The January list (an ongoing project)

Like so many people, I was feeling good vibes from the whole 2011 thing.

Feeling like this year, I’m going to focus on doing a lot of the things I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. Like this is a year for change. To feel challenged. To pay more attention to how and with whom I spend my time. To have fun and (eek!) take some risks. (this does not come very naturally to me. at all.)

Although I didn’t set any specific resolutions, per se, I’ve been focusing on some things in January, more than I have in a while. A lot of those changes involve my health. And of course a fair number of them involve my house.

Since I was home alone for most of the month, it seemed like the perfect time to jump start some of these changes around here. And so I created a huge to do list and stuck it to the side of the fridge, where I would see it every day.

Nope, I didn’t finish everything. With some of the longer projects (sort through magazines, go through paper in a huge pile by the TV), I made some notable progress. Anything in the basement, I decided to put off until it’s a little warmer and the days are longer. In the meantime, I’m bringing things like magazines and random boxes from my last move up from the basement box by box, sorting through them when I get home from work or during commercials when watching TV. When all else fails, I set my new pear timer for 15 minutes and accomplish what I can during that time.

The movie/crock pot series has been awesome, with good food and good company (and mostly good movies).

As for what I did do, here are a few highlights:

Snowshoeing. It was nice to get outside and wander around in the snow in early January:

Saw some snow dinos:

Finally got around to taking a photo for my mom of this little corner of my house, to thank the woman who gave me this chair, from the newsroom of a Montana newspaper:

I also got a little crazy with the window frosting. The front window now looks like this:

Still debating whether to go up one more row or not. It might make the room seem smaller/more closed in, or it might just look right with the window frames. Can’t decide.

Oh, and the Volvo got a little love – oil change, fixing the defrost, important things. I like to call this Phantom of the Volvo.

A few projects are soon to come. After emailing my mom, I think I might finally have some clue how to get linen (relatively) wrinkle-free. I’ll hope to post on that soon. And my LP project has officially begun – more things coming up from the basement while trying not to overly clutter our little living space on the main floor.

But hey, it went pretty well, my month-long push. I did a lot of things not on the list – sorted through my computer desktop at home and at work, did a big spice overhaul and label project, worked on getting my room back into shape, frosted the windows at work while I was in the mode. Plus lots of cooking and shopping and general relaxing.

I’ll take down the list this evening without too much regret. After all, February is just about to begin. Time for a fresh start! And lots of good things coming in March.