2024 Book Goals

I blogged earlier this month about my goals and mentioned I would have a separate post for books, so here we go - I always have goals for my reading!!

1. 100 Books - I read 130 books in 2023, so this goal might seem underwhelming, but it's actually strategic for me to read less and spend more time with Brent in the evenings ha.

2. Clean out 2020 from TBR - I already got a jump start on this because I had the idea at the start of the year - last year I did my '10 oldest' but went a little further this time and decided to clear out everything I put in Goodreads in 2020. I finished The Summer Wives, White Awake, Raising Worry-Free Girls, We Were the Lucky Ones, and A Black Women's History of the United States in January - all 2020 books!

What I have left:

• Band of Brothers
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
• The Nazi Officer's Wife
• The Invention of Wings
• Well Matched
• When We Were Young & Brave
• How to Be Less Stupid About Race
• Under a Gilded Moon
• I Found You

3. Physical Books - I did a good job cleaning out physical books last year but am still struggling to let go of books - even if I have had them for years and haven't read them. I'm supposed to have 1 basket of books but it's majorly overflowed and there are also books in our closet. So I would like to get this back to just 1 basket.

4. Read 2 Classics - Kind of self-explanatory but want to get back to this goal.

5. More Diversity in Authors - I've had it be a conscious goal to focus more on diversity in my reading, but last year was on the lower side for me. I usually have about 30% diversity and this past year it was only 21%. Definitely want to get that back up again.

And I think this is a good list of goals for me!

2024 Goals!

Well, once again I'm posting some goals in February ha. I guess I just need extra time to marinate on them and decide! I think I did a good job on my 2023 goals, so it had me energized to try again for a new set.

First off, sometimes I do like to have a word of the year...and when I was in therapy a few weeks ago, a word came to me while I was talking to my therapist. 

PEACEFUL

I don't think peaceful is a word that typically describes me - I am loud, chaotic, explosive, disorganized...the opposite of peaceful. BUT I would like our home to be more peaceful. The mood starts at the top, and I don't exude how I want our house to be!

PERSONAL

1) Stand more. I've heard the expression 'sitting is the new smoking' multiple times. It is so bad for us to sit all day, and I have a job where I SIT ALL DAY. I want a walking desk, but Brent has vetoed that, but at the end of the year, I bought a little contraption to elevate my laptop so that I can stand and work. I'm starting with small increments - stand for this 1 call, stand for 10 minutes, and I want to build up to standing more and more every day. Do I think I'll get to where I stand all day? Probably not. But I can definitely do a lot more than I am now!

2) Play more piano. We got a piano a few years ago, and Drew has been taking lessons for a few years. I will sit down and dabble sometimes, but I want to get in the habit of playing more. I'm pretty rusty, so I'm enjoying using her lesson books, ha.

3) Book goals. I will continue to have specific book goals, but I'm going to do a separate post on that ha.

FAMILY/HOME

1) Organization. We are redecorating a lot of spaces in our house, and it's made me realize we have a lot of clutter. I'm not much of a collector, but after almost 11 years in our house...we've just accumulated a lot of 'stuff'. I also talked to my therapist about this and she gave me some great resources and ideas for tackling our home in manageable increments.

2) Time with Brent. In the evenings, I tend to want to read by myself. Well, that's not conducive to staying connected to your spouse! We started a show together, and while we don't watch together every night, we are spending more time together in the evening.

3) Family vacations. We loved our trips in 2023 {Arizona and Port Aransas with the kids and Las Vegas with friends} and are already planning for 2024. I'm excited to see what we end up doing and memories we make!

4) Incorporate the kids into more chores. This is not a new goal for me, but I haven't done a good job with it ugh. We are fortunate to have a lady who has cleaned for our family for 12+ years, and she is amazing. But that doesn't mean the kids are off the hook for doing anything. I want to work on them keeping their rooms picked up and picking up after themselves throughout the house every day as well as small chores {vacuuming, scrubbing toilets, washing dishes} to teach them some responsibility, help me out, AND make our house look great all the time!

And if you made it through this whole post, your reward is a new picture of Sawyer! 2 months old and getting so fat!

2023 Resolutions Check-In

 PHYSICAL GOALS

1) Improve Flexibility - This one is hard to measure, but I 100% did improve my flexibility! I can 'see' it when I'm in yoga or stretching at the end of a class. One of our yoga instructors constantly talks about flexibility keeping us young, and I love that and definitely want to keep up with this.

2) Weight Loss - I'm very happy with where I am in my weight loss journey. I'm definitely not done {I would like to lose another 10ish pounds}, but I'm happy with what I achieved in 2023 {20 pounds off} AND keeping it off {although the holidays and early January weren't my friend ha}.

FAMILY/HOUSE GOALS

1) Time with kids/Brent - I don't think I did a very good job of this. I mean I'm with my family every day, but I wouldn't say I truly gave them intentional time. Going to keep working at this!

2) Cleaning every day - Did I do better here? Yes. Did I do as much as I wanted? No. Will it be something I continue to focus on in 2024. YES.

3) Organizing - I failed at this big time. I had a goal to just do a little at a time - clean out a closet here, a drawer there...and I didn't. BUT as I wrote this post, I just got back from taking a truckload of stuff to Goodwill, so this one is carrying forward, and I talked to my therapist about this as well - I really want to declutter this year!

4) Family Vacation - Nailed it! We went to Arizona in the summer and also took a Swope vacation to Port Aransas in August. We are discussing vacations this year, and it looks like the Port A trip is going to be annual, yay!

