15/20 for 2020

I feel like I need to slow down, y'all.  We're just 1/3 of the way through the year, and already 3/4 of my 20 goals have been completed.  At this rate, I'm going to overshoot my goal of completing twenty goals this year.  I do know, from past experience, that I will be less likely to complete goals during the summer and during the last few months of the year, so maybe it's good that I'm this far in already.

Anyway, here are the first fifteen of my 20 for 2020 goals:

1. Make sauerkraut. 
2. Grow an amaryllis. 
3. Drink tea.
4. Make cloth napkins for more seasons.
5. Track something.
6. Buy a statement necklace.
7. Make a box to sit on our toilet tank.  
8. Make a particular wooden sign for a friend.
   
9. Make mayonnaise.
10. Make maple syrup.  
11. Watch the Star Wars movies in timeline order.  I don't think I had ever seen any of them besides Episodes IV, V, and VI.  That is a travesty.  
12. Start seeds indoors. 
13. Make a reusable bag out of a chicken feed sack.  Don't look too closely at my stitches, because they're not pretty, but I love my new chicken bag.  Based on this goal, you might assume that I also accomplished the "obtain a working sewing machine" goal.  That's kind of true, but it's also kind of not true, since I feel like it could stop working at any time, and also, it's not working well (see: don't look too closely at my stitches).  
    
14. Finish or decide to abandon that darn puzzle.  This is one of those COVID-19 hidden blessings.  No way would we have finished this puzzle without our state's Safer at Home order.  We've had it, and it's been in progress, for 5 or 6 years.  There are 1000 "random-cut" pieces, and because they don't necessarily all lock into place with each other, we couldn't even tell if we had the entire outer edge done.  It was a very frustrating experience, and now I know to avoid "random-cut" puzzles at all costs.  Too late, I realized that I should have taken a photo every day to show the progress.  Oh well.  Here it is, finished (except for one piece that has been lost to the universe.  I feel like that's pretty darn good for sitting out where wild children congregate for 5 or so years).  
    
15. Make a cast iron skillet handle cover.  Cast iron skillets are excellent for cooking because they heat so evenly.  Unfortunately, the even heat means the handle gets hot, too, which is why I wanted a cover.  This was more difficult than I anticipated, and it didn't turn out exactly how I pictured it, but I managed.   
    

Here are some goals I plan to work on in May:

1. Make and install towel hooks/shelf in the bathroom.  I wonder how many more months I will intend to work on this goal.  It does seem a bit pointless to work on it right now because then I'll have to store it for months while I first brood chicks, and then paint the bathroom. 
2. Wash outside windows
3. Plant something new.  Imagine a fruit that looks like, and has the texture of, a granny smith apple, but tastes like honeydew.  That's what I'm growing!  And starting indoors.  I'm also growing a new to me watermelon and beets for the first time.  So fun!

And here is the list of potential goals, which is finally decreasing in length:

1. Crochet a cowl
2. Crochet a poncho
3. Make reusable food wrap
4. Make a pretty apron (I would have to find a pattern I like first.  Also, a sewing machine)
5. Make lip balm
6. Make soap
7. Make a console table/thing to keep the step stool from dinging our wall.
8. Make a frame for the B
9. String art
10. Install pallet wall
11. Install gallery wall (we had a gallery wall, but there was just something off about it.  I was never happy with it.  Too symmetrical, maybe.  Or the frames were too close together.  Or maybe too big or too small in scale for the wall.  So I'm afraid to try again, lest I not like it again.  I think a gallery would look better on the wall we're intending to palletisize (absolutely a word), but I don't know if I will want to cover up so much of that wall).
12. Light an outdoor tree (there is a sledding hill between our house and the tree I want to light, so I'm not sure it'll work.  Either there will be an extension cord that we will have to avoid while sledding, or the lights will have to be solar or battery powered, which, of course, would drive up the cost of this project).
13. Go to a movie by myself (not sure what's coming in 2020, but there's bound to be at least one movie that I want to see, but no one else in my family wants to see).
14. Hang the W (MC made a beautiful wooden W sign that needs hanging).
15. Repair moose pillows
16. Log 50 activities on Strava
17. Can apple pie filling
18. Remove a popcorn ceiling
19. Wash outside windows
20. Grow and can pickles
21. Obtain a working sewing machine
22. Make and install towel hooks/shelf in the bathroom.  I have the hooks.  I think I probably have the wood (I need to go through the stack of pallet wood to see if I have a combination of sizes that will add up to the size I want).  It needs to happen.  Now it's just a question of how long it'll take for me to actually take action.
23. New floor.  It's time.  It's past time.
24. Plant something new .  Imagine a fruit that looks like, and has the texture of, a granny smith apple, but tastes like honeydew.  That's what I'm growing!  And starting indoors.  I'm also growing a new to me watermelon and beets for the first time.  So fun!
25. Stencil a welcome mat.  Because our storm door opens outward and is very close to the porch surface, we won't be able to actually use the welcome mat at our own house, but I really want to try the technique.