Christmas = kitchen time

I've been thinking about what Christmas means to me, tradition-wise.

Of course, the reason for the season is Jesus.

Aside from that, what makes it feel like Christmas for me?

Cards, music, gifts of FOOD!

I love the idea of baking things in my kitchen and giving them as gifts.

It;s an act of love for me and hopefully, a bit of pleasure for the people receiving it too.

Last year I read on a blog (Sadia's) about peppermint bark and I was hooked - it looked so easy and I had to try it.

Mine flopped big-time.

My chocolate wouldn't melt and I eventually added some milk and the result was better but not great.

Well, let me rephrase - it still TASTED delicious but was not presentable enough to hand out as gifts.

So D and I enjoyed my un-presentable peppermint bark for about two months!

This year I started seeing things again and went out to get chocolate. And I messed up two bars of my favourite chocolate, Cadbury's, before I decided to ask on FB.

A Canadian friend (that's a story for another day - remind me to tell you how we met!) who lives in Jhb told me Cadbury's is not meant to melt. And many others told me about low, low heat and to do it slowly.

Do you guys know me? I don't do things slowly!!! D even said he doesn't think this "peppermint bark suits my style". Very true.

So I went back and got some Beacon and Nestle - those melted perfectly. Amazing to me - in literally one minute both slabs had melted beautifully in the microwave.

But ... I can't let go of my beloved Cadbury's.

I bought a couple of slabs again because I'm a glutton for punishment and I did it exactly as Ginger said to do and it worked. Not as well as the other chocolate, but it worked.

I used some candy canes and some endearmints (I squished them flat with my thumbs and then cut into little squares with my kitchen scissors - worked beautifully) to put on the top.

I used glass jars to package them so now all I have to do is put little labels and tie a ribbon around the rim.

The only problem is... it is summer here and hellishly hot so these things start melting in my hot kitchen.

At the moment I have about 10 glass jars of peppermint bark in my fridge!

By the way, I only used glass jars because I had them. They would also look very pretty in those little cellophane bags with a nice red ribbon.

So far my Christmas baking includes:

1. peanut butter chocolate oats cookies
2. oats and raisin cookies
3. savoury chex mix, South African style
4. sweet chex mix............ I will post all these recipes - promise. I've even taken the pics so I'm halfway there :)
5. peppermint bark

What are your favourite things to bake at Christmas?

What are your favourite parts of Christmas?

PS Kendra says her favourite Christmas song is Jingle Bells. They have a baby CD and she asks for Jingle Bells all the time.

In which I get crafty with material!

You know how you see some things, immediately think you'd like to do them, and you pin them.

And then there are things you think are pretty but don't think you can do and so you don't pin them.

Or at least I don't.

I only pin things I think I can make otherwise it goes on my "if only I could sew" board.

I saw something on OneRadMother's blog a while ago... and while I clicked away at the time without pinning, it kept nagging at my mind.

And so I was just about to throw out a t-shirt because the armpits had got too skanky :) when I had a brainwave.

Jess made a necklace out of a t-shirt and that's what I set out to do but I got sidetracked.

She says to use a size L or XL.


My t-shirts are size medium and fairly form-fitting (see previous post for pictures). I buy all my t-shirts from Mr Price and they're all the exact same style.

So, directions...

1. Cut off the hem
2. Start cutting strips across the t-shirt of about 2 cm (nearly an inch).
3. When they're all done, pull at the t-shirt strips to stretch them.
4. They curl and become neat spirals.
5. I'm impatient so I stretched mine after each strip had been cut.
6. Towards the end I had a bright idea.
7. There was a 10 cm strip (4 inches) so I took the whole one and stretched it.
8. I tried it on my head and it looped around twice.
9. I'm lazy as well as sewing challenged so I didn't make any fancy loops to hide the seam - I just positioned the seam behind my head out of view.
10. Voila - headband.

The necklace is okay... for me... but I haven't had the courage (!) to wear it out yet.

I will take pictures and blog though :)

Have you repurposed anything recently?

Five on Friday and... I'm back with the PT

1. I am surrounded by photos, cards and presents in this study and I've had enough! A good batch was done this week and I think I sent off/ handed out about 15 cards and presents. I really have to finish the rest of the cards this weekend so my study can go back to a state of order again.