BOOK GOALS

1) 100 Books - I read 130 books this year, my highest number ever!

2) Physical books cleanup - Did I get rid of some physical books I haven't read but owned for years? Yes. Did I get rid of everything I should have? No, ha. 

3) Goodreads TBR - I had a goal to read my 10 oldest books on my Goodreads TBR. I read 9 of them! There was 1 I couldn't find at any library, and I finally just decided to delete it from my TBR - I didn't want to buy it! It felt good to get this one done.

So that's how 2023 wrapped up - I'm pretty proud of this - I've had way worse years. {grin} Now onward we go!

2023 Goals: Midyear Check-in

We are just past halfway through 2023, and I wanted to check-in on the goals I set for the year! I'll show the original goal with comments that I posted in February and then provide an update. Here's hoping I'm doing better than 2021 where I utterly failed at my goals, ha.

1) Flexibility - I have definitely noticed an increase in my flexibility in the last few years as I've increased my participation in Pilates and Yoga. But I'm still not super consistent and would like to work on stretching and flexibility.

Update: This is going well! I feel this is hard to measure, but I am going to Pilates consistently {which I've been doing for years} but have also been doing a bit more Yoga and am definitely noticing some increases in my flexibility. I have a few measurable goals in mind {being able to put my hands flat on the ground in a bent over fold or touching my nose to my knees} that I'm getting closer to, so we'll see how the year ends!

2) Weight Loss - Is it a yearly goal setting post for Allena if she doesn't talk about wanting to lose Paige's baby weight? {grin} Here we are again! BUT I had some good success in the last few months of 2022 and am slowly moving in the right direction.

Update: I started Noom in February 2023 and have lost 20 pounds! The summer has stalled a little - I'm just holding strong in the same 2-3 pounds range, but I'm not mad about that because the summer is HARD for weight loss, so I'm hoping to lose another 10 pounds once the summer fun ends.

FAMILY/HOUSE GOALS

1) Time with kids/Brent - I would like to spend more meaningful {dare I say intentional?} time together. As a family - group outings, game nights, as a wife - watching shows together, dates, as a mother - one-on-one dates, conversations.

Update: Meh, I would say this is 'okay' but not as much as I'd like. I even put one-on-one dates on our Summer Bucket List and that hasn't happened either, ugh.

2) Cleaning every day - I want to get the kids more involved in taking responsibility for the house. There are a few things they are responsible for {unloading the dishwasher, unpacking groceries, helping with laundry}, but there is still so much I do. To the point I am angry at the end of the day. And that is just ridiculous when our kids are 13, 10, and 6! Also, I want to take little breaks during the day and do 5 minutes of chores. 

Update: This will always be a work-in-progress, but I'm definitely improving here. I'm even making our bed most days! I am involving the kids in more but not super consistently and would like to up this side of it for sure. I would say I'm achieving this goal but not to the intent with which I meant to be {if that makes sense}.

3) Organizing - Brent is on an organizing kick, and I want to follow suit. Just little things like cleaning out the junk drawer, organizing the coat closet, etc. Tackle a small project each week or a big project over a month.

Update: Eek. This is not going as well as I wanted BUT I organized some drawers in the kitchen and did a big clean-up in the playroom with multiple bags of trash and multiple bags taken to Goodwill {not that you can necessarily tell because the playroom needs a lot more work ha}. We talked about organizing our closet, so I do see that happening soon, but I definitely need to pick-up the pace here!

4) Family Vacation - We had so much fun in 2022 with trips {Ruidoso, Napa, Hilton Head, and Hawaii}, and while we can't repeat that quantity of trips exactly, I do want to make a family trip happen annually.

Update: We had our awesome trip to Arizona just a few weeks ago, yay! And we have 1 last trip next week before back to school!

BOOK GOALS

1) 100 books - I am sticking with my tried and true 100 books/year goal. I really thought about going up this year, but given I want to spend more time with my family, this seemed counterintuitive!

Update: Ahead of pace here, should read closer to 120-130 which is honestly what I've done the last few years.

2) Physical books cleanup - I am going to go through the physical books I have and make a list of at least 10 that I've had for years. By the end of the year, I need to have read them or I'm getting rid of them.

Update: I have been reading more physical books but not necessarily the old ones, so I think that answers what I need to do with some of them - Get rid of them! If by the end of the year, I haven't read them, I want to get rid of them!

3) Goodreads TBR - I want to read my 10 oldest Goodreads books - or delete them if I haven't read them within a year. The are:

    1-Little Women Read 

    2-White Awake

    3-Stamped from the Beginning Currently Reading

    4-We Just Clicked I can't find this one at any of my libraries, and I don't see myself buying it, so we'll have to see what I decide to do

    5-A Gentleman in Moscow [I have a physical copy]

    6-A Hundred Summers Read

    7-The Red Tent [I have a physical copy] Read

    8-Life of Pi Read

    9-The Poisonwood Bible Read

    10-Roots Read

Doing good here!

I would say I'm doing way better than I was in 2021, but I definitely want to improve over the last 5 months of the year...

2023 Goals

Well, just about 10% of 2023 has already passed by, and I'm still noodling on goals for 2023, ha. I don't have a huge list - which is probably a good thing! - but I'm going to go ahead and put it out in the world!

I've broken my goals out into some categories - first, I have a word of the year. Then I have specific goals - physical goals, family goals, book goals {of course}.

WORD OF THE YEAR

Intentional

I want to be doing more things with intention this year. And I think my individual goals reflect this. I can get lazy or complacent and let life just go on without much thought. I want to be doing more with my time that means something - personally, with my family and friends, with the kids.

