One Hundred Dollars a Month

My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love

And just like that… winter has {finally} packed up and gone home. The black flies are back {and trying to take chunks out of my skin}, the grass is a lovely shade of light green, and the upstairs in our home is a balmy 70 degrees again.

While the thought of not having to pull on a sweater while indoors for the next 5 months is nice, it’s also a reminder of what needs to get done before the truly warm weather arrives. The rest of the garden beds need to be weeded, the storm windows need to come off and the screens put on, and the fans and dehumidifiers need to come down from the attic.

The seasons, are amplified by about 10 here in New England, and I LOVE it.

Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden

The HH used Manny to till up an asparagus bed for me.  The Mantis Cultivator was probably my best purchase of last year. This year, prepping the garden beds is so much easier thanks to that handy little machine.

We still need to clear the pumpkin patch and the main garden {where I had corn planted last year, but this year I’ll be planting tomatoes, peppers and pretty much everything else there}. I have begun to set up a few tepees for peas and have 3 rows of beets planted, but I still need to get the carrot and radish seeds in the ground.

Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard

We’ll be heading to the nursery next week to pick up our fruit trees!

Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done!

While the inside of the potting shed has been strung with lights and is all cleaned up, we still need to plant the coneflower, holly hocks, statice and Bachelor’s buttons.

Goal #5 — Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand.

The veggie stand won’t be up until there are lilac blossoms to sell, but most of our starts are finally up and so I should have plenty of extra plants to sell when it’s time.

Goal #6 — Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books I’ve Been Meaning to Make. 

This past week I hooked another 2 rugs my next Etsy Shop update on May, 3rd but neither of them were part of the 73 rug patterns that were in my project bin so I don’t get to mark it off my list. 🙁

I started the year off with:

• 73 rugs {now down to 55}
• 183 hooked flowers {finished 61, now down to 110}
• 10 “things” from back issues of magazines {finished 0}

Goal #7 — Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones}

6 down, 6 to go! If all goes as planned, I’ll have 3 new patterns to add to my Etsy shop in May! Wahooo.

New Rug Hooking Patterns I’ve Created And Added to My Etsy Shop This Year:

• 2 Fat Cats
• Annabell’s Big Day
• Old Fashioned Double Tulip
• Fat Brown Hen
• Busy Little Bee
• Queen Bee

Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter 

Nothing to report.

Goal #9 — Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone

I still have 8 months, right?

Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top

Working theory: Muffy will just fall off during gardening season.

Goal #11 — Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon

Last Monday The Girl ran the Boston Marathon. And over the course of 48 hours, I too WALKED a marathon around the streets of Boston. Granted, I was walking for pastries on Beacon Hill and around the North End for biscotti and salami, and meeting up with friends {like my old neighbor Francisco {pictured above} and eating chocolates on the sidelines while we cheered on the runners zipping by, but still. Logging 28+ miles over the course of 48 hours, it totally counts as a marathon {and then some} in my books.

Plus, the day after, I stayed in my pj’s and was hobbling around the house and popping ibuprofen {just like The Girl!} so it totally counts. 😉

Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books {9 down, 17 to go}

Currently listening to The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner. So far so good.

I am waiting my turn on the library wait list for the following audio books:

• The Long Winter
• Walden
• The Four Tendencies
• Before We Were Yours
• 12 Rules for Life

Books I’ve Read or Listened to So Far This Year:

• Marilla of Green Gables #1 Favorite
• Secrets of a Charmed Life #2
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette #3 
• Carnegie’s Maid #4 
• The Alice Network #5
• Finder’s Keepers
• Delicious!
• Will’s Red Coat #6
• Following Atticus

Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes.

11 down, 41 recipes to go.

Last week I tried 2 new recipes… Zoe’s almond pear tart and a new canning recipe. 🙂

Goal #14 — Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog

Seven recipes down, 45 to go. I need to get going on this goal.

Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars 34 down, 66 to go.

This past week I canned 2 batches of carrot cake jam, and new pear jam recipe which brings my total up to 34 jars of canned goodness for the year!

So far this year I’ve I canned:

• 15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam
• 15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam {recipe coming soon}
• 4 jars of Almond Pears.

Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House

Nothing new to report this week.

Furniture pieces I’m still on the hunt for:

• Coffee table for the family room
• Console, cupboard or sideboard for the one and only tv in our house which is in the family room. I could totally live without a television, but my husband says the tv stays.
• Long rectangular table for the craft room.
• Table for the formal dining room {We moved the kitchen table to the dining room and so mow we are looking for a table for the kitchen/keeping room area}.
• 2 wing back chairs for the family room.
• I’d also like to decorate the mantel in the keeping room as well as put up some sort of decoration above the other 3 fireplaces in the house. I’m not one for a lot of things on the walls, but it would be nice to throw up a little pilgrim bling on the plaster.

Goal #17 – 52 Dates with the HH {13 down, 39 to go}

For our date day this past week we went for ice cream and checked out a Habitat for Humanity Re-Use store. We didn’t find anything to bring home, but we were tempted by an old $15 wooden lobster trap. If we lived in a beach house, we totally would have bought it, sanded it down a wee bit and added a glass top and turned it into a coffee table.

Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class 

I have signed up for 2 adult educations classes that I’ll be taking in May. One I’m keeping a secret for now {I’m taking that one with a neighbor} and the other class is a wooden spoon carving class that my buddy Heather from Massachusetts and I are going to take.

Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project 

Still a secret. I suspect I’ll get started on my new idea sometime in May.

Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters

I have my supplies! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I share a picture tomorrow of my Easter Platter.

Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores

3 down 9 to go.

So far this year we’ve visited:

• Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire
• Dan and Whit’s in Norwich, Vermont
• Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, Maine

Goal #22 — Compete with Carole….. Get on My Front Door Game On

Carole has a new wreath up…. I am going to ask if I can take a picture. Stay tuned. 🙂

Front Door Bling I’ve Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole:

• Late January : Valentine Heart
• Late February : Shamrock
• Late March : Giant Carrot

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How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, it’s so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you! 🙂

♥ Mavis

You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE.

Have a Great Sunday!