Summer Goals 2011.

With my 8 Weeks: Blogging post, I said I would sit down and make some goals for this summer.  I'd like to note that I've been commenting a bit more AND I added blogs to my Reading Material page already!  I'm on track.  Kind of.

So here goes -- SUMMER GOALS:

• Work with Mister to find a permanent place to live at the end of summer.  Our house right now is temporary.   At least we think.  Unless we just completely fall in love with it and don't mind the country life -- it is pretty darn awesome.
• Volunteer.  So far there is one program that I really want to volunteer for and I even told Mister about it when we first drove by the place -- then yesterday when I moseyed on in to our tiny town and went into the General Store I found a flyer asking for volunteers!  It was fate.  I need to call the contact person and put myself on the list to work -- the place is also within walking distance from our house... we live in the middle of nowhere, so that's saying something!
• Make new friends.  I feel so lame when I say this kind of.  But I live 7 hours away from the greatest friends on the planet now, so I need to make new friends but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold.  ;)  Any other twentysomethings intimidated by the idea of making new friends?  It feels more like dating when you're trying to make friends after college.  Should I ask to hang out first or wait?  When do we exchange numbers?  How soon are nicknames appropriate?  Ha... it's scary, I'm tellin ya!
• Create (I'm talking spreadsheets and files on the comp -- complete organization) budgets for us and STICK TO THEM.  We've been pretty darn good with saving money for a while now, we just need to continue to do so.
• Play the piano daily.  I want to discipline myself to learn more songs.  I've been playing it a lot here, but I'm still slower on the learning of songs than I'd like.  
• Cook a heavy majority of the week's meals.  This goal should be easy to stick to since there is literally no fast food within a close distance in our tiny town - and trips to the co-op or grocery store are still kind of big deals.  We are forced to eat well.  There is no junk in the house and I've had to settle my food cravings with mandarins and pickles for snacks instead of an unhealthier alternative I used to turn to (and if I'm honest, I've been grumpy about it).  And I only say majority because we might go out to a local restaurant once a week, or Mister will cook, or we will have leftovers.  Right now I feel like housewife would be proud of me for all the home meals!
• Read at least 5 new books.  I have a horrible habit of reading a new one, then reading a dozen "comfort" books that I've read thousands of times.  So I need to read NEW books and not old favorites.
• Write letters.  I'd like to start sending hand-written letters to my friends since I now live so far away.  Even if they don't have the time or don't want to respond in the same way, I still want to do that to keep in touch with them. 
• Find a job.  Funemployment has to end sometime, doesn't it?  Oh how I will miss these sweet days of having no rigid schedule.  I thought, given my history of OVERworking, that I would hate not having a job, feel antsy, get bored, etc.  How would I fill up my day?!  But so far I've found my days go by so much quicker while I'm doing things that benefit us or something I enjoy.   It's amazing how fast the day goes when you aren't dreading what you're doing.  So I should add - find a job I don't dread.  

That's all I can think of for now!  I'm sure I'll come up with more, but I'm also trying really hard to set realistic goals for myself and not go overboard with idealizing goal-making.  We shall see.

What are YOUR goals for the summer?!