**********GOALS**********

PHYSICAL GOALS

1) Flexibility - I have definitely noticed an increase in my flexibility in the last few years as I've increased my participation in Pilates and Yoga. But I'm still not super consistent and would like to work on stretching and flexibility.

2) Weight Loss - Is it a yearly goal setting post for Allena if she doesn't talk about wanting to lose Paige's baby weight? {grin} Here we are again! BUT I had some good success in the last few months of 2022 and am slowly moving in the right direction.

FAMILY/HOUSE GOALS

1) Time with kids/Brent - I would like to spend more meaningful {dare I say intentional?} time together. As a family - group outings, game nights, as a wife - watching shows together, dates, as a mother - one-on-one dates, conversations.

2) Cleaning every day - I want to get the kids more involved in taking responsibility for the house. There are a few things they are responsible for {unloading the dishwasher, unpacking groceries, helping with laundry}, but there is still so much I do. To the point I am angry at the end of the day. And that is just ridiculous when our kids are 13, 10, and 6! Also, I want to take little breaks during the day and do 5 minutes of chores. 

3) Organizing - Brent is on an organizing kick, and I want to follow suit. Just little things like cleaning out the junk drawer, organizing the coat closet, etc. Tackle a small project each week or a big project over a month.

4) Family Vacation - We had so much fun in 2022 with trips {Ruidoso, Napa, Hilton Head, and Hawaii}, and while we can't repeat that quantity of trips exactly, I do want to make a family trip happen annually.

BOOK GOALS

1) 100 books - I am sticking with my tried and true 100 books/year goal. I really thought about going up this year, but given I want to spend more time with my family, this seemed counterintuitive!

2) Physical books cleanup - I am going to go through the physical books I have and make a list of at least 10 that I've had for years. By the end of the year, I need to have read them or I'm getting rid of them.

3) Goodreads TBR - I want to read my 10 oldest Goodreads books - or delete them if I haven't read them within a year. The are:

    1-Little Women

    2-White Awake

    3-Stamped from the Beginning

    4-We Just Clicked

    5-A Gentleman in Moscow [I have a physical copy]

    6-A Hundred Summers

    7-The Red Tent [I have a physical copy]

    8-Life of Pi

    9-The Poisonwood Bible

    10-Roots

Monthly Musings: Goals for the New Year

I didn't have any 'official' goals in 2022 - largely because I utterly failed at accomplishing my 2021 goals, and I didn't want to put that much pressure on myself since I was feeling pretty lame, ha. But I'm formulating my goals for this year, and while I marinate on them {hoping to get published by the end of the month}, I thought I'd answer these questions!

1. Do you make resolutions/goals for the New Year?

Not always, and not last year, but this year I am!

2. Do you have diet/exercise goals?

I do! The same as every year for the last 6 years, I want to lose weight. I know, I know... 'love your body'...and I'm working on that part, but I am still overweight on any metric you want to look at, and while my bloodwork is consistently good, I know it won't stay that way if I don't get better control of my relationship with food {specifically sugar} and my weight. 

I am very proud of my exercise routine over the last 4 years - ever since I joined AmpedUp, I am very consistent with my exercise - most weeks I work out 5-6 times per week - if it's ever below that, something is wrong. {grin} So I really do want to get both sides of this puzzle more in-line. More to come!

3. Do you have personal/professional goals for 2023?

Personal - yes. I will focus this year on some for me, some related to family, etc. Professional - no. I am very content with my current job/role and want to just keep doing what I'm doing. :)

4. Do you use a planner? Paper? Electronic? Combo?

Nope! I have my work calendar linked to my email that I put everything in, we have a family dry erase calendar, and I keep several notepads {I got my first Erin Condren notepad and felt really fancy} with notes. But no official planner.

My current view with my To Do list {mostly work related}

5. Do you have a word or phrase for 2023?

I'm ruminating on one! I like that Natasha wants to savor and enjoy, and what I'm thinking about is similar, but we'll see what I finally come up with.

6. Ring in the New Year or asleep by 10 pm?

Ring in the New Year for sure! I don't think I've ever been asleep before midnight since being an adult. We didn't take any pictures this year, but our neighborhood crew came over, and we partied so hard with 6 adults and 6 kids. {grin}

12:02 AM 1/1/22

7. Favorite thing to do on New Year's Day?

Whatever we want! I love that, for the most part, we don't make plans on New Year's Day. We typically just hang out at home, and it's so nice after the craziness of the previous week.

8. Any travel plans for 2023?

We are discussing a few things, but nothing is firmed up at this point. I think/hope our goal going forward is 1 family vacation and 1 adult vacation, which would be wonderful!

9. Things/events you are most looking forward to in 2023?

Largely it's just doing life with my people. Some things that are either on the books or being discussed:

- We might be getting a dog!!!!! {more to come!}

- I'm taking Drew to see Wicked in June in Houston, and we are both BEYOND excited. {more to come!}

- Vacations - however they shake out

- We have tickets to a music festival in April in our town that looks super fun.

- I always look forward to the 2 parties Brent's company has in June and December. {After the Holiday party, I sent a text to the wives of Brent's 2 coworkers who are part of our framily and said 'Let's start talking outfits for June!' ha}

10. Will you be watching any bowl games on or around New Year's?

We watched Brent's favorite team, the Texas Longhorns, play on December 29...not well though ha.

