Year in Review or the Rear-view mirror

It has been many days since I last posted, and while thinking about what scintillating topic to ramble on about, I thought to myself "Self, remember last year when you made all those resolutions for this year? How did that go?"

So, I went back to the beginning of this year and scoped out the post on what all I was going to accomplish.  (See, the reason I started blogging was to hold myself accountable.  If it is all typed out in black and pink then I need to follow through)

What follows is my list of six items that I thought I could accomplish in 2010 and then I will update with what really happened.

1. My savings account will increase by $20,000. I don't know how do-able this really is, but I am using Sluggy as my motivator. She shot for 60K last year and landed in the 20's, which I think is great work. Now last year I moaned and ranted and bitched about how every time I save $250 for example, I then get a bill for $250, so I am REALLY hoping this is not going to be the case with my $20,000 goal. Please wish me luck and cross something for me.

What happened here is lots and lots of car maintenance.  Sparky's car, Rachel Pie's car and my own car all needed new brakes, tires, I think there were batteries and rotors and heaven only knows what other parts involved.  Also, I took July and August off of birthing since we had the big family cruise and the wedding, so that was loss of income.  Then my Grandma (r.i.p.) got so sick and I had to give away clients for Sept. and Oct. when I went to be with her, so that was more loss of income.  I will end the year with $5,000 in my savings account.  That is a far cry from $20,000.  But at least it is still something to the positive, right?

2. Continue on my Compact goals of lightening my footprint on the Mother Earth. I am going to step up all of my activities to another level and see how that goes. You know the drill, less packaging in the house, less things in the garbage, more in the compost, more things gone to Goodwill, less things brought in to the house in the first place.

This went well.  I really did buy way less.  I did choose things with less packaging.  Our compost heaps over-runneth!  And our garbage cans are hardly ever full.  There is still way too much going into the recycling though.  I would love to find a way to get even that reduced by more than half.  

3. Get started WAAAAAAYY earlier on Christmas and birthday gifts. I did not allow near enough time this year and Harry and David came to the rescue for several gifts. Not good planning on my part. I think lots of gifts this year will be through Heifer and Kiva. But the homemade gifts will be started on in April, I think.

Yeah, not so much.  Again, with the poor planning.  Thank the stars above for Harry and for David.  April would have been a good place to start on gifts, but that didn't happen.  Big fat failure on item number 3.

4. Start walking and find a way to get in much better health and better shape this year. 2 of my high school friends dropped dead this year unexpectedly and I am not only deeply saddened by this, but shocked that 50 year old people who should be in their prime are not. I would really like to be around for a little longer. I have more to accomplish, more to see, and I am not even remotely ready to kick said bucket.

You would think that I would remember this particular item.  But no, I had no recollection of this.  As a matter of fact, a little germ of an idea has been sprouting in my brain that says 2011 will be the year of me. The year that I will take care of me.  The year that I will make myself a priority.  Nay, not A priority, but rather THE priority!  Not even a glimmer that I had thought this very thing a year ago. 

5. Toward the end of better health, I will be doing more of my meal planning and shopping through Greenling our local online green grocer and at the farmers markets. Keeping it local and organic can only be good for all of us.

I did do this.  Not as consistently as I would have liked.  But it was an a-typical year with me being gone for extended lengths of time.  I will plan on doing even better on this in the coming year.  And this goes back to item number 2, all the local green grocer shopping and farmers market shopping have NO plastic involved.

6. Remove 1 full shelf of cookbooks from my collection. There are plenty of them that I have never used. There are plenty more that I only have made 1 single item from. These books need to be set free.

This was a complete success.  I got rid of about 75 books and my shelves have breathing room in them now.  I have not purchased (or been gifted) a single cookbook this year.  I did buy the November Bon Apetit with the new Thanksgiving day recipes to add to my collection.  But that is as close as I came to buying a new cookbook.

If I were grading myself I would give myself:

1. C

2. A

3. F

4. F

5. B

6. A

Horrible.  Now I have to decide what I am going to do for this coming year and how to hold myself accountable in a manner that will really work!  Any ideas?  Do I need to do a monthly or quarterly check-in?

This time of year between Christmas and New Year's is typically a time that I get really introspective and even a little sad, melancholy or sometimes depressed.  And it seemed like the right time to look back and see how I was doing with my goals.  Not very well, it would appear.

Oh, remember the Tea Hoarding Challenge of 2009?  I didn't buy a single tea for the whole calendar year in order to force myself to use up the stockpile of teas already ensconced in my pantry.  Lots of people in my family knew of this and throughout the year of 2010 gifted me teas, like I needed them or something!  And those no good sorry asses at Whole Paycheck Foods stopped having my very favorite morning tea in stock. I bet I went in there 5 or 6 times and spoke to the tea ordering person and gave her my card and asked her to please call me whenever they got re-stocked.  I get really irritated at this store because they carry items and you try them and like them and get used to them and the next thing you know, BAM!  they don't have it anymore.  It's rather like shopping at Costco in that regard!

