Monthly Goals: May 2018

One third of the year has vanished. I have 8 months left to turn an overdraft into a surplus, revamp my son’s room and go on my first single parent holiday, among other things.

I need to calm down in May, in fact that should probably be one of my goals but it isn’t. Here are May’s goals:

Motherhood

Enjoy our first camping trip!

I have very useful friends – one is a seasoned pro when it comes to camping. She’s offered to take little dude and me on our first camping trip in May. It’ll just be for one night but hopefully I’ll be better prepared for the biggie in August.

Enjoy half term together

We get 2 weeks for the summer half term and I’ve got the first one booked off. Nothing planned, but I’m looking forward to some proper time off together for the first time since Christmas.

Tidy up time each day

Little dude is showing the teeniest hint of being open to the idea of helping out at home at the moment, so I’m going to capitalise on that. It’s not just for him – it’ll force me to tidy up at the end of the day too! Just a few minutes putting everything away in the lounge and his bedroom should do it. Small steps.

 

Home

Sort through the Ikea bags

The Ikea bags of clutter. There are 3 in total, I want them gone.

Get the bathroom window fixed

With me to chase up the Landlord’s handyman.

Keep up with the weekly clean

The house is looking OK at the moment and I don’t want to let it slide back into chaos.

 

Relationships

Celebrate Mum’s birthday

Enjoy our camping weekend

A duplicate of the motherhood goal as we’ll be going with friends – in total there will be 4 adults and 2 children.

Ring my Aunty and Uncle

Not checked in with them since Easter.

 

Finances

Don’t take my purse when I’m going out at lunch

I like to go out for a walk at lunch but I always spend money, even if I’ve brought my lunch in from home. This will help me resist temptation – unless there’s something specific I actually need to buy.

Buy sleeping gear for camping

At least I know this is one goal that will definitely be achieved as there’s no way I can go camping without anything to sleep on. I need a sleeping bag for me and 2 single airbeds. And a pump.

No treats – NONE!

I really need to reign it in if I’m going to turn my finances around this year. So I’m not allowed to buy anything for myself that’s not absolutely necessary. The only thing I need is a pair of work shoes (and I have a voucher towards that).

 

Career

Do a good job of covering for my boss

My boss is on annual leave for 3 weeks. The department managers won’t hesitate to throw me under a bus if I mess up unfortunately (or even if they mess up), so the pressure is on!

 

Health & Appearance

Look after my dodgy tooth

Overall my teeth are good, but I’ve got a permanent retainer behind my bottom front teeth and I struggle to reach them with floss. Now one of them is dying! So I’ve got a collection of brushes and pokey-things and I need to give it some extra TLC forevermore. This goal is to get into that habit.

Drink 1 litre of water each day

In April I managed 800mls which is still an improvement from the 300mls daily average at the start of the year!

Learn two more yoga poses

The two I’m focusing on are downward dog and runners lunge. I can do them both but with very bent knees, so I’d like to improve considerably.

 

Wellbeing

Do more knitting

Knitting chills me out, which is lovely at the end of the day and I’m going to need to chill out this month!

Finish my book

I’m reading a great book at the moment and I’d like to finish it because, as with the knitting goal above, it means I’ll be taking time out to calm myself down at the end of each day

Help out at the PTFA coin day

My task is to count a bucket of small coins out. It might seem like the last thing I should be doing in May is saying yes to things, but I can do this in my own time in the evening and it means I can say no to the school disco and Reception parents’ induction evening, both of which would have needed me to arrange child care.

 

So, May is on. The two main sources of stress are money and work – which are two very big areas. The rest is designed to give me some respite from those things – spending time with loved ones, keeping on top of the chores so they don’t get overwhelming and taking time out at the end of each day.