I can’t believe that I’m doing this, but I’m in. I probably shouldn’t be trying to do a challenge at all, but this one seems to have a high probability of success. The idea here is to choose three goals to try to complete in the month of September. I think I’ve chosen three goals that I can successfully complete. We’ll see.
- Clean Out the Bookcases. Thanks to Ben’s birthday party I have clear access to all of my bookcases for the first time in a couple of years. I’m going to take advantage of this a clean them out. One of my doctor’s points was all these books are harboring dust mites and other critters that could be making my asthma worse. He’s a BIG fan of the Kindle for that reason.
- Create a mission statement. One of the things that I think will help me get a handle on where we want to go as a family and what our goals are is to create a mission statement that we can all live with. As a starting point, I think I need a personal mission statement that will help guide me in building the kind of life that I actually want rather than the a life that is lived getting from a to b to c.
- Fifteen minutes of recharge time daily. This can be time that I use for guided relaxation, power napping, or gentle yoga, but I know that I need to commit to doing this every day in order to be healthier and a better parent/partner/person.
So, that’s my 3 in 30. I’ll be reporting in weekly this month to see how it’s going and we’ll just have to see what happens. To get an idea of where I’m starting from:
Bookcase area #1: 
Grandma’s Desk: 
Bookcase area #2: 
Bookcase area #3: 
By my desk: 
This is what *was* on the floor of my office and is currently residing in the back of P’s truck: 
These two tubs? Full of books: 
The opposite side of my desk: 
The cookbook area (admittedly not as bad as the rest): 
This should prove to be an interesting challenge, but I think it’s a goal I can reach. I’m intentionally leaving out the ten or so boxes of books in the attic. Part of me says they’ve been up there for over three years, so they could just be taken and pitched wholesale. We’ll see if I go through with that or not.
Adjunctmom's Blog 
Glad you jumped on board. This is my first full month too! Together we can do it!! BTW, you have a LOT of books! 🙂
Uh, yes, I do. In my defense, such as it is, I’m an English professor. At one time, a large number of those books were in my faculty office, but when I moved online, I lost my office, then I lost the formal dining room to the books. The truly scary part? All of the shelves that you see? Are double stacked.
It’s a testament to Sauder that those bookshelves haven’t collapsed.
Are you vacuuming the ones you keep? We used to vacuum the spine and other three edges of all the books every year when we spring cleaned and it really helped the family allergies. I try to do that now, though I just don’t have the time to do it with the kids.
We have hardwood floors upstairs though, and I think that helps offset the dust mite population. I can definitely tell when the dust mites are winning though, because it affects me and my oldest.
Good luck!
Wow! Those are some serious books! I vote Kindle too – you can have TONS of books in one itty bitty space. 🙂 BTW – I’m an online adjunct prof too – isn’t technology great? 🙂
April
GREAT goals! I love the mission statement idea. Might have to give that some thought myself.
Off and running!
Wowzers, that is alot of books!
What great goals you have!!! Looking forward to following your progress throughout the month.
Great goals. I completely understand the book collection, I also taught at a University until a few months ago. They are like rabbits, between conferences and the book representatives, they just multiple. I also like the mission statement idea. Good Luck this month, thanks for stopping by my blog earlier.
So glad you are joining us! Good luck on your goals! 🙂
Welcome to 3in30! Your goal list looks great! I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress this month.