I had this list of goals some weeks ago

As you might remember I made a list of projects I wanted to do during summer break. Well, summer break is over now so it’s time to look at it again, don’t you think?

1. Actually go on vacation for about a week.
2. “Spring” clean the whole house.
3. Prepare knitting classes for fall.
4. Relax.
5. Teach my son to swim.
6. Edit my 2007 NaNoWriMo-first draft.
7. Paint kitchen.
8. Learn background vocals for songs to be played at friend’s birthday party in mid-August.
9. Learn how to bake bread.
10. Take a picture every day and post it on the internet. For details on this you might want to check out Sue Snaps.
11. Play the piano every day.
12. Sing every day.
13. Play the guitar every day.
14. Finish spindle spun sock yarn.
15. Spin yarn for Vine Yoke Cardigan.
16. Try my hand at doing a knitting podcast.
17. Renovate my blog so that it looks nice again.
18. Meditate every day.
19. Exercise.

Out of these 19 projects I did – eight.

1. We went on vacation for three days instead of a whole week because those there never were more than three consecutive days without rain. We made the most of what we had. Next year we might want to pitch our tent abroad, we’ve had enough of rainy Augusts for now.
2. There was quite a bit of cleaning and tidying of the house but there was no “spring” cleaning as such. Still, it looks much better than before.
3. I did start preparing my knitting classes, then I got distracted, there is still one book I want to read – maybe I should just accept that procrastination and mad-dash improvisation is my style and go for it.
4. I did relax. Yeah me!
5. My son knows how to swim! With the bad weather I didn’t know if he’d ever learn it but then I took him to a gorgeous indoor pool twice, and he did paddle several meters without help. He still looks a bit like a poodle while swimming but he’s clearly getting there. Yay!
6. Editing my first draft? What first draft? Oh, that draft – oops – that must be some where in that pile over there on the desk that’s buried in other piles. I didn’t even take it out once. Don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.
7. The painting of the kitchen was only a faint hope when I put it on the list. We have to have new wiring in the old part of the house, and we don’t want to paint the rooms before that, but we still don’t have the money (or time) to have the wiring done (or even to ask how much it would cost) so we might live in these unpainted rooms for decades. Who knows.
8. I did learn the background vocals, and performed them at said birthday party. For most of the songs I did not have a microphone because the percussion player hijacked it while I wasn’t looking, and so I could have sung anything, nobody heard me anyway. It still was fun but brought back memories of all the bad gigs I have played in my life *shudder*.
9. Bread didn’t happen as well. I wanted to make the famous “No-Knead-Bread” but the thing is you have to make the dough about 24 hours before you want to bake it, and that means planning, and having two days in a row where you have time for baking at the same time of day. That didn’t happen. I still have the flour sitting right there on the counter, and one of these days … I did make cinnamon rolls for the first time, though. They were delicious.
10. I did indeed take a picture every day, and posted it on the internet (not every day). I only forgot once.
11. Not much piano playing.
12. Not much singing either.
13. No guitar playing at all. Teaching on Monday will be great, Mondays it’s almost nothing else but guitar. My fingers will hurt like hell in the evening.
14. Spindle spin sock yarn is done. And it might even be fine enough.
15. I started spinning the yarn for the Vine Yoke Cardigan even though I’m still not that satisfied with it. I spin it to what I think is the right thickness, then I ply it, everything looks great, then I wash it and – bang – it’s twice as plump as before. I think I’m getting it right this time but I’m afraid I will spin it all up and then won’t be able to use it for the cardigan.
16. Knitting podcast is up and on the way.
17. Blog layout is still wonky, sorry.
18. Not much meditation happening but I did write morning pages most days.
19. I did quite well with the exercising, have been running and walking and riding my bike.

I might have to re-think my lists and goals approach one of these days. I still have the feeling that making lists is a good thing but then looking at them to see that most things didn’t happen – not so nice. I might have to check them off more often. Or something. The summer does feel like a good one. Despite the rain that fell most days.

A thing that wasn’t on my list but that happened is that we as a family did a lot of nice things together. We had barbecues, and bike rides, and we went camping and all. That was great. And we all had quite a bit of time puttering around the house as well. That was great too.