How the 2012 Goals Turned Out....

Readers might remember that I set up a List of personal Hopes/Goals for 2012 back in January.
This post is my End of the Year Check-In for my list and to see how I did(or didn't do) on the Goals I set out to accomplish 12 months ago.

Sluggy's Personal List of Goals for 2012

1.  Get all the tax and college Paperwork completed and filed by the end of February.
PASS....one of the few things I can totally cross off the list until next year...which starts in less than a WEEK.  LOLOL

2.  Convert all my vinyl LPs to CDs and purge the LPs from my life.
FAIL on the record digitizing.
Six months into the year, I changed that Goal to Digitizing all my photographs, since I purchased a handheld scanner with a gift card I received for Christmas in 2011.  I have stacks of scrapbooks from my mother plus a stack of scrapbooks from when my kids were small to digitize.  In the last 6 months I scanned 2 whole books worth of photos.  I am VERY far behind but I "AM" working on this project.  I didn't realize it was such a large project and I misjudged the amount of time involved.  
This "new" Goal goes onto the list of Projects for 2013.

3.  Continue to Declutter everywhere.  Finish the garage and move what's in the living room into the garage so that the house is 100% done by April.  Be out of the storage unit by December.
FAIL--well, the house is NOT 100% done yet so that's a fail.   
I have continued to declutter in 2012 but it hasn't been nearly what I did in 2011 and it's not done yet.  I didn't reopen the eBay store until November, so I didn't sell off all the sellable items yet.  I still have things in the storage unit.  
I need to throw this Goal onto 2013 as well.

4.  Complete 4 house projects in 2012.  2 inside/2 outside
FAIL.  Projects identified and the cash is there, but we haven't pulled the trigger yet on any of them.  I need to sit down with Hubs and set up a step-by-step process for getting these projects done in 2013.

5.  Read 20 books this year.
FAIL.  I read 6 books.  Most years I read much more.  I just wasn't feeling it in 2012.

6.  Rework the stockpile.  Make it healthier and more compact.
PASS.  I reorganized and thinned it twice in 2012.  I loaded up Oldest son Thursday evening with stockpile items to take back to school and I'll make a pass through the stockpile on Sunday again and glean some more items to give to the B-I-L.  

7.  Finish up the eBay sales by May.
FAIL  
I shut down eBay before Christmas 2011 and didn't do any eBay sales this year until November.  I will sell for 3 more months(Jan-Mar. 2013) and then shut it down for good.

8.  Get the sewing going again.  Go through projects in-progress and alterations pile and get rid of stuff.  Sew clothes for myself for a change!
FAIL
I did nothing except hems some pants for Hubs and daughter, and finish some pj pants for daughter. 

9.  Get the Etsy Store up and running. 
FAIL
Just didn't get to that one at all.


10.  Spend more time with family, especially Hubs.
PASS  Have taken a couple of vacations with Hubs alone in 2012.  Have tried to spend time with the kids with mixed results.  Oldest has been home a total of 9 days in 2012.  Daughter moved home in May so we've been working on our relationship and I think it is better.  Youngest tries to spend as little time as possible with us, since he's almost 17. lol

I need to face the fact that our "kids" are now past the ages of doing things together as a family.  Oldest moved out basically when he left for college in 2009 and has only come home for brief visits since.  Summers he spent living/working at summer camp so he wasn't home when school ended for the year.  Daughter is living at home this school year but is wanting to move out into an apartment as soon as it's feasible.  At least she'll be nearby.  #2 Son is busy with school, band, driving, trying to get a 'real' job and his girlfriend so he's about to fly from the nest too.

11.  Lose 40 lbs...there, I said it!  Now I have to do it!!
FAIL.  I lost 7 lbs.  At least I didn't gain.....ugh.  I need to get more serious with this one in 2013.


12.  Continue the Savings Challenge with a goal of $20K for 2012.
PASS.  We hit the goal and then some!  We have $26,000.00+ saved right now and I haven't added in December's money yet.

13.  Continue to be Frugal whenever possible and live well below our means!
PASS.  We spend way below our means each month generally.  In a bad/expensive month, we still spend less than we make, though sometimes with not a lot of room to spare.
I know we could have been more frugal sometimes, but I'm happy with our general level of frugality.

14.  Take at least 1 REAL vacation and ENJOY IT!
PASS.  Hubs and I took 2 short vacations.  They were short, but not jam packed and we just did what we felt like doing at the moment.  They were low stress trips.

So, in the end, 2012 was a real mixed bag of result for me.
I Failed more than I Passed this year.......an 8 to 6 ratio.

 I was just not as ambitious as I thought I'd be and bit off more than I could finish.  
As I look ahead to my Goals for 2013 this weekend, I'll mull over how realistic my expectations were in 2012.

 How did you do on your Goals for the 2012?
Sluggy

Time for Another Brain Dump....Birthday Edition

*  Lately I have been feeling like the giant hand of the Universe has got me by the leg and has been twirling me in the air, at a high rate of speed and then letting me go.  At this point the laws of matter have stopped applying to me and all the molecules that make up my body fly off like a billion tiny little ball bearings into space.
Ok....that's just my crazy way of saying I feel bad physically and mentally I've lost my center.

I'm so unfocused mentally and I can't do beyond basic functioning.  My thoughts are scattered, my energies are scattered.  I have so many 'things' to see to, but I can't seem to settle my brain enough to concentrate on a consistent thought long enough to accomplish any thing.

My eBay store is sitting empty.  I have tax papers all over the dining room table.  Bags of Sallie's donations sit in the garage.  I still don't have my Goals for 2012 worked out yet. And I can't even find the energy to pick up after myself or clean the house.  There is no forward movement on anything around here!
If I had some energy at all, my current state would drive me nuts.
ugh.