The Failure of 2021 Goals

I thought I would mix things up instead of just doing a bunch of recaps that I want but don't know who actually enjoys reading them. {grin} So I still need to post about Christmas, our trip to Ruidoso, and the girls' birthday stats, I'm going to share the results of my worst year of goal setting ever. [Original post here]

Health Goals

1. Develop a better relationship with food and 2. Hit goal weight - let's just say a big fat nope and move on, shall we. I'm feeling really awful about these goals and where I stand compared to them and they will both be ongoing goals until I master them...so probably until I die.

3. Keep running - also nope. I think I ran twice in 2021. My running buddy moved away, and while we promised to keep running together, it didn't happen, and I don't like running alone! The upside is not running didn't mean I wasn't working out! I definitely maintained my workout schedule of 5-6 workouts/week, so I'm very happy about that.

4. Increase my flexibility - Success! One goal that I can say I did a good job with. I go to Pilates or Yoga about once a week, and I can really see a difference in my flexibility. I even had some success with the Mermaid Pose - I can't hit it every time I try, but I definitely have made progress.

5. Eat more vegetables - This is hit or miss. If I'm in the groove with food, I'm doing good, and if I'm not, I'm not. Will continue on as a goal, sigh.

Family Goals

1. Create a chore list for the kids - As an official list, no. As me telling them to do chores, yes. Are we doing it consistently? Also no, ha, but we have made progress here.

2. Get an evening schedule going - This is continuing to evolve and get better, but I still feel like we could improve here. Part of this involves having the kids perform chores in the evening to help clean the kitchen and that isn't happening. But we are doing well overall with an evening routine...minus that part ha.

3. Kid dates - I'm going to give myself a C- here. I took the girls to several movies but didn't do nearly as much as I planned and really almost nothing with Trent 1-on-1. Not to say I didn't spend time with him but not much, eek.

4. Travel as a family - Here's one we did, yay! We went to Brent's cousin's house, to the lake, and our vacation to Ruidoso!!!

NYE in the mountains!

Personal Goals

1. Read the Bible - Nope. But I'm not giving up...Eventually I will do this!

2. Close all monthly challenges - I got 10/12, so almost 85%! They got harder each month, and I finally got to the point where I just couldn't do it anymore for my mental health! I hit all but September and November.

3. Book goals - I did really good here and will do a whole book post later this month.

 - Read 100 books - I hit 124!

 - Continue to reduce the pile of physical books in my room - well, I definitely read/got rid of some old books in my 'pile' but also added to it ha. I think I'm going to track what I get for the pile and get rid of in 2022!

 - Educational books - Looking at my reads from 2021, I'd say 10 or so I would classify as 'educational', so I'm happy about this!

 - Books by/about POC - I wanted to increase my percentage from 25%, and I hit over 30% this year!

 - Classics - I wanted to read 2 books but only read 1 {I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings}. One of my neighbors and I have picked a couple to read this year together, so this should be easier this year!

So there we have it. A very lackluster year of goal achievement. I'm still working on my goals for 2022, but don't be surprised to see some repeats since I did such a crappy job of accomplishing these, ha.

2021 Goals - Halfway Point Check-in

Friends, I'm going to be totally honest with y'all. I haven't looked at my goals in ages and just glanced at them as I started to write this post...and it ain't pretty, ha! I'm glad I'm taking this opportunity to refresh myself on what my goals WERE at the start of the year and deciding if these still make sense. If you want to read the whole original post, it's HERE.

Health Goals

Get ready as we dive into this group - it's largely been where I've been failing the most.

1) Develop a better relationship with food - NOPE. BIG FAT HUGE NOPE. I really think I'm going to need professional help here.

2) Hit goal weight - Hahahahaha. I hit a low at the end of January and now just keep bouncing around in the same 5-10 pound window. Sigh. The upside is I'm still working out like crazy, had an excellent physical this year, and haven't completely fallen apart, but I do still want to lose another 15+ pounds.

3) Keep running - Ever since my running buddy moved out of the neighborhood my running has taken a big hit which was what my fear was. I really don't enjoy it by myself much at all. So this one may be dead...we'll have to see.

4) Increase my flexibility - This is definitely happening! I can tell over time that I can do more and I love it. Still not to the mermaid pose, but I've been practicing.

5) Eat more vegetables - Zilch. More bad days than good here by a long shot.

Family Goals

1) Create a chore list for the kids - While I haven't made an official list, I have definitely started making the kids help with more things around the house. For example, they are always responsible for emptying the dishwasher, Trent is mowing the yard with Brent now, they help with the laundry, etc. I do want to continue to give them more and make it more 'formal'.

2) Get an evening schedule going - I would say we did better in the first few months of 2021 but not where I want to be, and of course, summer throws it all off. Need to keep this one on the radar!

3) Kid dates - Brent has actually been more successful at this than I have. Need to do better!

4) Travel as a family - Well, we just got back from a weekend away and have already booked a trip for the winter, so I think this is going well!

Personal Goals

1) Read the Bible - Another nope. I still have half a year so hopefully I can get started and make some progress...with the Bible that's been sitting on my nightstand all year. {grin}

2) Close all monthly challenges - I'm 6 for 6 here, but dang they are starting to get super hard. I'm not sure it's realistic if the continue to get harder, but I'll keep trying as long as I can.

3) Book goals - You guys probably know I'm nailing this!

-Read 100 books - I'm ahead of where I need to be to hit this goal.

-Continue to reduce the pile of physical books in my room - I've definitely read from my physical pile but I keep getting more too ha. I'm struggling to get rid of the ones I've had for a long time because I keep thinking 'Someday I might read it...' so I need to just be mean with myself here.

