Small Goals: February 2016

Today I'm joining my friend Jennifer at The Yellow Brick Road again to share my small goals for February- I think it is great to set small goals each month to stay focused on my priorities. It helps me not get overwhelmed by all the stuff I feel like I could/should be doing. Head on over to the linky party on Jennifer's blog to see what others are up to this month, and maybe even join in the fun yourself (click on the picture to go to the post)!

1. Get some curtains up in the basement

I plan to share the complete project once I am at some semblance of done-ness down there, but the finished basement has been the single most MAJOR project I have been working on since moving into my new house. Just to give you an idea of what I was dealing with, here's a before picture (excuse the furniture from the open house- it's the only photo I have of the old condition- bad blogger!):

It's not that it was in bad condition, it just is sooo outdated, not my style, and doesn't exactly scream "playroom", which is what I'm going for. The dark wood paneling, dark cabinet, and medieval lighting have already been rectified, but I took down the vertical blinds as well and now I have a bare window that needs covering! I've got the curtain and the curtain rod, now I just need to install it.... That's my goal. If I can get more than that done, great, but I'm trying to be realistic here. ;)

2. Get ready for MIOSM

I have a few new ideas in mind that I'd really like to get up and running this year for Music In Our Schools Month, and that will require some advance work. It's going to be a crazy month already with some other events I am preparing, curriculum writing for the district, and just general school craziness, but I want to make sure I don't forget to get ready for MIOSM amidst everything else (if you want to see some of the things I've done for MIOSM in the past, check out this post).

3. Start creating the 2016-17 planners

Yep, it really does take me 3-4 months of solid work to create the teacher/life planners. I have been thinking about and planning for them for a couple of months now, but it's time to start the actual creation process now. I have gotten some great input and had some new ideas myself for the planners for next school year that I am excited to get working on, but it is a time-consuming process! If you want to help give input into the new planners or just get the inside scoop on what's happening in my little corner of the planner world, join my Planner Collaborative group on Facebook! It has been great to be able to interact with and get input and ideas from other teachers and parents using paper planning to stay organized.

That's it for this month, folks! Thanks Jennifer for hosting such a fun linky each month. Make sure you head over to her blog to see everyone else's posts!