"Why Don't You Clean Your Room?" (Spring '12 Edition)

Back in the fall, I reminisced about my youthful boredom, and shared with readers of WPFF that whenever I tried to open up about my boredness with my mom, she would reply with some variation of "Why don't you clean your room?"

Though I'm not currently bored, per se, I suggested that it may behoove me in my role of "male domestic goddess" to have certain tasks--e.g., cleaning my room--to work towards completing by a certain date.  You know, something like g- g- goals (sorry--that word is hard for me to type).

I laid out 6 quests upon which to embark, then recently reflected on my completion (or lack thereof) of said quests.  A couple of posts later, I reflected on my fantasy football draft.  Today, I transition from reflecting to preflecting, as I lay out my challenges for the spring semester of 2012 to you, my faithful accountability partners.

Of course, these are just the tasks I get credit for, for I have designated them "special".  There are plenty of pro bono jobs I do all the time, like make Kool-aid, update our "Now Playing" list on Tivo, and practice personal hygiene.

But the special tasks: To begin with, I get to copy and paste all 6 challenges from the fall.  The 4 challenges that I did pretty well on (1, 2, 4, 5) are ongoing, and the 2 that I didn't do so well on (3, 6) are the ones that, had I completed, could have been scratched off the list.  So here are those 6, amended as needed for the spring.


1.  Blog at least 2x a week.  Not getting off to a very good start here, as I've been at about 1x a week for the last 3 weeks or so.  This challenge is retroactive to January 1.  In other words, I'll need to average about 2.5 posts a week for the rest of the semester to meet this goal.  I know what you're thinking: "Do you think you'll be able to pull that off, Hungry Preacher?"  Yes I do.  "Really?  'Cause that seems like a lot."  I think I can.  "Might you just be kidding yourself?  You tend to overestimate how productive you can be, then get discouraged when you fail to meet your expectations."  Uh, good point.  But I'll go with what I've got, and brace myself for a "I told you so" if we get to that point.  Thanks for your insight, though.
2.  Finish landscaping and lawn-tending that needs to take place in the spring.  Spring lawncare includes seeding bald spots on the lawn, fluffing up the mulch, assessing/implementing further landscaping options, and not being the last person on the block to mow their lawn.
3.  Sort through the boxes of art that my children have created the last couple of years.  Yes, I need to finish this.
4.  Stay social, scheduling at least one lunch or coffee a week.  Off to a good start on this one, averaging about 1 meeting a week so far this year.
5.  Visit the girls' school at least 3x.  Another good start.  I'm actually the leader of the kindergarten-aged Lego Club at the girls school, with the first meeting being this afternoon.  I am SO going to show those kids my Lego building awesomeness, they won't know what hit them.
6.  Burn at least 3 DVD's of video from our computer so as to erase the data and free up disk space.  Plugging along.  Did some editing over the weekend.

In addition to these 6 golden rings, I add:
7.  Finish all filing.  I made a pretty large dent in this in the fall, but there are some lingering stacks that need to be put in their place.
8.  Install outdoor lights on our garage and fix the basement light sockets that need fixing (this needs to happen soon).  Beth bought the outdoor lights when we first moved to our new house, and they've been in their box in the basement ever since.  Meanwhile, a couple of the sockets in the basement have cracked or stopped working.  I have not been able to passively absorb the expertise needed to easily tackle this electrical project, so I'm going to have to get all active on this one.  Which means setting up a play date with my dad, who knows how to do this sort of stuff without getting anyone electrocuted.
9.  Write at least 1 significant email a week.  I'll know "significant" when I write it.  Doesn't have to be long.  But there are lots of people I've been meaning to say hi to via an email, and not everyone can meet for coffee or lunch.
10.  Clean my room.  Literally.  It needs to happen.

So we've gone from 6 target-tasks from the fall, to a baker's dozen minus 3 in the spring.  It's a big jump, but nothing that seems undoable.  Expect a full report in the summer.  For now, I've got a Lego club to prepare for.  15 kindergarteners.  1 Hungry Preacher.  Game on.

-THP