Looking Back at 2016 Goals

At the beginning of 2016, I posted a list of projects and goals for 2016.  As a way of reviewing 2016 and following up on my previous post, I thought I would do a review of that list.  Next week I hope take a look at my goals for 2017.

Successes

Start Here: 20 Principles Live Online Video Discussion - This has been a little tricker than I had expected, because there's been a number of people who signed up but who either had to drop out or just don't come.  And discussions don't work as well when people don't come!  At this point we have two active discussion groups, and we decided to run them as open groups where people can join in any month.  We've picked up some new members, and we have a reasonably decent number of participants.  

Charlotte Mason Conference(s) - This one has been rather challenging, and has had a lot of twists and turns!  Celeste and I ended up having a very successful retreat last spring, and now we're set to have a conference in the Bay Area in February (CM West :: Conference in the Redwoods).  The conference sold out in about three weeks and now has a very healthy waiting list, so that is extremely encouraging.  There will also be a Seattle Charlotte Mason conference in September, and we expect to start selling tickets for that in the spring.  I hope that it has the same sort of reception that the Bay Area conference had!

Shakespeare Co-op - This has gone very well.  We had a good group in the spring session, and an even bigger group for the fall session.  I moved the meetings to a park in Auburn for the fall session, and that made it possible to have a bigger group and made it more centrally located for participants.  

Sorting Books - Other than taking forever, this project is complete and I ended up getting rid of a good 1/3 of our books.  I also was able to get some new bookcases, so we actually have quite a few empty shelves!  It is always good to have room to expand, right?

Reorganizing the Study - I conquered this over the summer, and am generally pleased with the results.  I also made my second son very happy by making room for a guinea pig cage in the Study.  He's wanted pets for ages, and while he still would like a dog, a cat, and chickens, he at least has some critters to care for and hold.  I also completely went through our craft cabinet and consolidated the supplies such that each of the three older children can have a shelf of their own for works in progress and personal items.  This has been such a big help in keeping the table clutter at bay.  

Girls' Bedroom Re-do - This turned out well, and the girls are quite pleased with their new furniture, trim and bunk beds.  Next time though I'm going to buy a pre-finished bunk bed rather than an unfinished one...

Somewhere In Between

Teaching from Rest Live Online Video Discussion - I wanted this to be a more local discussion, with the hope that the people in it could potentially meet up.  I had a lot of interest, but very few people actually showed up to the discussions, which was disappointing.  Initially I thought there was enough interest for two discussions, but no one came on the second time slot, even though there were at least 4-5 women who signed up.  The discussions that did happen were generally good though, and while it hasn't created any new friendships, it did help to deepen an already existing friendship.

Failures

Nature Study in Nevada County - This just didn't work out.  I had a good turn-out for the first one, but none of them came back the second time!  I think there were few reasons for this.  First, I didn't provide clear direction for a stopping point, so they ended up stopping at a not so great spot instead of at the pond as I had intended and mentioned at the beginning.  I was with a two year old who adamantly wanted to walk, so I couldn't provide clear direction during the walk.  I also didn't provide very good leadership about what we were trying to do.  Were we out for exercise?  To take a walk with other families? Were we supposed to be looking for something in particular?  I also didn't communicate clearly the value of returning to the same spot the following month.  There seemed to be a general sense of, "oh, we've been there, we don't need to do that again" and a slight spark of interest in perhaps meeting up at another spot in a different month.  I had one family come for several months then drop out, another come once and not again, and another talk about coming month after month and never actually ever coming.  Clearly a lack of communication of vision on my part had a lot to do with the failure of this project.  Perhaps if I had figured out how to communicate the value of nature journaling and exploration more effectively to people who aren't already on board, as well as found new avenues for advertising the group I might have been more successful.  

On the plus side, however, I did find a group of CM educators in the greater Sacramento area over the summer and we've been meeting once a month since July.  In the Summer we met by the American River in Fair Oaks, and in the Fall we moved up to theAuburn State Recreation Area.  I much prefer the meeting place in Auburn as it is about an hour from me instead of an hour and a half, as well as being more scenic.  Also, it is far easier to get together with a group of people who already understand the whys and hows of nature journaling than starting from scratch!

First Saturday Adoration and Social - I had high hopes for this one, but then I found that the bulletin is out of date, and the church in the next town over doesn't actually have Adoration on the first Saturday.  I might be able to get something going in Auburn (really, what is it with Auburn?  That seems to be the place I need to go to make anything work - too bad it is at least 50 min away) but then that's another day I need to be driving down there, and in the evening too so I haven't tried.

