May // 5 Little Goals

If you've known me for a while either via this here ol' blog or face-to-face interactions then you'll know that I'm a big fan of ellipses, forward slashes and making lists of goals.  Lots of lists with lots of goals.  You should see my daily bakery to-do list.  It's obscenely long and I never get more than 1/4 of it done.  Can you say job security though?  Always so much going on in the world of flour+sugar = magic.  And my biggest list of goals here on the interwebs was my 40 Before 40 which I'm still proud of!  I didn't get them all because I made some unrealistic ones (um, meeting Tom Waits is a dream and, yes, a goal but a pretty unattainable one...but I'm still not completely giving up hope because you never know when you might run into your favorite musician in the world) in addition to a shit ton of practical stuff but it was fun and helped keep me motivated.

Nowadays I know that I just don't have the time to try to do a million things outside of work and home because I'm just too darn busy or, to be truthful, the exact opposite aka 'lazy' on my day off.  So a small list with some easy goals is jussssssssstttttt the ticket.

For May I'd like to:

1. Identify 5 new flowers // Georgia's spring blooms are absolute gorgeous and early summer isn't too shabby either so now's the time to break out one of my wildflower books to see which ones I can officially identify this year.  So far I've seen the above pictured Pinxter Flowers otherwise known as Pink Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides) as well as Birdfoot Violet (Viola pedata) and Spotted Fairybells (Prosartes maculata).  I'm going hiking on Sunday a bit north of here so I'm thinking I can find a few.
2. Try one recipe a week from my recently acquired mountain of cookbooks // We just cleaned out some storage areas at The Grit and there were a ton of cookbooks that we just didn't need anymore.  So I snagged them.  Score!  They're all vegetarian (duh) but there are many recipes that look challenging to me especially within those with Indian cuisine.  We're shopping locally much more than we used to and cooking our meals fresh daily (with the exception of that Little Italy pizza we scarfed last night) so I'm hoping to squeeze the experimental recipes in with no problems.  Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook, Thug Kitchen and Chubby Vegetarian all have bookmarks too.  I seriously racked up some great books.
3. Take a trip to somewhere, anywhere for a few days // This one might already be in the bag!  My assistant is leaving in 2 weeks for almost 4 months of touring and if I'm going anywhere it needs to be STAT and it will be necessary to get out of Athens.  Working with one newbie assistant for the next few months is going to be a lot of stress (not his fault, of course, but it is a lot to train someone on so many minute details) and I'm serious need of decompressing.  We're looking at taking 4-5 days and driving down to our favorite city - NEW ORLEANS!  But we're also looking at driving to the mountains.  Decisions, decision, decisions.  Bah!  Who am I kidding?  We're 99% going to New Orleans!
4. Make the bed every single day // If my Mother were to see this post she'd say FINALLY, SHE'S MAKING HER DAMN BED AND IT ONLY TOOK 42 YEARS.  Sorry Mom!  She's been making her bed daily forever and I never realized she's been on to something good all this time.  I recently read an article about how making your bed can make you feel better and it also helps you be more productive.  And I need both those things!
5. Give away 10 books // The other day I raved about an old friend/acquaintance Janice Ray and her outstanding book Ecology Of A Cracker Childhood to one of my garden gals then promised to loan her a copy that I had at home.  When I went to look for the book and pop it in my bag I realized that I had not one, not two but three dang copies!  The same thing with The Poisonwood Bible and A Confederacy Of Dunces and pretty much every single Tom Robbins tome.  When I like/love a book I tend to pick them up at thrift stores pretty regularly with the intent of those editions being my travel book so I don't have to take my nice hardbound book to location a, b or c and risk them getting damaged.  But I just didn't realize that I owned so many multiples.  It's my goal this month to give at least 10 of my books away to people who I think would enjoy them.  Books are such a personal item for me even after all my years of culling (it only takes moving 8 big boxes of book cross-country a few times for you to realize that you shouldn't keep them all) that I'm still overloaded.  

I've got a good feeling about these.  Let's see how it goes...

Y'all got any goals for the month?