*  After posting last week about Mark and his family's plight I noticed I lost a few followers.
Now the timing may just be coincidence......or not.  And I didn't even think that my dwindling numbers of fans was because of my supporting of a 'gay' issue until Mark mentioned that taking a 'pro gay rights' stand on an issue might cause this kind of backlash with some folks. I didn't see it that way, because frankly I don't see his case as a gay rights issue but rather as a human rights issue.  If what someone does is not hurting you or someone else, why the fleck should you care what they do in the privacy of their own lives?  Do I have to give my "fill in the topic is like a penis" speech again?!?
Let's be loving on each other, not hating.

*  My long anticipated Couponing Seminar....ok, it was really more like a Talk than a Seminar....happened yesterday.  I couldn't sleep the night before, due to nerves and the fact that I was fighting off a sinus infection.  I was scared I would lose my voice halfway through it because of the throat issues I was having.
Even with my before mentioned scattering energies issue above, I was able to cobble something together at that last minute, that sounded halfway coherent and rational.
And I want to thank each one of you who offered thoughts and advice last week on how to approach this thing. I appreciate and took under advisement everything you all said! 8-)

Of course since it's a subject I intimately know and it is well known that given the opportunity I will talk until given "The Hook" and yanked offstage, I did babble on a very long time.  And yet, I still didn't cover everything that was pinging off the walls inside my head.
The best thing was that most of the crowd(and the gal in charge did say it was a rather large crowd, so they must have been interested in the subject matter)enjoyed it and I feel got something out of what I droned on and on about.  This certainly must has turned some off of the idea of couponing and living frugally within a budget but I'm hoping it might have sparked at least a few to explore the subject matter and take steps to change how & how much they spend at the stores.

Since we didn't get around to the nitty and the gritty of matching up sales to Qs and planning a shopping trip I offered to work one-on-one with anybody who wanted more assistance and shared my email addy.  I don't need to do this to make an income, so I can afford to be altruistic with it.  If I can help people save money and time then I am happy to help.

*  My Birthday is tomorrow.  It sucks because I am feeling physically sick(along with that mental exhaustion thing I have going on).  I thought it was the flu, as Hubs was down with a bad cold/flu bug last week.  I think mine is more of a sinus infection though.  #2 Son stayed home from school yesterday as he was feeling ragged and slept all day long.  We told him to stay home tomorrow(which would be today)as well and take the weekend to get better.  3 hours later, as I was typing some of this missive late last night, he came downstairs and promptly threw up all over the downstairs bathroom.
Charming.

So feeling sickly, cleaning up puke and having a Birthday got me into a morose mood and all I can think about now is.....

How the hell did I get this old?
Can somebody tell me please!
I'm watching videos of songs from my youth and I feel like that 16 year old teenager inside, who heard these songs the first time, but the face looking back at me in the mirror is some alien I don't recognize.
Whoever stole my youth, I would appreciate it's return, pronto!
No charges will be pressed and there might be a small reward in it for you. ;-)

*  SonyaAnn got me thinking with her "Bullets Post" of a couple of days ago.  She shared some personal stuff about herself, as well as some wacky anecdotes regarding her life.
I think I want to try something like that on this old blog too.

I started drafting a list of "Things You Don't Know About Me" back in September and I've been adding to it over the months now, when I get inspired.  I am thinking about making it a regular feature with it's own page.  When I add an item on my list,  I'll post and talk about that item.
I must warn you that most of the stuff is silly and weird, but some of the stuff is really really personal.  It may be uncomfortable to read since some of it's not "happy stuff" and I'm not totally sure I want to share those things with every heavy breather weirdo with internet access across the global.
But on the other hand, I'm an old lady and I've got nobody to impress any more, no career to protect and I'm at the age where I can't give a crap what anybody thinks of me or knows about me(mostly), so I may just let this rip.  Any thoughts from anyone on doing this?  Would you?

* The blog stats this week haven't changed much.  I will tell you that if you want search hits, mention Mormons on your blog.  Mormons are "hot".
I am still getting many many hits from "cat hoarding" and "cat hoarders".  Why specifically cat hoarding??  Why not dog hoarding.....or teapot hoarding......or money hoarding.  You would think that if I mentioned Mormon Hoarding I would rake in the blog hits, huh?
Another top search word this week has been Joe Btfsplk.  Who knew so many people search this name/word online??lol
And another strange current stat I found......the country with my second highest hits are located in.....Slovenia.  I'm far from the world's answer to Sherlock Holmes but putting two and two together..... it just occurred to me that maybe there are a lot of folks named Btfsplk in Slovenia? ;-)

Of course, NOW I've offended the country of Slovenia.
There go my page views!......


I think it would be fun to post once a week on the blog some random topic, just to see what kind of keyword page hits it would generate, wouldn't you?

* And I leave you with an awesome site to check out.  Most of the online planet has heard of "etsy".  You know it....that eBay-esque site for selling handcrafted and vintage items.
Well let me introduce you to Regretsy.
This is the dregs and "bottom of the weird barrel" from etsy and other online sales sites, or as the site's owners describe it, "Where DIY meets WTF".
It's a great time waster and good for adding a few chuckles to your day.  I especially liked their Christmas Advent Calendar last month, where they daily added a horrible "why would anyone buy that as a gift for someone else?!?!" handmade Christmas gift that was for sale somewhere in cyberspace.
Hys-pee your pants funny-terical!

I bet when folks from Slovenia aren't googling Joe Btfsplk, they are buying and selling Regretsy-worthy crafts.

Heading back to bed now.  Don't make me have to come back on here and yell at any of you crazy kids!
There!!.....NOW I sound like my age.

Sluggy