Thank you for all the kindness, as someone mentioned, such lovely people find their way here. I’m working my way through emailing everyone and hope each person has a reply by Thurs am! In the meantime I owe you all a January update on the 2013 goals!
Family Goals
Complete a 31 days of nothing experiment in January and blog about it{Done!}Begin home educating my children{Done!}- Go on a family vacation
- Visit our family in Pennsylvania
- Have a walk/hike as a family weekly {So far, so good!}
- Have at least one educational outing per month {In January we went to the art gallery}
- Visit the Art Gallery 2x {Visited 1x in January}
- Read at least 24 Chapter books as a family (2/24)
- Volunteer as a family at a local farm at least 6 x
- Take a family yoga class
- Have a weekly family games night (5/52)
- Read the Bible at least 2x a week as a family (5/52)
- Visit with bio sibling at least 2 x
- Teach both children to knit properly
- Do OT exercises with children at least three x weekly {progressing well!}
- Do Physio with daughter twice weekly {need to keep working on this!}
- Have a weekly baking day (5/52)
- Make all our own bread {doing well!}
- Find a specific tree in our city each month from our tree calendar {not done in January due to pneumonia and various colds, we’ll catch up in February!}
- Have our family portrait taken
- Find a “foster a senior” sort of program where we can visit a senior who is shut in at least 2x a month
Personal Goals for Me
- Read the New Testament {progressing well!}
- Read 24 other books
- Attend my book group at least 6 x (attended twice already!}
- Take a knitting class
- Complete a 1st Year Together family album/scrapbook
- Find a Church and prioritize attending {we have started attending one, but I’m not sure it will be our home Church}
- Unpack whole house (nary a box left by the end of 2013, I hope!)
- Begin writing a book {already started!}
- Start a small business
Join a food co-op- Grow at least 10 different kinds of veggies in our community garden or back garden
- Be in touch with friends in a meaningful way at least monthly {progressing well!}
- Lose 30 lbs
- Make all handmade gifts
- Stick to a weekly menu plan {doing well!}
- Can and preserve at least 6 veggies/fruit this year
- Hold a garage sale to boost the money we give and saving for the emergency fund & psycho educational assessments (see below).
- Taxes (complicated due to adoption)
- Aim to sleep at least 7.5 hrs per night
- Print all photographs taken since my children arrived {this one may be tricky!}
Goals for my daughter
Finish level A in kumon- Finish level B in kumon
- Finish level C in kumon
- Finish level D in kumon
- Read 52 Chapter books {she’s read 4 so far in January!}
- Complete a dancing exam
- Volunteer for 20 hours +
- Save $100 through completing extra chores
- Complete level 4 swimming {sadly she didn’t pass, we will keep working on it! As she didn’t even know how to swim a year ago, she’s doing very well!}
- Complete level 5 swimming
- Complete level 6 swimming
- Write a paragraph weekly {progressing well}
- Write an essay monthly {progressing well}
- Finish the Grade 3 curriculum {a work in progress}
- Start Grade 4 curriculum
- Learn the Lord’s Prayer {progressing well!}
- Write monthly to a pen-friend {behind on this!}
- Write monthly to her godmother in England {done!}
- Knit a cowl and scarf
- Complete a typing program
- Attend a chess club
- Learn how to make two simple meals {she has learned how to make one already!}
Goals for my son
Finish level 2A in kumon{done!}- Finish level A in kumon
- Finish level B in kumon
- Finish level C in kumon
- Read 20 Chapter books
- Finish level 2 swimming {sadly he didn’t pass, we will keep working on it!}
- Finish level 3 swimming
- Finish level 4 swimming
- Volunteer for 20 hours +
- Save $100 through extra chores
- Write a paragraph weekly
- Finish Grade 1 curriculum {progressing!}
- Start Grade 2 curriculum
- Write monthly to a pen-friend {behind on this!}
- Write monthly to his godmother in England {done!}
- Learn the Lord’s prayer {progressing!}
- Complete a typing program
- Attend a chess club and accept instruction (ahem!)
