2 Outta 12- Monthly Update

The short month of February flew by in a blink of eye, and here I am giving another monthly update as to how I’m doing on my New Year’s goals. So how am I doing two months into 2011 or should I say the .1666666666… of a year? Well, everything seems to be progressing…




I’m ahead on my saving schedule by a whopping $35. Not a big amount I will admit but every little thing helps. I think that a majority of the extra money is due to less being taken out in FICA. A small thank you to those in Congress who decided to take a little less out of my two paychecks per month. Since I haven’t seen a pay raise in almost two years, it’s kind of nice to see a little more. In fact, I asked after I got my first check wondering if my employer had actually decided to give out a small bit of a raise. Nope came the answer less being taken out of the paycheck. But it’s still nice getting a bit of a break. I filed my taxes this last week and hope to soon be putting most of what I’m getting into my savings.



As far as losing weight, it’s been feeling like an uphill battle. I keep pushing that HUGE rock up the hill but if I take a bit of a rest it seems to want to roll right on over me and back down that hill. As of yesterday morning, I’m down 12 lbs. over all. That averages out to about 6 lbs. per month loss. At that rate I’ll be down to my goal in 3.3 months time. I would be happy with that! But we’ll see how the uphill battle goes. Oh, and did I mention that I got my box of Girl Scout cookies today?  It's only one box but....I'm so afaid that I'll eat the entire box in one sitting!  I’ve been keeping track of my stats of working out. Here are this month’s stats…

7 hours 15 minutes on the Elliptical

37 miles running

14.1 miles cycling

3.8 miles swimming

 

Speaking of more stats, I’ve read 6 more books on my Nook this month. That brings me to 9 books that I’ve consumed on my Nook this year. I’m now up to 24 paintings on my 100 Salt Lake City Porches Art Project. You can view the progress of the project on this page. It’s kind of interesting looking at the different styles and techniques that I’ve used and I’ve been enjoying the project too. I hope that joy is showing up in my paintings.


Now for working on the clutter in my life—I got rid of the pile of clutter that was forming in my living room last month. While I was taking that pile to the D.I. (Deseret Industries- an LDS goodwill here in Utah), I also decided to take the old sewing machine that’s been sitting untouched for over 2 years. In the last couple of weeks as I was preparing to do my taxes, I’ve found myself getting rid of extra paperwork. Then, I also started in on a pile of old magazines. Why was I keeping them? Some for recipes or interesting articles but most of them just sat collecting dust. I tore out some pages here and there and the rest went to the recycle pile.

This next Saturday, I’m finally saying good bye to the unrepairable dryer that hasn’t worked properly for a year. It’s being taken by a fellow renter who is down on his luck with this economy He’s taking it to be recycled at a local parts store. I told him I would pay him $10 to move it out and then he could also collect what they pay him for the dryer. I’m happy just to help some one out, have the dryer out of my place, and its being recycled too. Kudos! I’m thinking I may work some more this month on the hall closet. Little by little by little, I’m getting the clutter out of my life.