2016 Goals check in

At work, we have the option of doing a mid-year checkin.  I was reading back through my posts and realized I put 2016 goals together, so I thought I'd record my progress and see if I can re-commit myself to some of these:

Personal

• Get on a regular haircut schedule again (It's been 5 months since I had a haircut, and it looks like it). - FAIL.  I had a haircut in April, but haven't had one since.  I need to call and schedule.
• Get back to being able to run 2 miles nonstop by the end of summer (this is going to be tough unless Nugget starts sleeping more, but a girl can dream). Nope. I ran/walked two and a half miles with the Hubs one night, but I'm going to aim for work out 2-3 times a week instead.
• Finish SB and BW's "baby" blankets (luckily I made them toddler/kid size from the start; I'm cheating a bit here as I just finished SB's; I have a few more hours for BW's). Still have some work to do on BW's, but I made some significant progress last weekend,  Probably have 4 hours or so to go.
• Choose and start "baby" kid blanket for Nugget. I may start looking for "high school graduation blanket" ideas

Work

• Get a promotion (I'm really nervous about this one; I don't have enough confidence in myself). No promotion, but did get a nice raise in March.  Still need to take action on this one.

Household

• Declutter and organize master closet See my last post - this is probably never going to happen.
• Redecorate SB and BW's room to a "big girl room" (I'm super excited about this one, and have even opened my Pinterest app again to explore color ideas. In progress; need to paint and rearrange some shelving. 
• Make our office an office instead of a storage room The office was mostly an office, then we decided to make it a play room so the toys stopped over-running our living room.  So, now I need to paint and get the final "office-y" stuff out of it.

Financial

• Finish paying off medical bills (still some lingering from Nugget's birth and subsequent illnesses) DONE!
• Increase 401(k) contributions 1% over yearly scheduled increase DONE!
• Commit to plan to pay off credit card debt and make substantial dent in credit card debt (this one weighs huge on my mind.  We have more than I'm comfortable with due to the Hubs' stint of unemployment in 2014; the Hubs and I are still working on how to communicate financially after five years of marriage - I think this is still one of the areas that is a work in progress for us, and may be for some time. Still needs to work.  Hubs lost his job after I made these goals and that significantly hindered my ability to make progress on this one.

So, not too much progress, but honestly, I had forgotten about these existence of these goals.  I need to print them out and hang them where they are visible and start knocking them out.

On summer...

I started to type this post long ago, but only made it as far as the title, and now it is September.  Which seems fitting, as that is how our summer went.  it was there for a moment, then it was gone. 

I feel like this summer we finally broke the surface of our drowning in littles and took some big gulps of air.  We still flounder and drop below the surface once in a while, but we're now treading water instead of drowning.  We've found a babysitter we trust as another option besides my mother who we trust to feed and put to bed all three kiddos on her own. We've gotten some (very brief!) time away.  Life is still chaotic and messy and I'm forever behind on projects (my closet will just always be a disaster, I'm afraid) but it feels more manageable.

So, I failed miserably at getting my kids signed up for any "summer activities."  Since I'm a procrastinator, literally everything was full by the time I started trying to register them.  Then I had an "aha" moment.  My kids are in a wonderful daycare center where they get to play outside all day and learn through play, and my work schedule meant any activities would be in the evenings or on weekends.  The activities I was looking at registering (swimming lessons, gymnastics, dance, sports sampler) were all indoors.  Why, for the life of me, would I put my kids indoors in the middle of our relatively short Midwest summer?  So, I viewed my procrastination failure as a blessing in disguise and instead focused on getting outdoors for walks, bike rides, and the playground.  We set up our tiny pool and took full advantage of the neighbor's quick-set pool, ran through sprinklers, drank out of the hose, and enjoyed summer.

And we blinked, and summer was over.   I sent my kids to daycare today in pants and sweatshirts.  Sure, it's getting up to 65 today, but the morning was chilly.  Which I love - I love this time of year, with crisp mornings followed by warm, sunny days.  But it means we are getting closer to the tipping point - the time when my kiddos will be closer to four than three, and closer to two than one.  How is that possible already?  SB and BW have moved to the next preschool room (already?) They just moved from the toddler room a few months ago, and Nugget moved to the toddler room.  She's still bald except for her mullet-in-training in the back, so she still looks like a baby, at least.