New Projects

Surprisingly, there weren't that many substantial new projects that cropped up in the course of the year.  As I mentioned, I started participating in a new nature study group.  I also helped start a new online discussion group where we are reading through Charlotte Mason's second volume.  This one is through CM West, and has had a good response - better than the 20 Principles discussion.  We have more people signed up for it and usually have more participants as well.  I also ended up helping a little with the CMI Western Conference in August of 2016, and really enjoyed attending it.

Around the house, I went through papers over the summer as well, which was nice to get done.  If I'm remembering correctly, "all" I have left in Kondo's method is the miscellaneous.  I've made a start on that with the craft cabinet and the pantry, but there's still other looming areas like the hutch, the top shelf of my closet, my fabric collection, and more boxes in storage.

Goals: Interval 11 - Many Things Come to a Head

I decided to change how I'm writing my goals post, and instead I'm going to share with you my interval plan in brief.  It is the same information, but I think it will be less as repetitive than what I've been posting.  I will also be posting this at the end of each six week interval rather than monthly.

I learned this concept of Interval Planning from Mystie Winkler and her absolutely wonderful Simplified Organization course.  This course was so incredibly valuable for me and I cannot recommend it highly enough.  (I should note that according to her recommendations, I have one too many projects listed below, and probably too many tasks too.  And I think in this interval my tasks are probably larger than they should be.  But such things happen sometimes, and I'm going to try and rein myself in a little bit in the next interval.)

I start each interval write-up with a habit I want to focus on for this six week period.  I'm tracking the habits I've chosen so far this year in the Way of Life app.  So far my morning walk habit is quite well established, my serving dinner at 5:30 habit needs a lot of work, and my new habit, everything turned off by 9:45 habit is doing pretty well. (Except, well, tonight.  Oops.)

Habit:  Everything turned off by 9:45

Projects:

- CM West :: Retreat at the Beach

This is in just a few days, and Celeste and I are doing really well with our talks and planning and everything.  I have a bunch of tasks dealing with food prep and shopping to do in the next few days, but other than that, this project is looking really good.  Hooray for incremental progress and advance planning!

- Video Chat Start Here: 20 Principles Study

Hmm, yes, need to get going on this one.  But after the retreat.

- Bay Area CM Retreat

I think we have a date, but I need to double check it with the location and start working on a contract this interval.  Hooray!

- SoCal trip & Wedding prep

We have a wedding coming up at the end of the month and we'll be doing a little traveling too.  I'm still working on getting all the wedding clothes together, but I'm making progress.  And then there's packing lists to make and other such details...  Perhaps this doesn't seem like much of a progress, but anything that involves buying specific types of clothes for five children is definitely a project for me! 

Tasks:

* Teaching from Rest prep

We have our last meeting this month, and while I'm glad I did this and I think this idea has a lot of promise, I need to figure out how I can encourage more people to join in on the discussions.  After a recent conversation, I'm wondering if a downside to these video chats is that they feel too much like online webinars, where you can sign up and then get a replay later with little diminishment to the experience.  But since these are supposed to be real discussions rather than webinars, it really matters if people don't show up, and there isn't a replay you can listen to later while folding laundry.

* CMI Western Conference

I've been helping a little with the planning for the CMI Western Conference which will be in the LA area from Aug 3-6 this summer.  I will most likely need to be taking a more active role sometime soon, once registration opens (hopefully this month!) and things really get rolling.

* Shakespeare Play prep & Potluck

We'll have our performance this weekend, and I think it is going to turn out really well.  I'd like to write a post about how we've done Shakespeare in a group this year, but that'll probably not happen until early May.

* Continue to work on books

Ahem.  Yes.  Still not done.  But I've donated some 10+ paper bags of books to the Friends of the Library, sold a few, and sent more off via PaperbackSwap.  I still have a few boxes from storage to sort, and several more to go through to decide if they are worth selling or swapping.

More Charlotte Mason Conferences and a Project Update

It is the beginning of the month, which means it is time for a little update with you all regarding the projects and goals I shared in January.  And for the sake of thoroughness, here's the February update.

Community Building

CM West :: A Beach Retreat filled faster than I had hoped, and we now have a waiting list.  Yay!  I'm a little nervous, which I can tell because I keep having dreams where I am going to the house and it is either completely different from the pictures, dirty, or I just can't find it at all.  But the house is beautiful, and I'm sure it will be a great weekend.  There's lots to do in the meantime, but it is also a lot of fun to work on, particularly because I'm working on it with Celeste.

