Balanced Life Monthly Goals: May Review and June Goals

I'm behind with my review, this time around!

My overall goal is to live a life that feels well balanced to me.  To that end, I have created several areas of importance to me to focus on.  I try to evaluate each area, rating my satisfaction in that area of my life from 1 to 10, with 1 being most dissatisfied and 10 being most satisfied.  Ideally, all the areas get equal rating, but, lower satisfaction ratings indicate that these areas need more work.  My ratings for each area are shown within the parentheses, with the beginning of the month ratings in (black) and the end of the month ratings shown in (blue). 

These are the individual areas of my life and their ratings for April:

Spiritual (10)(10):   The goal is to live a spiritually meaningful life:
I continued with daily prayers, meditation, etc.  I feel that I am living a spiritually meaningful life in accordance with the teachings of my religion.  I am happy with this area of my life.

My goal in June is to continue to live a spiritually meaningful life.

Daughter (10)(10):  The goal is to continue to have a close relationship with her:

Daughter and I continued to keep in touch by phone, texts, and video chats in May.

She isn't planning to come for a visit in June, either, but that is OK.  My goal in June is to continue to have a close, if long distance, relationship with her!

Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies (10)(10):  The goal is to relax doing something I enjoy doing for the pleasure of it.

In May, I continued to repair the second quilt and I knitted myself a pair of socks with wool leftover from the sweater I knitted in April.  

I will continue to repair the quilt in June and maybe knit another pair of socks!  

Finances (9.5)(9.5):  The goal is financial security:

I continued to budget and spend mindfully, with purpose, in May.  I came well under budget for groceries in May because I only did one grocery order!

I will continue to budget and spend mindfully in June, too.

Garden (8.5)(9.0):  The goal is a garden that is productive, yet drought tolerant:

- Maintaining (water, fertilize, and weed); M will continue to visit twice a week

- Focus on the winter vegetable and fruit plants

The garden continues to thrive!  The snow pea harvest has been great, I'm picking plenty of blueberries, too, and the peach tree is laden with fruit!  It's been too cool to plant okra and I think we'll skip planting zucchini this year as I still have zucchini in the freezer!  

June garden goals include tending to the fruit trees and keeping the plants watered, etc.

Family/Friends/Community (8.0)(9.0):  The goal is to have a close connection with family and friends and be involved with my community:

- Regular phone calls and emails, etc., to keep in touch

- Participate in the blogging community and the online organizing community

There were regular phone calls, texts, emails, etc., with family, neighbors, and friends in May.  I received many gifts of food from neighbor S and I was able to help her by accepting some medical equipment that was delivered when no one was home at S's house to accept them and by making my driveway available to her visitors after her mother-in-law passed away as well as lending her my trash bins as needed.  I also visited neighbor T's house a couple of times when her daughter was there, clearing things out and took over some cake I had baked.  Other neighbors spilled oil on my new parkway pavers, but, M turned the paver over and at least they've kept their music down when they partied!  

I was also able to participate in the Postal Service's community food drive, even though I had to chase after the letter carrier to hand over the bag of donations!  

On the whole, it was a good month for keeping in touch with family, friends, and community.  

Goals for June will remain the same.  

Health, Self-Care & Well Being (8.5)(8.5):  The goal is good health:

- Focus on continuing to improve my health through diet, hydration, adequate sleep, etc.
- Attend my medical appointments
- Continue to take my medications as prescribed

- Continue to take necessary precautions against viral infections

As I've stated before, improving my health through diet, hydration, etc., is an on-going effort!  I had two doctor's appointments in May and lab work prior to both appointments.  I am happy with the results of both sets of lab work, although one result requires a follow up test.  Unfortunately, pain prevented me from walking as much as I had wanted to.  The nurse practitioner thought it was due to sciatica, but, the doctor thought it was muscle pain.  I need to confirm with my insurance that they will cover physical therapy.  

Health goals for June include scheduling the follow up blood test, getting my Covid booster, and looking into physical therapy.  In the meantime, I will gradually start walking again (I stopped for a while).   

Time Management (7.5)(7.5): The goal is to spend my time in a mindful manner:

- Spend time purposefully, mindfully

- Continue to focus on making my schedule work for me

- Procrastinate less

I have felt more relaxed about my time management in May!  It doesn't mean that I've improved my time management skills; it just means I don't stress about it quite as much!  Not sure if that is a good thing or not!  

The goal in June is to continue to improve my time management skills!  

House (7.0)(7.5):  The goal is a home that is pleasant, comfortable, and welcoming:

- Clean - Clean the house as needed 
- Organize - Continue to find a place for everything and keep everything in its place
- Well maintained - Keep "erasing the evidence"; implement daily and weekly cleaning schedules
- Decluttered - Continue with the decluttering process

My May goal in this area was to evaluate what I really wanted to achieve when it came to keeping the house maintained.  I did that and it's not so much cleaning (which I seem to do on a more or less regular basis) as keeping areas cleared!  I have started implementing a few small changes, such as making it a point to keep the dining table cleared, to have the living room coffee table somewhat cleared (I like to sit and sew there in the afternoons and I keep the sewing equipment on the coffee table, contained in a bowl once I've finished sewing for the day), and to keep the coffee table in the family room cleared, too.  Eventually, I will add other horizontal surfaces to keep cleared.  Keeping the main rooms cleared has helped me to feel much more satisfied about the state of the house and I am motivated to continue to clear the other rooms, too.

May decluttering included the old vacuum cleaner (new one replaced it), a non-working sewing machine that I held on to, thinking I could get it repaired, even after I bought a replacement, but, it costs more to repair it than it did to get the replacement, empty cardboard boxes I had been holding on to for one reason or another, a couple of containers given away with food, a doormat, a couple of plastic flower pots, etc.  

June goals include decluttering 50 items.  Except, I've added a few items during the first few days of June, including a file cabinet!  Someone seems to be a bit unclear on the concept of decluttering!  LOL.

Once again, certain areas continued to get a high satisfaction rating, three areas (the garden, the house, and family/friends/community) increased in satisfaction, and others remained the same.  None of the areas decreased in my satisfaction ratings, which is good.  I am looking forward to June!