January Goals Recap

It's been quite a month. I really wasn't expecting that we'd buy a house in January!

1) Financial - Figure out our housing situation, and get it all resolved (i.e. moved, job changes as needed) before school starts. 

• Build our pricing range (it's not fixed, as there are a variety of contingencies, depending upon the sale of our Seattle house).  - Well, we obviously sorted this! 
• Inventory & track various stockpiles, to reduce waste & minimize what we need to move. - Have made a ton of progress on this one! There is always more to do, but I've been consistently focused on this in January.
• Come up with one new way to reduce what we need on an ongoing basis. Examples I've kicked around: find an alternative to all of the ziplock bags/plastic wraps we use for kid lunches. Put a container in the shower to save water for the yard. Collect rain in buckets. Create a compost bucket for the kitchen, so it's easy to compost food scraps. All of these are meant to be permanent changes, so not focused on one time savings. - Yes! We have been cleaning the windows with newspaper instead of paper towels. Had no idea you could do that. I've also done a better job of minimizing ziplock bags (M still uses them for the parts of the lunch that he preps). And, I'm going to try & get groceries via walking at least 1x/month vs driving. I already managed that in January.

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. - Yes, we've made dinner together & tried to all attend sporting events (for the kids) together, etc.
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. - The last week hasn't been great for this, as I've been caught up in the news cycle. Otherwise, I've done well. 
• Have two dates with M per month (one lunch, one evening) - We have spent more time together than in a long time, with all of the planning & plotting for the house purchase. But, no dates. We have a free date night planned in February. 
• Figure out what to do with our February trip. We were originally going to spend 10 days in Seattle/Portland, getting the boys familiar with the area & skiing. Given our change in plans/unknown status, we may stay here instead. - Cancelled our trip, enrolled the boys in camp, & buying a house instead. :-) 

 

3) Fitness/health - Lose 20 pounds, bringing my weight to 133. This may sound familiar, as it's also a carryover goal from last year!

• No alcohol in January! - I've reduced (and, I only have wine on weekends), but I broke my ban after a particularly challenging week. 
• Run 16 miles in January. - I ran 4 miles in January, so still some work to do here. ;-) 
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day - Yes (when averaged out)!
• Complete 1,000 minutes of cardio - 705 minutes, which I'm happy with, given our crazy house buying stress & paperwork.
• Complete 6 strength workouts. - Yes! 8 strength workouts were completed.
• Complete 6 stretching workouts. - But, only 3 stretching workouts. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave) - I've done okay with this.
• Work from home 2x this month. - Yes! I worked from home 4 times this month.

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Bake bread, and try a new recipe. - Yes! I made dinner rolls & orange bread, plus tried a complex Persian dish. All turned out well.
• Do something social at least once per month. - Yes - I met up with a friend from Seattle for dinner, and carpooled with a friend to a soccer tournament, so we got in lots of chatting time.
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month. - Yes, I got in at least one volunteering time (maybe 2?) at the school. 

All told, I'm really impressed with what I accomplished this month, in addition to getting all of the housing stuff sorted. We also gave our tenants notice that we weren't renewing their lease in our Seattle house, which is a huge weight off of our chest. Now we just need our landlord to find new renters for our current San Francisco house. Fingers crossed!

On to February. I'm excited about all of the big changes this month. What about you? How did you do with your January goals?