New Goals/Challenge!

So, in 3.5 months, Josh will start grad school and I will magically find myself with my evenings free.  Tonight he was off with his brother and I was thinking about how common that will be once school starts, and how I'll need a hobby to keep myself not only busy, but also growing.  I don't want to fall into the Youtube and Facebook trap!

So starting now, I've decided that each month, I'm going to undertake a project.  It may be just meeting a certain goal (like being able to beat Josh at his own strategy game) or learning a new skill (like learning how to crochet), but either way, I want to pick up a new experience.  This should serve a couple purposes:

1)  It should offer me a little insight into a different world, and Ill probably pick up a few lessons along the way.
2)  Since I don't have a hobby right now, I may find one that I absolutely love.
3)  Since 30 days is supposedly the time it takes to develop a new habit, I may find that some new, good habits are formed.
4)  Since I plan to switch out between physical goals (like running or picking tennis back up) and mental goals (like memory goals, reading through certain books, or trying my hand at writing), it should help me stay both physically and mentally healthy.

I'm cheating a little bit this month, since April is almost half-over (wow, what a pessimist I am...I mean half-begun).   My goal won't be over until the end of May, and it will be running a 5k in 30 minutes or less.

Oh yeah...and there are a couple rules, too.  Each month I will have to:

• Spend no less than 15 minutes each day on it, except for Sundays (because I believe Sabbaths are important and help avoid burn-out)
• Spend no more than 30 minutes each day, because I AM married and work a full-time job.  
• Update the blog for the start and finish of each project, at least.  Mostly for accountability purposes.
• Be realistic.  

Right now, I have a few things that I want to try.  These include cooking through a cookbook, learning how to knit or crochet, biking to the town of our workplace and back (Josh has told me I can get a bike for my birthday :), reading a book in Spanish, etc.  But I'm also open to suggestions.  Please, throw out ideas for monthly projects!*

I'm pretty excited about this.  Ever since I finished my "when-I-was-in-school-I-didn't-read-this-assigned-book-but-now-I'm-reading-it-so-I-don't-feel-guilty" list, I've needed something more substantial to spend my time on.  And maybe this will show me what I really truly love to do as a hobby.  :)

*Please keep in mind that (1) I work full-time and am pretty serious about the 1/2 hour a day rule and (2) I'm looking for tuition-friendly hobbies.