Lifestyle

2021 March Goal Reflection

Jessica
2021 March Goal Reflection

If 2020 has taught me anything it is that I have much less control over my life than I could fathom. Without further ado, my somewhat boring goals for 2021!

1. Build proper storage in our garage &/or attic (to finally get the stuff junk out of all our closets)

Spring break = spring cleaning!!!! (because we are still not traveling due to COVID) First day I set up emptying the closests in the extra bedrooms. Will wants the two closets to remain as empty as they can be. One is becoming a nursery & the other staying a guest bedroom for now, but we are anticipating lots of family to come over to help & meet the baby this fall so I want them to be as comfortable as possible.

2. Travel outside the state of Florida at least once.

Although this month contains spring break and we could leave the state, we choosing to spend the week working on baby & house stuff. By the end of the year, I am hoping to go on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche in St. Augustine, Florida. This isn’t out of the state for us but it would be a nice trip (I love St. Augustine) & a very meaningful visit to honor this pregnancy & the ones I have lost.

3. ~ Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.

I am drinking like a thirsty camel, so that’s good & I pee about every 30 minutes. lol Luckily my students are awesome and I can step out for a moment without fearing my classroom will burn down. I’m not so awesome with it on the weekends but trying to keep a big bottle of water near me at all times helps me to remember.

4. X Spend an average less than $650/month on groceries.

Week 1, March 1-7

  • On list:
    • $113.85 (I had a $10 off coupon + bought 6 bottles of wine, enough for a few months, totalling $54.45)
    • $111.72 (bahhh I thought this was going to be a cheap week but Will finally put his meals on the list & I got stuff for next week; but I did have $10 gift card & $10 off coupon…and yes it was still $125 yikes!)
  • Off list:
    • $9.30 (frozen Tilapia was on super sale for 4/$3 plus I got 3 cans of evaporated milk, I need to just add evaporated milk to my weekly list – I love it mixed with milk for coffee)
    • $24.20 (wayyy more than I wanted: mac n cheese, corn english muffins & cereal were BOGO & frozen pizza was on sale!!!)

TOTAL: $259.07

*Note: I need to make sure to use all this pantry stuff I bought this week in my next few weeks meal plans. Lent is supposed to be about spending less & I am failing there.

Week 2, March 8-14

  • On list:
    • $91.36 at Winn-Dixie (I was really hoping/expecting this to be a much cheaper week! I didn’t even go off list!!! The one extra expense was chicken thighs, I needed 3 lbs but the big packs were BOGO so I got 11 lbs BUT I got it for $12 – that’s winning!)
    • $11.29 at Publix (Will picked up 3 things to make dinner Thursday – vegan tacos!)
    • $29.83 at Winn-Dixie (when Will went to Publix on Thursday he forgot to buy stuff for the weekend)
  • Off list:
    • $5.99 (Will picked up his favorite snack: peanut butter filled pretzels, which were BOGO)
    • $31.26 at Winn-Dixie

TOTAL: $169.73

Week 3, March 15-21 (our spring break)

  • On list:
    • $8.79 Winn-Dixie
    • $4.18 at Sprouts
    • $75.40 (shopping for Wednesday – Monday; I had a $15 coupon woot woot)
  • Off list:
    • $12.56 at Sprouts (a friend & I had to kill 30 minutes to we popped in & I bought some of their AMAZING bread to freeze)
    • $6.88 (BOGO hot pockets as “oh sh*t” meal & BOGO Kerrygold Irish Butter for St. Patrick’s Day)

TOTAL: $107.81

Week 4, March 22-28

  • On list:
    • $20.09 at Publix (half of this amount is a huge bag of cinnamon sticks, yes I go through them a lot)
    • $80.26 at Aldi
    • $91.07 at Publix (more than I anticipated because a few things on my list were BOGO so I stocked up: evaporated milk, chips, sparkling water; however I should have checked the fridge before shopping because it turns out I did not need more strawberries nor another red onion nor cuban bread)
  • Off list:
    • $1.49 at Aldi (just everything bagels because I discovered we had cream cheese at home)
    • $4.49 at Publix (mac n’ cheese was BOGO)

TOTAL: $197.40

Week 5, March 29-31 (super short “week”)

  • On list: $69.77 at Winn-Dixie
  • Off list: $5.98 at Winn-Dixie (BOBO naan bread & Boathouse chocolate drink)

TOTAL: $75.75

  • Monthly Grand Total On List: $706.61
  • Monthly Grand Total Off List: $102.15
  • MONTH GRAND TOTAL: $808.76

Well I really shit the bed this month. I think the 6 bottles of wine didn’t help & I overbought pantry stuff. This means I really need to leverage my pantry come April & May.

5.  X Write 2 art history blog posts a month.

You would think spring break would have been the time to get this done but. . . a) I ended up in the ER and b) we had lots of house projects instead.

6. Keep my potted herbs alive (& maybeeee add more green things to my backyard).

My basil was looking like it was dying but when I realized it needed more sun than were it was it perked up. I also purchased one oregano plant, now I just need one more to fill all my wall pots.

7. √ Use my slow cooker at least every other week.

8. ~ Go for a jog or long walk every week.

  • Week 1, March 1-7: 2 hour walk with a friend + a 3 mile neighborhood walk with Will
  • Week 2, March 8-14: 25 minute jog around the neighborhood + 30 minute walk with Will after dinner
  • Week 3, March 15-21: long walk with another pregnant friend at a local trail
  • Week 4, March 22-28: not this week, I had a ton of doctors appointments, plus my back was cranky
  • Week 5, March 29-31: 1 hour walk with my sister-in-law and her dog + 30 minute walk with Will after a couples workout + a short jog around the neighborhood on Thursday

9. √ Practice yoga at least twice a month.

