A Life In Tune

February proved to be another busy month for us, and we were able to cross a few things off our list.

Travel:

• Winter Wellness weekend in January
• Train ride in French Lick in February or March – We are planning for this in March.
• Mumford and Sons concert in April – We have a hotel booked for the night of the concert.
• Weekend away with the kids
• Anniversary weekend away
• Family vacation –We are planning a trip, most likely to San Francisco, but more about that later.

Reading:

• Read 24 books – I have read 7 books so far.
• Read 2 music books – I started reading Rhythmic Medicine: Music with a Purpose by Janalea Hoffman. I think it will be helpful to my practice, as well as my personal wellness goals.

Writing: I have actually done pretty well with keeping up with all my writing goals this month. Hopefully I can continue.

• Daily Q&A – I am still keeping up with this.
• Writer’s Book of Days – Timing my writing prompts has been really helpful and has worked so far. I did 7 out of 7 planned prompts.
• 500 Writing Prompts – I did 3 out of 3 planned prompts.

Spiritual:

• Do a daily devotional written for Catholic moms – I don’t always do everything in the devotional but I am at least reading it every day and praying the prayer written for each day.

Music:

• Create one new Singalong packet for my Singalongs (for work). I’m almost finished with a new one and hope to use it this spring.
• Learn at least 6 new popular songs on the guitar or piano. – I learned a new song on the guitar this month.
• Learn at least 3 new Classical pieces on the piano.
• Start transcribing my original songs on notation software.
• Find at least 5 new songs to use in music therapy sessions – I used one new song this month and will probably be using it again. 
• Work through Songwriting Without Boundaries – I have done 9 out of 14 writing exercises from the first challenge. It’s not exactly what I thought it would be but hopefully it gets better. It has helped me to be more descriptive in my writing. I want to finish up the first challenge in March and be able to start the next sometime in April.
• Listen to 10 classical music pieces – (1/10)

Home and Organization:

• Complete Bonus Room Transformation – We sold two items in February and hopefully we can move forward with this project.
• Go through Gmail account – This is coming along slowly but surely.
• Go through and organize computer files.

Family:

Of course, I still want to do some fun things with my family and try new things, so I have a list of things we can do if we get bored.

• Inflatable Fun Factory
• CMoe
• Putt Putt
• Game Night
• Movie Night
• Gatti Town or Chuck E. Cheese

 

 

We took a day trip a couple of hours away to visit a winery and decided to stop at a cave on the way back. I had been there as a kid but haven’t been since then. We had a good time and the kids enjoyed it, too. It wasn’t on our list, but I think it still counts.

 

 

 

 

Another day, we put the kids in a bike trailer and hooked them up to Eric’s bike. We rode a few miles on a greenway to get to a park where we had a picnic lunch, played on the playground, and flew kites. The enjoyed the ride, so I think we will do it again sometime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Financial:

I want to continue to save money and to keep our spending in check.

• Save a specific amount in Travel and Savings Accounts combined – We weren’t able to save much this month, due to some unplanned expenses but hopefully next month will be better.
• Keep track of “extras” earned from apps, credit cards, rewards, etc. – So far, so good.
• Keep up with a budget as best we can – We are doing ok with this but have had a couple of minor things come up that have made it difficult to stay within budget on some things.

Service: 

• Do at least 6 service projects that may include volunteering, providing a meal at the local Ronald McDonald house, donating items, etc. This averages out to one project every 2 months of the year. Hopefully we can handle that challenge!

We are scheduled to make a meal at the Ronald McDonald house next weekend.

Miscellaneous:

• Write a new 101 in 1,001 list. The current one expires in May.
• I have started a running list of restaurants I want to try, and I want to eat at 12 of them this year – We tried a new Mexican place called Chido. It was really good and the ingredients were all really fresh. We will be going back for sure. (2/12)
• I plan to cook 12 international meals this year or one international meal a month – We made Costa Rican food this month, including a breakfast and a dinner. In March, we plan to focus on Portuguese cuisine.
• Finish travel school – I am on the last couple of chapters and hope to finish everything very soon.

How did your month turn out?