I'm a bit late posting this and my February goals because I've been working a lot of overtime lately, and now Finley and I have the flu. Booooo.
However, I'm excited to share my progress on my January goals! I made more progress than is normal for me, but that's because January is just before everything gets busy again at our house. My husband Casey is a soccer coach, so February-April are pretty crazy for us! Glad I got a good head start on my goals for 2018.
Here are my Powersheets for January. I am REALLY bad at tracking those daily goals on my Powersheets, but thankfully Todoist reminds me to do them.
Personal Goals
1. Read 48 books - 19% complete
I read NINE books in January, which is without a doubt the most books I've ever read in a month (at least since I was a kid). I'll do a separate post with more details, but here are the books I read: The Hate U Give (Kindle), Furiously Happy (audiobook), Essentialism (Kindle), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Kindle), Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (hardcover from BOTM), The Woman in Cabin 10 (paperback), Of Mess and Moxie (Kindle), The Woman in the Window (hardcover from BOTM), and What Happened (audiobook).
2. Start a blog - 19% complete
I started my blog in January and also made a commitment to post at least once a week. I've done well so far but can already see how hard this will be when life is busy.
3. Organize photos/backups - 8% complete
Although I didn't plan to work on this until later in the year, I organized a couple of years' worth of photos in order to prep for a blog post coming up soon! I already have 2009-present done, and I organized 2007 and 2008 in January. I still have 2006 and earlier to complete, including my parents' scanned photos.
Family Goals
1. Read to Finley nightly and track what we're reading - 8% complete
We already read to Finley 2-3 books every night and more during the day on weekends. But I've loved recording the books we're reading! I have been keeping them in a note on my phone, but it keeps growing and growing so I started a page on my blog (also linked at the top as "KID BOOKS") to keep our giant list. If you have a toddler at home you might enjoy seeing our list, where I linked to some of our very favorites.
2. Have a date night OUT every month - 8% complete
This gets harder and harder, but thanks to our daycare's Parents' Night Out we were able to have a low-key date night out one Friday in January. We had a delicious bowl of pho at Viet Huong, a glass of wine and some live music at Stem and Stein, and ended the night at (where else?) 2nd & Charles, a secondhand bookstore.
3. Have a date night IN every month - 8% complete
I planned ahead for this date night at home. My favorite dish of all time is Cacio e Pepe (literally "cheese and pepper"; basically fancy spaghetti with no red sauce). I LOVE this dish and anytime we're at a really nice Italian place I have to get it. But making it at home seemed a bit daunting so I've never attempted it before now! I read a few recipes and decided to try this one from Serious Eats. With it I made our very favorite Roasted Garlic Lemon Broccoli (I have made this one approximately 1000 times and won't ever need another broccoli recipe!). The pasta turned out great (albeit not QUITE as good as we've had in restaurants) and Casey is still talking about when we can make it again. I call that a success! We watched a couple of Black Mirror episodes after dinner. (Don't start with the first episode - they are all standalone, and the rest are so much better. Two recent favorites from the current season: USS Callister and Hang the DJ.)
Fun Goals
1. Experience Huntsville - 8% complete
It worked out perfectly this month that the U.S. Space and Rocket Center offered an entire weekend of free admission for teachers + one guest. Casey and my mom are both teachers, so my dad and I got in free as their guests, and Finley gets in free anyway since she's under 5. So we saved $100 for all five of us! It was a really cold day so we didn't do any of the outside stuff, but for free admission no one minded at all. There is so much to see, you could easily spend a day or two there, but a couple of hours were enough for Finley. We will definitely be back!
2. Go to Disney World - 0% complete
I have a big list of tasks to complete to make this trip happen, but I didn't work on any of those this month. :)
3. Go to Washington, D.C. - 20% complete
This month we confirmed our childcare arrangements and booked our flights to DC to visit my sister!
Financial Goals
1. Track our spending with YNAB - 10% complete
I've stayed on this almost daily so far, and I'm still loving it! Set a goal for myself to check and update YNAB weekly at a minimum.
