It’s the last week of January and I remain focused on working my way through these goals for 2020. I did decide I would give myself permission to tweak them at the end of each quarter depending on how life is going.
The Senate really needs to wrap up this impeachment stuff because it is seriously derailing my productivity. I’m a history lover and two of my favorite things to learn about are the Constitution and the Presidency. Streaming the Senate live on my Kindle while I do work is both really great and really not great. LOL! Thankfully I have had a lot of “mindless” things I could work on, but they need to wrap this up on Friday.
Have you set some goals for 2020? There are still eleven months to go this year so there is plenty of time to set some goals and work your way through them. Progress can be slow and steady all year. You don’t have to do it all in a week or a month!
Goal 1: Have 20 minutes of Bible, prayer, and quiet time each day.
- I chose to read my Bible each day this week and focus on walking with the Lord throughout the day and not stressing out over a specific quiet time. I’m not giving up my goal. Just giving myself some grace this week.
Goal 2: Read 20 books.
- I have a reading tickler list page that you can see. I read a bit in the book I’ve been reading, but made no more progress on anything else.
Goal 3: Write 20 personal letters and send via snail mail.
- I sent out one personal note this week so I’m up to 5/20 for the year.
Goal 4: Clean out, label, and organize 20 years worth of digital photos.
- I spent about 15 minutes working on this so progress!
Goal 5: Lose 20 pounds.
- Did not check
Goal 6: Lose 20 inches
- I didn’t even measure this week.
Goal 7: Walk 200 miles.
- Nope
Goal 8: Go on one bookstore/coffee shop night out each quarter as a family.
- Not yet
Goal 9: Find 20 new EoE-friendly foods and/or recipes for myself.
- No, but I did LOOK through ideas. I just didn’t try anything.
Goal 10: Clear out the basement once and for all and finally have a crafting area I can use.
- I did about 15 minutes on this.
Goal 11: Increase our family income by 40%.
- Working on it
Goal 12: Reduce our family debt by 20%.
- Working on it
Goal 13: Create 100 new products for my shop.
- We created two new products this week that are in my shop (My Threat Assessment Plans and One Week Food Plan) and one that isn’t yet (Arkansas Clip Art & Digital Papers which will be found in the U.S. States Clip Art section of my shop). We’ve also updated and expanded Texas, South Carolina, Ohio, and Florida. I plan on uploading the new expanded versions this evening. I’ll catch up and post a running tally next week.
Goal 14: Pin 10 posts, pages, or products from my site to my Pinterest boards 3 days a week.
- Got way more than 30 done!
Goal 15: Add 20 new pieces of content to the forums each week.
- I’m pretty sure I met that goal or even surpassed it. I’d love an answer to this question if anyone has one. Has anyone ever used The Great Courses?
Goal 16: Learn how to process and watermark photos for my site.
- I tried out Canva this week, but didn’t get beyond trying it out.
Goal 17: Create 1 product all by my big self (as little Caroline would say).
- Not yet
Goal 18: Add 20 unit study posts to my site.
- I added Chinese New Year so I am 1/20.
Goal 19: Record and release 10 podcast episodes.
- Not yet
Goal 20: Leave 10 comments each week on other blogs.
- Nope so I’m now 0/40. Yikes!
Ticia
We’ve bought several of the Great Courses classes on Audible, but haven’t tried them yet on their app.
We’ve had mixed results with the courses we’ve gotten. A lot of them we’ve loved, but occasionally you’ll get a professor who is slow and plodding or has a very clear bias.
We’re also generally choosing history courses if that matters, military battles, ancient history, etc…
I’ve now got a tab open to check out your geography clip art.
Sallie Borrink
Hi Ticia,
We ended up buying one about French culture and language. Caroline thinks she wants to do French for her two year high school requirement. This looked like it would be a good and inexpensive way ($25) for her to try it out before we commit to something else pricier. David took French in high school so that’s handy.
Some of the history ones look good as well.
Sallie
Erin
Hi Sallie,
Yes, my mother-in-law gets quite a few of The Great Courses so I’ve seen a number of them and used a couple. She unexpectedly bought The Great Courses High School Math DVDs and books for us (Mastering the Fundamentals, Algebra 1, Algebra 2) so I put it on our main bookshelf. Two of my guys ended up going through most of it and really liked it. I really liked it! It felt like you were sitting in a calm, classy lecture hall
listening to the information. The presenter on the DVD (James Sellers – I would recommend him. I believe he is a homeschooling father and has done some work with revisions to Saxon High School math) was calm and clear, giving lots of time to stop and work through the steps and the workbook was straightforward. That was at least 4 years ago though so not sure what might be available now …
That being said, we are quite life learning/self-directed/unschoolish so it depends what the goal is. I think from reading quite a bit of your writing about your home education style that it might be a good fit if you were looking at Math resources.
She also got my daughter the “How to Draw” and I don’t think she has used it much yet but now I’m thinking it might be interesting to have another look at. I asked her if I could have another look at it when I noticed this post but ironically, she had too much art piled on top of it to get it out right away:). Maybe tomorrow – now I’m curious!
Sallie Borrink
Hi Erin,
I will definitely check out that math series for future reference. We’ve got a plan right now that seems to be working, but time will tell. LOL! Lectures that we can stop and start at will would be a good fit for Caroline.
Yes, we are also very “life learning/self-directed/unschoolish” in our approach as well. I’m still not sure how to describe us which is fine for day to day living, but it makes it hard to write about on here because I’m never sure how to word the post titles. LOL!
Sallie