2. Yesterday we had our work Christmas lunch. I got D to drop me at work, caught a lift there with one colleague and caught a lift back home with another colleague. All this to maximise connections and it was fabulous :) I think I got and received some of the best gifts around the table...I am SOOO not into gag gifts, like stupid drinking games. Last year one of the girls got her person a really thoughtful gift and she got a drinking game gift. One look at her face was enough to know it did not go down well. I bought a beautiful photo frame (distressed and with the word family, just like on the blogs!) and I received a set of 4 vases, fused together with L O V E on the front. Beautiful. At the moment they have a red candy cane in each - looks very pretty.

3. When I got home yesterday I decided to take Connor on a mother-son date (you know why, MandyE) so we went late night shopping (from 5:10 to 6pm). He LOVED IT (my quality time child). He was charming, well-behaved but way too energetic for that time of the day. I even caught a guy saying to his girlfriend, "we'll have a little boy like that one day" LOL We went to print TONS of pics from this photo shoot. Once I made a new folder (Pics Marcia Loves) and focussed on those pics, I started loving the shoot. I particularly love these ones of me and D.

4. We got our increase letters today and I am beyond thrilled. This is the highest of the 7 increases I have ever received at this company. It's been a record money year for me at work. Brilliant bonus, free money and a good increase. Things are looking up and my savings account is looking healthy again. I think I'll get a cleaning lady for a 2nd day a week from next year. On the other hand, it's also been the worst year for my business in about 5 years! There's much more to the story but that's for another post. Maybe on the private blog.

5. I don't think I'm going to go to Sting simply because I can't find anyone who wants to go with me. Normally I'm not a girl who needs anyone with her to do anything (movies, restaurant, shopping, etc - I love being alone) but a concert is not something you go to by yourself, right? L from work booked her tickets in the 2nd row (!) about an hour after they were announced so that's not an option.

On the bright side, Michael Buble will be here in May. The not-so-bright-side is that he's performing at Sun City (2.5 hours away...) so it will have to be a granny babysitting thing... South Africans, are you going?


What did I do for me this week?

Well, I woke up on Tuesday, tired again. Yes, it is that time of year but I'd just had enough.

I know that I always feel better about ... well, everything... when I'm exercising. I make better food choices because I don't want to stuff up my hard work in the gym, I imagine I'm more muscular, have a flatter tummy, etc, sleep better, don't stress so much, and and and...

"Enough of this nonsense!" I said and the minute I got to work I phoned the personal trainer. The one I kind-of fired.

Amazingly the stars aligned and she said she'd resigned but she'd send me the new girl's details.

I contacted her, went to the gym that very afternoon to work out by myself while the new PT and I got acquainted and had an expectations chat.

She emailed me her bank details, I paid her a lot of money and I started with her the next day.

She's tall, blonde, has a beautiful smile and while she's lovely, doesn't put up with any nonsense.



She is KILLING me but when I see results I'm going to love her. Actually, I already do.

I can't believe I've been to the gym THREE times this week (the last time that happened was Feb) and it feels fantastic.


So what did you do for yourself this week?
Are you going away over December?

We're not but I can't wait for the rest of Joburg to leave so I can catch up on my work!

School friends

I didn't have tons of friends when I was at school.

In fact, only three very good friends.

Who all stayed in PE to study whereas I went to my beloved Rhodes.

There were lots of people I was friendly with but I wouldn't consider all of those people my friends.

Of course now with Facebook, you would consider all those people friends.

When I left school, I tried to keep in touch with those three and I kind-of did with the one, but not the others.

Nothing really happened, we both just didn't bother to really make the effort.

In those days, I was very black and white about things. Much more than I am now (with the callousness of youth), if that's possible.

So if I sent a letter and they didn't write back, I tried once more and that was that.

Written off!

Remember I finished school in the good old days when you had to write letters to communicate or otherwise use a good, old-fashioned landline which was expensive in those days.

It never bugged me, still doesn't, because I used to always be of the opinion that if we REALLY wanted to connect, we could.

So we didn't.

With Facebook, I deliberately kept my maiden name off my profile.

I really don't want everyone to know my business if we haven't even thought about one another for the last 19 years.

Yes, it's been a long time since I matriculated.

But of course, one finds and gets found on Facebook.

And I get messages like, "I wasn't even sure if it was you because I didn't know your surname". Um, yes. Totally intentional on my behalf.

