June Goal Shooting

It's report time here so not as much time for blogging. Mr S is away at the moment visiting family. His father is 85 years old so it's important that he makes some time for him.

I haven't managed to get out in the garden for a long time but I got a lovely surprise last week when I collected the mail and found some very sweet flowers ready to bloom. It's cold and grey and miserable here as winter sets in, so the surprise was most welcome.

I noticed recently that I'm making progress with some goals and farther away than ever from other goals. It puzzled me until I realised that making a change to routine has taken much more time than getting out in the garden and doing some work. Getting up early requires me to make a mammoth effort every morning. Working in the garden can be a one-off session. It doesn't matter if I don't do it every day and I walk away from it feeling I've achieved something.

The early morning wake-up has also taught me that I can be overly ambitious at times. Taking one small, doable step at a time is a surer way to make progress.

Last week I posted my weekend goals here and it helped a lot to refine what I could do and what I needed to do. So I'm going to try the same thing with my June goals.

June....

• walk and run twice a week (change schedule because the current one is not working, except for the yoga class I've started)
• call my brother and ask him to hang up  the hooks, the shelves and the two pictures that are ready to go (he said yes)
• wake early, eat breakfast and  take a step towards getting lunch ready (prepare breakfast the night before,  go to sleep earlier)
• declutter and organise front "study" so that it is cosy and inviting with room to work and rest
• organise time to spend time with friends just for the fun of it 
• reduce screen time/use screen time effectively (yesterday I challenged myself to "do things" for an hour and then turn the TV on, which worked nicely)
• get back to gardening - half an hour over the weekend (pot the lemongrass and quickly plant the tulips)
• make sure I check my planner each night, focus, know what I am doing, get back to my "to do" list for work (I've started and it's already helping)
• buy hall runner (two years now it's been on the list and this is the month when it will happen)
• keep my goal list short (?), keep in mind my bigger list of goals for 2015 so that when possible I don't lose sight of them, review as well
• and what about some craft?

Reports are due this coming week. Mr S will be back soon. Life is good. My kiddliwinks at school are delightful. And we've got  a long weekend!!!
Have a good weekend everyone!

Goals: Heading in the right direction

After quiet a few weeks of not feeling well I think I'm finally getting back on track. This morning I was able to pop outside and cut off some of the dead flowers in the front garden. It was a good feeling and a beautiful morning, as well. Now my mind's ticking over with other little jobs I might be able to squeeze into today's program.

At the start of the week I set myself some goals, taking into consideration the limitations of having no car and still needing to take it easy. In some ways it was a little harder than expected. I found I was extra tired and waiting for buses took more time than expected.

My goals were focussed on waking early, eating homemade lunches, drinking water, going for a walk and cutting down my screen time (hoping that would give me the opportunity to get on to other more productive jobs).

Waking early: I certainly woke early each morning but that time was taken up with catching the bus.
Eating homemade lunches: Um...er...it only happened once.  For the first time I bought some cream cheese and made up a wrap with avocado. It was scrum-delicious.  This week I've bought cheese and chicken, bread and wraps to have on hand for lunch and snacks. It's nice to have something new in the humble lunchtime repertoire.
Drinking water: no...no... no
Going for a walk: no.... public transport takes up my time and my energy
Cutting down screen time/ using computer time effectively: Well, there has been improvement. I've been more careful about using the computer. One night I made myself  work out on paper what I needed to do and ended up having a very focussed evening. One night out of four is good, right? The other nights I did go online but I'm proud to say that I stayed off FB all week.

So, all in all, I feel that I'm heading in the right direction. I ended up making inroads on my food goal of one new recipe a month, which wasn't planned this week. I have often wanted to take public transport sometimes as a means to reducing my carbon footprint so that's a green living goal which came to be but also wasn't planned. I'm managing to get up early which, remember, is something I haven't been able to do for over twenty-five years. This did not start as an intended goal but I'm certainly glad it's happening.  I've begun to reduce screen time but I know that, really, I need to go much further.

It's 35 degrees today so not good for going for a walk. I'm sure, though, it won't be long before that can happen. The pantry is stocked and ready for three days of homemade lunches. I might need to wake up a few minutes earlier- gulp!-to make sure I have enough time for preparing lunch.

My goals this week will remain the same. I will keep heading in the right direction and I actually think that these smaller steps are more reliable than going all out on and changing life in a big way.
It's also shown me that tiny, substantial steps towards goals is easily managed and possibly more dependable long-term.

As Green As Can Be- That's Me!

I live a life as green as can be, which means that sometimes I'm not very green. When my energy is low green living doesn't happen very much. When I feel good, I love the challenge of finding ways I can be greener here at my suburban patch.

Some of my green goals are:

• Buy thoughtfully; buy local, buy eco-friendly, not buy at all, reduce packaging
• Save paper; reduce photocopying; recycle paper, introduce students to recycled paper for some tasks, go electronic
• Walk where possible and use public transport; I'm not very organised  and I'm quite busy at times so this goal happens sometimes
• Eat fresh and home-cooked food

Now it may surprise and even shock some readers that I occasionally buy from the take-away franchises, rarely buy in bulk and sometimes come home with a plastic bag I don't really want.

My priority is to eat. Full-stop. Eating green is really my second priority. I've never been a big eater and when I engage in a task I forget about everything else.  There have been times over the years when I chose not to buy products because they weren't green enough and then when I got hungry there was nothing to eat. So I will eat fast food if the alternative is too insubstantial and I've got no time to prepare something. I will buy individual items if the alternative- given my lifestyle and how I manage it- means that uneaten food is wasted.

September
Lately I've notched up a few greenie points (these are the green version of brownie points) in the following ways:

• I finally got a bike. It needs some adjustments. Hopefully these holidays I can check out the local bike path that goes through the grasslands. I also want to try riding to the local shops and library....
• No TV on Tuesdays. Still feels weird! But I'm actually thinking about trying to be more selective about what I watch as well as thinking about making another time in the week when I rule out TV. I often put it on for company.
• On Saturday I bought a new jacket. I managed to say no to the store assistant. when she offered me one of their glossy bags.
• Three cheers because lately I've been remembering my green shopping bags!!!
• Using lemons off the tree in the backyard (it's the closest I get to producing my own food)