And also on the Charlotte Mason front, some other wonderful women and I are working on putting together two regional Charlotte Mason conferences in 2017.  I sent out a little bit of information over the weekend to the Charlotte Mason West email list, announcing the conferences and asking for an advance deposit to help cover the deposits we need to make to reserve the locations.  I am not anticipating a huge response, but it seemed worth trying and every little bit helps.

The pond at our nature study spot.  Can you see the geese at the far right?

Nature Study in Nevada County met again in February, and this time a new family came...  but none of the others who where there in January!  We had a wonderful time though and explored a cattail, watched a frog, fish, and geese, and the kids had a great time climbing on the rocks and exploring.  It is such a beautiful location and we're perfectly happy to go there once a month even if no one else joins us.  But it is great to have company!

Cattail seeds - I have never seen them explode before and I was completely amazed!

The Teaching from Rest Live Online Video Discussion had two discussion times for the same material in February to accommodate people's schedules, but no one ended up coming to the second discussion.  So, in the interest of simplicity, I'm just going to do the discussion once each in March and April.  We had a good discussion and the technology seemed pretty easy for everyone to figure out, so I definitely count it as a success.

I'm going to start some preparation for the Start Here: 20 Principles Discussion in March, but I am still not planning on beginning sign ups until April.  I'm trying to figure out what I've learned from the Teaching from Rest discussion experience as well as figure out just exactly how I want to publicize it.

The Shakespeare Co-op was off to a slow start until my dear friend Katherine asked if she could extend the invitation to some people she knows down in her area.  We ended up picking up three more families, and we had a very successful first meeting in February.  We'll have two more in March, then another in April along with our final performance.  

Our Home

I'm still plugging away on sorting books, but I'm just about done.  There are still a couple of boxes of books in storage that I need to get down, but I've gone through all the books that are out in various places in the house.  I've also sorted most of the books into give away and try to sell.  I'm hoping to drop off at least some of the give aways to the Friends of the Library as well as share some of the Catholic books at our Religious Education program tomorrow.

Most of the culled books (eek!)

CM West :: A Beach Retreat and a Goals and Projects Update

In the interests of accountability, I'd like to share a little update with you all regarding the projects and goals I shared about a month ago.

Community Building

CM West :: A Beach Retreat is live and accepting registrations!  I'm very excited about this small, Charlotte Mason style retreat that Celeste and I are hosting in April.  We announced yesterday, and already have more than half our registration slots booked.  I think it is going to be fantastic.

Nature Study in Nevada County met for the first time in January, and we had a good turn out.  I was hoping we'd get a few more older kids, but I'm also very glad people showed up!  The next one is February 15th.

I had a decent response to the Teaching from Rest Live Online Video Discussion announcement last month and I ended up scheduling two chat times for this group because of how availability worked out.  The first sessions will meet later this month, and will continue through March and April.

I haven't moved forward with the Start Here: 20 Principles Discussion yet, but that's because I'm not planning on starting until April.  So that is still going according to plan, even though I haven't done anything!

The Shakespeare Co-op has not received the welcome I had hoped for though, as only one other family will be able to join us.  I am thankful that they are interested, but I was hoping we'd have at least one or two more families as well.  Our first meeting will be on Feb. 19th.

The First Saturday Adoration and Social is a non-starter, as Adoration doesn't actually happen on the first Saturday at my parish.  It is just listed in the bulletin, and has been for ages.  Ahem.  

Our Home

Books on the left are weeded books,
on the floor on the right are to be sorted,
and the bookshelf closer is all sorted,
the bookshelf farther is about half done.
I've also sorted a smaller one in my room, but
then there's still 3 smaller bookshelves of fiction
and one more bookshelf downstairs left.
Maybe I'm just a third of the way done?

As I mentioned in my first post, my first project was going through the books.  At this point I'm almost halfway done, and I have accumulated a prodigious pile of weeded books.  I've also realized that the real struggle is going to be in trying to figure out what to do with these books that didn't make the cut. Some are worth selling, but many will need to go to the Friends of the Library.  I'll probably try to bring a box of Catholic books to the religious education program we attend, although I feel a little awkward about it because I feel like I'm saying, "here's some books I didn't think were worth keeping on my shelves, but maybe you'll like them".  There's got to be a better way to say that!

Looking Ahead at 2016

I feel a little conflicted about sharing my goals and projects for 2016.  I suppose it is largely pride that holds me back, the fear of looking like an idiot if I manage to do very little of what I set out to do.  But in an effort to keep that pride in check, I'm going to share this anyway.  My goals and projects fall largely into two areas, community building and our home.

