Eight days into the challenge, I’m supposed to post my short-term goals for this month and why. This is easy.

Health and fitness: Do some basic fitness ball stretching each morning, and head to the shop every other day and do 15 minutes of balance work on the Wii, 30 minutes of riding on the recumbent bike, and 10-15 minutes of other work on the Wii. Why? I need better flexibility and cardio work.

Properties: Weed and feed the lawn (done), prune the pear tree (tall work done), put insulation on the pipe under the back porch that needed repair last winter (done), trim hedges, trim “island,” and clean out plant beds. Install backer rod in the base boards of the front bedroom (done). Why? I do this in the winter so when the spring growth season begins, everything is ready. The backer rod was needed because the previous owners pulled up the quarter round around the baseboards and didn’t replace it (and one inch quarter round is no longer available), so there are some drafty spaces in some places. The backer rod should block those drafts.

Reading. Catch up and continue reading the Federalist Papers installments I’m receiving via email (done). Catch up and continue reading Durant’s History of Civilization (4 pages, three days per week — done). Finish El Narco, my Early Reviewer program book from Library Thing, and post my review. Why? The Federalist Papers document our founding fathers’ discussion as they were drafting the Constitution. It helps me understand their concerns and issues as reflected in the signed document. I’ve never taken a world history course and have decided my lack of knowledge is an impediment, so I’m rectifying that shortfall, beginning with Durant’s series. I get a lot free books from Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program. All they ask me to do in return is write a review and post it to the site. Reasonable. I “win” two to four books a year this way.

Writing. My goal for this year is to finish the “How To Revise Your Novel” course using Polar Bear on the Loose. Why? I need to get it done. I’ve been working on it more off than on for the last three years or more. I need to buckle down and get to work. I need to complete a couple of lessons a month to do this, and I’m off to a slow start.

Those are my public goals. I itemized the January version of them, but those highlighted areas are my goals to work toward achieving all year. The particular tasks beneath them will shift as some get completed and more move into place for accomplishment.