Might be time for round #2!

We're contemplating starting another round, just over 4 years later. Our life has changed tremendously in the last 4 years, too. It will be interesting to see what we decided belongs on our new 101 list ... and we will most likely elicit suggestions from our daughter. That's right, you read that correctly. (Remember item #63?) We're parents ... and parents of a very articulate, curious, adventurous, and clever child. We'll sit with the idea & let some plans germinate.

COMPLETE!

101 Challenges in 1001 days - end results!

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

When did we start? Thursday, April 10th, 2008

When did we end? January 6, 2011

What did we learn? An awful lot, really. I'll go through them, item by item, after sorting out the ones we completed from the ones we didn't.

Which items did we not complete?
3 Have a crab dinner: I don't even like crab. I begin to wonder why we put this on the list in the first place.

9 Go on a cruise: This may very well happen this year.

10 Visit Hershey, PA
11 Visit Yellowstone
13 visit Mary Lou & do some painting
65 Visit Wales
66 See Hadrian's Wall
We love to travel ... but we couldn't fit in all the trips that we'd hoped for. I think if we'd stopped to count them & to consider vacation time we would've put fewer on the list to begin with!

15 go to Starved Rock
38 Go to the Art Museum in Milwaukee
These 2 are about an hour and a half from our house. We just didn't seem to have as much interest in completing them as we thought we would. I'm still interested in going to Starved Rock ... H is on the fence. And it was his idea to do the Art Museum, because he's a bigger art buff than I am. But now he realizes a lot of it is modern art, which neither one of us really likes.

22 have house powerwashed: We really thought this would happen this past fall, but then suddenly time & weather made it impossible to do.

34 Read three books of the Bible.: Again, more of a priority for H than me. I've read the Bible in its entirety years ago, but I thought this item would feed H's soul. Apparently it's not a big item for him. This still puzzles me.

40 Donate 1,000,000 grains of rice through freerice.com (100,000/1,000,000, started 4/10/08): People ... 1 million grains of rice is a ridiculous amount of rice, when counted a few grains at a time. We'd've needed to do about 1,000 grains a day. For 1001 days. Ain't gonna happen.

48 See the Northern Lights: Not at the right place at the right time. I think I'd avoid putting something on a to-do list that we have no control over, in future.

68 Limit computer usage to 1 hour per weekday for 2 weeks: In the end, H shot this down. I thought I could pull it off, but he thought he'd go berserk.

77 Buy new bookshelves for living room: Finances got in the way of this one. And we also unexpectedly downsized a lot of our books, so there wasn't as much pressure to get new shelves. I'd really like some shelves sized to fit standard sized paperbacks, especially. This may be a dream to fulfill later in life.

87 Go 3 times to a place where DH will feel comfortable wearing his snazzy shoes (1/3): Apparently we are not fancy-schmancy people. I mean, we can be, but we don't trend that way. And these are some pretty snazzy shoes.

= $80 for the 16 items left uncompleted. We've got a couple of places we're considering donating this: Kiva or Family to Family. Right now, this month we don't have $80 to spare, so it won't get donated until February, anyway, so we have time to keep pondering.

Which items did we complete? 1 Eat a vegetable with every dinner for a month
2 Avoid deep fat fried foods for 1 month

4 Dine out, just the 2 of us, once every 2 weeks for 2 months

5 Get out some cookbooks and magazines and review recipes: We culled out many of the recipes we'd been hanging onto. And a bonus: turns out we like (and are pretty good at) making jam. This may well become an annual tradition of sorts. Heck, H just noticed strawberries are in season and mentioned making some strawberry jam today!

6 Create a meal together once a week for 3 weeks

7 Buy a DVD, come home, and make popcorn

8 Visit every public area in the Magic Kingdom - This one was tremendously fun & encouraged us to poke around in corners!

12 make caramel corn with Aunt Mary Ann

14 find a roadside fruit or vegetable seller & make a purchase

16 visit the Art Institute

17 spend 20 minutes a day, just playing with & petting our cats, for 2 weeks

18 extend a loan on kiva.org

19 sign up to play secret Santa for 4 kids with Chicago Sun Times' Season of Sharing: This has been tremendous fun & may become an annual tradition. We actually wound up doing it for 6 kids over 3 Christmases. This year, we even got thank you notes from the kids, written to Santa. And Santa wrote one of them back! FUN!!

