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Horse Goals – original post here

1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – Mixed again; some weeks were terrific, some weeks were awful. Work continues to get in the way; I’m not home before 9pm 2-3 days a week at this point.

2. Be less perfunctory – Blergh.

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – This goal is officially defunct; no more shows left!

4. Take more lessons – No. 😦

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – 

I failed and didn’t write August in time, so you get a twofer. Lucky you.

January Recap
February Recap
March Recap
April Recap
May Recap
June Recap

Fuck this summer you guys. Forever and ever, world without end, fuck this summer, amen.

Ahem.

Let’s recap.

January Recap
February Recap
March Recap
April Recap
May Recap
June Recap

Horse Goals – original post here

1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – Actually I crushed this. Granted, a lot of these visits were in the middle of the night and doing medical care, so not a ton of riding, but I still saw him an awful lot.

2. Be less perfunctory – In some ways I’m actually doing really well with this. I’m trying to budget myself more time to do the little things. It’s amazing and wonderful to live so close to him, but I’ve noticed that I fall into a trap where I think I can get in & out of the barn in 90 minutes, including travel time. That’s do-able, but it leaves no time to take care of the niceties. So I’m working on building out more time.

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – I really should just take this goal off it’s depressing me.

4. Take more lessons – lololololol

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – you guys, I’m not going to put up my numbers because I had $2,800 in vet bills in July fuck July.

6. Do more thoughtful work – Hm. I’m going with yes.

7. Get more media – Do a million pictures of him standing sick in his stall count?

Life Goals – original post here

1. Pay off car – yes! on track for November, depending on how things shake out I might take a swing at paying this down in September.

2. Read 75 books – 57/75, HA, take that, goals! Even better: I genuinely enjoyed everything I read this month, and most of them were superb. I wish I could make everyone read Random Family.

First, an article I’ve been thinking about: Halfway There: Nine Ways to Assess Your Yearlong Goals at the Midpoint.

Previously, I set horse goals and life goals. After a bad April, May was better. June is a tiny bit better still. Getting there.

Previously, I set horse goals and life goals. April was an abysmal failure. Was May any better? A bit.

January Recap
February Recap
March Recap
April Recap

Horse Goals – original post here

1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – Other than 8 days off when I was traveling, I did great at this. I’m starting to turn the screws and challenge him physically and mentally in some longer dressage schools, and I’m ramping up his fitness work.

2. Be less perfunctory – decent! not great.

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – I will almost certainly not make any dressage shows this year due to work schedule, so I am trying to re-orient my thinking. I may do a test during a lesson. We’re definitely attacking pieces of First Level (!) and confirming Training stuff like keeping our damn head down in the canter.

4. Take more lessons – May, check! Scheduling June soon.

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – Still on the struggle bus, especially since after the truck’s transmission went in April, my daily driver CRV went to get its summer tires on and came back with new brakes all around. So the emergency fund took another hit. But I’ve written out my path back to solvency, the credit card will be paid off soon, and I’ve started chipping back away at those savings accounts.

6. Do more thoughtful work – Slowly clawing my way back to this. I’ve been doing a lot of writing things out especially for the craft things I’m making, and trying out new ways of thinking related to those that’s proving to be an interesting exercise for my brain.

7. Get more media – I took some pictures? Still none of me.

Life Goals – original post here

1. Pay off car – yup, still on track

2. Read 75 books – 39/75

A slower month because I read one big bit and only a few smaller ones.

Oh, boy. I don’t want to write this post, but here we go.

Previously, I set horse goals and life goals.

January Recap
February Recap
2017 Goals: March Recap

So, how was April?

Previously, I set horse goals and life goals.

January RecapFebruary Recap

So, how was March?
Horse Goals – original post here

1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – yes! accomplished

2. Be less perfunctory – Baby steps. One thing that’s really helped me in this goal this month is to force myself into making deliberate decisions about things. I had gotten into habits of “well, we’ll wait and see.” Now I try to take a moment, examine the situation, and actively decide: “should I keep reading/watching tv/etc. and if so, is that how I want to spend the next period of time? or should I get up and do something? when I say I am going to accomplish X today, what does that mean?”

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – I guess? Still not sure what to do about my schedule problems.

4. Take more lessons – March, check! Scheduled April.

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – Tristan’s emergency fund is now at $700/$1500, and my overall emergency fund is at $8,315/$12,000, which means Tristan’s account is on track to complete this year and the emergency fund is growing slowly but surely and will be complete next year.

Some progress on the income stream: a couple of inquiries are bearing fruit and I’ve written a business plan.

We’ll see.