I must say, I wasn't enemies with anyone at school so if anyone friends me, I accept. And some of them have turned into really nice people :)

We all look exactly the same except have got slightly fatter and with more wrinkles :)

I still am not good friends with any of my school friends although I do initiate some FB contact if I'm going to be in PE :)

I actually met up with a girl from primary school last year. We hadn't seen each other for 25 years and it was so funny - when Reception told me she was there to meet me for lunch, I whispered, "what is she wearing? I haven't seen her for 25 years!" but she looked exactly the same as she did at 12.

And I know if we were to get together, we'd have a good time catching up. 

I still don't try too hard though because I don't want to be seen as the one that is chasing the friendship.

Gosh, did I just say that?

Does that even make sense?

So, back to you.


Are you still good friends with your school friends? Or did you ditch them as soon as you could?


What was your plan about friending old school friends on FB?

Not so wordless Wednesday - Sun City

So at the end of September (yes, a whole 10 weeks ago!) our work conference was at Sun City. Yes, we are super spoilt.

We had the Drum Cafe teaching us to make beautiful music together. I love this stuff. I was hot and bothered and hungry but I still got into the whole drumming thing.

BTW, had I taken that job I was offered last year, I would have been working with the guy to the left of me in the pic.

the gorgeous pink bag I bought for my birthday
I am slightly obsessed with taking pics of the contents of my bag

ooh, I love that blur...

Pic from our bedroom the next morning

and me doing self-portraits in the mirror

ready to set off and explore with my camera - bliss...

love signboards

and bridges

and water

beautiful flowers

and isn't the texture of this rope gorgeous?!

what do you call these black things?

isn't it amazing how people still carve their messages into trees?

another self-portrait

Add caption

finally I finished and landed at this beautiful pool where I read my Kindle

this pic was for D - this is what a pool needs to look like, not gross green :)

I am itching to travel properly - to fly away on a plane, hear people talking other languages or at least English with an accent ;)

*sigh*

If I could buy you a plane ticket to anywhere, where would you go?

I'm very good at denial

I read a post in my Google Reader on the weekend that reminded me of something I forgot to tell you.

Because I'd blocked it out, you see.

When Nanny V leaves for the day, Kendra does this whole song and dance about kissing and hugging her.

Kendra also waits til the last possible minute so basically the person is out the door before she twigs that they're actually leaving NOW.

I don't indulge in this wishy-washy behaviour in the mornings.

I tell them I'm going to work and do they want a kiss and hug.

If they ignore me (tell me my kids are not the only ones who flat-out ignore me) and carry on playing, I say (brightly), "bye! I'm off to work. Have a nice day" and I go.

Of course the next couple of days they don't faff around :)

Anyway, so this particular day, about two weeks ago, V was saying her good-byes.

Connor and I said "bye" and I clicked the remote to open the gate.

Kendra then SHRIEKED at the top of her voice, "V! V! hug! kiss!" and I was momentarily distracted by this drama.

In a flash, Connor was out the door and running down the driveway towards the gate which was WIDE open.

I took off after him shouting, "Connor!" and he thought it was a game/ saw his chance for freedom and kept running down the street.

In a vest and leggings, by the way.

I caught up with him about two houses down the street so those little legs are fast.

I scooped him up, my heart beating so fast from the adrenaline and the thoughts of what could have been whizzing through my head.

Of course I gave him a talking to - that he is not allowed outside without me, D or V because there are cars that can hurt him, etc.

I also told V that that was IT! No more pandering to K's nonsense - if V's out the door, that's it. K will have to cry for her hug and kiss but I'm not having a dead baby.

So that's what we now do and K seems to understand.

But that day, once we were all safe inside, I lay on the couch thinking and thinking some more. And then I started crying. Sobbing really, from relief.

I can't explain the terror I felt at how things could have turned out so badly.

Fortunately D arrived soon after, took one look at me and said, "what's going on?"

Connor said, "Mummy's crying...Mummy's sad".

D and I hugged, prayed and that was that. I totally forgot about it (or more likely, blocked it out) until I read this post from Reanbean.

I so relate to that terror she felt.

Oy!

Have you had any such incidents?

PS today is the triplets' birthday. I can't believe it's been one whole year and I was right last year - they are GORGEOUS!
PPS today is also the 3-year anniversary of the Rod Stewart concert where I triggered :) Incidentally, I cut up the t-shirt I was wearing that night to make a necklace. Pictures to come!

Teehee

A new lady moved into our section at work.