-Educational books - Doing good here!

-Books by/about people of color - Doing good here!

-Classics - Eek, haven't read any yet, but I have 1 on reserve now!

Sigh. This was worse than I thought ha. I'm really glad I revisited to see where I need to pick it up. How are your goals going?

Body Pump

I hinted in my last Currently that I had something exciting going on that I hadn't shared yet over here on the ol' blog. And I finally got the news I was waiting on, so I'm ready to share!

I AM GETTING CERTIFIED TO TEACH BODY PUMP!!!

I have loved group fitness FOREVER, and you guys know I am constantly gushing about my studio, Jazzercise, and the other classes offered there. I've also secretly wanted to be an instructor for a long time - it looks like so much fun and such an amazing group of ladies I wanted to be teaching alongside.

Well, I finally bit the bullet and talked to the owners about it, and here we are!

I had a weekend-long training last weekend where I learned everything I need to know to get certified. I had to submit a video before and after training. The before video was so the instructor could see what my knowledge level was pre-training. The after video determined whether I passed training or not, and I found out Sunday that I passed the training portion!!

I now have 2 months to learn a full-set and record myself teaching that set. I get graded on that video which determines whether I become certified. What is very cool is I get to start teaching with other instructors now, so I've been on the stage a few times getting comfortable and it has been so much fun!

I, of course, had to get approval from my real job and my boss was great about it. I'll be teaching at 5:30 AM once I'm certified {oof, that's early, but honestly it's the best option with a full-time job}, and I can't wait!

Who's going to come to class with me?!?! {grin}

2021: Goals

I've been ruminating on goals for 2021 and have finally decided to put a pin in it and call this list done! I feel like there are other things I've thought of and have since forgotten, but maybe that's a good thing so I can focus on this list? Ha!

I like how Emily broke her goals down into categories, so I'm going to do that this year too {and also stole a few from her too}!

Health Goals

1) Develop a better relationship with food - I go back and forth in eating healthy and not and definitely use food as a reward/punishment. I'd like to work on my relationship with food this year and develop a more moderate way of eating. Food is fuel!

2) Hit goal weight - 2020 was a great year in terms of my exercise and getting my physical self in better shape. However, I've maintained the same weight for about 6 months now, so I'd like to push through this plateau and hit my goal weight! Maybe even in time for the summer when I spend A LOT of time in a bathing suit.

3) Keep running - My regular weekly running buddy moved out of our neighborhood, and even though we intend to keep running it won't be weekly. I've enjoyed getting back into running this year and hitting some very big milestones. I don't have any specific goals tied to races or mileage or times, but I'd like to just keep at it and keep improving.

4) Increase my flexibility - I've never been very flexible, but as I get older I want to see if I can gain some flexibility. I've started doing some yoga and pilates and can already tell a difference. One thing that I am specifically going to work on is being able to do the mermaid pose which Drew can do!

5) Eat more vegetables - Like Trent, I have a mostly hate relationship with vegetables. I often hide them in things {like smoothies} to just get some in me daily. I want to experiment with veggies to see if I can find any others I enjoy tolerate. Hopefully this helps find some more for Trent too!

Family Goals

1) Create a chore list for the kids - It is ridiculous that our kids don't have regular chores. Yes, I can say 'Come unload the dishwasher' and they do, but I want to set some expectations of things they do daily/weekly.

2) Get an evening schedule going - Similar to #1 here, I don't like our evening routine. By the time all the kids are in bed, the kitchen usually still needs to be cleaned, there are messes in places, lunches for the next day need to be made, etc. and I'm tired and don't want to do all this stuff, but if I don't it just gets worse! So I want there to be some assigned roles - Trent can help clean the kitchen, the girls can pick up messes, Brent can vacuum or whatever. But it doesn't all need to fall to me!

3) Kid dates - I don't have a set number in mind, but I would like to do some 1-on-1 activities with the kids. We spend a lot of time at home, but it's usually me cleaning, making dinner, working, whatever and not really giving them my undivided attention.

4) Travel as a family - We've talked about taking some trips as a family, and I'd really like to do whatever I can to make this happen!

Personal Goals

1) Read the Bible - I haven't started yet {eek!}, but I would like to read the Bible this year. Kristen and I started talking about this a few months ago, and wants to do this too, so I'm hoping we can find an app or study guide and do it together. My sister also gave me her copy that is designed for reading in a year. Guess I better start ASAP since I'm already behind! 

2) Close all monthly challenges - Stealing this from Emily! 2021 will be my first full year to have an Apple watch, and I'd love to close all my monthly challenges. I'm saying this having no clue what they will be so hopefully none of them are impossible, ha! I already know I should be able to close January, so 1 {almost} down!

*image is Emily's 2020 challenges*

3) Book goals - These are basically the same as last year:

-Read 100 books {You can track this with me on Goodreads!}

-Continue to reduce the pile of physical books in my room - this is hard for me since I'm way more of an e-reader - so I either need to read them or get rid of them!

-Educational books - expanding from books just about racism {although this will definitely stay on the list}, but I'd like to read more nonfiction or educational books

-Books by/about people of color - Last year about 25% of my books fell in that category, I'm happy with that percentage so just want to see it stay consistent or grow

-Classics - I'm setting a goal of reading 2 classics again this year.

This makes for a total of 12 goals for the year! Here's hoping I can knock these out {plus some carryovers from last year ha}!

2020 Goals: Time to Grade the Year

I've been drafting my goals for 2021 and will post next week. But first we have to see how 2020 wrapped up! Here are my goals and how I did compared to them.

