Goals Check Part 2

June. It is June? The halfway mark month. Yikes. Seems this would be a good point to do a little checking up on my goals for this year.

1. Complete Henry's 1 year memory book
CHECK. Woot.

(Note, this was a pre-made scrapbook so most of the cuteness is only due to Henry or whoever manufactured the book. I only added the pictures and some stickers etc.)

2. Make 72 hour kits for the family
Still haven't gotten it together here. I have been stocking up on water though...I know, need to get on this.

3. Hold weekly family home evenings and plan them a month in advance
So far, I would say, check. I think we've missed maybe two weeks, one of which was Memorial Day because we did a family BBQ. We were appreciating nature though, so that is a lesson in and of itself, right?

4. Get second blog up and running
No. But the normal stewing has elevated itself to little bouts of I don't know what, agitation? Alright, by the end of the month. End of story.

5. Forget all my stupid and embarrassing moments in the past; sans the ones that make me laugh rather than cringe
I actually forgot about this goal. Whoops.

6. Attend the Temple as a couple monthly
As I mentioned in my last check-up we missed February but we have been every month since then. I think I will also start trying to go once a month on my own as well to do ordinances.

7. Go to ward activities
We're failures. There is an ice cream social coming up though, so, maybe then.

8. Learn the new family search
Slowly. I did get some information from my uncles and a PAF file from one to add in. Also my Uncle Gary sent me this website: http://goodwinfamilyhistory.com/ that has some pictures of my family. I was excited to see the one of my Great Grandpa Hamp whom my brother Hamp is named after. It was also fun to see the pictures of Great Great Grandma Mattie Jane is who is full Cherokee. I'm actually thinking of registering with the Cherokees. We'll see.

9. Read through the standard works
Still in progress. I finished both the Book of Mormon and New Testament. I'm working on the Old Testament, still doing Book of Mormon each day. Right now in the Old Testament I'm in Leviticus which is actually quite interesting. I was reading about the sin offerings and thinking about all the connections and references to blood in the scriptures and culture. It got me to wondering if there are any sort of historiographies on blood in religion and culture. I'll have to look into it.

10. Accept help
I think I am getting better at it. I still don't enjoy it though, especially outside of family.

11. Take a family portrait
It has been far too yucky outside. Hopefully we're turning a corner now and warm, sunny, beautiful days are ahead so we can do this!

12. Read 15 novels from master book list and 5 scholarly texts
Six novels down and two scholarly texts. I am, again, surprised at how slowly I am going with this one. I am learning to love sleep far too much and I fear with summer finally arriving I won't be spending much time with my books. I hope I'll find my assessment inaccurate.
The last text I read was a collection of essays by Richard Bushman (Rough Stone Rolling) which deserves a post in and of itself. Every LDS student should read it.
The last novels I read were Stories of Anton Chekov (enjoyed so very much); Tess of the D'Urbervilles (holy depressing, yet I liked it and may even read it again. Any Hardy fans out there? I think I might try Jude the Obscure next); Pride and Prejudice (Finally! I needed some levity after Tess and I got it. Very delightful); and lastly Dead Souls which took me a bit of time to adjust to but I really enjoy Gogol now.
I'm not sure what I will take up next since I just finished Dead Souls today. I might go with Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy or maybe Middlemarch. We'll see.

13. Clean up no more than twice a day (minus the kitchen, my OCD just won't allow that to stay dirty for very long quite yet).
Haven't done so great with this one except on days when we're gone and no mess is made. I'll start trying to remember to just wait and clean at the end of the day instead of a million times throughout. Can I still count that I used the dishwasher a few times too even if I ended up rewashing half the dishes?