10. Read at least 5 books classified as “classic literature.”

Still working through Catch-22 (not a fan) & I finished the Time Machine day 1 of the month.

11. Grow my emergency savings account to at least $5,000.

At the end of the month my emergency savings account was at: $1,650.14 (-$200 from last month)

*Note: I miscalculated when Will was switching our Roth IRS direct deposits and needed to pull $200 from my savings for the transfer. Will be back to normal next month. 

12. ~ Vacuum at least once a week.

  • Week 1, March 1-7: ran the Roomba once this week & did a full house vacuuming (& mopping) Saturday
  • Week 2, March 8-14: ran the Roomba in my bedroom for a long time + ran it once this week; I also vacuumed the two guest bedrooms as we were cleaning out the closets
  • Week 3, March 15-21: it’s our spring break & Will finished the baseboards so I vacuumed the house about 3 times plus ran the Rooma twice, seriously
  • Week 4, March 22-28: I ran the Roomba a few times. . .
  • Week 5, March 29-31: I vacuumed Monday afternoon

13. √ Focus on working out my arms more.

  • BodyRock Baby: Week 2 (28:00, although not an exclusive arm workout about half of it was. P.S. the 100 walking lunges took me way longer)
  • I cleaned the WHOLE house on Friday evening/Saturday morning (bathrooms, all bedrooms, deep kitchen cleaning, dusting, vacuumining, mopping…)
  • The first day of spring break, I moved what felt like a million things out of our closets, evaluated items to trash, sell or keep (& reorganize).
  • Friday & Saturday of spring break we did a whole morning of yard work
  • BodyRock Baby | Week 3 (22:43; not a ton of arms but I’m counting it)
  • The Safari Style: Pregnancy Safe Workout (I modified this workout, the total body I only did 10 reps with 8 lbs dumbbells and added extra arms reps & for the arms workout part I did 15 reps with the 8 lbs dumbbells)

14. √ Finish our patio decorating.

Technically this is done but Will wants to add some hanging plants, larger potted plants next to the grill, spray paint the aluminum screen & I want to build/buy a new sideboard for entertaining. Maybe this will all get done this year, maybe not.

15. X Spend an average of LESS than an hour and a half on my phone per day.

With the Iphone it is super easy to keep track of this, every Sunday morning I get a report on how I did that week. So the data below is reflective of that Sunday report:

  • Week 1, March 1-7: 2 hours & 6 minutes!!! Getting there!
  • Week 2, March 8-14: WTF 3 horus and 7 minutes (my 3 biggest time suckers are messaging people, texting and FB messenger, at 7.5 hours & school email 1.5 hours)
  • Week 3, March 15-21: 2 hours & 38 mints (considering I was in the hospital for 2 days with little else to do but text people and scroll Pinterest, I did wayyyy better than I thought! – I did keep my Lenten promise too!)
  • Week 4, March 22-28: 2 hours and 15 minutes
  • Week 5, March 29-31: these days will get rolled over into my average for the first week of April

*Note: I have a thought on why I’m not doing so well on this as I thought I would be: I’m texting family & new mommas like crazy due to the pregnancy. I am not trying to make an excuse, and I still want to get down to my goal, but after analyzing why my time was so high it’s making sense.

16. X Buy no books (unless I have a gift card of course).

We had an Amazon gift card that I forgot to use, so I technically “lost” this challenge this month. I bought a book for Will’s Easter basket (that I shall not disclose here in case he ever reads this blog. . .he doesn’t though) & to get free shipping (of course!) I had to spend $15 more so I got myself a book too: A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation.

17. √ Do no school work on Sunday.

Ideally I would like to expand this goal to “do no school work on the weekend,” but as an AP teacher (& overachiever) I know I won’t keep to that & I am ok with that. As long as I am happy with the boundaries I put into place then it’s ok with me.

  • Week 1, March 1-7: next week is Quarter Exams then spring break!!!
  • Week 2, March 8-14: it was spring break, so I did some Quarter 4 planning during the week but not on Sunday
  • Week 3, March 15-21: my parents are in Central Florida for my mom’s spring break so we spent Sunday with them, definitely not doing school work
  • Week 4, March 22-28: nada
  • Week 5, March 29-31: none of these days crossed over on a Sunday

18. ~ Call someone out of the blue to chat at least once a month.

Not a call but I reached out to 3 friends: one who just had a baby, another who is due a few weeks after, & a third who just had her third pregnancy loss. All of us women at different baby stages, all of us needed an ear to listen to. I am so grateful for such a strong female community surrounding me.

Read more: I wish I was the 99%

I also had four people call ME out of the blue (an aunt, padrino, one of my best friends, and a cousin). Does that count? We had great chats.

19. ~ Finish decorating our two extra bedrooms.

This is totally coming together. One of our spring break goals was to plan out the nursery & get the other guest bedroom comfortable for all the family we know will be stopping by this year. I have a plan for the nursery (keeping it under wraps from the internet right now, but its cute!) and the other room is essentially done.

I am on the lookout for a desk to replace another piece of furniture, so when my sister & cousin stay with us after the baby is born they both have a place to telework. We also want to put up a shelf, some artwork, and find a lamp for the guest bedroom to make it more home-y.

20. X Organize an intentional date with my hubby once a month.

I guess I struggle with the word intentional here. I don’t like to spend money on date nights just because you’re “supposed” to, but I love intentional time together. However, I think I need to elevate this from “oh hey, we ate dinner together – it’s a date!” And add an element to this to make our “dates” feel special.

22. Start a family.

Currently rounding out month 5 with this baby!!!! Whatttt!!???

JMF

By Jessica

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *