Goal Analysis: To Blog Regularly

So this is another one that is really a few goals in one.  I want to be more organized, enjoy my space and be more grateful.  So really I guess I want what seems to be the idyllic the blogger lifestyle. 

But honestly, I don’t think I can do perfection.  I read what has become the 2015 Food52 Piglet

Contest controversy of the year, in which a food blogger I really enjoy, Adam Roberts  gave his perception and rating of 2 cookbooks.  In the now infamous review, he pokes some fun at MimiThorisson’s A Kitchen in France.  And I loved it!  I hate reading a cookbook where there are more shots of the chef in question than of the food itself.  I’m looking at you, Giada.  Because maybe (maaaaaaaaaaaybe) I can master that recipe, but I will never look like Giada or Mimi.  

But this got a lot of flack with Food52 weighing in, as well as Eater, Design*Sponge and even Mimi herself.

  

Sorry for throwing that many links at you!  I guess the whole thing just left me thinking – yes, I liked Adam’s comic book review, and I have the same issues he does; but at the same time I’m sorry someone’s feeling got hurt.  And her life does look better than mine. And I guess that’s my point.  Even the realistic bloggers have lives that are just unachievable for me.  

Like this morning routine post from Blissfuland Domestic - I was reading, and nodding along and thinking – yep, so true.  When my kitchen sink is clean, I do feel better.  And oh yea, that’s true – my tiny apartment looks so much better just by having the bed made! And then I got to her third suggestion.  My lips tightened and pursed and my eyes narrowed.  Throw a load of laundry on?  Throw a load of laundry on?! And the mental rant began.  Lady! I live on the fifth floor of a walkup, and my nearest laundromat is a block away.  A New York City Avenue block!  So yea, forget living on an idyllic farm in Southern France (with or without marble mantels).  I can’t live the lifestyle of homemaker in Nevada. (Who I respect a lot. She's one heck of a homemaker).

But then it dawns on me… I don’t want either of those lives.  I actually was actually born on a farm.  Southern Missouri, not Southern France, but still.  It’s nice to visit but I know I don’t want that life. I also know that I don’t want to be a homemaker.

I chose New York, and I love it. I am not a perfectionist, but I am particular about certain things.  So… I guess I’ll do what I can, and accept that some things are out of my control (like putting a laundromat in my building, which actually was a tenement building at one point, or having my ceiling fall down).

So revising my vague ‘blog regularly’ goal into something meaningful and actionable, my new goal is to: Post 4 times a week to this blog, with something I cooked, crafted, hung/designed or tried myself, with hopes to make myself more of the person that I actually want to be.  I feel pretty good about that goal. (But my fingers are still crossed!)

Goals - a Reappraisal to Come

So I was feeling kind of down yesterday because I haven’t been keeping up to my goals.  I really have 5 main goals that I am working towards:

• Run 20 miles/ week
• Read 52 books this year
• Blog regularly
• Makeover diet to the ‘Slow Carb Diet’ (and lose 15 pounds and cook more)
• Pay off credit card debt

In the next few days I’ll go into some more detail on the goals are, try and analyze what has worked and hasn’t and come up with a game plan for addressing them.  There are some that having glaring errors in them already… not being specific enough, or one goal encompassing 4 things. Sheesh.

I do think it’s good to recognize when a goal is achieved though, and yesterday I ran 5 miles!  To help with the 20 miles/ week goal I signed up for 2 half-marathon runs this Spring, and the first is  the St. Lukes Half on April 26^th.  My friend Haley invited me to Philadelphia, and I’m excited to see her and go with her.  I managed to break free of the treadmill and run outside which was glorious.  Sadly, the terrain was not quite as steady (read: easy) as my treadmill runs, and my running was pretty inconsistent – I had a few miles faster than my treadmill norm, but I also had a few more walking breaks.  All in all it’s still a win though, and getting out in the Spring sunshine was glorious.

Make a plan... haha

Day 2 of my do something project and I get home to … my ceiling falling down! Ok, that may be a bit dramatic as it’s fairly contained.  

In case it’s hard to tell, there is a radiator in my living room, and based on this I assume there is one in my upstairs neighbors place too. Only theirs seems to be broken as it’s causing a leak throughout my living room.  This is the 3^rd time this has happened this season, although this is far worse than the previous leaks.  I spoke with my super and he wants to fix the problem with the upstairs neighbor before patching this up. (ya think?)  So, it may take a few days.  In the meantime I had to put all my furniture in the next room or pushed against the opposite wall of this fiasco, which was my something of the day.  Still on track... kinda!

just do a little small thing every day

So, the day that I decided to start this chronicling my little life adventures (like, going crazy and actually using the dutch oven I got for Christmas to roast some chicken wings), my apartment looked like this:

In other words, a mess, a disaster, and cornucopia of faults! You can see my bed is unmade, the floor is upswept, and perhaps my most trademark flaw: a hoarding of magazines, books and articles printed from the interwebs.  A recent reminiscence with an old co-worker and she remembered this predilection I had to cover every surface of my desk with paper based material (it had even made it into my performance review that year!)

However, I was feeling a small sense of accomplishment with this piece of work:

I know it does not look like much, but that my dear friends is a rice cooker humidifier!  I had read that this is an easy cheap way to add some moisture to a small room, and living in Manhattan all my space is small.  Lifehacker recommended adding some dried flowers for aromatics.  I don’t really keep dried flowers at hand, but I did have some essential oil and I added a few drops.  My room may look a mess but it smells amazing. Who knows, it may also have increased the moisture content in the air incrementally.  But the point is that it was something.  So I figured, I just need to do a little small thing every day, and hopefully shouting it loud and proud (via this blog) will give push me in that direction.