I hadn't planned on choosing a word for 2016.  But as I was praying in Adoration on Sunday, I knew I had a word for the year anyway.  Something similar happened to me in 2013, when the word was Hospitality.  And that was the year when I had my hardest pregnancy and I learned a lot about what hospitality is and isn't, and about how to accept hospitality and ask for hospitality, and how to handle accepting hospitality only to find that the well intentioned people don't follow through.  There was a lot of good growth (and, really, I'm still processing some of the things that happened that year), but it certainly wasn't what I expected at all.

So with that background, I'm feeling some trepidation about my word for this year.  The word is Persistence.   So as you read through these goals and projects below, keep that word in mind, and perhaps say a little prayer for me.  Something tells me I might need it.

Community Building

Nature Study in Nevada County - I'm starting a monthly nature study group at a local nature reserve.  I've already started to publicize it, it'll be on the third Monday of each month.  I've also started a Yahoo group to help organize it.  I'm committing to going each month, rain or shine, for all of 2016.  My hope is by the end of the year that there will be 12 people on the Yahoo group and at least 4-5 families showing up each week.  But frankly, I'll be thrilled if even one other family shows up each month.

Teaching from Rest Live Online Video Discussion - I want to facilitate a three month study of Sarah Mackenzie's Teaching from Rest, using Google Hangouts or Skype.  I'm hoping to do this with people who live at least near-ish to me, so there's the possibility that we could meet in person.  I hope to start this in February.  I don't know if I'll even be able to get this off the ground, but I'm hoping I can find at least two to three people who will commit to it.  If you're interested, let me know!

Start Here: 20 Principles Live Online Video Discussion - In the same vein as above, using Brandy's 20 Principles study guide.  I'm hoping to start this in April or May.  I think doing a group like this could be really great for people like me who live rurally and just can't get enough people together to have a discussion group locally.  It could be a great way to still have that immediacy of conversation but without the driving and child care hassles.  Again, if you're interested, let me know!

Charlotte Mason Conference - This has proved more challenging than I expected, back when I volunteered at the end of the Seattle conference to head up a conference in Northern CA for fall of 2016.  Suffice to say, there are still plans in the works, but it is looking like there will be a California conference in Southern CA in the summer rather than one in Northern CA in the fall.

Shakespeare Co-op - I held a Shakespeare co-op at my house in the fall which culminated in the performance of an abridged version of The Tempest.  It was a success, and I am planning on doing something similar in the spring and perhaps the fall as well, if I can get people interested in coming out here.

First Saturday Adoration and Social - Years ago I read a wonderful book called A Haystack Full of Needles and one of her suggestions was setting up a time where teens (and parents) could be at Adoration together for an hour, then go to a local ice cream shop or restaurant for some social time.  I filed that away, and now I'm ready to bring it out and dust it off as we have a teenager and our youngest can be put to bed without my intervention.  I expect to start this in February.

Our Home

Due to various issues and circumstances such as pack rat tendencies, difficulty in saying no, lack of time and mental energy to tackle dealing with possessions and the like, we've dug ourselves into a position where we just have Too Much Stuff.  I read Marie Kondo's book over the summer and it was a big help.  (Yes, some of it is decidedly odd, but I don't have to thank my socks to still find a lot of usefulness in her book and methods)  And perhaps more importantly, my husband read Kondo's book over the summer and is on board.  I've since gone through everyone's clothes as well as all the hand me down clothes in storage and drastically reduced what we have.  And it feels great.  I'm going to go through the rest of the house in 2016.  Next up, books!  

This summer I want to revamp our study/school room.  Right now the school age kids and I all have individual desks, but the kids use them far more for piling than for working.  We also are storing the craft supplies on a different floor of our house, which is not working well at all.  The other problem is that my children prefer to create things in three dimensions - I'm not drowning in paper over here, I'm drowning in popsicle stick catapults and airplanes, cars made from wood and plastic lids, balls of yarn, and various findings and salvagings that are just waiting for inspiration to strike.

We also need to redo our oldest daughter's room to put in trim (we were owner builders, so most of the house does not have trim, as we didn't need trim to move in.  But once we moved in, we largely stopped working on the house because we had been living and breathing working on the house for two years and needed a break.  But here we are, six years later...  and, well, I would really like trim!) We also need to make room for her younger sister, who is currently in a porta-crib in our bedroom.  That'll be a summer project too.

And then in the fall we're going to continue the trim project, this time in the hearth room.  Yay!