Start: 11th September 2023. End: 8th June 2026
Review days: 20th December 2023, 29th March 2024, 7th July 2024, 15th October 2024, 23rd January 2025, 3rd May 2025, 11th August 2025, 19th November 2025, 27th February 2026.
Green = Complete; Yellow = In Progress
- Reading and Writing
- Move my notes to ROAM – I have a heap of notebooks and journals that I’d like to mine for anything that’s still useful. This will be a big job and I’m likely to get distracted going through the journals so we’ll see how it goes.
- Join a theological library – Gives me access to expensive academic titles. Complete.
- Get something published – I have one particular essay in mind that just needs a bit of work to get ready.
- Read 120 books – In progress. 11.9.2023 – 31/12/2023 14 books. 2024 – 35 books, Oct 2024 – 48
- 50 lists blog project – I did a 24 list project on my other blog and I really enjoyed that format. – In progress
- Read five Miles Franklin Award Winners – Breath (2009), Chai time in the Cinnamon Gardens (2023), Too Much Lip (2019), Eucalyptus (1999)
- Journal for 30 days in a row
- Do NaBloPoMo – Complete
- Update pages on my blog – Complete
- Download and delete my old blog
- Running and Fitness
- Sub 1:50 half-marathon – this is very much a stretch goal
- Run a marathon
- Foam roll for 30 days in a row
Recover strength for 30 days in a row.Mobo board exercises for 30 days in a row- City to Surf
- Run a sub 25min 5km again – it’s been a few years but I think it’s doable.
- Run 2500km in a year
- Parkruns (x10) – Balyang Sanctuary 13.1.2024, Albert Park 3.2.2024, Studley 16.3.2024, Torquay 30.3.2024
- Home
- Get artwork (bedroom and living) – living complete.
- Get a storage unit for our bedroom
- Clear out the boxes in our wardrobe
- Set up the home automation with our photos on the display – the photos on there are beautiful but how much better to have family photos catch my eye while I’m cooking.
- Clean out and organise the study – some of these organising tasks are co-dependent, wardrobe, study and hall cupboard all have some overlap.
- Clean out and organise the hall cupboard
- Install awning over our table. Complete.
- 2nd outdoor sitting area
- Fix our automatic computer backup – this has not worked since we moved. I do have cloud backups of my photos and most important documents but it would be good to be able to recover everything easily.
- Sustainability
- Get a bike. Complete.
- Build or buy a wicking bed for veggies
- Get ten things secondhand instead of new. – Complete. Puzzles (lots of puzzles), Tshirt, Copy of Catcher in the Rye in New York, jumper, two jars for pantry storage, another large jar for pantry storage, lots more jars, sewing machine, pastry brush, egg lifters.
- Repair something instead of replacing it. Complete.
- Start a worm farm. Complete.
- Do a waste audit and then reduce waste by 25%. Waste audit done.
- Make weed tea
- Neighbourhood
- Finishing walking or running every street in Brighton, Elwood and Gardenvale. In progress.
- Write 10 blog posts about something I learned/saw while walking every street. In progress: A Bayside Walk.
- Learn about our local First Nations peoples, neighbourhood history and environment Read/visit/watch 5 resources in each of these areas – Prehistoric Bayside (24/8/24)
- Go to five neighbourhood talks, festivals or activities. – Author talk Brighton Library, Prehistoric Bayside (24/8/24)
- Go to Elwood Famers Market
- Try five new neighbourhood restaurants or cafes – Sons of Mary, La Provence, Bottarga, Vivace
- Melbourne and Surrounds
- Travel
- Three Capes Track. Complete.
- Visit four Victorian National Parks – Yarra Ranges National Park
- E’s Germany Trip. Complete.
- Israel
- Family holiday
- Five-year travel wish list (for post-2024)
- Short breaks (x5) – Noosa (May 2024), Gold Coast (July 2024), Sydney (August 2024)
- Travel for two of Hubby’s marathons. In progress.
- Memories and Photography (this section is very ambitious, LOL)
- Finish the kids’ books and hand over all their stuff. In progress.
- Major trip books (x5)
- Put together trip videos (x4)
- Go on an outing to photograph birds/wildlife (x2)
- Finish a 1s a day monthly video project
- ABC photo project – In progress.
- Colour project
- Everyday object series (x3)
- Finish year books (x4)
- Make a magazine
- Faith
- Get a mainly music group up and running. Complete.
- Try out some new rituals in my QT (x5) – Starting prayer, praying from Evelyn Underwood’s book of Prayer, silent contemplation
- Go on a retreat
- Read the bible in a year. In progress.
- Try examen for 30 days in a row
- Community
- Donate blood
- Volunteer with a local community group (x2)
- Pick up rubbish (x5)
- Invite our neighbours over
- Giveaway some produce from the garden. Complete.
- Experience
- Do something fun outdoors that is outside my norm
- Go to an outdoor movie
- See a platypus in the wild – this one will require nature’s cooperation
- Go to a live show (x4) – & Juliet, Wicked, Brentwood Secondary College Little Shop of Horrors
- Go to some live music. Blues Music tour in New York
- Internet free days (x15) – 30.9.2024, 25.12.2024, 7.1.2024, 1.3.2024, 2.3.2024, 20.7.2024, 7.10.2024, 8.10.2024, 15.10.2024
- See the Northern or Southern Lights – once again will require nature’s cooperation
- Swim at a beach/river/lake (x15) – we are out of the El Nina weather pattern and expecting a hotter summer here so I expect I’ll have more swimming opportunities over the next couple of years. – 2023 – Pt Lonsdale x1, 2024 – Pt Lonsdale x2, Elwood x4
- Make some playlists to listen to at home and listen to them (x4)
- Food
- Finish cooking all the recipes in Tenderheart Cookbook. In progress.
- Make pasta. Bologna Pasta Class.
- Make roti bread
- Bottling or preserving (x10). Silvan Berry Jam, Sweet Chilli Sauce, Green Cherry Tomato and Lemongrass Pickles
- Make a reverse pantry list
- Put together a set of go-to recipes for entertaining and taking places
- List of my go-to breakfasts, lunches and snacks. In progress.
- Family and Friends
- Big gatherings (x4) – Small group+ dinner (September 2024)
- Small gatherings (x10). S – October 2024, Small Group end of year dinner – December 2024, S – Feb 2024, Post Carmens Brunch – Feb 2024, School friends over – May 2024, K’s family – May 2024
- Games night
- Celebration dinner for each family birthday (including a special celebration for E’s 21st). S 2023 – Chin Chin, E and I 2023 – Indu, H 2024 – Vaporetto, G 2024 – Entrecote
- Organise an activity with friends (x2)
- Organise an activity with family (x4)
- Family 2000-piece puzzles (x5). Complete.
- Update our wills and POA’s – the kids are adults now so no guardian is needed and the checks and balances we put on need a rethink – completed 16.9.2024
- Have my school friends over. Done 3.5.2024.
- For later (three things I picked partway through the challenge)
- Camino di Santiago – we’ve booked this for October. Complete.
- Finish my online French course
- Make a new list