going out of town or having to work.

d.     April - Contacted some friends but couldn’t ever work out a day we could meet for lunch.

e.     May – tried to meet up with a former student but she ended up getting sick on the day we were going to meet for lunch.

f.      June – Met a lot of nice new friends at the knitting retreat and connected with some known friends too.

g.     July – Went out to lunch with Sandy once, Dyanna once, and Kathy once. I tried to meet up with Femessia, and Sherry but they were out of town. We also had dinner with David a couple of times.

h.     August – We traveled so much this month that I really didn’t get a chance to go out with friends. I did connect with many through Facebook and text messages.

i.      September – I made some new friends on the cruise and one couple will be on the same cruise as us in October. I emailed some old friends and I reconnected with a high school friend on Facebook. Had dinner with a couple of college friends while in Florida. 

4.     Weekly – Work in my yard/garden at least once a week.

a.     January - It has been too cold in January to do too much but I’ve blown the leaves out of the driveway, raked leaves in the back yard, and fed my worms.

b.     February – raked leaves out of the backyard, removed branches that have littered the yard.

c.     March – weeded, cut dead stuff from winter, fertilized the lawn

d.     April – weeded and edged my flower beds., set up 2 new rain barrels, dug out rusty pole in concrete which was in the middle of the lawn.

e.     May – Did a lot of weeding when I was home but it was hot and humid outside!

f.      June – Did some weeding.

g.     July – I did some weeding but it was so hot! I also planted some elephant ears that I bought at the flea market. We bought a lawn mower since my lawn man moved.

h.     August – I didn’t do as much as I should have but I made sure the front yard stayed weeded.  

i.      September – Now that the weather is getting cooler, I was able to get out and do a lot of gardening this month. I weeded the front flower bed, the bed by the back deck and also the round one under the pecan tree. I started to tackle the long bed in the back too.

5.     Monthly – Knit 10 squares on my Mitered Square Sock Yarn blanket. (Total 120 for the year)

a.     January – completed 10 squares

b.     February – completed 15 squares

c.     March – completed 11 squares

d.     April – completed 11 squares

e.     May – completed 13 square

f.      June – completed 10 squares

g.     July – completed 10 squares

h.     August – 8 completed (fell short this month because I didn't realize until the last day of the month that I hadn't gotten finished. I will start on these earlier in the month so I'm sure to get it finished.)

i.      September – completed  13 to make up for the ones I didn’t do last month. I also got a head start on the next months too in case I get behind again. I know I will not have much time in December to do much so I want to stay ahead.

Total - 91

6.     Monthly - Read one non-fiction book every month. I really enjoyed doing this last year and it forced me to read books out of my comfort zone.

a.     January – The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

b.     February - The Roosevelts: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns

c.     March – Publish on Amazon Kindle by Kindle Direct Publishing

d.     April – The History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rudd

e.     May – Becoming Unique by James Charles

f.      June – A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell

g.     July – Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder (an annotated autobiography)

h.     August – Knitting Rules

i.      September - Echoes of an Angel: The Miraculous True Story of a Boy Who Lost His Eyes but Could Still See by Aquanetta Gordon and Chris Macias.

How are you doing so far with your goals? Join me in the monthly review and let me know how you are doing!

Image: 'Goals' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68131855@N00/739519564
Found on flickrcc.net