2021 Goals: End of January Update

 I'll add updates and/or cross things off so we can all track my progress this year. 

I have many goals this year after a few years of actively doing less and I'm rearing to go. I'll add this list in the coming days and then offer a once a month update post.

Spiritual Goals:     

~Read the whole Bible this year. I'm using the YouVersion app to help me do this in a timely fashion. Doing great on this
~Pray from a list Yes!
~Attend Church and Community Group either in person or virtually, as Corona allows.

~Read and work through "The Road Back to You" an Enneagram book from a Christian perspective.

Health Goals:     

~Continue to shed inches through smaller portions, more movement, more veggies and more water. My year end goal to be down to single digit pants size and a M top. 
~Make taking my supplements a daily habit. Haven't missed a day all month
~Avoid late night snacking. This was difficult, but I'm doing well.
~Be able to run up a flight of stairs at Acton without becoming winded.

~Take a long hike once a month. (A Mountain, Dripping Springs, Carlsbad Caverns, The Catwalk, Aguirre Springs, etc.)

Personal Goals:   

~Read every single day, and I'm starting with books I already own. I can't purchase any more until I've read those. *Kindle books don't count as purchases if I get them free* Even if I only manage 15 minutes a day, I'm loving reading daily again.

~Blog daily. Eep, it's shocking how quickly I feel like I ran out of things to say. LOL

~Make 25 recipes out of my new cookbooks, Cast Iron Cooking and the Tasty Cookbook.

~Participate in No Pants April 2021 and 100 Happy Days 2021
~Buy a handgun and take a safety course.
~New Ink: The MeYeR Man Crew and The Grand Crew- paid for by PattyCakes

~Get passports for the family
~Conquer FSA syndrome by clearing a Flat Surface Area every month, and maintain all other FSAs from previous months. This month's goal was the movable island that David and Makenzie gave me. DONE! Next month's goal is the table in the office.  

Marriage and Family Goals:    

~Long weekend trip to Grand Canyon- if Corona Allows

~Celebrate 25 year anniversary in August

~Continue with weekly Pizza and Movie Nights These are so much fun!

~Visit IL at least once this year

~Dan and I Question Of The Day book daily Dan doesn't like the book and doesn't want to participate. I'll replace this with a personal journal next month.

~Date Night once a month Or, a date morning. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at The Shed this month. 
~Game Nights weekly Yes! 

Financial Goals:     

~Refill our emergency fund 

~Spend our Tax Refund wisely on home improvements, adding to our savings, and extra principal on our mortgage Making plans is an important first step

~Save money weekly according to my printout in my planner Yes

~Do a No-Spend January BOOM, Baby! 

~Pantry Challenge in January We owned it!
~Stock Pantry with 6 months of staples We are holding off on this goal until after we purchase another large wire shelving unit and a few more 5 gallon buckets with gamma seals to hold the bounty. 

Pantry Challenge and No Spend January are complete!

 No Spend January and Pantry Challenge are complete! We all did great, especially you guys!

I paid a bill today, but bills don’t count. I didn’t spend any other money. Woot!

Meals:

B- Zucchini bread, scrambled eggs, and sparkling juice.

L- taco salad

D- Pizza

I’m going to go calculate some grocery geek math and be back later with a cost per serving analysis.

#GroceryGeek

#MathNerd

#InTheKitchenWithKristy

#ManCrewHouse

#NoSpendJanuary

#PantryChallenge

PS. Check the last photo for a shock!

Clearly, according to this last photo, I am not done pantry challenging myself. Oops. However, I did completely empty the fridge freezer in the garage, and significantly reduce what is in the fridge freezer in the kitchen. So, progress was made. Just not...enough. *winks*

A Well Planned Day...that didn't turn out as I expected.

 My plan for today was to get up early, get all my housekeeping tasks out of the way before noon, and then spend the afternoon hiking Dripping Springs, followed by a relaxing evening at home with Hercules and Slick.