So I started worrying that maybe Taylor's of Harrogate had quit making the awesome Scottish Breakfast Tea and it wasn't Whole Paycheck Foods' fault that they no longer carried the best tea ever.  And I went online and scoped it out.  

Of course they still make it!  Of course they were perfectly willing to sell it to me and ship it over here from Merry Ole England!  Even with the shipping it would still be comparable to WF price.  So I quit panicking and decided that I would order some as soon as my current tea stash went down. 

Meanwhile, my sister went on the hunt and sent me a box for Christmas.  (She had previously sent me a different tea, 2 gorgeous tea cups and a tea towel for my birthday) And my husband, Mr. Big Ed, got me a package of SIX BOXES of the famous Scottish Breakfast Tea for Christmas!!!  So I currently have 7 boxes of my favorite morning tea.  

Have I mentioned that each of these boxes contains 50 bags?  By anyone's estimations this is a year's supply of tea.  So!  No more tea buying for me.  I have yet to make my list of resolutions, but suffice it to say there will be no tea shopping for me in 2011.  : )

Next week I will post my list of 2011 resolutions and maybe motivation and memory-boosting need to be at the top of that list?

75%

Since the year is 3/4 done and over with I thought I might recap some of the things (cough, resolutions, cough) that I promised I was going to fulfill.  So an update on what is happening here in Chez Lisa Pie is in order!

1. Remember those silly one room a month getting cleaned out, organized, repairs made, etc.?  Didn't make it past month 3 or 4.  That engine lost its steam.  Turns out it takes waaaaay longer than a month to do the stuff I want to do.  It takes a month just to find people who will come over and give you a bid, and then even longer to schedule you in, and finally come over and actually do things.  Maybe if I was just doing general pick up and organize, rather than repaint, remodel, etc?  I don't know.  Anyhoo, this never materialized into what I wanted.  I need a better plan of attack for next year.

2. Do you further remember that my goal was to put $20,000 in my savings acct. this year?  I am sorry to say this is not happening either!  3 cars worth of repairs, new parts of various kinds all got billed to my savings account.  And then there was the whole Fergus going to 2 different emergency vets and transfusions and 4 days of intensive care.  This was quickly followed up by the Pet Resort bill while we were on the cruise and then by Maxwell Banks and his bladder stone debaucle.  All of these things have added up to more than $11,000.  So, no dice on the extra $20,000.  This one really pisses me off.  I really was trying to achieve this goal.  And if I hadn't been, where would the $11,000 have come from?

3. Tea Hoarding.  I said it again.  It has been 18 months that I have been talking about the stupid tea hoarding in this house.  2009 was the year that I bought no tea.  None.  There was plenty of tea already, and it was my challenge to bring that shelf space down.  A year later, there was not a great change visually. I think the tea canisters, boxes and such spread out to fill the space.  Plus, my son's girl friend moved in with us this year and she works at a very famous coffee establishment and brings home tea.  And if I am being truthful, I will tell you that I have only bought teas that I consider medicinal this year.  The regular other teas?  There are still too damn many of them.

4. As long as I am confessing all, I am going to tell you that the Tea Hoarding doesn't seem to limit itself to teas.  There are coffees, spiced tea mixes, juices, hot chocolate mixes and various other beverages that never seem to dwindle.  It's depressing in the pantry, is what it is.

5. By now I should have already made my Christmas gift list and completed a lot if not all of the gift making.  And guess what?  I haven't done that!  Other than taking the summer off and galavanting all over creation for the month of August, I can't recall why I have been so busy that I haven't taken care of all these things.  I guess it is now going to be Plan B for Christmas.  (No, I don't really have a Plan B, but I am thinking as fast as I can!)  Suggestions welcome.

6. I am leaving in a day or so to go stay with my Grandma and see how things are going for her.  Our hope is that she will be able to continue living on her own and maintain her health.  If it is obvious that we have passed that stage, it will mean that we have to find a nursing home type facility that she will agree to and then get her moved out of her current place and into the new one.  And you know that will mean cleaning, sorting and selling off a bunch of things.  It won't be pretty.  Let's all say a prayer that Grandma's situation is such that she can keep her independence a while longer.  She really wants this.

I will be taking a laptop with me to check in and to send updates to my sisters on how things are going. But I would be surprised if there is a wireless connection in her building so my postings may be sporadic.  Don't give up and leave me!  I will be here when I can.

Also, I have a great idea for what I am posting tomorrow, so hurry back to scope it out!

Follow up

Believe it or don't but I have already emptied my shelves of over 60 cookbooks.  Half are going to the used book store for credit and half are going to my brother the Chef.

One New Year's Resolution down and $20,000 more to go!