20 Make a $50 donation to globalgiving.com

21 fix sword anchor in wall & fill holes

23 inflate exercise ball to proper size: Doing this resulted in me realizing that I wasn't really using it even when it was inflated properly. I sold it at the garage sale. Goodbye, good riddance!

24 clean gutters

25 Go an entire week without swearing or cursing: #$%^!* this one was hard. We failed it 4 times in a row. I think we succeeded only because we gave ourselves an out for once a day. Turns out I swear an awful lot in the name of exaggeration for storytelling. H just swears in reaction to things, especially pain. We did it, though. !@$& yeah!

26 Make a Chinese banquet for friends and family

27 Make homemade ice cream

28 Plan a treasure hunt

29 No fast food for one month: We hardly do fast food now. So this was a really good item to break us out of a not-so-healthy routine. Also, it resulted in some fascinating conversations about what constitutes fast food. I mean ... Steak & Shake? It's a sit-down place ... with a drive-through. I can't even remember how we wound up categorizing it. But I know we did say that Subway and Qdoba weren't fast food, because they had some pretty healthy options, plus they had no drive-through. We decided drive-throughs are the devil: they allow one to mindlessly pick up food without really stopping to consider options.

30 Find a new restaurant worthy of becoming a new favorite - combining this one with our item below on visiting new restaurants worked out well. We found new favorites ... and many closed!

31 Find one bread recipe to make regularly

32 Pay off a credit card

33 make cinnamon rolls from scratch

35 See a Cirque de Soleil show. We saw 2 actually: Zumba and La Nouba. Both were great!

36 Go to Adler Panetarium

37 Go to the Shedd Aqauarium

39 Stay at a B&B in Madison, Wisconsin

41 Reevaluate 10 foods/drinks we claim not to like This was quite a mind-opener. And I don't need to do it again anytime soon.

42 Don't say anything negative for 1 day This was a real challenge ... first we had to define what we meant by "negative"!

43 Support a charity walk/run: On 4/26/08, we sponsored a friend, Lauren, who walked in the March for Babies, then in September of 2010, we both walked 3 miles for the Heart Walk.

44 Grow basil and make pesto with it

45 Look for additional blades for Cuisinart

46 Take a class at Brookfield Zoo

47 Visit Yosemite Just an absolutely breathtaking beautiful spot on Earth. Go.

49 Go for a picnic in a secluded spot

50 Go to Kohler Waters new Spa We loved the spa up at Kohler, but didn't like the adjacent resort or the drive to get there. We had high hopes for the closer spot ... but after a couple of visits, they started going downhill.

51 Lose 15 pounds each We wound up losing 70 pounds total ... then we both gained back 20 pounds each, which we both blame on the stress of the adoption process & pouring so much of our lives into that, instead of into self-care. We're back on track, though, and expect to lose more.

52 Spend every Tuesday (changed to SATURDAY) night without computers or TV for 3 months Poor H, this was so hard for him. He's so much a game & TV geek in his free time. It encouraged us to go out, to bust out some boardgames, and to do other things. I loved it.

53 Spend a whole day in jammies, with no outside communication (phones, computers) This one was a toughie. We both learned how quickly we resort to a phone or the internet to look up information!

54 Take a dancing lesson we actually took 3!

55 Go one week without soda This went hand-in-hand with some of our other goals. I'd say we now have soda every 2-3 days, maybe.

56 Visit Field Museum

57 Eat only food we create from scratch for 2 weeks: This one is the most mind-blowing of them all. We discovered that when we don't have preservatives, we both lose weight. It's not an issue of counting calories, just preservatives. For some reason (as yet unexplained by any science we've discovered) when we eat fewer preservatives, our bodies let go of weight. Weird, but true. You'd think that would motivate us to avoid all preservatives, but it's just really damned hard. They're in so many things & we just haven't created a lifestyle where we can avoid them. Still, it dramatically altered the way we eat. We let ourselves get sloppy the past 9 months or so, but now we're back to having only 3 meals a week that have preservatives in them (or that we're not sure about). Hopefully the weight will start coming off again, too.

58 Walk for 1 hour a week, for 6 weeks We did this one in spring of 2008, under the guise of getting in better shape to withstand walking at Disney World. H hated it. For me, it was a breeze.

