Holding Myself Accountable

In a world where accountability is a word that is falling by the wayside, I find it important to be sure I hold myself accountable. If to nobody else than myself, then so be it. But I know I need to be accountable for all I choose to do, say, and undertake. In January, I wrote this post about my goals for 2010. A third of the year is already over, and I feel I should examine my list of goals and see where I stand.

As far as my spiritual goals are concerned, I can always do better. Because of my new calling as Sunday School teacher for 12 and 13 year olds, I feel like my scripture study is more focused. I have specific topics to study throughout the week, and I find this good for me. I also find that the kids in the class have questions. And sometimes I don't have immediate answers. But I am able to seek out the answers during the following week, and through this, I am learning as well. It's a pretty awesome thing. Though I can't say I've necessarily met my goal of attending the Temple more often, I did go last weekend with my mom and Heidi, since I was off work that day. I am glad I went and will be working on making that a part of my month every month. Humility? Yeah, that's a big fat fail. We won't even go there. I too easily lose my patience with situations and such. I think I know what is best for me. And I do not like waiting for things to come to pass. I need a lot more work in this area.

Temporal things tend to be easier for me. Probably not the greatest thing to admit, but the truth nonetheless. And being honest is part of being accountable. So far so good on building my savings account. It is a slow growth, to be sure. But it is growing, and I have put money into my savings account from each funeral home paycheck. I am doing well at reaching my debt-free goal. My credit card debt is gone -- I only use it now for everyday purchases and make sure I always pay it off at the end of the month so as not to accrue interest charges. I am doing well with that. And things turned out quite better than anticipated as far as paying off my student loan, because I got the second job. I am about a month away from making my final payment. It will definitely be gone by June. I'm so excited about that. I'm working on doing better with stocking up on a 3 month supply of things. I started out with a pretty decent bang in January. I have 6 months worth of toothpaste :). And shampoo and conditioner. Hahaha. And I think we could actually survive fine for 3 months if we had to on the food in the house. We do have a lot of canned goods. If you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that I did start gardening. My tomatoes are beyond ready to be planted outside. I've had some tragedies of late. Today I lost one to the wind breaking it off while I had them under the carport to start hardening in preparation for putting them out for good next week. To say I was a bit distraught over the untimely death of my tomato plant is an understatement. I'm still trying to get over it. Now, as you see from the pictures above, I do have tall plants, and I have been out working in the garden area. The grass back there had gotten out of control -- so much so that a regular lawn mower wasn't going to do diddly. So Bob from work brought over his weed whacker and I cut the grass down yesterday evening in preparation for roto-tilling next Saturday. Thank goodness I'd had a previous lesson in Panama from my dad! That's hard work!

As far as physical improvements are concerned, it's much easier to not be accountable here. I have done pretty well with the walking. Most weeks I walk for at least 45 minutes 3 days a week. But many of them, since I have started walking with Sue once a week, I get 4 days in. But weight loss is not my friend. I can report a big fat goose-egg on that category. Lame-o.

And then there was the miscellaneous category. I gave up on trimming the apple tree at all this year, much less for production. I did clip off a few branches, but it's going to take a lot more work than I can actually do safely. So we have decided to save up the money and have it cut back by professionals next winter, when it is healthier for the tree to be cut-back anyway. I did get my laptop (as you well know), and I continue to be very happy with it. I am not doing well at accepting that there are things I cannot control, but I can say I'm being given plenty of experiences that are trying to help me hone that trait. Blech. If I master it, will those types of situations magically go away? Because that would be incentive!! And so far, I haven't gone anywhere new. And with a new job that won't allow me to take vacation time until I've been there 6 months (3.5 to go), it's looking like it'll be a while before I get there. But I will.

So, there's my accountability at 4 months in. And as for other things:

I applied. I mailed my application in. Doesn't mean they'll consider me, but at least I did my part. And today was Saria's birthday party. She is 9. It's hard to believe. So you probably noticed a few pictures above of her celebration. She is so beautiful. I do love the kids. Again, one of the big items on the "con" list is being far away from them. But we wait and see.