6. Do more thoughtful work – Um…I spent all of March doing the March Madness stuff, which was a ton of fun but not exactly thoughtful. Then I flaked out at the end. I get a big fat F on this one for this month, but have been trying to make notes for April posts.

7. Get more media – Faiiiiiiiiil.

Life Goals – original post here

1. Pay off car – yup still on track. Realistically, though I would love to knock this out early, I’ve had to divert some savings to important things like replacing my 12 year old desktop computer at home.

2. Read 75 books – 21/75 down:

Some Luck, by Jane Smiley

Previously, I set horse goals and life goals.

January Recap

So, how was February?

Horse Goals – original post here
1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – better and better! I’m mostly pleased with this, actually.

2. Be less perfunctory – I really should have made this goal easier to quantify. I struggled with this one a bit, though.

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – good progress, mostly in the nature of keeping him in good work. I’ll have to look at the schooling schedule to see how that maps out for the summer for any away shows.

4. Take more lessons – February, check! Scheduled March.

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – Tristan’s emergency fund is now at $525/$1500, and my overall emergency fund is at $7,715/$12,000. Still no real progress on the income stream.

6. Do more thoughtful work – Mixed. I am pleased with how much more I’m reading in terms of thoughtful long thinkpieces rather than short articles.

7. Get more media – Sort of still a fail. I’m taking more pictures of Tristan, but none of them have me in it.


Life Goals – original post here
1. Pay off car – still on track for November 2017 with possibilities to move faster that I’m waiting on

2. Read 75 books – 15/75 down:

The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Better with the whole reading-white-men thing! Better, too, with lining up books to read on a schedule, but slower progress due to higher density non-fiction books and less time to read overall.

3. Revive history blogs – Off the wagon in February, but I’m scheduling posts for March now, so…mixed? First post for March published yesterday, a reflection on national identity as shown in the Estonian National History Museum.

4. Do better about food – February was all about focusing on cleaning out the pantry, so I made a lot of meals that used up random things in order to get to the back of the cupboards & the freezer. But, I did do better about food prep, particularly for quality breakfast items like smoothies and mini quiches.

5. Decorate the house – sigh. not really. I did the curtains in the office but…that’s kind of it.

So, how did month one go?

Horse Goals – original post here
1. Put hands on my horse 5x a week – close? sort of? January is tough for this, between cold weather days + snow days. I’m not happy with how well I did, and think there’s room for improvement.

2. Be less perfunctory – yes, pretty much (how’s that for perfunctory?)

3. Aim toward dressage schooling shows – ok, there’s only so much I can do for this in January… and also 1/2 of this goal has already been spiked because the first home show of the year is on the day after my brother-in-law’s wedding in Texas. So not only do I have to visit Texas, I have to miss one of my two show opportunities. This goal is not off to a great start.

4. Take more lessons – January, check! February’s is scheduled.

5. Horse-specific income stream / funding emergency fund – Tristan’s emergency fund is now at $425/$1500, and my overall emergency fund is at $7,600/$12,000. No real progress on the income stream other than some hard thinking.

6. Do more thoughtful work – I am pleased with the January schedule I did, and the Boston Public Library posts. I’m happy with some things I’ve written going forward.

7. Get more media – so far, this one is a fail, unfortunately


Life Goals – original post here
1. Pay off car – on track for November 2017, with some anticipated stuff coming in that would make this sooner, but I’m not counting any chickens before they hatch, so suffice to say it’s on track

2. Read 75 books – 12/75 down:
The Last Mortal Bond, by Brian Staveley
The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende
Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
Creativity in Museum Practice, by Linda Norris and Rainey Tisdale
Old Bones the Wonder Horse, by Mildred Mastin Pierce
International Velvet, by Brian Forbes
Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The War I Always Wanted, by Brandon Friedman

Meta-commentary: still too many white men, but I’m pleased with the way I’m alternating between fiction & non-fiction. I’ve got the next 8-10 books lined up. Reading is pure escapism right now, and I’m hoarding books like there’s a nuclear winter on the horizon. (Which there kind of is, so I’m also hoarding food. I make no apologies for my coping mechanisms.)

3. Revive history blogs – I’ve got Amblering sort-of on a weekly schedule, and that’s about all I can manage for that, but I hope to deepen and improve on the quality of writing and thinking there; Figuring History still on hiatus.

4. Do better about food – mixed success? I’m cooking more, and meal-planning better, but god damn I still cannot force myself to eat vegetables on a regular basis. I can honestly feel nausea rising even thinking about it. Also, my food processor was part of the Cuisinart recall so that spiked my plans to make more fruit smoothies.

5. Decorate the house – office done, that’s all for now.