Goals for the day

Lately I feel like the days are just slipping away from me. Do you ever have that feeling? Like I spin, spin, spin all day but accomplish nothing? I'm having one of those weeks.

I did actually accomplish a few things yesterday (the life insurance, ate well, & straightened out M's health insurance.)

1. Make 4 freezer meals between now & the weekend.
2. Make muffins for the freezer.
3. Make granola bars for my son's school snack.
4. Fit in my runs for the week. (M's traveling - this is made infinitely more challenging when he's out of town).
5. Figure out our savings plan (with M's new salary - where is the money going, set it up so it's automatic, etc)
6. Plan our summer trips & budget accordingly.
7. Network! I'm not sure what my career plans are, but now that M's job is locked down, I've committed to doing two hours worth of networking per week. This is not something that comes naturally to me (at all), so I need to make a conscious effort to do this.

I think that's enough for now. . . what are you up to this week? Any big goals you need to focus on?

Sunday Update

I had a productive couple of days, and accomplished most of what I'd hoped for on Friday. Not too shabby. :-)

1. Eat under 1450 calories for the day  - Done.
2. Complete a cardio & strength workout. I need to run today, because I'm officially kicking off my half marathon training plan next week. - Done.
3. Order my son's birthday cake for his party in a few weeks. - I did this on Saturday, but done.
4. Cancel my cleaning service. I've been dreading making this call, but our current cleaner hasn't been doing what I've asked, and I've given many opportunities for improvement. I'm not good at this kind of conversation, so I've been putting it off.  - I'm still putting this off. ;-)
5. Rework our budget based on new numbers - higher mortgage based on refinance to 15 year loan, smaller paycheck due to higher investment amount being taken account, and increase in insurance because we added our new car! :-) We bought an Audi Q7, and it's lovely. - Mostly done. A few tweaks left.
6. Clean out my laptop bag. This is one of my pet peeves - papers just tend to accumulate in there, and I can never find what I'm looking for! - Done.
7. Laundry - the never ending task. - Done.
8. *Edited to add* - I knew I was forgetting something. Get our tax paperwork prepped, and Turbo Tax installed, so I can start working on the taxes! - Well, I got to this today. I'm about 1/2 way through our taxes, and got Turbo Tax installed, so now I need to call around and get some additional details on forms we're missing, etc.

I'm working on my men for the week, cleaning the house, getting our taxes in order, and I went to the gym today. We were supposed to go skiing, but it's raining at the mountain. And really, who enjoys skiing in the rain? That will save close to $100, which is great, because I bought a bunch of birthday items yesterday. Love productive Sundays!

What are you up to today? Any fun plans?

Goals for today

Happy Friday!

Some days I just have to break down my giant monthly goals into smaller tasks for the day. Helps to keep me motivated. Here's what I have queued up for today. :-)

1. Eat under 1450 calories for the day
2. Complete a cardio & strength workout. I need to run today, because I'm officially kicking off my half marathon training plan next week.
3. Order my son's birthday cake for his party in a few weeks.
4. Cancel my cleaning service. I've been dreading making this call, but our current cleaner hasn't been doing what I've asked, and I've given many opportunities for improvement. I'm not good at this kind of conversation, so I've been putting it off.
5. Rework our budget based on new numbers - higher mortgage based on refinance to 15 year loan, smaller paycheck due to higher investment amount being taken account, and increase in insurance because we added our new car! :-) We bought an Audi Q7, and it's lovely.
6. Clean out my laptop bag. This is one of my pet peeves - papers just tend to accumulate in there, and I can never find what I'm looking for!
7. Laundry - the never ending task.
8. *Edited to add* - I knew I was forgetting something. Get our tax paperwork prepped, and Turbo Tax installed, so I can start working on the taxes!

That's it for me! What are you planning to accomplish today? 

The one with the overdraft

I knew this would happen one day, & it finally did. Yesterday, we signed the refinance papers on our vacation house, and had to wire the closing funds to our lender. That went off without a hitch. However, Michael had to do the wiring as I had a meeting, & I had the funds in my savings account. I transferred the amount to our shared account & he wired from there. Of course, neither of us noticed that the wire fee has to come out of the account you're wiring from. Despite the instructions we gave to the teller. It was super fun this morning to wake up to the overdraft notice & a penalty. Good times.

Ah, well, lesson learned, I suppose. In other news, I'm so excited that we closed on the refinance! We locked in a great rate (3.75% on a 15 year mortgage) & the goal is actually to pay off the loan in five years. Fingers crossed. M also started the process of paying off his 401K loan, so that should be marked as "finished" in a week or so. Can't wait!

Goals for today:

• Hit the gym. I'm finally able to run a bit, and can't wait to get back into it! I also need to work on my bat wings (aka arms) :-)
• Continue to work on our grocery management system. (My fancy/silly name for starting to predict how much we use of each item, so that we buy on a regular schedule before we run out. End goal = grocery store 1x/week.)
• Clean the fridge! For real, this time. ;-)
• Plan our weekend. We're getting together with friends, the kids have various activities, and we might go skiing.
• Eat well! Less than 1500 calories, and healthy choices.
• Take a bubble bath!

What's on your list for today?

Sunday goals & a recap

Yesterday was a super productive day!