She doesn't actually work in our team but didn't like her old desk (!) so they thought this was quieter for her.

Ha! If they'd asked first they would have found out the real story because we have never been a quiet team.

Anyway, since she's moved (about two months in a week or so), she's complained about how loud we are... and about me, in particular.

I'm the most extroverted person here most of the time so am typically the loudest :)

Our project manager is worse than I am but she works half day so mostly is very focussed and gets to her work so she can leave for her kids at 1.

Anyway, someone said, "don't tell Marcia" the other day which is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

I was all, "what do you not want to tell me?" to which the reply was, "you're going to get cross".

Again, red flag!

Turns out the lady has now asked to move back out because I (and one other) are too loud.

I just laughed.

I find it too funny and no, I told the PA, I will not shut up because that is part of why I LOVE working here - the freedom to be myself.

Right?

Anyway, aside from her not liking any noise, she is quite OCD.

I'm usually very tolerant, usually even celebrating others' quirkiness BUT....

I caught her straightening up my colleague's desk just minutes ago.

The project manager rushes out of here at 1:05/ 1:10 every day so packs up her stuff but leaves the laptop cords, stapler, punch, etc. any which way.

Understandably.

It's small in the grand scheme of her life.

But it obviously bugs the heck out of this lady which is why she just went over there and striaghtened it all up, very neatly at right angles.

Every time I think about it I giggle quietly to myself.

Teehee.

So tell me about you - where are you on the loud spectrum? 

(mind you, I'm usually not the loudest one anywhere but the other loud person sits in an office and the rest of them out here with me are less extreme extroverts and introverts)


And are you OCD about things on your desk?

(I am so not OCD at work because the cleaning people move things around at night so there's no point, but I am that way at home - I like things "just so")

Well, it's Sunday night

and I'm only 23 emails down from 57!

Mandy, that's our play area (my sunroom). Connor running to the door because he heard D's car

why's Daddy taking so long?

Look at the eyelashes and the chubby baby hands

Where's Daddy? (this boy is as impatient as I am)

Love these hands

Finally sees D - Daddy!

Reunited! You'd swear they hadn't seen each other for days instead of 30 minutes!

On the bright side, we

• went to our first Christmas Carols evening (and the babies were good!)
• decorated for Christmas (do you want to see?)
• returned things, bought things, tidied the house (not enough though)
• went to church
• went to have lunch
• watched a bit of Happy Feet (well, the kids watched with D). I read my entire Home magazine "practical ideas to beautiful living" - I love it :) and half the Ideas magazine, Christmas edition. I almost believe I could make a wooden Christmas tree! These are the first two magazines I've bought the whole year - I do believe I might have bought one in Jan though...
• made my first batch of chex mix - more on this later
• bought a Kindle for D's Christmas present and was shocked at the exorbitant shipping!

So, the chex mix.

I've always seen these things around the internet but we don't have those cereals, at least not in my Pick and Pay :), so I was unsure.

I hate wasting money or food so I decided to google a bit and learnt that you can use any cereals so off I went to buy some.

I made a savoury batch and then that turned out so good I made a sweet batch.

OH MY WORD!

Delicious - both of them.

I will take pics and blog my versions during the week.

I may have mentioned it before but I can't seem to follow a recipe, any recipe, 100%. Also, I like using up things :)

The kitchen is a mess but at least I have four cans prettily packaged for gifts.

And then I felt like Martha Stewart because we still have TONS left for us so I made a healthy (no butter, no sugar) version for the babies.

Connor has sampled the savoury version and loved it.


Which are you more partial to - savoury or sweet? D likes savoury more and I like sweet :)


And what did you do this weekend?

PS Connor threw a tantrum walking from the parking lot at church to the building and, while thrashing,  broke my lovely necklace. The good thing is it looks like it can be quite easily fixed if you have jewellery-making tools so I'll get that seen to pronto.

Also, the minute we got to the building we put him in time-out where he screamed his head off for about 30 seconds. After that he was sweet as anything, sincere apologies, holding my hand nicely, etc. Time-outs = amazing.

PPS I can't figure out how to get the picture to show on the camera so I don't have to squeeze my face right up to the little viewfinder .. anybody know? remember the book is still shrink-wrapped :)

This made me cry, and my very ambitious goals for December

I read a bit from my Google Reader this morning and this post made me cry. For real.

I think you'll also enjoy it, especially Claudia, Julia and Natalie.

It is long, though, so go grab a mug of tea and settle in :)

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Okey-dokey, can you believe we're 28 days away from 2012?

Be prepared for me to get more and more excited as the month progresses - I love the fresh slate that is a new year.

For December, these are my goals:

Personal

1. Exercise 8 times this month
2. Try and get really close to my reading goal for the year (have to read another 8 books!), failing which, read 5 books.
3. Get all Christmas cards done by 8th.
4. Get all my gifts done
5. Blog twice on friendship
6. Decorate the house - done (this was only done this morning)
   
7. Read camera manual
8. Figure out how to make a camera bag I was shown dead boring black camera bags for R600 plus. I told the guy, "there is NO way I'm paying that kind of money to be that boring :)" I had my gorgeous red bag with me so he could see. I've googled some crafty blogs and I have an idea and Lord knows, I have plenty of real bags that just need some padding. It may not be "professional" but it will be pretty :)
9. Keep praying about ministry next year
10. Go see two movies (I have tickets that my work gave me for Women's Day that expire 31 Dec) - any suggestions? I don't do Twilight and similar though...
    
11. Do 8 random acts of kindness 
    
12. Socials - work Christmas function, C's party, K & B for brunch, another K & B for lunch, maybe have one friend over for Christmas (we're still deciding)
13. Finish November photos
    
14. Do year in review page for November and December and print pics so I can finish my book
    
15. Make at least two different types of cards
16. Make travel journal for D, a friend at work, who flew to Thailand today - totally jealous! 
17. Two date nights with D

Business

1. Post 12 blogs in December and write 3 newsletters
2. Submit design brief 
3. Review changes from copywriter
4. Put book in correct format and order proof copy
5. Send to designer to format for Kindle
6. Delete one domain Transferred all files to current live website and deleted yesterday
7. Send thank-you cards to all 2011 coaching clients plus gifts to the ones who stayed more than 3 months
8. Declutter and organise external hard drive
9. Figure out how to keep busy just enough without working myself to the bone (that's the million dollar question, right?!)
   
10. Have Christmas sale
11. Set 2012 goals

Okay, even for me that looks a bit hectic but aim high and all that jazz :)

What are your goals (or intentions) for December? 

This week's me time

I actually had a fantastic week of me time.

1. On Wednesday morning I checked my diary, saw that I only had my first meeting at 12 and decided to take some time off to go run some errands.

Well, in the space of 1 hour 15 minutes I attended to 5 errands in one shopping centre. Unheard of with kids in tow.

It was bliss.

Christmas music playing, beautiful decorations, not many people (!).

I only got to work at 10:50.

I got some books for Caren's kids that she wanted to get for her friend's kids. Well, I even had time to go browse around the bookstore and found similar.

I phoned Caren and she says, "why are you not at work?" or something similar.

But really, sometimes you just need a time-out for your sanity.

And of course when I got to the office I was super-productive so it didn't feel like I'd even had that time away.


2. Then, Hayley and I finally met up on Wednesday night and it was great.

I was late because the kids were a bit crazy. My fault, as I thought I could arrive at 6:10, quickly change into jeans and then rush out 10 minutes later.

No sirree.

They wanted to chat, hug, etc. which in the grand scheme of things is totally fine with me.

Hayley was very gracious when I eventually pitched.

You're all dying to know what I thought of her, right?

She was open, honest, positive, shared freely and of course, passionate about Jhb and South Africa, everything I imagined and then some.

I really enjoyed myself and we've decided we need to do this supper date thing more often. Hopefully next time she'll also eat (I was starving and tucked into my scrambled eggs - that Mugg and Bean makes DELICIOUS scrambled eggs)!

I also have a client near where she works so if things work out time-wise, we'll try to meet up in the CBD and walk somewhere. I can't wait!

3. Yesterday I took a half day (I know, you're wondering if I got any work done this week!) and went to get my hair re-Brazilianised.

The hairdresser and I hit it off and we chatted so much I stayed about 10 minutes longer showing her pictures of my kids, etc.

She said she'll do my hair again at the Groupon rate if I come back so I'm totally taking her up on that.

We finished very early - 1 hr 15 minutes - and so I decided to go back to the mall to finish up some shopping for a Christmas gift I have to buy. We each pick a name and buy that person a gift. I got the new boss!

