Failed Volunteer

I fail at least once a year at volunteering. Last year I quit one place because I got a parking ticket. I will admit I have issues when it comes to parking, even my son asked a couple weeks ago when the church parking lot was full if we were going home. Yes I've done this in the past, parking lot full, I drive home. I at least fixed that by going to a later service so their is always parking. 

Last night I volunteered at a cool event for a couple hours. I wasn't fired and I even met some new people. I learned about a new website called Volunteer Match, which is similar to match.com but instead it brings you together with non-profits that match what you are looking to do!! I wish I would've learned about this sooner. I've realized I do better at events since the commitment isn't as big. Its almost like a relationship, sorry its not you its me. I just don't see myself in your office every day because I may or may not get a parking ticket. AND I hate driving around trying to find a place to park, also the parking lots are $15 a day. Since I'm giving you my time for free, $15 really is too much for me to pay. I'm not willing to see therapist about my parking issues, so I quit. 

I tried to foster dogs again, I promise this time it wasn't me. I had a dog every week and I love the dogs just not the organization. The last dog I dropped off they haven't called me since then. So here is what happened, our last dog was a stray from Texas. The very first day I had her she got out of her collar and ran away from us. Luckily a nice man got out of his car, picked her up and brought her to us. She was very skittish and scared of noises. I thought she would get better during the week but instead she got worse. She would scratch at the door and bark to come in and then when I opened the door she ran away. She really was an outside dog. Needless to say at the end of the week it was exhausting, so I took her to the adoption event and let them know what was going on. I said I would not be able to come back that night to take a dog but I would the next night. The pilot really needed to sleep before going to work. Well the person who works with the non-profit was not happy with me at all! I also got attitude a few weeks prior about asking for puppy food since I didn't have any at home. I was thinking, how did they think I was feeding all the other dogs. I don't mind providing food for the dogs but at least don't make me feel bad when I ask for food for a puppy that I've volunteered to watch. I have a feeling they won't be contacting me again to help. I'm happy to help but I think it was probably time for me to move on. 

I'm still trying to find where I fit in when it comes to volunteering. I'm hoping volunteer match will find me the perfect match. 

A New Year and A New Adventure

I love this and it's usually how I feel about New Year's resolutions but this year the pilot had a great idea. As a family the 3 of us brainstormed together what we would like to accomplish this year.  Of course the first thing D-Boy came up with was to be able to play games one night during the week since we only let him play his video games on the weekend. And even then he doesn't play very many. So we made a deal if he finished his homework on the weekend to turn in Monday he would get 1 hour on Monday nights to play a game.  Our first goal, No Extras January. We buy a bunch of stuff and I honestly couldn't tell you what exactly. We might just go to TJ Maxx, leave the store with a receipt of $55. I look in the bag and really wonder how we got to $55. My new yoga clothing isn't exactly inexpensive but I reason that if I can get out of the store for less than $100 I'm doing good (however I don't think about how many times I've gone to that store in a month). I might get a pedicure or manicure. Its not that we can't afford these things, we would just like to be more aware of what we are spending. We also agreed no going out to eat. So what do we do? I think this will help us do more things together as a family. We can play board games together, go to the library,  watch the movies we have at home, take walks, foster dogs, make meals at home, visit with our friends (I did warn one of my friends we might be visiting her quite a bit this month).

Learn something new in February. Our plan is to go to a cooking class or even try something we've never done before. Trying to think outside of our comfort zone. Travel March, for our spring break vacation we are flying to California and doing a 400 mile road trip up the coast. We already have our route planned and fun places to stay & visit. 

Our mini goals are to spend less time on our computer (this one is really for the pilot ;-) I get bored pretty quickly on the internet. However I will say I'm just a tad bit addicted to Facebook. I wouldn't call it an obsession but I may need to spend less time on it. Doing a 6 am workout once a week, now you need to realize this will be a hard one for me. I don't usually get out of bed before 7:15 am or later. 

We are good at making financial goals every year but I never really considered making life goals. I enjoyed spending our evening figuring out the things we want to accomplish this year. We wrote on each month of our calendar as a reminder. We have the rest of the year planned but I think you get the idea. Please realize that usually I'm a no goals type of gal, but I think this really will enhance our lives together as a family. And at some point I need to grow up and realize that goals aren't a bad thing. 

Whats on your agenda for 2014??