2. Have two no-spend months - 50% complete
We decided to make January one of our "no-spend" months - which meant eating at home almost exclusively and trying not to spend money on anything but necessities (bills, groceries, daycare, etc.). I did spend quite a bit more on groceries this month, but less on eating out, so it pretty much balanced out in the food category. Need to work harder on that the next time we do this. We also bought our flights to DC, but this was a planned expense. Made great progress on our savings goals for the year (new laptop, DC trip, Disney trip, among others).
3. Buy a new computer - 14% complete
Saved $250 ($100 over planned) toward my new laptop. On track to get a new one by the end of the year, but hoping for sooner!
Health Goals
1. Achieve my daily stand and move goals - 10% complete
I have a couple of struggles with this one. The first is that I keep forgetting to wear my Apple Watch so I don't know if I met my goal some days. But the second issue is that I just haven't made it a priority to listen to my watch when it tells me to move! I am going to work harder at this in February (provided I get over this flu soon!). I'm setting a goal for myself to hit both the stand and move goal at least 3 days a week this year. If I start getting this consistently, I'll bump up my move goal to a higher calorie goal. In January here's how I did according to my Activity app:
- Week 1 (Jan 1-7): Wore watch 3 days; Met stand goal x3; Met move goal x3
- Week 2 (Jan 8-14): Wore watch 7 days; Met stand goal x3; Met move goal x6
- Week 3 (Jan 15-21): Wore watch 3 days; Met stand goal x2; Met move goal x2
- Week 4 (Jan 22-28): Wore watch 3 days; Met stand goal x2; Met move goal x2
- Week 5 (Jan 29-Feb 4): Wore watch 4 days; Met stand goal x3; Met move goal x4
- Totals: Stand goal 13/15 days, Move goal 17/15 days (15 days = goal of 3 days/week)
2. Lose 10 pounds - 58% complete
Weight Watchers for the win. I lost 5.8 pounds in January, which is more than my one pound/week goal for the month!
3. Develop a skincare routine - 0% complete
No progress on this goal yet.
Household Goals
1. Re-do The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - 0% complete
Started re-reading the book but haven't finished yet. Actually cleaning out the house will be a big project, so I'm putting this one off for a bit so I can do it right.
2. Hire a maid - 100% complete
The most exciting progress of all! We have a maid service coming bi-weekly now, and it has been life-changing to say the least. I am so much less stressed, and now I don't feel like I have to spend every minute I have off work cleaning the house. It has given me more time to cook (and more energy to feel like cooking!). I am just so happy with this decision!
3. Cook more - 11% complete
My loose goal for this is to have dinner at home 4x/week. This probably sounds like nothing to most people, but we have a relatively busy schedule and often aren't all home at dinner time. Finley and I go to Musikgarten and dance two nights a week, and Casey has soccer every day, and band practice for his wedding band and for church! In January I cooked quite a bit more than I typically do:
- Week 1 (Dec 31-Jan 6): 5/7 dinners at home
- Week 2 (Jan 7-13): 6/7 dinners at home
- Week 3 (Jan 14-20): 5/7 dinners at home
- Week 4 (Jan 21-27): 4/7 dinners at home
- Week 5 (Jan 28-Feb 3): 2/7 dinners at home
- Total: 22/20 dinners at home (20 dinners = goal of 4 dinners/week)
Spiritual Goals
1. Read books on faith basics - 0% complete
Didn't make any progress on this specifically (although I read a faith-based book this month, it was not on "faith basics"). Would like to read at least 3 in this category this year.
2. Keep a prayer journal - 6% complete
Did this 3/5 weeks and already enjoying seeing how the things I've been praying for have been answered. My goal is to actually write in the prayer journal (pages in the back of my planner) at least once a week, and then reference it as often as possible to pray for the things I've written down.
3. Do a small group at church - 50% complete
Our church does small group semesters, so there are three each year. I intend to participate in at least two small group semesters. My first one is a small group for working moms and we're studying Lysa TerKeurst's book, Uninvited (which I read last year!). Looking forward to the rest of the semester!
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I hope these posts will give you a realistic look at how I work on my goals for the year (and sometimes don't get as much accomplished as I hoped!). It helps me so much to see how other people set, track, and work on their goals. Link to yours below and I'd love to check them out!
