Sparkling Spring: The First Two Weeks -- Starts January 9

[Amaranth]

Here's the proposed list of projects and adventures for the first two weeks:

***Food***
Eat a salad of mixed greens/green vegetables at least once a day
Eat 5+ servings of vegetables and fruits a day
Plan your spring garden
Choose a new spring or summer vegetable to try this year
Plan your summer garden
Order spring and summer seeds, plants, and supplies
(Note: Have scheduled the fall and winter garden planning for the next two weeks)
Make weekly lists of what to do in the garden for spring and summer.

***Relationships/Thoughts/Project Reports***
Get a journal that you will enjoy writing/drawing in
Each day list 3 thing that you liked, made you happy, or that you found especially interesting

***Adventures***
Do two 10 minute walks each day
Think about activities or places where you could meet new friends or increase the quality of current friendships and family relationships

***Body Boosters***
Read the 2011 edition of Eat to Live
Schedule any needed medical appointments. For adults consider if you are due for tetanus and whooping cough boosters (usually every 10 years)
If baby is due this year, create a prebirth plan and spread the projects out through the eighth month
Go to sleep 15 minutes earlier


I think this is doable for most people. Where I am concerned though is people who have jobs outside the home and children plus a large or diverse garden--is there enough time to do both the garden planning and read the new edition of Eat to Live?

[sunnyjoe]

I like the sound of this. It meshes well with some things i was already trying to do.

[Jinger]

I have this on my desktop now. I need to get back to the 5 fruits and veggies a day as well as all the other ideas....Thanks.

http://iliketomakethings.blogspot.com

[Stella]

I like this! I am already starting a lot of those changes, like the 5 fruits and veggies a day. I've been making a lot of green smoothies lately which has made it pretty easy to get my five servings in. Thankfully my kids are pretty good eaters. Well, the girls are at least, and James will eat pretty much anything in smoothie form.

The adventure thing sounds like fun. We've been trying to get outside even in the winter this year. I found out I get a Seasonal Adventure Pass to my park district too, so I'm pretty excited about that. We have all kinds of cool stuff going on at the park district.

This is my Year of Hospitality, so I've been thinking a lot about nurturing friendships. I haven't actually been good about it in December because I've been sick most of it, but I think January will bring me back around. Actually, facebook has been really valuable for that. I have made a couple of friends that I don't think I would have seen often enough IRL to start up a real friendship if we hadn't been able to connect for a while on facebook. There are two women in my neighborhood and one at my church in particular that I've been facebooking with a lot and am making further plans to spend time with this spring when we can all get outside. The women in my neighborhood and I are planning to start a come-when-you-can no pressure parent/kid playtime at the playground this spring too. We'll trade off bringing a healthy snack and some coffee to the picnic table and see where it goes from there. We've had some interest.

The prebirth plan is huge for me. I have things I really need to be accomplished by the time I have this kid and I really don't want to be running around dealing with that stuff at the last minute.

[fidgiegirl]

Is the idea that we will do all of it, or pick and choose? Some seems exciting but all seems overwhelming!!

[Amaranth]

we will do all of it, or pick and choose?
Do whatever suits your goals, schedule, and interests. Also feel free to start with a different baseline, and increment at a slower pace it that would work out better.

How is the first day going for everyone?

[Stella]

I did a great job on my journal. I didn't stop at three things, I just kept going. I am feeling really positive lately.

I nurtured a current friendship yesterday by making a soup for a friend and neighbor who took a nasty fall last week and just got out of the hospital. I want her to know we care about her. I've issued an open invitation to her kids this week to come over to the house to hang out. The daughter is friends with my girls and the son likes hanging out with my DH.

I've been pretty good about fruits and vegetables, although yesterday was not the best day for that. I'm starting today off with a green smoothie, though, and dinner is a vegetarian soup so that will help.

My prebirth plan is pretty much in place and we made a huge stride towards completing one of the tasks this weekend. By Wednesday Zach will be ready to paint the dressing room, which is about 1/3 of the never-ending basement remodel. Today I am going to make a list of easy to assemble meals so I can have the ingredients on hand around the time I go into labour. Zach is willing to learn how to do some basic cooking, so that will help. Previously he could only make grilled cheese sandwiches and french toast, which is yummy, but doesn't help much when I'm too tired to cook.