Goals! Eyes on the prize...

My HB and I were talking the other day about owning our own home... again.  This is a common conversation.  He wants a place where the kids feel at home and welcome in their own rooms, etc.  Me? I want a chicken coop with hens and a garden.  Perhaps even a bee hive.  That last link is to a friend of mine who gave everything up to follow his dream of  building apiaries (sp?) and selling the best darn local honey around.  It's this kind of passion I love!  I enjoy supporting folks who have a fire burning in their lives because it helps stoke my own fire.  Recently, I found a blog called The Change Blog and this particular essay was about the 3 requirements for change. S/he writes about there being 2 types of people. Those who usually don’t know what they want in life so they don’t want to move for fear of going in the wrong direction, and, Those who do know what they want but become paralyzed because they are not sure how to get there or there are too many options to choose from. I took those quotes verbatim from the article by the way. I fall into the first group, so I thought. Throughout my life I've struggled with trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Turns out my biggest problem was I was thinking about jobs, work, professional aspirations. Now that I'm older, I realize that work was never going to be the end all say all for me. I just want a job that doesn't upset me too much and pays my bills with enough left over to save and have some things I want. What I should have been focusing on was the rest of my life. The part where I've learned to knit, and cook. The part where I research everything there is to know about raising/keeping chickens. Or whatever it is that motivates me to get up in the morning. Does any of this make sense? I have a passion for just living my life. It's unfortunate that work is the one minor downer in my life. Minor in that I feel slightly less when I have to work. It's that thing to be gotten through. Hopefully, reaching some of my goals will lead to more meaningful money-making in the future.  Back to the article. The author talks about everyday, writing down one thing you would do if you knew you couldn't fail. My very first thought was 'buy a house and build a chicken coop.' It flashed through my mind like it was just waiting to be asked. That's when I knew. We've been dawdling along, talking, talking, talking about it and doing nothing to get there. So, today, I drew this:

I know it's hard to see (funny enough, one of my what would you do if you couldn't fail items is learn to take decent pictures), but basically it's our monetary goal to buy a house with. We are starting with $500. We have more, but I like having an emergency buffer while we are trying to save up. I'm so happy with this decision. It's will be hard going, but I genuinely believe we could do this in 2 years time. That works out to about $100/week. We are going to make the kids a part of our savings goal for the home. They may think of things we haven't.  Excited!

Whew! Good to get that off my chest.
Here's what was old and now is new in our little apartment.

Granite countertops!

Really classes up the bacon grease there in the corner...

I put my old dresser in the entry hallway. It needs to be painted (I'm not a fan of yellow, so years ago I bought myself a yellow dresser.), but it sure is handy there in the entryway. Above the dresser is a very cool toy Tucan. You pull the string and it will languidly flap its wings. I love it! Thank you Dad! I think that's enough sharing for the day. Thanks for reading!