Instead, I slept in, checked the weather and decided to hike tomorrow, skipped morning chores in favor of a delightful breakfast at The Shed with Hercules, and then I headed home while he continued to a friend’s house to help them with a project. I spent the afternoon doing chores, listening in on a Zoom conference, working on a few more chores, chatting with friends, handling a few more chores, and settling in with a late dinner of bacon-filled grilled cheese as taught to me by Dave Bechtel (Anyone heard from him in the last 20 years? I lost track of him). Somehow, I have a few chores left since I have what my friend

Laura

calls “Lifestyle-Induced ADD” which causes me to start 37 things and finish none of them. And so, I shall spend the next hour or so finishing up everything I already started, and then either read until Dan comes home, or head to bed early to catch up on some sleep I missed earlier this week.

Also, I’ll add a few pictures I took this week and haven’t shared yet.

#HappyAtHome

#AdventuresWithHercules

#LifestyleInducedADD

#ChickenMama

#LunaChicks

#SpiceGirls

#ManCrewHouse

#OldLadyAdventures

This is exactly what cleaning is like for me. 

Beautiful Skies in NM

A little frost makes everything prettier

Happy Tummy

My Girls are laying again! 

The very last sight word is now laminated

School should be like this every day, don't you agree?

An Old Favorite, courtesy of FB Memories

Welcome back, PattyCakes! Our life was so boring without you here.

#GentlemanSavages

#AllTheHandsome

#ManCrewHouse

#MamaK

#PattyCakes

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 Stay-Cation Day 6:

Much excitement as we waited for Patrick's return. A missed connecting flight and other nonsense kept us on our toes all day.

I didn't get much done around the house (OK nothing) but at least once on a Stay-Cation, I shouldn't be doing housework, right?

DT and I powered through some great school time, making up for a few days this week that we didn't meet our goal.

The end of the evening found me at the Outback, laughing hysterically over Pat's traveling stories, surrounded by the 3 handsomest boys in town, and watching the boys just be happy to be together again. Can't complain about a day like that.

No Spend January and Pantry Challenge: Day 28

 Day 28 of No Spend January and Pantry Challenge are in the books.

What’s the word, Jonah?

I spent no money today, frivolous or otherwise. Yes!

Meals were a chocolate croissant, protein shake, and steak with Alfredo noodles. Yum~O!

#PantryChallenge

#NoSpendJanuary

#InTheKitchenWithKristy

#ManCrewHouse

Verse of the Day

 

This is a difficult one for me, as I like rules, and rewards, and consequences. Unmerited favor is hard for me to wrap my finite mind around. And so, this sweet verse reminds me to keep on trying to understand it a little more each day. 

No Spend January and Pantry Challenge: Day 26

 Day 26 of No Spend January and Pantry Challenge: who is still hanging in there?

I spent money today on the grandbabies’ birthdays and sent along a little treat for Valentine’s Day, because it makes more sense to send one package than 3. But since all of those expenses are planned and saved for, they don’t count against me.

Food was tasty leftovers today, every single meal.

B- Chocolate croissant from our Sunday smorgasbord

L- Homemade pizza from Sunday night movies

D- Leftover smoked sausage from Saturday’s mac and cheese, plus mashed potatoes and green beans from yesterday, although we were all a little sad that there weren’t any more baked chicken legs.

#NotBadForLeftovers

#inthekitchenwithkristy

#nospendjanuary

#pantrychallenge

#ManCrewHouse

PS. The cutting and laminating project is finally almost done! Woot!

Into the Unknown...

 

Friends, I am heading into the unknown today by subbing in the mid-high/high school studio today at work. It is the only studio that I don't know all of the students, or how their day normally runs. If you have a minute, would you say a prayer for me while I dip my toes in the hormonal tidal wave that is 6th-10th graders? Thanks!

#IntoTheUnknown

#JillOfAllTrades

#OldLadySubstitutingAdventures

#GuidingTeenagers

#AdventuresInSubstituting

Edited to Add:

You guys!! I lived. 

