Hydrangea Envy, originally uploaded by arahbahn.

It’s very easy (at least for me) to focus on the stuff I don’t get to. Now and then I need to remind myself of what I did do. Here’s a good part of what transpired over this past holiday weekend, categorized sort of generally and/or by life goal areas:

• Health: Walked home from work. A 10-mile run. A yoga class. And some at-home practice, too. Slept! Did menu planning & ran grocery errands.
• Family: Helped husband take care of haircut. Made blueberry buttermilk waffles from scratch. Bought what we still needed for next weekend’s camping trip. REI apparently has cornered the market on white gas, this time of year. Or maybe any time of year. Talked with my family. Bought a gas grill. Watched husband assemble (most of) it. Cooked brats on it.
• Vanity, and/or Girly Silliness: Ran a shopping errand that resulted in bags from Lush, Aveda, Origins, Rocky Mountain Chocolate. On husband’s haircut run, Baby got some new jeans.
• Career/Personal/Creativity: Drew some pictures of a vegetable (broccoli) that we grew. Hung up some cool topo maps from a mountaineering trip, in the living room.
• R&R: Watched a movie (Appaloosa) at home. Finished a good mystery novel. Enjoyed some of the Lush bubbles.
• House: Cleaned house (with husband). Cleaned the bedroom ceiling fan (finally). Refilled a bird feeder. Washed another one. Watered and weeded our vegetable garden. Weeded and laid down some mulch on a perennial bed. Planted some bulbs. Folded laundry while watching movie. Helped my neighbor with her fix-up project. Ok, I held the end of her measuring tape. It needed to be done.

Some stuff that is still on the to-do list:

• House: Advancement in the basement project. Fixing the old TP holder hole in the bathroom.
• Career/Personal/Creativity: A redesign of a good friend’s website. The knitting project I bought all the supplies for. For my wedding. 3+ years ago. And one other sewing gift project. Sewing the hem on our curtains, and three other fabric repair jobs. Design my own blog template. Get some sort of a side business going.
• Family: Arrange December trip to SLC.
• Health/fun: Decide on 10k or half marathon version, of Big Woods Run.

That all said, I’ve been thinking about how I divvy up my time. Kristin Armstrong recently posted a great article about the things that just happen in your day, versus the things that you actively make happen (or that you actively restrict to a limited amount of time).

There was a time that running, my yoga practice, or reading a book were things that took work for me to make happen. And some of the things I did accomplish this weekend, in the past were so intimidating that I gave up and put them off (i.e. buying the grill).

So, what I need to sort out: which of the things – whether or not they were brag-worthy, above – are things that I could, at the next opportunity, sacrifice in order to make progress on something more worthwhile? Deep goals analysis ahead. Unfortunately, partly due to my fine Liberal Arts education, I am highly skilled at explaining away nearly anything. That 2 hours I lost on watching “Appaloosa” may be the only thing that doesn’t fit into any of my big goals, right now.