summer goals

I have some pretty grand plans for the summer...wait, rephrase: I have some pretty run of the mill plans for the summer, but they are very specific, so they feel grand to me. They feel doubly ambitious because my summer weekends, as of right now, are completely booked for the months of June and July. We have four weddings (including both of our brothers), one high school reunion, one baby shower, one extra wedding reception, and my brother's medical school induction to attend, and they all oddly happen to fall on sequential weekends; seriously, not one thing overlaps, which just seems crazy to me. It's gotten to the point where I'm sort of trying to bargain my way out of things, because I completely rely on the summer to refuel me for the next school year. It's exhausting, what I do for a living, and it's all-consuming. Though people often say it, it's not at all an exaggeration when I say I live at work, because I quite literally do. The summers have come to be the time I look forward to all year to get done everything I can't get done during the school year, and yes, that includes visiting my family and attending weddings, and so on. So that part is good - I am lucky that all of these events are happening during the summer when I don't have to worry about whether or not I can go. The downside is that I, the eternal homebody, am getting antsy because I feel the summer slipping away already.
Whining aside, I have a few things I want to accomplish. I repeat that these are not lofty goals by any means, but they are important to me.

1. Go for a run and hike with the dog everyday. J is running a half marathon in October, and while I know I will not be ready for that, I would at least like to be able to run a 10k by fall. On the hiking front, I want to try to rotate through all the gorgeous state parks and hiking trails we have here, and Q is a fantastic hiking companion. Note to self: this goal hinges on avoiding any more sprained ankles like I had this fall, so I need to really focus on actually staying upright during these pursuits.

2. Read at least one book a week. I am absolutely intrigued by and in love with Nina Sankovitch's journey of reading one book a day for a year, and although I am realistic enough to know I would never be able to adhere to it, I think one a week is manageable. Note: Completion of this goal relies heavily on procuring a hammock.

3. Grow a vegetable garden that actually supplies a majority of our produce. This is a tough one because a) we don't have any land on which we are allowed to plant anything and b) we have one tenacious groundhog in our yard. So, I'm going for a combination of lots of container gardens and a raised bed next to our porch, for which the maintenance department just recently granted permission. Below is my first garden in its beginning stages, featuring a whole array of produce, including my most recent favorite, swiss chard.

If all fails, at least I know we have a farm nearby that sells the most delicious tomatoes in the world.

4. Finally get our mail situation under control, because good gracious, it's a mess. We get piles of mail, even after going paperless for most of our bills, and I am incredibly lazy about sorting through it. We end up with piles upon piles of mail all over the place, and none of it gets shredded or filed like it should. I suppose it doesn't help that our filing cabinet is insufficient and our shredder is broken. So, add another goal: buy a filing cabinet, shredder, and some sort of mail organizing system that won't break down the moment school starts again.

5. Quilt! Per usual, the number of friends having babies far exceeds my ability to make quilts for all of them, which means that my perennial summer goal of making and selling quilts continues to fall by the wayside. I'm telling you, the procreation around here is nuts.

6. Make my apartment look nice. This includes cleaning, which never seems under control, even though there are only two of us living her. Maybe it's the dog and cat who make it so messy? I also want to finally hang that darn frame wall I've been collecting for the past year, but I'm still missing a few of the right sized frames.

So there they are! Like I said, not lofty, but it sounds like a nice summer in my tame little world. What are your summer goals?