goals

New Year's resolutions aren't my bag, but you already know that. Even so, I think there's no reason I can't have some solid goals for the year. These are almost baby goals, you know the little bitty goals that aren't life changing but that still add to my happiness and sense of accomplishment. Small things.

1. Life
1. Go with the flow and accept things as they come. Stop fighting life so hard.
2. Read more nonfiction and serious fiction
2. Quilting
1. Finish the baby quilt by the time my niece or nephew is born
2. Get the finishing of quilt #1 complete
3. Make one quilt from a proper pattern
4. Go to quilting classes (for which I have gift certificates)
5. Buy "stash" fabrics for future projects
3. Other crafting
1. Frame the wolf cross stitch for my mom
2. Frame the butterfly cross stitch
3. Finish the orchids
4. Stuff and complete my pillows
5. Knit Bunny a scarf
6. Come up with an organizational system
4. Food
1. Learn Momma Bunny's banana bread recipe (it's the one thing I haven't been able to replicate)
2. Make caramels
3. Make a perfect macaron
4. Find three new non-chain restaurants here that Bunny and I enjoy (so far, we have a barbeque place and a Thai place that are phenomenal in town, but anything else we go to the city for)
5. Health
1. Maintain my weight loss
2. Cut out the pop (again - it's crept back into my diet since we've moved in with my mom)
3. Do more cooking/eat more vegetables
6. Marriage/Finances
1. Complete the paper work for taking Bunny's name
2. Finalize the budget and open a joint account
3. Save another $10,000 towards the purchase of a home
4. Go on some sort of vacation, for at least a full weekend
5. Reach the halfway point of paying off my student loans Personal
1. Send out the Thank You notes
2. Send our favourite wedding picture to a friend who is going to turn it into a portrait
3. Print and frame some of the wedding pictures
4. Actually make and keep plans with my aunt

on the go!

I'm a little scattered at home lately. I've got a lot of little projects going on, and some not so little projects. Plus, well, just everday stuff.

I pretty much own the kitchen here. I mean, Bunny loves cooking and he spends a couple of nights a week in there, generally (heck, right now he's making dog food there. Yeah, you heard me right.) I'm the self-appointed & generally elected chef though, it's me spending my evenings all cozy with the stove. So I spend a chunk of time there cooking dinner, and as often as not I also spend a few hours in there baking afterwards.

In fact, there is a ginger snap recipe I've been drooling over for the past few weeks that I want to make tonight (though it will probably not happen until tomorrow, given the time).

I also just today finished a needlepoint project, that later needs to get turned into a dog pillow (more project) ... and promptly started edging the aida cloth for my next one. The new one is a much more complex cross stitch, more detailed and fancy.

On top of all this, I have been slowly slowly slowly starting to think about the book that's been rumbling around my head for the past six months or so. So I've grabbed a notebook and am slowly starting to write out scenes and stories from it.

There just aren't enough hours in the day, you know? I also don't particularly make it easy on myself, as they are all things that can give me quite a bit of eye strain. Well, I guess when I'm baking it's not so bad, but I do find that both writing and needlepoint get hard on my eyes.

Oh! And then there's the scarves that I keep picking up and putting down. They're perfect for when I'm not really in a mood to do anything, but want something to keep my hands busy.

wait, what?

The week just started, and already I don't know where I am going to have time for all the things we are supposed to be doing.

Tonight Bunny is off playing zombie at the co-op haunted house. That man gets far too much joy from scaring small children. So I get to stay in and get stuff done (laundry, reading, cooking, dishes, watch some crap on tv while I cross stitch), but it's more a night for "me" time and me things. I could go to the library, but I bought a couple books over the weekend, and the co-op share pile had a few new books that I swiped for a couple weeks. I love when I find reading material there. (Side note, The Scarlet Letter showed up there ... and in now firmly on my "I must read this next" spot. I've been wanting to read it for awhile, so we'll see how that goes.)

Tomorrow would usually be grocery night, but one of Bunny's best friends is turning 40, so we will be having dinner with J & L. Which likely means I'm in for one of the best dinners of my month, because any time we have been there for a dinner party they have had amazing things (L made me fall in love with beets - and boy do I love beets), and L is also a sommelier, so I know that there will be amazing wine. Plus, they are just Good People. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the other people there.

The only downside the this is that I always end up feeling so darn young when we hang out with them. It's par for the course when you're in love with a man 11 years older than you that you will meet a lot of friends who are older. The thing is though, which some of his friends I feel this contrast more starkly then others. J & L just always seem so ... worldly in some ways. L is the most amazingly sophisticaled oeneophile chic goth chick, and J is just this amazing, fun loving, follows his passions laid back guy. They just make me feel young. In a neutral way - not as if being young is bad, and not that sweet! I don't look old kind of way. Just, out of place a little.

Wednesday is a bit of a wash. We are going to do our grocery shopping then, right after work. After that, Bunny is basically locking himself into study-mode to make up for the fact that today and tomorrow will be utterly unproductive. He's got a handle on all his assignments, he has no homework from today and tomorrow's he can get done in the breaks between class. He's this crazy insane diligent student though, and likes to type up his notes on the daily. This man takes handwritten notes in class, types them up nightly, reviews them weekly, and re-reads them all right before tests.

Is it any wonder he's known as Mr Perfect to his classmates?

But considering Monday and Tuesday as social nights, and Wednesday as a catch-up evening for Bunny (which also means that I will be doing all the cooking/cleaning that happens that night. Barley stew it is!), we have 3/5s of our week booked.

We haven't even found time this week to go see the venue. Joey can have us by any day, but we will probably be awhile. And if Bunny has had two nights of no study time this week, we can't exactly take away a third. Consensus is that the venue will not happen until next week.

I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but I don't like to have my week super booked. I like the time for spontaneous plans (even if I don't often make them). I like feeling like I have time to relax.

I like to think that when Bunny's done learning how to tear apart a combustion chamber that we might have time to play a game of chess. Doesn't seem to happen, but still.