Below are the 19 goals I came up with for 2019, let’s see how I did shall we? It’s laughable how bad I was at this, probably because I totally forgot I made a list until December 2019.
1. Plan at least two “big” trips per year
CHECK! I traveled to Greece for Spring Break, Maine over summer, & a Charleston road trip for Thanksgiving. All of those count as “big” trips in my book
2. Redo the floors in our new house (currently there are 5 different types of flooring, that has got to go!)
CHECK! And it feels so good to have this done, even if our house is still trying to “get back together.”
3. Work out at least 3 times a week (I’m a solid twice a week now, looking to up my game)
TOTAL FAIL! But I kept up going to run club pretty much every Tuesday….so yay?
4. Try not to buy any books (totally seems like an odd goal, I know, but I own hundreds of books and have not read them all. Seems like a waste, no?)
SORTA… I think I only bought 2 books & both times I did it to get free shipping. Totally not cheating! 🙂
5. Get at least one paid workshop this summer (teachers gotta eat in June & July somehow!)
CHECK! I went to Brunswick, Maine for a two-week institute on the Holocaust & I also got accepted to another week-long program at Duke on the Middle East.
6. Organize our closets that have become scary places to dump things once we moved (again, seems stupid but those closets are black holes for junk)
UMMM 100% NO! I definitely did not accomplish this but I wasn’t because I was slacking. We’ve been incredibly busy with the bathroom renovations, baseboards, and buying furniture.
7. Learn how to keep plants alive (since we bought our house I have been dreaming of cultivating an inviting outdoor space but I kill every plant I touch)
LMAOOOO hell no! If it’s possible, I think I’m actually getting worse with this. But I still really want to cultivate a green thumb so that I can actually grow a garden of some sorts in the backyard.
8. Increase my work/home life balance (I’m so much better in year 5 of teaching but I still spend wayyyy too long planning overly complicated lessons)
YESSSS! I feel like I accomplished this so well. Yes, I still brought essays home to grade but I’m a teacher, that’s inevitable. I feel so comfortable now and having an intern last semester totally helped.
9. Try to keep up my Italian & Spanish (I just don’t like learning languages but I certainly enjoy using them)
NOT REALLY! I can still get around in these two languages but learning languages is just not my forte and I don’t know if it will ever be. Honestly, this bothers me because I don’t want to lose my connection to these two beautiful cultures.
10. Design and execute a laundry room makeover (figured if I started with the smallest room in the house I could gather steam from there lol)
NOPE! This has been SO HIGH on my list since we bought the house in May 2018 and it just never seems to make “the cut.” 🙁 The moment we found mold in our master bathroom, THAT became our new priority, so I get it…
11. Read (aka not listen to audiobooks) at least 12 books this year
Well good thing I keep a running list of all the books I read each year so I can 100% accurately assess my ability to achieve this goal:
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- The Tea Girl on Hummingbird Lane
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
- Peony in Love
- Burning Bright Not Burning Out: Notes from a Decade of Surviving Motherhood
- Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family
- Born to Run
- The Checklist Manifesto
- E-Mails from Scheherazad
- The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
- Letter to a Suffering Church
- Religion in the Handmaid’s Tale: A Brief Guide
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Damn ONE short!
12. Explore more local places in Central Florida
I would say no, because in my head I wanted to explore Central Florida MORE than we did this year BUT we did explore some more local places…so maybe?
13. Continue to up our liturgical living at home (perhaps by decorating an “altar” space)
I didn’t do any of the decorating aspects that I had hoped because our house is still in shambles, but we have certainly increased our intentional Catholic liturgical living.
14. Write at least one AP Art History post per-month (ideally it would be per week but I know I can’t cut that)
Oh I so wish I could have accomplished this but the house just ended being (and still is) such a beast, it sucked all my time and energy.
15. Practice yoga at least once a week (I guess this is technically part of my goal of working out at least 3 times a week but, hey, I needed another point)
Like the workout goal, this was a fat no (yes, that was a joke). I practiced yoga a few times here and there when I needed to clear my mind but not as consistently as I had hoped.
16. Get better at making meals “out of thin air” (aka things already in my pantry) – I love good food but I don’t need to spend as much as I do on groceries
This goal had two parts: making meals from my pantry & spending less on groceries. I totally accomplished the first part of pulling together meals on the fly, but I still need to get much, much tighter with our grocery bill.
17. Travel to an international destination at least once
I knew I was going to accomplish this when I made the list sooo I kinda cheated, but hey I crossed it off the list! Greece for Spring Break as a chaperone!
18. Practice my baking skills (nothing beats homemade bread!)
HA, NO! I do love homemade bread, I just don’t like baking
19. Learn to be more patient & less judgy (yikes this is hard for me)
Ummmm the first part yes (but not by choice), the second part…I’m working on it.
JMF