1. Trail Walks - I set a goal of 20 trail walks in 2020, and we ended the year with 14! We had a lot of fun exploring, and I'm so happy that Trent {especially since he is my curmudgeon} enjoyed himself and has some places he wants to go back, yay! Go nature!

Some of my favorite pictures from our various hikes

2. Book Goals - I read a lot {duh} but wanted to set some goals for what I would read for the year. I was really successful with all my specific goals, only missing 1.

- Book Pile - I wanted to reduce the pile of physical books I have because I have a lot I've been hanging onto so they either needed to be read or gotten rid of. I didn't keep track {and should have} of what books I donated, but I did read 18 physical books, 7 of which had been in my pile at the start of the year. I continually get physical books - usually from friends - but since I prefer to read on my phone, they can pile up! I want to continue to either read or remove them so my pile stays manageable!

- POC Books - I wanted to continue growing the books I read either written by people of color and/or about characters of color. I learn so much, even reading fiction, about the different experiences/challenges people face. In 2019, I read 18 books {19%} by or about POC. In 2020, I read 23 books {23%} so I did increase, yay!

- Books About Race - Same as POC books, I wanted to increase the number of books specifically discussing racism. In 2019, I read 4 books {4%}, and in 2020, I read 7 books {7%}, so again, I did increase, yay!

- Classics - I set a goal to read 2 classics, but I only read 1, Wuthering Heights, which I did not like!

As a shameless plug, I'm on Goodreads and would love to connect with anyone else who uses it!!

3. DiTL Quarterly Posts - I wanted to get back to doing a quarterly Day in the Life Post, and I hit it every quarter. If you want to check them out, click here.

4. Knitting or Sewing Class - Drew loves crafts, and I really want to encourage this side of her and was hoping to take either a knitting or sewing class with her this year...and then Covid happened. Boo. I still hope to find something in the future but can't really put a timeline on this one.

5. Photo Books - I was on the fence about wanting to do something with our pictures. My goal was to just figure out whether I was going to tackle photo books or not. And I decided to do them! I don't expect to go back and make 15 years of photobooks overnight, but I did make most of 2020, all of 2019 and started 2018. I figure if I can do a few a year, this will be totally manageable!

6. Antiracism Work - I'm toying with an idea of doing a post about my antiracism journey, but the long and short of it is I didn't get as involved this year with volunteering {thanks for another missed goal, Covid}, but I'm definitely doing more. I'm learning, learning, learning for starters - first from my reading but also my company has upped the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion game, so I'm getting a lot there as well. I've increased diversity at home a little {think toys and books} but want to do more here, I've increased my charitable giving to some antiracism organizations that are fantastic, but I definitely hope to start volunteering and giving back this year!

7. Trent - Fruits and Vegetables -  We started the year with Trent eating ONLY apples, bananas, and carrots. My goal was to increase his daily intake by experimenting. We did A LOT of experimenting this year! Some were successful and some were not {he threw up both times he tried green beans, ha}. He is consistently eating apples, bananas, grapes, pineapple, and carrots and will occasionally eat air-fried sweet potatoes. I am so proud of how many things he was willing to try, and we are still looking for another regular vegetable, but I am really happy with our results! It would be amazing if I could figure out a smoothie for him...

So there are my 2020 goals! I'm pretty proud of how the year wrapped up. Now onward to 2021!

FastSlow-Moving Train: A Weight Loss Update

Things seem to be progressing slowly BUT! still progressing, so I didn't think a post every month was warranted. I decided to go a month and a half between my previous update and this one. I think I'll probably do another update at the beginning of February to get past holidays and the girls' birthdays, so this seemed like a solid time for an update!

In my last update, I mentioned that I weighed 150 at the end of the October. I ended November at 147 {my previous low} and as of yesterday morning, I was 145, a new low!! I am just 2 pounds shy of my pre-Paige pregnancy weight, whoop!

As I do every post, I want to document a few non-scale victories as I know there is so much more to health than just our weight {even if it what I seem to fixate on...as do so many women}:

-I am wearing a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans! I need to lose a little more for them to be really comfortable, but I am so excited to be in these jeans, they are my favorites, and I have missed them so much!

-Working out is continuing to go great! It has become such a habit that I find a way to move almost every day. I also really like that I have a wide variety of workouts I'm enjoying. In the last 2 weeks I have done jazzercise, body pump, pilates, body flow {yoga}, gone on several walks and runs!

-I had my longest run EVER in November! I know I already blogged about this, but I ran 6.5 miles the day after Thanksgiving!

My goals for the next month or so are pretty simple - to enjoy the holidays BUT not let this be an excuse to eat like crazy/backslide. I can very easily let 1 enjoyable day turn into 2 turn into a week turn into a month. I do not want to have guilt over food or resting my body! I want to continue to remain active and get back to truly focusing on losing weight in January, however, I will be really upset if I slide back more than a few pounds. Hello, the march to bathing suit season 2021 is upon us! By my next update, I would also like to be at/below my pre-pregnancy weight which is 143. I know that is only 2 pounds away, but I am giving myself grace over the holidays ha.

Yo-Yo Champion: A Weight Loss Update

I haven't shared a weight loss update since my June update because frankly there hasn't BEEN any weight loss. Sigh. Brent has been saying all along this would take us at least a year to reach our goal weights {I don't know that I've ever shared he's losing weight as well - he's lost about 25 pounds since February!}, and I finally started believing him ha. Realizing I'm only about halfway to where I want to be after 9 months, I decided a graphic was needed. {grin}

Now for the numbers: The lowest I got was at the end of May when I hit 147. Then I spent the summer in a big yo-yo pattern - gain 2, lose 1, gain 4, lose 2 etc. I got all the way back to 156 before reining myself in. A big help has been Emily who challenged me to a weight loss competition. You guys know how I feel about a challenge!

