I have found that the only way I get anything accomplished is to have a clear path to follow.  I am absolutely not a fly by the seat of my pants type of person.  So this year I have decided to lay out some goals to strive for and see how I do.  We shall see.

• Go on a date with Denton every single week.   Marriage is work people.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently.  It’s not bad work, but it is something that needs to be tended to and nurtured.  Your spouse is one of the most important people in your life, you should want to spend time with them and cultivate that relationship.

Nope, still living the dream with 80 and 90 hour work weeks.  It will pass, it will pass.  That’s what we keep telling ourselves.

 

• Free Friday Download from Kroger each week.   Free stuff people, what’s not to love?

I need a keeper.  Or a personal assistant to do all the things that I keep forgetting.

 

• Try a new recipe each week  I have lists and lists of new recipes that I have saved to my Evernote account, and hundreds of cookbooks, that are just sitting there forlornly waiting on me to try them and see how delicious they are.  This is the year to find new foods that my family will enjoy.

No new recipe.  I obviously love reading new recipes, I just haven’t gotten into creating any of them yet.

 

• Track our grocery spending   Spent $30.65   Woohoo!  I love weeks like this.
  
• Got back:     $0.00  Ibotta;   $0.00  Checkout 51;   $0.00  from Savings Catcher
  

Last year I set out grocery budget at $100 for each week.  That’s for essentially four adults.  It worked very well for most weeks.  This year I wanted to actually track the numbers to see how well.

Ibotta is a way for you to earn cash on purchases when you shop.  Check the Ibotta app before you shop, then upload the UPC code and your receipt and get paid once your balance hits $20.  Join Ibotta with this link  (my referral link) and get $10 free!

• List something new on Etsy and Ebay each week
  I find so many beautiful treasures each week that I can’t keep them all.  Otherwise our house would like a hoarders episode.   So, I pass them along to other lovely people via Etsy and Ebay.
  

It’s all still here.  In my house.

 

• The donation box  Mine is a pink tote that I keep in my closet.  Everyone knows that if something doesn’t fit anymore, it goes into the pink tote.

It’s going this week for sure.

 

• Read a new book each week  I will forever love Nora Roberts but sometimes you have to broaden your horizons, right?

My relaxing book, as I call it, this week has been Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour.   Have you read it?  I read it years, and years ago, but I am really enjoying it again.  It’s amazing what you remember and what you forget.

I also read my copy of Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert.  I love the format, all of the recipes are divvied up by season, and at the front of the book it lists the most common fruits and vegetables and tells you when they are in season.  I love it.  It also has great recipes.

 

• Gardening of some sort  Every single year, Denton and I decide that we are going to plant a small garden.  And then life comes along and gets in the way.  Hopefully since this is on my list, I can remember to tackle this one this year.

This weekend I organized my seeds.  In a photo album.  One that I found at the Salvation Army for $0.79 earlier this year.  I love finding useful things for great prices.

Yes, yes, I know my seeds are from 3 years ago.  Martha Stewart just planted some lavender seeds her Dad put away in 1964.  I’ll take my chances with these.

I can’t wait for Spring!  If you want your own seed organizer and don’t want to hunt one up at a thrift store, you can actually buy one here.

 

• House project’s

Hayden and I worked on the flooring again this week.  This time we had to level, shim and screw together three cabinets before we could lay any flooring down.

First we shimmed the cabinets so they were level.

  Then we clamped them.

Measuring the drill bit against the screw for the right depth.

We pre-drilled the cabinets so they wouldn’t split.

Screw in the screw.  Easy peasy.  Which only took two hours.  It’s seriously not hard.  Just time consuming.

I love it.  DIY is addicting.

 

• Track how much water I’m drinking  ~  I know that I need to be drinking more water every single day, so I’m going to keep track and see how I’m doing.  I also know that you have zero interest in how much water I’m drinking, just skip this portion if you like!
  

2 glasses a day.  This seems to be a threshold I’m at.

That’s it from me this week, what about you?  How did you do?

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