Lifestyle

2020 January Goal Reflection

Jessica
2020 January Goal Reflection

In an effort to actually maintain my 2020 goals, because they are in fact good for me, I figured I would blog about them. This seems to be a good medium for reflection and accountability for me. Soooo let’s see how I did in January, shall we?

1. Find a morning prayer routine

I have found the Catholic Morning Offering prayer to be sufficient for me. I do not have time, at 5:21 in the morning (that’s the actual time my alarm rings), to do anything much longer right now.

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day
for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians,
and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.
Amen.

2. Travel internationally relatively cheaply at least once

So, kinda cheating, I knew I was chaperoning another trip to London & Paris this spring break. 🙂 And that trip is essentially FREE for me. Now, I can’t “check this off” yet because I have not gone on the trip, this will be official checked off this March. *UPDATE 3.12.20 – trip cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak

Annnndddd I just found on on Saturday that I got a scholarship to study in OXFORD, ENGLAND for 3 weeks!!! swoon! I’m dying. The scholarship is for $7,000 which will cover tuition, meals, housing, flights, & small incidentals.

Additionally, I am planning a quasi-family group trip to Ireland this summer & working on negotiating the who pays what soooo we’ll see.

I am rocking this goal.

3. Finish our master bathroom renovation

It is finished!!! Of course we still have minor things still to do (like buy a hamper and some decor) but the work is DONE!! You cannot imagine how relieved we feel. All in all the whole bathroom total renovation cost us $12,000. That is a hard amount to swallow but considering how much work we did, it’s not surprising.

4. Work out at least twice a week

Week 1 (this was a half week, with January 1st on a Wednesday):

  • 3 mile run

Week 2:

  • 3 mile run

Week 3:

  • 360 Degrees Stronger (30 minutes)
  • 3 mile run

Week 4:

  • 5-mile hike with a friend
  • Better Butt 2.0 (15 minutes)
  • High Powered Legs (23 minutes)

Week 5:

  • yikes, totally failed this week – Will was gone at a conference at UF which means I did literally nothing with my life lol

5. Build a bookshelf for our library

Nada yet, BUT I have moved a lot of our books back onto our old (& worn out) book shelves…sooo progress?

6. Do not purchase new clothes unless I get rid of something first

So far so good…I made one purchase of a new workout top at Dicks for $8.47 (super on sale!), one new pair of leggings from Strong Physiquez (50% off!) got rid of 3 crappy t-shirts I don’t wear anymore. I am in serious need of new flats, I had to toss 2 last month so that’s my next month’s clothing goal.

7. Reduce our grocery bill by $100 a month (it’s like $800 right now!)

*Note: We typically do 2 shoppings a week, one on Mondays & usually a second on Thursdays to buy the produce for the weekend

Week 1:

  • $53.21 at Winn-Dixie on December 31

Week 2:

  • $133.85 at Winn-Dixie on January 6 (I bought 6 bottles of wine, all BOGO & 10% off 🙂 …enough for the month)
  • $22.85 at Winn-Dixie on January 11

Week 3:

  • $60.79 at Winn-Dixie on January 13

Week 4:

  • $188.30 at Winn-Dixie on January 20 (ughhh so much money but I buy all the shelf stable items for a 2 week cycle)
  • $35.72 at Publix on January 23 (hosting friends for a Sushi night on Friday so had to pick up some extra supplies)

Week 5:

  • $98.31 at Publix on January 26
  • $44.14 at Winn-Dixie on January 27 (I had a $5 off of $40 coupon that expired that day & I’m pissed I forgot to use it the day before)

Grocery TOTAL for January: $637.66

Though this amount is certainly less than our average last year, I could have done better! There were a few times I didn’t property use leftovers & I have a ton of pantry items and meats in the freezer I neglected. Next month, I’m going to try to up my use of those.

8. Finish decorating the living spaces in our home

Making progress on this for sure! Currently we are evaluating items that were packed away to either a) find a space for it to display, b) keep in storage and reevaluate in a few months, or c) sell on Facebook Marketplace or take to Goodwill.

9. Read and/or listen to at least 30 books

I do a big book review at the end of the year but these are the books I have read or listened to for January:

10. Blog at least once a week (or 52 times over the year)

For the 4.5 weeks of January, including this post, I have blogged 5 times this month:

11. Transform part of my backyard into some kind of garden

This is the goal I am most nervous & reluctant about. I should probably start some research on this…

12. Practice yoga at least once a month

Here are the following times I practiced yoga:

I would really like to up this amount. Yoga always makes my life and body feel balanced.

13. Cook a meal 100% out of my pantry at least every other week

I decided to work into my meal plan a pantry/freezer/leftover meal EVERY WEEK so that if I slip up one week, I can keep my overall goal. So far so good! I have a pantry & freezer that are bursting at the seams and I need to make sure I am being mindful when buying stuff at the grocery store (I literally buy BOGO Chicken Breast every time I see it and I have too many right now).

14. Apply to (& get accepted) to one summer program

I applied to a Gilder Lehrman summer seminar & a scholarship to study at Oxford through the English Speaking Union of Central Florida. (if you read #2 you know what I’m about to say) I found out I got the scholarship to study at Oxford for 3 weeks. WOOOOHOOOO!!! Going to say no to Gilder Lehrman if they accept me, because the two programs overlap.

15. Host someone over for dinner at least once a month

I hosted 3 girlfriends over on January 18th for a potluck (aka I did not cook) & Will and I hosted another close couple over for make your own sushi night on January 24th. 🙂

16. Write a letter (& mail it!) at least once per month

Does a postcard count??? Hope so!

17. See at least 5 artworks from the AP Art History 250 Curriculum

None for January, but you bet I am looking ahead to my spring break to check some of these off! *UPDATE 3.12.20 – trip cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak

18. Have a cheap date with my hubby at least once a month

FREE is cheap! We used a gift card to go out to Cheddar’s for dinner on January 3rd & we got to have another free dinner & mass with 15 Catholic bishops (yep, you read that right!) from across the country on Wednesday January 15th. Such an awesome experience.

19. Get at least a 65% pass rate for my students in AP World History

I’m technically working towards this goal by trying to be a dope ass teacher, but now I am specifically focusing a lot more skill-based teaching. Since I have an intern teaching my World History honors & Humanities classes, I have no excuse to not spend extra time on my AP kids.

20. Vote Trump out of office (!!!!)

So I engaged in electronic conversation with people across the aisle, but I don’t think that’s really effective to change someone’s vote. And most of my friends didn’t (& would never) vote for him so I’m a little at a lost on how to work on this. I’ve never been one to donate or go to rallies, but I should probably get on that if I want to actually help to accomplish this goal.

I have so many angry thoughts about this man and, more importantly, what he represents. I have no desire to get involved in the nasty social media political sphere but I think a blog post is due on my thoughts.

JMF

By Jessica

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