I ended October at 150, so I've lost 6 of the 9 pounds that I've gained! I knew this wasn't going to be easy because I've struggled with this 35 extra pounds for over 3 years. I'm very proud of the fact that I've been working at this for 9 months and yes, I've had some struggles and have backslid, but I HAVEN'T QUIT. 

I've also had some successes worth celebrating!

-I am working out the most and most consistently I have in my adult life. I workout 5-6 days/week {usually 6} EVERY week. A combination of jazzercise, jogging, body combat are my regular. I am really happy with how much I'm exercising and the changes I'm seeing in my body due to this. I'm also stronger and can go further/longer/faster in my workouts!

-I have had several non-scale victories. I have been making some really smart choices when it comes to food. For example, last weekend, we went to a local Biergarten with friends. Instead of getting my own meal, I split one with Paige - we shared a burger and fries. Also, on Halloween, there were 2 instances where I was eating something and thought 'I am not enjoying this.' and I threw the rest away.

-All my pants are a size 6. I took a big bag to Goodwill of my size 8s and 10s! I do have some smaller 6s I'm not in yet but I'm really happy about this! Plus, I feel like a lot of my shirts are fitting better/more flattering.

-I bought some joggers! I have always wanted a pair of joggers and have hated the way they looked on me. I got a pair and love them. I think this is a testament to the changes I'm making in my body.

The big holidays are right around the corner, and I'm a little nervous. I can very easily go off the rails from Halloween through the end of the year {and honestly even longer}. In our family, we have 5 birthdays, numerous Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, so it's a lot of parties and food. With that said, my goal for November is to lose 4 pounds. I'd like to get below my low from May. Then I'm going to REALLY TRY to maintain that through the end of the year. I'm sure there will be lots of ups and downs over the next 2 months, but I'm hoping this goal will keep me focused on being good when it isn't a party or celebration, ha! Then onward to 2021 to meet the rest of my goal before the summer.

Goals For My 40s

I am equal parts feeling very nonchalant about being 40 {I think turning 39 was harder??} and shocked that I'm 4-0. I'm pretty darn happy with my life, so that might be why I wasn't too upset for this milestone birthday??? Thinking about the last decade has made me think about what I want to do with my next decade, and I thought I'd jot down a few goals.

As a disclaimer, this list is completely about things I want to do for myself. I OF COURSE want to continue in a happy marriage and raise kind humans and be a good citizen and vote and learn and be a good friend/daughter/sister, etc. This is everything else. {grin}

1. TRAVEL!!!! I've always wanted to travel, ALWAYS. Yet somehow I have made other things a priority over the years - buying a house, having a kid, having another kid, making a job switch that made less money, having another kid, ha. My 30s largely revolved around children - having them, paying for them, etc. Well, that chapter has closed, and I really want to make travel a priority again. That might not happen on a large scale until Paige is out of preschool. I REALLY want to go to the United Kingdom, that is my #1. I am really open to traveling anywhere and anytime. I could probably make a list specifically related to travel and maybe I should!

2. Run a 10K I used to run a lot pre-kids. It was my main form of exercise. After having kids, it took me YEARS to find my groove with exercise, and it didn't involve running. Since being home in quaratine, I have run once a week every week and for about the last 2 months that has included my neighbor/high school track partner {who is in WAY better shape than I am}. The most I've run in a race was 5 miles, and the last time I ran in a race was in 2008. I was pregnant with Trent, and I knew after that 5 miles, I needed to hang up the running in pregnancy - my body was DEAD for days after that race. But I'm getting back into it and can run 4 miles now. So I'd like to run a 10K and keep up some sort of running in my exercise routine. 

3. Up Our Retirement I want to max out my 401K contribution in the next few  years. I need to increase my contributions by about 4% so I plan to increase by 1% each year. I want to retire RICH!!!

4. Hit My Goal Weight Even with a little bit of slippage over the summer, I am really proud of my gains in 2020 with weight loss. I'm about halfway to my goal and will HOPEFULLY hit my goal in 2021. But I don't want to lose this momentum and start to slack off. I'm sure at 50 I won't weigh exactly what I hope to in the next few months, but I'd like to maintain a healthy weight!

5. Gain New Hobbies I have said for probably 20 years that I'd like to learn to play the guitar. And I want to learn to knit with Drew. And finally use my sewing machine. And...and...and... So I don't know what the next 10 years will bring in terms of hobbies, but I'd like to be able to say more than just 'read and exercise'.

6. Start Volunteering I'd like to really give back. And preferably find an organization the kids can volunteer with too. I have had a very fortunate life, and it's time to give back.

7. Buy Something Frivolous I want to buy a Louis Vuitton purse or something equally frivolous. To save for it and splurge and treat myself!

8. Treat My Parents I want to do something really amazing for my parents - send them on a vacation or to a spa day or something fun. They spoil me and take care of so much for me and have always made me feel special and loved, and I'd like to find some way to give back to them.

I'm sure I'll think of new things along the way or adjust these, but I think this is a good set of goals for the next decade! What else should I aim for??

Weight Loss Update

Well, as optimistic as I seem to be...it was bound to happen. I backslid this month and gained back 2 pounds. SOB! I said at the beginning of June that I had a goal to get my eating back under control...well joke's on me because it was worse in June! 

But I do not want to spend the rest of this post beating myself up! It could have been worse, and I do have things to celebrate:

• I have continued to be really active! I do 6 real workouts a week and then try to just move some on day 7 {take a walk, do pilates, etc}. I've stuck with my routine of Jazzercise, Body Combat, and 1 day of jogging. I am so excited though because we just got some Body Pump certified instructors, and I CANNOT wait as that is my ultimate FAVORITE group exercise class.
• I've had more comments from others noticing! It's exciting when people are noticing and commenting on the weight loss being visible. I know it shouldn't be about this outward validation, but I was DEFINITELY an unhealthy size, so this is nice.
• Things still fit great. I am really close to being down another size, and that will be 1 size away from my goal, yay!
• I didn't go back up into another 'decade'. My mother-in-law calls every 10 pounds a decade.  So while I gained a little I stayed in the {high} 140s. I'll take anything at this point ha.
• My BMI has improved! Under a normal BMI calculation, I'm still barely overweight, but I found an updated BMI calculation called 'Smart BMI' which takes a lot more into account, and under this I'm normal. Yay!

My 40th birthday is 4 weeks from today. I weigh 149 pounds, my pre-Paige pregnancy weight was 143. It's going to be a BIG stretch, but I would LOVE it if I could hit my pre-Paige weight by my birthday. Ultimately I want to continue to lose weight, so if I can just get myself going back in the right direction, I'll be happy, but my stretch goal is to lose 6 pounds. Fingers crossed!

2020 Goal Check-In

I found it helpful last year to keep myself accountable on my annual goals but doing a periodic check-in. So let's see how I'm doing with my 2020 goals.

1. Trail Walks - I wanted to do 20 trail walks for the year. I honestly thought it was 15 before I went back and re-read my post, oops. We did 1 in January, and then I really stunk it up for a little while, especially at the start of quarantine. But our spring has been really solid and we are at 8! So not quite halfway, but I'm excited. And for full disclosure, I've expanded this to basically be nature adventures, so our recent span of river trips are counting ha.

2. Book Goals - I set some individual goals related to my reading, but I also set a Goodreads Goal of 100 books for the year.  As of the end of June, I'm at 49! So right on track, yay.
- Book Pile - I also set a goal to read or get rid of physical books that I have because I've had some for years. I'm happy to say I've done both. I read 3 books from my pile, am currently reading a 4th {that I've had for probably a decade!}, and donated quite a few. HOWEVER, I got quite a few more given to me {although I have read 2 of those as well}, so I'm not sure that my pile is SMALLER, but it's definitely more current??
- POC Books - I set a goal of 24 books by authors of color, and as of the end of June, I'm at 10. I also stated I wanted to read more books with characters of color with the kids, and with everything going on in the world, this has become a huge priority for me, and I'm going to share in a separate post the books I've bought for the kids.
- Books about Race - I also specifically wanted to continue to focus on my learning about race/racism and incorporate this with the kids. I've read 6 books so far related to race or racism. Trent has read at least 2 or 3, and as I mentioned Wednesday, I've got a few new ones to read with Trent and Drew.
- Classics - I set a goal to read 2 classics this year, and the book I've had in my book pile for a decade that I'm currently reading is a classic, so I'm getting there on this one too.

3. DiTL Quarterly Posts - 2 for 2 on this one! If you want, you can check out January here and April here.

4. Knitting or Sewing Class - I wanted to get Drew signed up for either a sewing or knitting class. This obviously died with quarantine. BUT she did get a finger knitting book for Christmas, so we really need to bust that out and start working on that! I wonder if I could find something online too...???

5. Photo Books - So my goal here was to decide whether I wanted to make photo books or not and eventually work backwards to making books for basically the past 15 years. I have pretty much decided I want to do them...and did a few months for 2019 and haven't kept going, ha. I'd like to get 2018, 2019 and 2020 done this year and set a goal going forward to do 2 extra books a year. So yeah, I'm really far behind on this!

6. Antiracism Work - Well, if this isn't just the most timely goal there ever was. I'm going to do an entire accountability post about this in the coming weeks. What I've been doing, what I'd still like to be doing, and I'm hoping y'all will share anything you've been doing and we can support each other!

7. Trent - Fruits and Veggies - My goal for the year was to end it with Trent consistently eating 2 fruits and 2 vegetables a day. At the start of the year, he was eating apples, carrots, and bananas almost every day, so we were doing okay, but I was really wanting some more variety for him and hitting 4 EVERY day. He has been such a trooper and has tried sweet potatoes, green beans {fresh and frozen}, cucumbers, and bell peppers for vegetables, and all but the sweet potatoes were a big fat fail - he threw up the green beans both times, ha. He will eat sweet potatoes, but they aren't something he's eating daily. He will also eat a little bit of raw spinach if there's a bribe involved but nowhere near a serving. For fruits, he's added green grapes, pears, and pineapple, yay! He doesn't love them, but he's willing to eat them and said pineapple tasted good. The downside here is he still isn't consistently eating enough each day. So I would like us to hopefully find 1 more vegetable that he'll eat and then get to where he's eating 4 servings every day - a lot of days it's still just 1 or 2 servings. But we're getting there!! We also just talked this week about experimenting with smoothies to get more spinach but not go crazy trying to pack stuff in there. He's onboard with working on this - especially because we talk about the health benefits of what he's trying - so I'm optimistic about this one!

Man, overall I think I'm doing pretty good here! Obviously not perfect, but I've never scored a 100 for goals ha. How do you feel about any goals or resolutions that you have?