59 Pay for the person behind us in line We still do this occasionally. And it brings us great delight.

60 Donate $5 to charity for every item not completed on this list by the due date

61 Take a cooking class

62 Get 8 hours of sleep every night for 2 weeks This was another tough one for H. I'm a 9 hours at night kind of gal, so it wasn't hard for me!

63 Go to an adoption seminar We did this in the spring of 2008, and by the fall of 2008, we'd picked an agency. By the spring of 2009, we were "live" ... and we've been waiting ever since for a birthmother to pick us. Still hard to wait!

64 grow something: in the summer of 2007 we grew tomatoes, oregano, & zinnias

67 Visit Caneel Bay: We did this in 2009. Boy, we want to go back.

69 Sit on porch or in living room for 30 minutes every day for 1 month

70 fix driveway

71 install new mailbox (started 4/11/08, completed 4/14/08): Let me just say this: I hate snowplows. The mailbox that we paid to get installed in April of 2008 .... got knocked over the following winter. Again. This is the third time it's happened, so we've not replaced it. We're just using the cheapo city-installed one.

72 put $1,000 into savings We did. And then gave it away to the adoption agency.

73 add 1% more into 401k for 1 calendar year We set it up almost as soon as we created the list .. and just left it there!

74 use no credit cards for 6 months, barring travel expenses or bonafide emergencies This was another one that had lasting impact - we now use them only for travel purposes or an emergency!

75 Go to Morton Arboretum at least once per month for 1 year

76 Buy new car

78 Buy new glasses for DH We did this in 2008 ... and he wants new ones again.

79 Take treats to work for no reason at all 5 times

80 use up soapmaking supplies: Over the course of 8 months, I made 4 differnt batches of soap, resulting in 22 bars of soap!

81 use all body lotion, body wash, soap, shower gel, and body scrub before buying more Ready for the before & after? BEFORE: AFTER: (Note: All of what you see in the "after" photo is all the stuff we currently have on hand ... and none of it is stuff we bought since we started the 101 in 1001 project. It's all gifted to us or it found our way into a travel bag from a trip. I think it'll last us another 300 days!)

82 fix or replace paper shredder

83 Make a crock-pot meal once a week for one month

84 Make ravioli from scratch

85 Send 4 random care packages

86 Buy produce at farmers market 10 times

88 vacuum both cars & wipe down all other components with Armor-All

89 Search for a banjo class & sign up, if DH can find one

90 Locate a nearby Teavana store & patronize it at least once: We are lovin' Teavana. Since we've been avoiding preservatives, that means no soda, so we brew an awful lot of tea.

91 Replace all burnt out halogen bulbs in kitchen

92 put house numbers on house

93 get recycling bin for kitchen

94 fix master bedroom closet door

95 stay within holiday shopping budget for 2008, 2009, and 2010

96 Watch the sunset from the top a mountain

97 buy new winter coats

98 Have a candlelit dinner

99 Visit 30 new local restaurants:
Noodles & Company (4/22/08) - we still go there!
Champps (05/03/08) - I don't think we've been back since then!
Cebu (05/10/08) - Sadly, this place closed just a few months after we went there. We loved it!
Islamorada Fish Company (6/2/08) - Meh.
Carrabbas (6/10/08) - Again, meh.
Walter Payton's Roundhouse (08/07/08) - Meh.
Pappadeaux (08/21/08) - Meh.
Boudin SF (9/2/08) - We liked it .... and it closed.
Sarpino's (10/6/08) - They're still around, but I don't think we've had them since 2008!
Redstone (10/19/08) - YUM. Expensive, but ... YUM.
Go Roma (10/26/08) - The location closest to us closed up shop, but I still like their food.
The Yardhouse (11/7/08) - Too far for us to go often.
LaBriola (1/3/09) - Very good stuff. I'd say we still go there every few months.
Ra (1/17/09) - Sushi. Yuck. H loves it. I have to make do with a non-sushi item on their menu.
Dmitri's Pancake House (2/7/09) - Food okay. Other patrons appear to be members of Russian mafia. Not kidding.
Cosi (2/14/09) - Great spot, we go there every few months.
Amber Cafe (2/14/09) - Nice, elegant, intimate. Not sure why we haven't been back.
Glen Prairie (2/28/09) - Great food, most of it locally sourced & organic. We've been there half a dozen times now.
Honey Cafe (7/3/09) - Too far from home base to be practical to visit, but a homey spot!
Petterinos' 9/5/09 - Was nice to try when we were downtown ... but better food is a block away at 312 Chicago!
Elephant and Castle 9/6/09 - fun pub chain that H loved.
South Water Kitchen 9/7/09 - Meh. (Come on Kimpton ... you can do better!)
Five Guys 10/27/09 - Nice find after reading Chicago magazine. As close to In & Out Burger as we get, here.
Pompei 01/16/10 - Decent spot, but don't know that I rush to go back.
Wow Bao 2/13/10 - YUM. Accidental find in Water Tower Place. We've been back & will return.
Park Grill 2/13/10 - Good food, great view of the ice rink. I'd go back.
Cooper's Hawk Winery 2/15/10 - Like others above, beyond our usual radius, but it was enjoyable.
Flat Top Grill 03/5/10 - Fun, mostly healthy, close by. Been there a half a dozen times.
Weber Grill 03/13/10 - Meh in the extreme. Avoid.
The Patio 3/20/10 - H loves it for the BBQ pork. For me, it's just so-so.