And the rumors are true that this is a great group of students. They were kind, respectful, hard-working, and several were quite funny. I enjoyed myself quite a bit, despite a few issues with my technology getting along with the tech in their classroom/studio. When their regular instructor arrived at noon, I was pleased to report that they had been kind and gracious with me. Thank you all for your prayers, I felt them all morning long.

Also, it was pleasing to my office-admin side to put faces with names I’ve seen 100 times, and to meet older brothers and sisters to many of the littles I work with each day. One of the students is a member of Dastroyah’s gymnastics team, and several of the students know The BIGS from time spent at Gym Magic so it was fun to have a small connection already. Good times all around.

Pantry Challenge and No Spend January: Day 24

 Day 24 of the Pantry Challenge and No Spend January, and also the birthday of our darling daughter-in-love,

Lauren

No frivolous monies were spent today!

Breakfast was a smorgasbord of all the breakfast-y carbs I found in the freezer:

Cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, cran-blueberry muffins, and pumpkin waffles. I added freshly scrambled eggs, #Dakenzie brought Starbucks, and Mark brought scones and chocolate croissants from Sweet Indulgence Cafe. Oh my happy tummy!

Lunch was a sweet surprise of Subway by Dan on his way home from a project at a friend’s house.

Dinner was homemade pizza and stovetop popcorn, with chips and drinks brought by the gang, while we laughed our way through “Rush Hour 2”.

I got some cutting and laminating accomplished, and Makenzie helped me cut them out the second time.

Overall, it was a pretty great day.

#PantryChallenge

#inthekitchenwithkristy

#ManCrewHouse

#nospendjanuary

#happyathome

A Bernie Meme. Because 2021.

Ever since Mr. Biden was inaugurated as POTUS on Jan 20th, the Internet has been inundated with memes of Bernie at the inauguration, sitting in his jacket and mittens looking cold, forlorn, and miserable. There are hundreds of them, thousands probably. And while I found them mildly amusing, none of the really hit my funny bone until this one, so without further ado...Bernie in mittens. 

#BehaveYourself2021

Happy at Home on a Sweet Saturday

 Happy Saturday, friends!

I am looking forward to a weekend of going nowhere and just being busy at home.

Up first: the housekeeping trifecta...dishes, laundry, and cleaning bathrooms. After that, more cutting and laminating for work. I’m planning to binge Sweet Magnolias on Netflix.

How are you staying busy at home this weekend?

#HappyAtHome

#InTheKitchenWithKristy

#NorwexForTheWin

#ManCrewHouse

#BlessThisMess

#HomeBlessing

Update:

Bathrooms clean

#1  #2  #3 in-progress

Tile swept/cobwebs down 

Upgrade PattyCakes’ car insurance 

Dishes done and away 

Delicate/Mask load washed and hanging to dry 

Call Chili’s to let them know about the missing tortillas from last night’s order  *I even scored some free gift certificates, even though I said it wasn’t necessary. Woot!

Pay City bill 

Send Venmo requests to my people for our shared (fleet-sized) vehicle policy 

Carefully read insurance claim emails regarding Dastroyah’s missing cycle. 

Clear off the dining room table and reorganize the card game drawer 

Peek in the freezer and do a quick mental meal plan for next week:

M-Chicken and Alfredo noodles with broccoli

T- Taco Pile Ups with refried beans and rice

W- Garlic Butter Steaks with baked potatoes and green beans

Th- Leftovers

F- Veg tray, chips and salsa, plus cheese abs crackers

S-DT cooks (tbd)

S-Pizza with the gang 

Phew!

I’m going to finish that last bathroom and settle in for some laminating work and Netflix.

Clean the 3rd bathroom 

Finish soaking Norwex and start them on a hot load in the washer 

Re-clean kitchen and do dishes after early dinner 

Brew tea 

Try to figure out game expansion with DT and determine that it is out of my range for today 

Water plants 

Clean out critter cages 

Sweep laundry/storage room and clean off top of dryer 

Finally get to cutting and laminating, woot!