I ran into TWO people I knew and was really glad my hair at least looked decent :)

4. But my main news is this - I bought a new camera! I walked in, spent about 5 minutes looking and handed over my (debit) card.

Somehow (and this annoys me) I felt I had to justify why I was making such a huge purchase so quickly and I muttered something to the guy about having previously done my research. Ugh!

By the way, I do realise I was emotionally spending (this was my first day in over 6 years of not reporting to my boss) but this is something on my list - I just got it a month earlier.

Oh, it's a Canon EOS1100D - twin lenses. Something like that. I've taken a few pics and love the feel of the camera in my hand but I know squat so I'm not getting good pics yet. I really need to read the manual.

5. I'd been waiting for 5 parcels in the mail - 4 purchases and 1 from Jess. One arrived yesterday, one arrived this morning and Jess's one arrived this afternoon. (Hopefully my moo stuff and my photo book will arrive early next week)

Of course I squealed.

I am overwhelmed by her generosity to me and the kids. The kids' things are in their rooms - Connor got a bow tie and Kendra got a headband. And she wrote me the loveliest card too :)

What a blessing you are, Jess!

 I honestly love everything - everything! - but I love this most of all. When I sent Jess a thank-you email, I told her I'd had something yellow on my "to buy" list for months and now I have it. Yellow just screams summer, doesn't it.

I already wore it tonight :)

Then I took it off with my rings...

and here's where I realise I've been reading Katelyn James too much. She always puts the wedding rings in unusual places :)

look - the background is suitably blurry and I haven't even read the manual yet.

So that's me - a very full week of me time and I am sufficiently recharged. We have nothing but church on for this weekend and I couldn't be more glad about that.


How was your me time this week?

PS all pics taken with the new camera

The verdict on my November goals

Gosh and golly, this month has been busy and productive.

And super emotionally draining on the work front. I even cried a little this morning again when I wrote a thank-you card for my wonderful boss.

Those people (my team) didn't even bother to sort something out for him in the way of a gift so I did my own thing - aforementioned card and a Dr Seuss print in a frame for his new (!) desk.

I slipped it onto his desk between meetings but I swear he has radar - as I was running out at 12 (had a half day today), he came out of his office, gave me a hug, thanked me for being "wonderful", etc. Terrible. BUT I did not cry. Aren't you proud???

Moving on.

Personal

1. Book holiday  Done and I couldn't be happier to have this off my list
2. Go to gym/ exercise 4 times Well, I went to the gym 4 times but didn't even exercise once. I need to book the personal trainer again because I can see this is never going to happen if I'm not paying someone
3. Start praying about what I want to do about ministry next year Yes, and it's ongoing. Don't stop praying for me. I haven't filled in any of the ministry forms for next year because I still really need clarity.
   
4. Read 5 books 6 books read - I am super happy about this
5. Keep a gratitude journal for a month Total fail
6. Do 8 random acts of kindness  easy-peasy as usual - did about 12
   
7. Socials - Hayley, S& S's party, R's batmitzvah, R's wedding, work panto, J&P - lunch, infertility group Christmas function  Hayley and I made it right on the 30th. That's a story for another post but it was lovely!
8. Do October photos This was done about a few days into the month and I'm even half way with November. I know, I shock myself too.
   
9. Do year in review page for Sept and Oct
10. Make at least two crafts with my cupcake punch I still haven't posted the second one
11. Two date nights with D... we only had one, the BatMitzvah. This month has been too busy.
    

Business

1. Post 12 organising blogs in November
2. Have an AWESOME Christmas Organising workshop at church It was a flop in terms of attendance but I did it anyway.
3. Write back and front matter Done
   
4. Chase up on getting book proof-read D has promised to do it on Sat. Once this is done, I can upload, get a sample copy made and posted to me to have a look through so I can make final changes and put LIVE. The Kindle version can also then be done.
5. Book and pay deposit for my book's design. done!
   
6. Write article on effective delegating. Finally done ... twice.
   
7. Finish tidying up organising blog's sidebars

Well, blow me over. I can't believe I did all my business goals and 9.5 out of 11 personal goals.

 How did you do on your goals for November? 

P.S. I discovered some lovely bloggers last night who set goals AND they're all intentional/ purposeful. It's rare to find this combo so I'm super stoked (do you say "stoked"?) but I've been very good and only added the one I liked the most to my GR.
PPS If you set or track monthly goals, please leave a comment - I want to do a thing on the sidebar so we can find each other and help stay on track.