Hello again!
Today I thought I'd post about my summer goals, because it's almost SUMMER!!!! I'm almost done with my finals (In fact, I finished two of them today!), so I'm already functioning in full-on summer mode. One thing you should know about me before I get started is that I LOVE to make lists. I know, it's weird, especially when you realize that I'm not actually a terribly organized or structured person. But I guess I like pretending I am, or trying to convince myself to change my ways and be organized. So that's why you'll probably see lists on this blog every once in a while. I have them in every area of my life! With that out of my way, I'm gonna start listing the self-sufficiency skills I want to gain or improve on over this summer! Enjoy! 1. Grow a garden that's even better than last year's! I love my garden, I love eating the fresh food that comes from it, and I also love working in my garden and watching the plants grow. Each year I try to make my garden the best it can be. I try to make it more organized, weed-free, and healthy for my plants every year. So, my goal this year is to grow the best garden that I've ever done! I plan to keep weeds very minimal this year, fertilize the soil with lots of grass clippings, compost, and coffee grounds, and even sow a cover crop in the fall to care for the soil over the winter. 2. Do a lot of downsizing I'm not a minimalist by any means, nor do I think I will become one, but recently I've become more aware of how much excess I really do have, and how it is cluttering my life and my thoughts. My clutter is mostly physical, with some digital clutter that makes it harder to function as well. This summer I plan to start cracking down on the physical clutter by getting rid of clothes I never wear, using up craft supplies that I've had on hand forever, and finishing the half-started projects that are taking up my work space. I also plan on cleaning up my email inboxes and YouTube "watch later" list. I know everything won't be perfectly cleaned up by the end of the summer, but my goal is to simply make noticeable progress. 3. Finish projects This goal goes along with the previous one quite well! I really want to commit to the sewing/knitting/craft projects I have started, and either see them through to completion or frog/pitch them. I constantly have new ideas and inspiration for more projects, and I can't be bogged down by other ideas that I haven't followed through with. 4. Preserve lots of homemade food Since I will be living in an apartment next year for college, I will not have a campus meal plan, and I'll have my own kitchen and food! That means I'll finally get to eat real, homemade, healthy food when I'm at college! This summer I plan on preserving lots of healthy, local/homegrown food that I can take to college and eat throughout the year. I am super excited about this goal because I will still be able to practice for my future self-sufficient lifestyle, where college would get in the way of that before! 5. Get better at cooking This goal goes along with the previous one. If I will be eating all this homegrown/local, healthy goodness, I'll need to know how to prepare it! I plan on finding lots of recipes that I can put in my arsenal for all those school nights next year. I also plan on improving my cooking skills by practicing over the summer. I'll also practice meal planning on a weekly basis, since I plan on doing that next year at college too. The meal-planning is kind of a sub-goal under this goal. 6. Learn to tat Don't know what tatting is? It's basically a really old technique for making lace, usually out of a thin thread or embroidery floss. I know it's not super practical for this day and age, but it's really pretty and it just enchants me, so I really want to buy a bit of the thread and a tatting shuttle/bobbin and check out some library books about it. I figure it will be a good rainy day hobby. And I might even get some pretty lace out of it! 7. "Early to bed, early to rise" This goal is going to be SUPER hard for me! I am such a night owl, sometimes I do my best work at 2am! But since I have 8am classes 5 days a week next fall, I am going to use the summer as my training time to make myself a "morning person". My goal schedule is to go to bed at 10pm each night, and wake up at 6am each morning. It's going to be very painful at first, but I'm hoping it will get easier as the weeks and months pass. I'm counting this as a self-sufficiency/homesteading skill because I will need to wake up early when I eventually have livestock and other homesteading chores to take care of early in the day. If I start this lifestyle now, perhaps it will become a habit by the time I finally have a full-functioning self-sufficient homestead. Well, those are most of the goals I am planning on working on this summer! I'm definitely not going to reach perfection in any of them, but I'm not shooting for perfection; I'm shooting for progress. Hopefully I'll remember to do another post about this at the end of summer, and I'll tell you how I did on all these goals! If you would like to read updates on all these goals throughout the summer, leave a comment to let me know and remind me! Also, what goals are you working on in this season of your life? It would make me super happy to hear about them in the comments! Don't be afraid to be creative, Nicole
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AuthorI am a college student who loves being creative and resourceful. I have passions for knitting, subsistence farming, Scripture memory, and anything creative! I hope this blog will prove to be a good creative outlet for me, and inspiring for you! Archives
January 2018
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