100 get a new compact digital camera: We bought one. It sucked. I sold it at the garage sale. I'd like to get another one, but at this point, our money needs to be saved for the adoption process.

101 Clean out clothes closets. Sort into Keep, Sell, Throw Away, and Donate.

In all, it was a very educational experience, plus it gave us some amazing opportunities to do things we typically wouldn't have done. We're contemplating doing a 50 in 501 kind of thing -- we started dragging at about the halfway point of the 1001 days -- or maybe taking a break & focusing on a different kind of challenge, relating to photography. Thanks for joining us for the journey. If we do take on a similar challenge, we'll update the blog, otherwise, we'll leave it as-is!

January 6, 2011

All righty folks ... in under the wire, here!

Item #81: DONE! Who would believe that it would take us almost 3 years to use up all of the shampoo, conditioner, body wash, & shower gel we had on hand? Sheesh! Ridiculous. We've since received more soaps & such ... but we've not purchased them ourselves, so I have to say we've successfully completed this one. I plan on corralling all the new stuff & taking a photo so you can see what we have to work with NOW!

Item #97: We just got back from Burlington Coat Factory. My friend, Kim, bought me a coat from there for Christmas & I realized, "Hey ... affordable coats!" So, even though money is kind of tight right now, I decided that it was worth it to get H a new coat. We got a really nice one for just over $60. We'll pinch some pennies for the remainder of the month and he'll be able to get some good use out of it for next 2 months at least. Sweet!

In the next couple of days, I'll repost our master list, along with some thoughts on what we've learned. It's been quite a ride!

January 4th, 2011

We've got just about 48 hours & then we'll be done with this journey.

Item #32: The payment went through & the card is paid off. There was an automated payment that came through just now, for less than $40, but let's not quibble, shall we? DONE!! I'd like to start paying off another card, but considering that we need to keep current with car payments & also with the dentist, I think we'll have to postpone that plan until 2012.

Item #69: Tonight marked the last day that we agreed to sit in the living room for a half an hour. It's a trend I've quite liked, although there have been some days it's been damned hard to fit it in. I may suggest this as a weekly thing, and that we keep it going.

We're about 3T away from using up the last of the shower gel. And if I get paid tomorrow, we may MAY get a new coat for H on Thursday night. But I'd have to get paid rather handsomely, and I don't think that's too likely. We'll just have to wait and see. I'll report in when we wrap things up & tally our completed items & reflect on what we've learned in this process.

December 31st, 2010

Well, we are closing in on the end of 2010 ... and we've got less than a week to go on our 101 list! So, here's a few updates:

Item #32: I've set everything in motion. We'll have a credit card paid off on Monday. We've not made as much progress as fast as I would've liked ... but then again, in the last 1001 days, we've had more than $20,000 in unexpected costs, between massive dental work & needing to add a national adoption agency into the mix. Did I mention the downpayment for a new car & a car payment every month for the first time in years? No wonder we're pinched tight! I want to take stock of where we are on our credit cards & choose another one to pay off & cut up!

