12 Months Of Excellence

January was "Spiritual Development Month" in my "12 Months of Excellence" project. Every month I will be working on different aspects of my life.

For the moth of January, I was working on my spiritual self. The goals were to 1) eliminate impulse buying, 2) journal for 15 minutes every day, 3) meditate for 5 minutes every day, and 4) do some sort of 'spiritual' reading every day.

I did remarkably well with goal number one, eliminating impulse buying; I was able to pay off my credit card bill in full for the month of January as well as December, front rent for the house, pay off 2/3 of my doctor bills, and still squirrel away some money into savings.

Journaling also went well - I did 26/31 days, which is a lot more than I would have done otherwise. Meditating was sort of hit or miss after the first week and a half, and reading I did about 2/3 of the time.

I declare January a success.

February is "Fit and Flirty Month" - I will be performing one romantic act each day (actually from January 30th to Feb 28th, so a full 30 days) on shoestring budget, as well as working on getting in shape.

The romantic acts I have completed thus far:
January 30th - Constructed a ginormous card out of a cardboard box and some tape.
Materials: Cardboard box, packing tape, painters tape, markers, scissors, a bunch of Lunardi's bags.
Cost: $0.00 (everything I needed, we already had)
Rating: C+
As far as visual impact, this one has a lot of potential - unfortunately, it took a lot more time and energy than I had anticipated, and as such I ran out of steam. It was a fun and cute idea, but next time I would give myself more time so that I don't just end up scribbling on it - it'd look cooler if I had taken more time.

January 31st - Burned him a CD of Queen's greatest hits.
Materials: Computer with itunes, original CD, and a CD to burn it onto
Cost: $0.00 (borrowed CD from a friend, and the CD-Rs were donated from my parents)
Rating: A+
Not only was this quick and easy (I lucked out and have a friend that had the music I wanted to burn), but it's actually a usable gift (unlike the humongous card). He loved it, and it's something he'll get to enjoy over and over (and he can think of me every time he does!).

February 1st - Made a mobius strip love note.
Materials: Pen, tape, and a large piece of construction paper that can be cut into strips
Cost: $0.00 (used paper from work, extras were used for an art project with the kids)
Rating: B
The hardest part of this was the spacing; getting the wording to end where it was supposed to took a while, but other than that it was pretty easy. Even having to rewrite it, the entire thing only took about 30 minutes to put together. Gave it a B because while it's cute and pretty easy, it lacks both visual impact and usefulness.

February 2nd - Recorded me singing a verse of 'Have I Told You Lately' and sent it to him on his phone via MMS
Materials: Iphone
Cost: $0.00 (Already had them)
Rating: B+
Though it lacks in visual impact and 'usefulness', the ridiculousness of this one (I'm definitely not a trained vocalist) definitely earns it points - not to mention that it takes no physical space to store, he can play it back whenever he likes, and he can use it to embarrass me at the drop of a hat. ;)

February 3rd (Tomorrow) - I folded a bunch of little origami stars, and I'll be giving them to him, "My favorite Star Person" (he's Lakota, and they call themselves the Star People). More on how that goes later.

Getting 'in shape' takes the form of working on my diet - increasing my protein intake, as well as diligently separating my carbs from my proteins - and getting some definition back, specifically in my core.