Here's a recap of my to do's

• Soccer at 9:00 am for both kids Done. :-) They each scored two goals.
• Finish wrapping all of my remaining gifts. Done! I do still need to find a gift for my grandmother to give to M (got that? ;-)) as she asked for help shopping. I'll have to wrap that once I decide what to get him.
• Write/address all holiday cards. Done! Still missing a couple of addresses, but I've contacted those folks to ask for updated information.
• Make sugar cookies with the kids. Done! Although, this was an accomplishment really only on "paper", as I tried the Martha Stewart sugar cookie recipe, and tried to use my push in cookie pan (you don't cut the dough with cookie cutters - instead you push it into a pan with shapes made in it). For whatever reason, that was a total failure. We made several batches, adjusted the cooking time, temperature, etc, but they didn't work out. I'll either need a different recipe to go with the pan, or switch to cutters. I was trying to make things easier, since I was baking with a four year old. :-) I'm thinking I'll try this recipe & follow this great blog write up. Too bad I didn't see this yesterday!
• Laundry. Done. But, of course there's more today. Laundry is the task that's never truly done. ;-)  
• Figure out dinner plan. . . We were originally thinking of taking the kids to a Parents Night Out, but it looks like we're staying in instead. Homemade pizzas? We made this amazing chicken pesto pizza recipe, & it was fantastic! I should be making my own crust, but we cheated & bought the Boboli pizza pack from Costco. The kids prefer cheese/pepperoni variations, so they had customized toppings & M & I had the chicken pesto. YUM! I skipped the green onions (I was out), but otherwise made it following the recipe. I diced up some chicken we had on hand, & it was easy & excellent.
• Work out! Done! I did a 40 minute elliptical workout yesterday.

Moving on to today!

1. Menu plan for the week
2. Work out
3. Laundry (again)
4. Pack lunches for tomorrow
5. Decide on/make dinner. I'm off track this week with the menu, & need a plan!
6. Return a couple of things to the mall.
7. Take oldest to swimming lessons.
8. Clean out fridge! It's a disaster.
9. Hit the store for a couple of ingredients for the week.
10. Weekly spending write up.
11. Make banana muffins for the freezer.

What's on your list for today or the week ahead?

Happy Saturday

Hello, all! I'm up bright & early this morning, because I needed to register my kids for their swimming lessons. Of course, after I got up at six am, they postponed the registration. That makes me super pleased. ;-) The company we use is very small, & I try to appreciate the fact that they have technical challenges getting everyone registered. To accommodate for the high demand, they open registration at 6:00 am on Saturdays (meaning they know fewer people will actually do it, so their server capacity can handle it.) It's bad enough that they force me to get up early enough on a weekend, but after I'm up - they can't bring their web site up & have to reschedule. I am a supporter of small business, but please get it together!

Oh well, now I'm off to an early start & can enjoy my coffee this morning.

Here's what's on my list for today!

• Soccer at 9:00 am for both kids
• Finish wrapping all of my remaining gifts
• Write/address all holiday cards
• Make sugar cookies with the kids
• Laundry
• Figure out dinner plan. . . We were originally thinking of taking the kids to a Parents Night Out, but it looks like we're staying in instead. Homemade pizzas?
• Work out!

What are you hoping to accomplish today?

Tales from the grocery store

I generally try to recap what we purchase each week, because I always find it fascinating to see what you folks purchase. I will try & start taking pictures, but I keep forgetting!

M made a Costco run a few days ago, & here's what we ended up with. M spotted a few items that we've been looking for as Christmas gifts, so he picked them up. I also shop for my mom's Christmas gift for the boys, so we will be getting reimbursed for some of it. I'm irritated with myself, because I didn't notice that we had an unopened container of Roma tomatoes in our downstairs fridge. We didn't need the package M bought today, so waste of $4.99. We will definitely be eating a lot of tomatoes this week! Luckily, every one in the family is a tomato fan. ;-)

Produce:

• Tomatoes - $4.99
• Cucumber (3 pack) - $3.79
• Bananas (x2) - $2.78
• Plums - $5.99
• Pineapple - $2.99
• Gala apples - $5.99
• Pears - $5.29
• Honeydew melon - $3.29

Dairy:

• Milk - $4.29
• Organic eggs - $4.69

Christmas gifts:

• Lego Black Pearl Pirate ship - $79.99 (this will be my younger son's "big gift" from Santa)
• Casio Keyboard - $79.99 (this will be my older son's "big gift" from Santa)
• Lego Alien Ship - $49.99 (this will likely be my mom's gift for one of the boys)
• Erector set - $43.68 (this will likely be my mom's gift for one of the boys)

All told, we spent $318.11, with $47.18 spent on groceries & $270.93 on Christmas gifts. In excellent news, I'm done shopping for both of the kids & my husband!

Christmas shopping
For my older son, we got him: several games, a few books, a kids chess set, & his keyboard. For his stocking, we got him a few other books and a toy. For my younger soon, he'll be getting: games, a couple of drawing kits, the lego set, and for his stocking: a few books & a toy. I feel like it's the right balance of fun stuff, practical items (they LOVE books & games), and the right amount of presents for a 4 & 5 year old. (Keep in mind they get plenty of gifts from other family members.)

I also figured out what to get my husband (a running jacket + a watch for running). Practical, but fun little splurges. And, I know he's been coveting this particular Under Armour running jacket, so I found both items online for a great deal & ordered them. Yeah!

Goals for today:
I did work out for 60 minutes yesterday, which made me feel amazing. I also ate well (1500 calories and lots of healthy food choices). The mini daily goals really helped, so here's what's on my list for today.

• Call about an appeal on our tax assessment
• Schedule an appointment for a (free!) massage
• 60 minutes of cardio today
• Arms strength training
• Clean the fridge
• Finish another development project at work
• Hopefully receive the final numbers for our refinance and closing for our vacation house
• 1500 calories or less!