Views from our hikes

We've had some gorgeous days, some cloudy days, rainy days, tired days & everything in between. We always see a lot of animals on our hikes (we hike in a nature preserve). 

A few of my favorites:

We have loved hiking together & exploring the trails, being outside & getting in a great workout. We are already planning our next hiking destination - likely Sedona in October for our anniversary, and hoping to do another international trip together in 2027. 

Fitness Monday

I'm really limping along, in this last week of the year, but committed to tracking, especially as I'm going to hit my goal of averaging 12,000 steps per day in 2025!

Weight: 158.2, basically the same as last week

Calories: 1,721. Lots of treats, snacks & wine.

Steps: 12,288

Workouts:

• 2.5 mile hike
• 2 workout classes
• 9 mile hike with M
• 2 - 1.5 mile walks with the family on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Goals for the week: I did "okay" on my goals for the week. I encouraged everyone out for walks on the holidays & we took advantage of the very brief break in the rain. As always, it felt great to get out & get some fresh air. My goal is to be really thoughtful about my splurges over the next week, as we have lots of meals out, there will certainly be wine & champagne in Las Vegas, etc. I also want to stick to my workouts & close out the year with hitting my step goal!

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals for the week? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's a strange week, with travel & the holidays + another mini trip still to come. Here's what we're eating this week.

• Friday - our flight was really delayed, so I had a protein bar at the airport
• Saturday - I made caramelized onion & goat cheese ravioli (Trader Joes) + rotisserie chicken, in an ultimate "keeping it easy" dinner
• Sunday - Southwest Chicken skillet (using the rest of the rotisserie chicken) 
• Monday - leftover ravioli + meatballs
• Tuesday - leftover Southwest Chicken skillet
• Wednesday - New Year's Eve - we will be at a party, and eating whatever is there
• Thursday - M & I are going to a seafood restaurant, so definitely fish
• Friday - going out to do dinner with my parents, so I'm guessing steak

What about you? What's on your menu for the week? 

Frugal Friday, or Saturday

I hope everyone had an absolutely lovely holiday for those who celebrate, and the rest enjoyed a quieter week. 

 In the non-saving category, I extended Nick's trip by one day, which cost $15. A pretty great deal for the revised flight. He asked to not fly back until the day before classes, and originally was planning to fly back the day the dorms open. Turns out his friends won't be back, and he's likely to be able to work the day he was planning to fly back. He's also more likely to be able to share an Uber with a friend, if the weather is terrible. 

Our flight yesterday was delayed by close to 5 hours (weather challenges, with lots of wind in San Francisco), so we had a very non-fun time at the airport. On the frugality front, we paid for the boys to join us in the lounge, and we all had a reasonably comfortable place to hang out & eat lots of snacks & drinks. Given the length of our delay, I'd say this was cheaper than buying food at the airport. On the flip side, we had to pay extra for parking, as we'd gone over our pre-paid limit. 

Saving on things we buy

• Uploaded a Costco receipt to iBotta, where they had a $.10 towards any receipt offer. 

Earning money

• The boys continue to work lots of hours, and one of my friends actually had a holiday dinner at the restaurant they work at on Saturday. She sent me pictures of Nick with her son (they played soccer together for years) & Sam was her server's assistant. So cute. 
• I held on & got through some really crazy days at my work, and am on call for about half of the days until I go back to work. Technically, my office is closed. In reality, our job is associated with a retail online business, and there is no such thing. 
• I "earned" $60 in meal vouchers for the flight delays, and we had eaten at the lounge. Did you know you can add those vouchers to different food apps? I've only tried Starbucks, but I've also heard it works for other locations. You add the form of payment, then "top up" your account for the exact amount of your voucher. Then delete the payment, as it's now empty. This helps when you won't use the voucher, as they are good only the day of your flight, typically. 

Avoiding spending

• We re-use gift bags & bows for many, many holidays & did the same this year. Sam also got a gift bag from his GF that we saved, so that's now in the mix. 

Eating what we have

• Cut up a rotisserie chicken from Costco (so inexpensive!) & took a small amount of the meat for dinner with myself & M. The rest of the chicken is in the fridge, and the bones our in the freezer, awaiting my next broth making opportunity. 
• With the rotisserie chicken, I also roasted a bunch of vegetables, including some that were about to go off. Two large peppers + carrots, into the mix. I now have roasted vegetable leftovers to use for future lunches. 
• Defrosted chicken noodle soup for lunch after a long hike. 

For others

• Put together a few last minute donations. 

What about you? Any frugal wins to share? 

Tuesday Happenings

 I'm taking a half day of PTO today & then we fly to my parents house. Looking very forward to seeing the family! I saw my parents for brunch back in October when I did the 10k race, but the boys haven't seen them since this summer. They are both quite excited to see their grandparents, which is awesome. 

I also get to see my sister, her partner, my BFF & her daughters, so looking forward to that. While we will hang out with my sister & her partner, her boys are with their dad this year, so we will definitely miss them. It's always so fabulous when we get all of the six "kids" (all of them are 18+ now, so I suppose they no longer qualify) together.

We spend the time doing puzzles, going for walks, playing games, eating lots of great food, & laughing. Gift giving is a very minor part of our celebration, mostly because of the age of the kids. Things were different when we had a lot of younger people in the house. For now, the "kids" each get a gift from someone who drew their name, and then my parents insist on a gift for every one of the "kids". Anyway, it's a lot of fun & we laugh so much, especially during the bingo game we play on Christmas. My BFF is the official bingo caller, and she takes her role very seriously. ;-) 

A few more hours of work to get through, and then I'm officially on PTO until January 5th. Well, not exactly, as I'm on call for about half of those days, but hey, no meetings at least! 

Hope you have a lovely holiday season, a chance to enjoy your family & spend time with people you care about. 

Fitness Monday

 I almost skipped weighing in again today, but decided I'd rather have the number than not. I drank electrolytes yesterday, which typically cause me to retain a bit of water. I'll weigh in later this week to get a better measure of weight. 

Weight: 158.5 (while I might have gained a bit, more of this is hormonal than not). I'll try to get a more accurate weight in the next day or so.

Calories: 1,652/day. While higher than I'd like, I'm still tracking & am happy I'm not fully off the rails. Although, again, more than I'd like it to be. 

Steps: 13,258, held up largely by yesterday's 30K+ day.

Workouts:

• One 40 minute elliptical workout
• 5 - 2+ mile hikes
• One 11 mile+ hike

The tendonitis in my hip was really bothering me last week, so I took it pretty easy to try & allow the swelling to go down a bit. 

Goals for the week:

It's Christmas, so trying to be a bit realistic. I'd like to keep the splurges to truly things I enjoy (and not just mindlessly nibble on) & get in exercise, even on travel days & the holidays. I'd also like to keep my steps reasonable, which can be hard on some of the days. 

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals? Are you still hanging in there, even with the holidays & seemingly endless treats available? 

Menu Plan Sunday

We are in & out for the holidays, so not too many meals being made at our house this week. But, here's a half baked sort of plan. 

Friday: went out to eat with friends. I had a lovely salad, & we shared truffle fries.

Saturday: I took some of the meat from a rotisserie chicken, and warmed that up with roasted vegetable.

Sunday: I still haven't made the chicken orzo dish, so that's on the menu for tonight. 

Monday: spaghetti & meatballs + garlic bread

Tuesday: we will likely eat at the lounge, as we are flying to Portland. My mom is getting pizza for the boys to have when we arrive, but that will be too late for me to want to eat. 

Wednesday: we have prime rib sliders on Christmas Eve, along with other appetizers. M always does an amazing job with the prime rib. 

Thursday: while I haven't been very involved in the Christmas menu, we always have soup, salad & bread on Christmas night. 

Friday: we are flying home & land at 6 pm, so something easy from the freezer. Likely pizza? 

What about you? What are you eating this week? 

Saturday Happenings

 We are hoping to get family photos done in a couple of hours. We've had absolutely gorgeous weather, and today it's expected to rain during the pictures. Of course. ;-) We haven't had pictures taken in 16ish years, maybe longer, so we are way over due!

I went to dinner with friends last night, which was great. We all used to work together, and it was great to catch up with families, life, etc. They are a nice bunch of people. My close friend lives near me, so she gave me a ride home, so I wouldn't have to drive at night (hurrah, as I hate night driving) & M drove me there & we looked around for a bit before dinner. 

I'm not sure what the boys got up to, but Nick had friends over watching a movie when I got home. Sam & his GF opened gifts, and I helped him with his last minute wrapping, because of course he was doing that task right as she was on her way over. ;-) 

Other things this weekend:

• Laundry
• Packing list for our flight on Tuesday
• Hike with M
• Do some stretching & PT for my hip, which is really bothering me again
• Read 
• Meditate
• Pay some bills
• Give a few things away on Buy Nothing
• For dinner, I'm hoping to finally make this one pan broccoli chicken orzo dish

What about you? What are you up to today? Prepping for family gatherings, or perhaps meeting up early with relatives & spending time together? 