Item #69: We've faithfully sat in the living room every day. Usually it's at night & accompanied by listening to music or to Black Jack Justice. If I'd been faster in the brainpan, I'd've been doing crocheting at the same time!

Item #81: We're ALMOST done with the last bottle of shower gel. Let me just say I will never EVER buy shower gel or body wash again. We just do NOT use the stuff. Soap works just fine, thank'ee. As often as we get the stuff in gift form, it's more than often enough!

Item #97: We'll see how much revenue comes in on Monday and Wednesday ... but given the fact I've drained the account dry to pull off Item #32, I don't think we'll be able to get H a new coat. Who knows? We'll see where things are at on Thursday!

We'll tally up the numbers when we wrap things up. And we're thinking about doing this again, but in a pared down version. Maybe 51 in 501. We kind of lost momentum at the half-way point, so we think if we halved it, we'd keep the energy moving. We'll also look over the things we didn't do, to determine if we still want to do them or if we're directing our lives elsewhere.

December 25th, 2010

Not very long until we run out of time!

Item #69: We've been spending time in the living room every evening. It gives us a chance to have some tea & listen to Black Jack Justice. We're quite enjoying this ritual!
Item #95: Done! We stayed under budget!
Item #96: My friend Kim bought me a lovely winter coat for Christmas ... now, I'm thinking maybe we should use some of the pennies saved from the Christmas budget to buy one for H! Then we could cross this item off the list, too!

December 5th, 2010

33 days remain in our 1001 days. Can you believe it? It's very hard for us to believe, that's for sure. So, it's down to the wire & we're taking stock of the items we have yet to do.

#3: Not gonna happen. This was kind of a stretch, anyway, 'cause I don't like crab.
#9, 10, 11, and 13: Won't be travelling to any of these spots in the next month.
#15: We might make it to Starved Rock. Totally depends on weather.
#22: Powerwashing in winter is generally not doable.
#32: We are so close to paying off a credit card. SO close. I just don't know if we can close that gap fast enough. We've had an awful lot of unanticipated expenses. And an extra $10,000 in adoption related fees. And $12,000 worth of dental work. Yeah.
#34: I think we can do this one, H doesn't.
#38, 39: Again, not traveling to these spots anytime soon. I am thinking I may cross off 39, though. We made several attempts & finally wound up in a different section of WI. Does that count?
#40: 1,000,000 grains of rice is a lot. We gave up on this when we saw how long it was taking to accumulate. I may round it out to 100,000 grains, just for good measure.
#45: Hey, we actually did this one ... just didn't find any new blades we wanted.
#46: We kept checking for classes, but Brookfield Zoo seems to have discontinued adult classes, unfortunately. I'll cross this one off. We tried, dammit.
#48: We might luck out & see Northern Lights here at home. But I doubt it.
#61: We did this one yesterday! We had a fabulous time, too, with Chef Luca Corrazzina!

#65, 66: More travel ones we can't meet. Since we went full bore on the adoption process, our traveling has been dramatically reduced.
#68: H just informed me he can't tolerate to scale his computer use back this much. I was prepared to try, but he doesn't want to give it an effort.
#69: We're going to tackle this one right now, and we'll get in just under the wire!! We'll enjoy spending more time in the living room with visitors & the Christmas tree! And maybe I can try to secretly get him to read the Bible. And we'll cross off that item, too.
#77: No funds to buy bookcases, sadly.
#81: We are almost done with this one ... just have to make up a conscious effort to use up the rest of the shower gel/body wash. I am still amazed we're working on this one almost 3 years later! We apparently just do NOT use up this stuff very fast!
#87: We went to only one location where he wore his snazzy shoes. He really needs to wear them more often. For as much as he spent on them, they need to get some more wear, that's for sure. Dang.
#89: H informs me that he is unwilling to learn banjo if he has to drive very far, so although we've located a place that teaches, it's too far for him to trek. This one is checked off!
#95: We are very close to having our holiday shopping completed & it looks like for 3 years in a row, we'll be coming in at/under budget.
#97: Like the bookcases, I don't think this is in our future. Too many other places for our money to go. And taking a $5 hit for the incomplete item is way cheaper than a coat.

#60: I guess we can cross this off once we know how much we're donating for the incomplete items, right? Right now, it looks like 17 of our 101 items will be undone. So, we'll be donating $85 somewhere.