Learn how to rhyme{done!}- Learn how to make two simple meals
Giving Goals
- Continue sponsoring a child through Butterfly Children’s Hospices
- Give a Keva loan
- Make a meal for someone in need once a month (Yes – 1/12)
- Volunteer as a family monthly (Yes – 1/12)
- Give food to the food bank monthly (Yes – 1/12)
- Begin sponsoring/supporting a family in Ethiopia
- Have close friends in my life receive a card and handmade birthday gift in time for their birthday {no birthdays in January, but we are already preparing for March!}
- Visit a homeless shelter or people who are homeless and provide care packages (knitted scarves, hats and gloves, toothpaste and toothbrushes, coffee cards etc.) monthly (Yes – 1/12)
Blogging Goals
- Accept sponsorship on the blog
- Blog at least 4x weekly {yes!}
- Update yearly goals monthly {this post is proof
} - Raise money to support a crib at Butterfly Children’s Hospices through this blog
Financial Goals
- Open bank accounts for each of the children
- Save for psycho-educational assessments for both children
- Save $1000 for emergency fund for the car
- Save enough to pay for 3 weeks summer camp for each child (hard, hard, hard goal – and we are talking daycamp here!!!)
- Pay to update my homestudy for adoption
- Begin paying into retirement fund (even if it is only $25 a month!)
- Track ALL spending for 2013
- Four no-spending days per week {doing well!}
- Eat out no more than 6 x in 2013 {ate out once}
How are your 2013 goals progressing?
You are doing great on your goals! I’m doing great too. I’ve made progress in each area of my goals despite having limited mobility this past month. I’m feeling very good about what things are at.
You are doing so well on your goals! I am so proud of you! My goals aren’t going quite as well…
Anyway, perhaps this question is personal or out of line and if it is I apologize, but you mention OT and physio and I am wondering what the difference is? If physio physical therapy? A simple definition is fine…I respect your children’s privacy and by no means want to know specifically what they are working on…I just wasn’t sure what the difference was.
Well done to your son on the rhyming. Some of these concepts are hard to get the hang of but a lot of fun once they get there. Cherrie
The three of you are doing so well with all your goals, I take my hat off to you!
Kirsten x
just catching up on some of your posts – phew you are going through a lot. You know sometimes it’s helpful to reach out and ask for some help – I’m wondering whether you get much support from the social worker who helped you through the adoptions? I hope so. If not, maybe this is the time to reach out and ask them whether there are financial things they could help you with ? … it takes a lot of courage to ask for help (more I think than not asking – because in this society being vulnerable is stigmatised) but it seems unfair that you are so financially burdened even though the role of parent gives you much joy. Sending hugs xx
FT, please can you email me with your contact details – would love to help out. I have an adopted sister, and so admire what you are doing.
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Just one thought re. making all your own bread – are you familiar with ‘no knead bread’? It takes about 24 hours to make, but only needs your attention 4 times over those 24 hours and each time for around 5 minutes. I thought it might be easier on your arthritis, as well as less time-consuming overall. It also uses way less yeast so it’s a smidgeon cheaper.
I’ve described my method of making it here:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~thescarletmanuka/writings/baking_bread.html
Since I wrote that in 2008 I’ve changed two things. I no longer cover the dough with a teatowel – I use paper towels. That’s because the tiny flecks of dough that stuck to the teatowel accumulated in our washing machine and eventually clogged up a valve and made it stop working! Don’t know if that would happen to you (we wash with cold water in a top-loading machine) but wanted to warn you of the possibility. The other thing is that I have discovered that simple metal containers are fine for baking the bread in although it seems to stick badly in dark-coloured metal containers and not in silvery ones.
Hope that helps some!
May I also say how encouraging I’m finding your blog
I’m currently largely bed bound (have been for 10 years) and need a lot of help to care for myself. My husband and I have decided it’s irresponsible to try for a child while I’m like this as such a child would spend much of their time being cared for by other people (plus I probably couldn’t successfully carry a pregnancy to term anyway). However, if one day I get better we’ve talked about the possibility of adopting and we’d probably be looking at adopting older children who’ve had some trauma in their lives. So I’m really appreciating this glimpse into what that might look like. Thank you for sharing it with me.
–Heather
I thought I left an update message here already. I’m sorry if it is a repeat.
I have the candles I promised to send you (some pillar candles, tea lights and tapered candles in blue and yelllow). When you get a moment, please send your home address to me via my email contact on my blog. I know you have a mountain of email to respond to and I’m probably one of the last ones as you go in chrono order to reply. I check it every day. in the meantime I will prepare the parcel for posting. I have a few parcels to get ready and hope to post them all at once on Tuesday or Wednesday (Feb. 12 or 13th).
I hope you and the children are having a lovely weekend. xx
Sorry Judy, I didn’t get online all week. Will be today. Best
HELLO!! I can’t remember where I stopped following you, but I thought of you today and thought i would see if you were still blogging. AND WOW> I can’t believe it. You have children. that is soooooooooo awesome. I must have not read you for so long. I am so happy for you. congratulations!!! I am going to have a read and a catch up. xxxxxx