Lightening Online

A little while ago I read a post written on Meanderings which was a description of what she wanted her life to look like in 5 years time. I thought it was a fantastic idea and decided I’d like to write one of these for myself.

Well, almost a month has past and I haven’t done it. Wanna know why? Cos I. Don’t. Know. I have no idea what I would like my life to look like in 5 years time.

As a child I had 1 goal in life. Actually, you could probably say I had 2 goals but they’re very closely related.

1. Get married

2. Have kids

I did sort of think I’d like to be a teacher. That never happened and while I *could* make it happen now, I just don’t have the inclination to.

So to consider what’s next is kind of a foreign concept to me and I’m struggling to come up with any kind of goals as such.

Let’s start with what our family life might look like. I’ll be fast approaching 40 (but with a couple of years still up my sleeve). Leighton will be 15 (EEEEK!!!), Singstar Princess will be 12 and The Bomb (must think up another name for him I think) will be 9.

By then I guess our “big trip” will be not much more than a distant memory but will HOPEFULLY at least be paid for.    The trip has been a large part of our focus for a few years now.

We are keeping an open mind about private schooling for our Leighton (and the others but he comes first). The very thought makes my heart ache but IF it’s something he wants and IF we feel it would benefit him and IF we can afford it, we will consider it as an option (it would mean him living away from home - assuming we’re still farming).

I would like to contribute in some way to our family finances. I’m not sure how exactly. I’ve always thought I’d be a stay at home, non income earning, mother for the duration of my kids youth. Now I’m not really sure what I want.

This morning I came across an interesting you tube clip on My Little Drummer Boys that made me think (and made me tear up a bit).

I’ve tried to embed the you tube video here for you but it’s messing up my site so either visit My Little Drummer Boys to view it or you can find it on you tube here. There are also some other clips by the same guy listed on that you tube page.

It’s certainly given me food for thought. I remember at the lowest point of my nervous breakdown I actually thought I was going insane and would end up in an institution for the rest of my life. The grief of feeling that your life is coming to an end is quite intense.

In some ways this has given me what feels like a second chance in life but I’m still not sure what I want to BE or DO.

I know I like helping people. I know I like making people smile. Beyond that…. I’m really not sure.

How about you? Do you feel your dreams and goals for the future are clear in your mind? Are you a planner? Or are you like me and feel like you’re kind of drifting in the wind, uncertain as to which direction you’d like to go next?

And I can’t wait!!!!   Those who know me well know that I LOVE new beginnings.

New Year’s are just like those fresh new exercise books and folders you used to have at the start of a new school year.  So clean and white and empty - just waiting to be filled whatever I might write in them.

Having worked hard during 2007 on dealing with issues from my past with the help of a counsellor, I feel more ready than ever to make a fresh start.  I’m feeling very positive about the promises that 2008 holds. 

Here are a few of my goals and dreams for this year:

PERSONAL

* Be able to comfortably jog 5km and work toward my dream of one day running in the City to Bay Fun Run (12km)

* Get back to a healthier diet (slipped up a bit of late)

* Continue with counselling and work toward understanding myself better and building up a self esteem

* Consider what I might like to do in terms of bringing in a supplemental income for the family (youngest will be at preschool in 2008 and then school in 2009 - I would like to contribute just a small amount of supplemental income if I can)

FAMILY

* Take the kids to see the snow (they haven’t seen snow yet - the closest is a couple of days drive from us)

* Get back into helping out in the kids classrooms at school

* Family time at the beach

* Continue our Friday night Family Nights

* Continue with once a month date nights (sometimes lunches) with DH (this will be harder with him returning to a full workload)

HOME

* Get paving done outside

* Plant some fruit trees

* Work on decluttering and simplifying

FINANCIAL

* Work out a budget (we need more room for shoes for DS and a few other areas will need to go up)

* Continue to learn new ways to stretch $$ further.  Plan new challenges (and repeat old ones).

* Learn more about self sufficiency and what we can start implementing in that respect.

* Find money to purchase a caravan and save for our 3 month trip in 2009

* Consider our long-term savings and superannuation plans

BLOG

* Continue to learn how to make the best use of all the functions wordpress has to offer

* Build up my readership

* Consider and decide whether I want to monetise as part of my “supplemental income” goals

 Well, that’s a good start at least!!!

What are your plans and goals for 2008?

I love new beginnings! I love Mondays as they signal the start of a fresh week. I love mornings as they signal the start of a new day. I love babies as they signal the start of a new life. I love tiny little green shoots as they poke their heads out of the dark soil in the garden with all the promise that they bring.

