101 Update

The Challenge: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days. 

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).

Items in blue are completed; green items are a work in progress.  My full list is here!

1.  Learn to play 20 useful songs (hymns, carols, children's songs) on the piano.  Right now, I've been working on learning a couple of Calvin's favorite songs.  I'm getting better at them, but it'll be a long time until I'm good at anything! Thankfully, Calvin enjoys hearing me play even when it's just practice, so I have plenty of opportunities to improve.

5.  Organize the garage. As part of my nesting this pregnancy, I've been tackling this project a little at a time.  It's much better than it was, but there is still a long way to go!

6.  Grow a salad.  I decided to start simple.  I've got a patio tomato plant growing.  If that goes well, I'll try something more challenging next and work my way up.

23.  Make homemade caramels.  I have a recipe bookmarked, and I've read tons of tips and tricks.  I'm felling very confidant about making them, but I need an occasion, because the recipe is time consuming and HUGE.

27.  Find a better way to organize all our important paperwork. I picked up some accordion filling systems, but have yet to do the transfer.

29.  Go on a picnic.  We did this!  The first really nice day of spring we spent outside doing yard work in the morning and enjoyed a brotzeit with fruit for dinner as the sun set.

37.  Find/make a good bookshelf for Calvin's books.  As part of Calvin's transition in rooms (see #59), this will be happening.  I spend time almost daily researching options and have it nearly narrowed down to what I want.

39.  Put together 72 hour emergency kits for our family.  A few more items have been added!

41.  Have all clean clothes put away before bed for a month straight.  I did this...barely.  On the last night I almost forgot a couple items in the dryer.  I would have been so sad if I'd failed by one night!  From it, I learned just how much I despise clean clothes in a laundry basket.  But, I realized I really didn't mind that much if they were in the dryer.  As a result, my laundry habits have improved, but I'll probably never hold myself to a regular standard of having them all put away before bed.

44.  Teach Calvin to bake and share the goodies.  Done!  Calvin loves to cook, and we do this regularly!  At Christmas, he helped with at least half of the treats that we made to give away.  He's also helped me make a snickerdoodle cake and bacon chocolate chip cookies for a residency event.  And, I think he helped me with another cake, too.  He also helps with treats and cookies we keep for ourselves frequently, too.

46.  Sew curtains for the whole house.  I haven't made any progress on this since the last update...oops!

48.  Find a new dentist for Devin and me.  Done...ish.  He's been found, and I've had my teeth cleaned.  I also had to have an old filling replaced and have already taken care of that!  However, Devin's schedule has not allowed him to get in himself just yet.  So, I'll count it complete once Devin gets his teeth cleaned.

59.  Decorate a big boy room for Calvin. This is so much fun!  We've picked out a theme, and we're all pretty excited about it.  Calvin can almost climb out of his crib, so we are hoping to get this done in the next month or so and transition him to the twin bed then.

60.  Back up our computers.  We got an external hard drive for Valentine's Day (oh the age of practical gifts), and it does it automatically every time we plug it in!  It has tons of storage space and some nifty features, too!

91.  Consolidate our bank accounts.  Done!

92.  Figure out a good calendar system for our family.  I bought a Sandra Boyton Mom's Family Calendar for under our Christmas tree this year, and I LOVE it!  Not only is it a lot of fun, but it's very straightforward.  There's a column to keep track of each of us, and I use an empty column to keep track of household items.  We also keep Devin's schedule on the iPad and in Google Calendar, and he carries a day planner for himself (but his also tracks procedures and time and such in there, too).  Overall, this system works pretty great for us!

One thing I didn't account for with this project was the new goals that would pop up along the way.  Already, I want to replace items in my list as I've come up with at least a couple things that interest me/matter to me more than some of the things on this list.  But, for now, I'm going to stick with the list as is and make changes only if I must down the line!