Lazypants

I officially ended one of my jobs three days ago and wanted to start writing out a few summer goals. I'm hoping that posting them publicly will help me get off my lazy behind. Honestly speaking, most have been on my to-do list for months. Every day, I stare at the list on my fridge before going to lay down on the sofa (since reading my to-do list really breaks my spirit).

I'll probably only have about 2-3 hours a day to get things done, since my primary responsibility is to serve as Ryan's administrative assistant. Weekday mornings, I'll be chauffeuring him to an art class for a few hours. Then we usually do about 1-2 hours of math, reading comprehension and Japanese. In the afternoons, he has karate, dance or swimming most days (soccer is on hiatus until July). We also try to do a few fun/social things each week (library, movie, beach, play dates), so I'm going to assume that at least 2/3 of each day will be spent as a tutor/chauffeur/cook/maid. I had hoped to do a few science projects and cooking classes with him each month, but I definitely lack the stamina and ambition to see that through.

So with whatever time remains, here's what I hope to accomplish over the next 8 weeks:

1. Start cooking 'cleaner' meals (I don't cook much, and when I do, it's not always clean or green).  Thankfully, I've had recent inspiration from a new restaurant in town (Laulima Food Patch). The photos below represent my efforts over the last week...

On this day, I made SEVEN salads (two were for our friend). One had strawberries, mango, edamame, tofu, cucumber and sunflower seeds), the other had avocado, olives, feta, mushrooms and garbanzo beans.

Our dinner a few nights ago was a salad with  tofu, avocado, cucumber, edamame, mushrooms and strawberries.

2. Grow our garden. I'm such a new gardener that nearly all of our plants are still quite young and not producing much of anything yet (papaya, bananas, lilikoi, oranges, tangerines, tangelo, avocado, basil, eggplant, cucumber, bell pepper). The only things I am producing are kale, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. I'm thinking of adding pineapple, green beans and beets (since they're all very bug resistant and can survive my murderous care). Any suggestions of fast growing fruit or vegetables that grow well in a hot, humid climate?

3. Start my aquaponics garden. I have acquired the basic materials (large bucket, seeds, flower pots, fish food), now I just need to pick up the fish from my mom's little pond and plant lettuce seeds so I have seedlings.

4. Clean out our water barrels. A former coworker generously gifted me with two giant plastic barrels from the local brewery. However, they're filled with dried mildew and dirt, so I need to wash/rinse them out somehow (difficult to do, since they only have a tiny opening). The goal is to use them to collect rainwater from our gutters for the garden and emergencies (though the outfitting will be Rich's responsibility because I'm...well, me).

5. Paint the house. Since I won't be earning as much money this year, I'm hoping to try and save some instead. I'm going to try and paint as much of our house as possible (which will easily save thousands). This task is my Top 10 LEAST favorite things to do. Every time I have painted a condo or house, I solemnly swear that it will be the last time I ever do it, and that I will hire someone the next time. And then inevitably, I am reminded that Aunty Jo still can't afford to.

6. Increase my runs. I lost ten pounds running 4-5 days a week, but over the last month, I got sick and lost a few running partners (one is on an extended vacation, the other had a schedule change). So of course, I put a few pounds back on. My friend and I plan to run a few times a week in the morning, and I'm hoping that helps. So do my shorts.

That's it, because that's plenty (as I like to say).

I'll be pleased as punch if I can accomplish 3-4 of them. I also have a garage sale to see through, but I'm already about 75% done with the sorting, pricing and prep work. Even though a garage sale is time consuming (we have one in summer and one in winter), I'm always happy to earn 'free' money that we can save for Ryan's needs. And as a bonus, these semi-annual sales have really helped familiarize him with the process of getting rid of toys, books and clothes (and then seeing the pay off from it).