September 1st. The start of spring and bringing with it the promise of all things new. Usually we get to this time of year and we’re looking forward to shaking off the winter blues and enjoying a bit more sun. Not sure it’s quite the case this year with all the warm weather in August. But, the sentiment is still there. September 1st is symbolic of “all things new”. In my mind at least.

I didn’t really set myself too many goals at the beginning of the year. I’ve just been reading over my January posts and I had some ideas of what I wanted out of this year. But I didn’t really set goals as such. So I’ve decided I’d like to make some goals and plans for what I want to achieve between now and the end of the year.

HEALTH

My health has had to be a big focus this year. Particularly my mental health. I feel like we’re actually getting somewhere with that. I still continue to see a counsellor on a weekly basis and it’s hard to set any kind of timeline on that (as to when we’ll be finished). As part of that though I am working on a reflective life story and I would like to complete that before the year ends.

Winter has proven to be a difficult month in terms of physical health. I guess there are no surprises there. That has meant that my physical fitness has declined somewhat over that time. This week I have just gotten back into exercising daily so I’m looking forward to rebuilding that fitness again over the coming months.

With the colder weather and feeling a bit blah, my healthy eating has slidden a bit. Today is the day to get back on track with that. Making healthier choices and cutting down (not out but down) on the amount of non nutritious food that I put into my body.

I’m happy about the fact that I’ve lost just over 10kg this year, bringing my total weight loss since my heaviest weight to just over 20kg. I have around 6-7 kg to go to reach my healthy weight range and would really like to achieve that before the end of the year.

FAMILY

Last weekend when we went away in the camper trailer overnight was fantastic. It was a great time for bonding as a family. It would be good if we could get away (even for a night) in the camper trailer at least 2 more times before the end of this year.

DH and I would also like to get away for a night or 2 without the kids and reconnect. It’s never easy to find time to spend together when you have young kids who need a lot of time and attention.

HOUSE

My decluttering attempts have been very stop start so far this year. In some ways they need to take a lower priority than many other things in life. But I’m working on doing 15 minutes of decluttering a day on the days I’m up to it. I’m setting myself the goal of decluttering 15 grocery size bags (or equivalent) of clutter to be gone from this house by the end of the year. I think that’s around 1 a week so not too lofty a goal.

GARDEN

I plan to continue on with my attempts to vegie garden. I’m hoping to be able to grow lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, zucchini, beans, corn and pumpkin over the summer. Plus strawberries - yum!!!. We’ll see how we go. Last night we had fresh lettuce and some fresh peas from the garden and the kids all thought that was great!

HOBBIES

I’ve made a start on a blanket for J on one of my looms which has been sidelined a bit with my dishcloth knitting attempts. I’m hoping to get that plus several dishcloths knitted. Also a felted bag for DD and a couple of other smaller projects.

I’d also like to make a start on DD’s baby scrapbook. I’ve never scrapbooked before so I keep putting off starting. If I could just get 1 page done I think that would be a good start.

FINANCES

Our budget was already trimmed at the beginning of the year. So far I’ve been happy with the attempts that I’ve made to keep it down even further. I’m not sure how much of a surplus we’re likely to end up with this year but I need to keep reminding myself that it’s already been cut back drastically so simply getting through the year without running out of money is an achievement in itself. This will all get reviewed in January, ready for a new budget to begin on February 1st.

We’ll be working on the electricity challenge for the next few months. That and not overspending on Christmas are probably my 2 financial challenges for the rest of this year.

CHRISTMAS

I’m already well on my way to organising presents for this year, including some I’ve made myself which is something new for me. I like to have the present buying etc wrapped up by 1st December if I can.

In past years I’ve kept a change jar to use for special treats for both Christmas and the January holidays. I’ve been a bit slack on that this year so I’m going to try and focus on that over the next few months and see if I can generate a few $$ toward these.

We haven’t made any decisions about where we’ll be Christmas Day this year. Last year we did something unique and snuck away in the camper trailer for a couple of nights. It was our first Christmas with just our family and wonderfully simple and relaxed. If DH’s sister decides to come home this year I guess we’ll be under a certain amount of pressure to spend Christmas with his family. I guess we’ll just wait and see what pans out. My family has already had *Christmas*. They celebrated while they were all together in July. We couldn’t make it unfortunately.

So there is plenty happening and plenty to do. But not so much that I’m feeling overwhelmed so I think I have the balance about right for now. Makes for a nice change.