These 28 things were my
concrete aspirations for 2010. The purpose in most of these goals was changing my habits — get more creative with cooking, explore the city, read, develop a routine so the things that are important to me don't fall through the cracks. While some of the specifics didn't happen (some of which will carry over to 2011), it's been mostly successful. We're cooking new things, exploring, and doing things that matter. On the other hand, things that I put into practice thanks to Concrete Aspirations 2009 have fallen by the wayside (like exercising regularly). Maybe that means I've met my limit, and now need to figure out what good things go and what stay.
FIND A JOB.- Make all of the recipes I got from Grandma and get good enough I would be proud to share with other non-family members. (I worked in spritz, but cinnamon rolls, rolls, angel food cake, and potato sausage are still in the queue.)
- Learn how to make at least 4 different soups from scratch, starting with French Onion. (I only got around to football stew and cheeseburger soup, but this will carry over into 2011.)
- Bake an interesting treat at least once a month (can overlap with Grandma's recipes). (May, September, October, December)
- Make all of the clipped recipes in my recipe box and take out everything we don't like — can overlap with interesting treats when applicable. (I didn't make any headway in this one...)
Explore the Freedom Trail in it's entirety.Visit at least 4 museums in the Boston area. (ICA, MIT Museum, MFA, Gardner Museum)Find somewhere to volunteer/make a difference. (Given our schedules, this hasn't worked out like I thought it would. However, we're helping lead a community group, do a lot at Reunion, give to things we care about, and are helping build community with our neighbors, so I feel pretty satisfied with this one.)- Go through all of our Rosetta Stone lessons on Tagalog. (This will move to 2011!)
- Read at least 3 of Ian's creation care books. (I've read lots more books thanks to my book club and accomplishing the following two goals, but I'd still like to read some of Ian's green collection.)
Read A New Kind of Christian trilogy.Read The Great Divorce, The Reason for God, and Jesus Wants to Save Christians.Read through the Bible in a year. (Read in The Message, and made possible by biblegateway.com's rss feed.)- Go through Sacred Marriage and Celebration of Discipline with Ian. (Moving to next year.)
- Design bookplates for our library and put them in all of our books. (We came up with lots of options — like maybe even an embosser, so this will happen in 2011.)
- Simplify our apartment so there aren't any random homeless items and everything looks neat and tidy. (
living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom)
Clean the apartment once a week on a regular schedule (we do clean, I just want this to be a predictable habit instead of a random, I-think-its-been-a-week urge).- Finish crocheting the things I've started.
- Journal at least once a week.
- Call and/or e-mail a friend back home once a week.
- Write to Grandma at least once a month. (February)
People watch on public transportation as inspiration to write, at least once a month, a creative piece and post it under the "riding with Charlie" topic.Go to the library at least once a month for books and movies on my to-read/-watch lists. (January, February, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)- As we run out of cleaning products and personal care items, replace as many as possible with homemade eco-friendly options (ideas on Vanessa's blog). (We've done this as we've run out, and I want to continue replacing what we have with green options.)
- Spend one evening a week without electricity-powered entertainment — read or play games instead of watching tv or using the computer. (We're getting better at this, but I'd still like to make it more intentional.)
- Design personal cards — idea from Real Simple magazine. (Now that we've discovered moo.com, this is going to happen in 2011.)
- Clean out my iTunes music collection — I made a feeble attempt last year and I want to do better. (Eventually...)
- Have an intentional evening with Ian once a month — even if it's just a library movie or game night. (Again, I still want to get more intentional about this.)
More details on my progress are in related posts.