Frugal Friday

 Another very busy week! Glad we made it! :-) 

Saving on things we buy

• I swapped my gym membership from a monthly fixed fee to a class pass structure, which, given all of my travels & work schedules, will save me money in the long run. I definitely enjoy the classes & the focus on strength training (which I need), but my schedule is unpredictable & I have a lot of work & personal travel coming up in 2026. No sense in wasting money. 

Earning money

• Both teens are working, and let me tell you, working for my paycheck this week felt challenging! I'm very tired & ready for a nap. ;-) 

Avoiding spending

• Despite not wanting to commute to the office (I have almost no meetings with anyone locally, and just hang out in a conference room by myself, short of the time with my manager, who is worth going in for, as she's from London), I made the most of the free lunches, bananas & fizzy water. 

Eating what we have

• Defrosted a bunch of chicken broth, as part of my freezer clean out. Used that + chicken, & carrots getting old in a big batch of chicken noodle soup. It really made space in the freezer, & got a bunch of our containers back into use. 
• Sam & I ate all of the chicken noodle soup, which was delicious. To accompany it a few days, I made him cheese quesadillas, as I bought too much cheese & an extra pack of tortillas we didn't open over Thanksgiving.
• I've also been making the boys lunches if we are all around at the same time, as I'm able to use things up from the fridge & pantry.
• I see that Nick made dinner for him + friends a few nights after work (he gets home at 10, and there is no chance I will be awake to cook - pasta, meatballs & again the snacks are cleared out! ;-) 

For others

• Helped someone at work with a project. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Positive vs negative fitness goals

I've been thinking a bit about why my 12,000 calorie step goal for 2025 was motivating & really helped me get in more steps. Meanwhile, my weight loss goals continue to feel... slow & not moving along well. I've got generally good habits, work out consistently, and pay attention to what I eat probably 80% of the time. At a certain age, that 20% of time you are not paying attention well outweighs (ha ha) the rest of your good habits.

I'm very motivated by positive goals (e.g. use up one pantry item, give away 5 items on Buy Nothing, list 2 eBay items, go for a walk, accrue x number of steps, get in 150 strength workouts, run 1,000 miles, etc) because it feels easy to get up & mark a few things off of any given goal list each day. On the flip side, weight loss feels a lot about a series of avoidance tactics each day (avoid that treat, don't get a second helping, stop snacking, etc). And, eating is an activity you are consistently doing each day, *and* need to do it right the vast majority of the time in order to see results. I've found it hard to put positive framing around that goal in the past.

For 2026, I'm thinking of changing my approach up a bit and focusing on small steps I can take (& measure, because I love a good tracker) each day. Maybe something around my protein goals & veggies/produce. I know both are important, and I do loosely pay attention. But, I've found that on days when I'm getting enough protein & eating enough healthy stuff, you guessed it, you have less appetite & room for less healthy stuff. 

I'm hoping that by pivoting my goals a bit to provide more positive daily incentives on things I can do, it will move me more towards progress. I've also done some experimenting with other positive things (days without alcohol - to be clear, I don't worry about a dependency & enjoy wine on weekends, but the calories do add up, work trips without sugar, etc). 

I'd love to hear any ideas you've had for what works for you & particularly any positive motivation or goals that you've used in the past!

I'm ready for the break

 My office is closed for about 10 days (one week to go!) & I'm all of the excited feelings, despite having to be on call for about half of those days. I'm hoping to spend less than 30 minutes a day, and supposedly, I'll earn additional PTO. I do not have much PTO, being new and all, but I find the more senior you are, the more there is pressure not to use days in lieu. 

I may take a few days later in January, if it ever snows & we can find a few days to use our ski passes. There is almost no snow in Lake Tahoe, so we aren't planning to do our standard ski trip with the boys. We are all bummed, but it will also be nice to be home for a few days in between the trip to my parents, and our trip to Las Vegas (with my parents). Luckily, we really enjoy time with them. ;-) 

I have had a very productive couple of days. I am thrilled that I don't have a work dinner tonight. I'll play tomorrow by ear, if others decide to make the drive to the city. If so, I will feel like I also should, as my boss did fly all the way in from London. To be fair, she is here for a training, not to see us specifically, so she's quite busy for the majority of her time.

I got almost no sleep last night. As I'm starting to go through menopause, a few days a month I notice this huge spike in anxiety - nightmares, not sleeping & then general just heightened stress throughout the day. It's not something I've struggled much with in the rest of my life, and I am not enjoying the lack of sleep and stress spikes during the day. I am trying to do deep breathing, going for walks, getting outside for even just five minutes where I can, which really all helps.

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!

Fitness Monday

 Ahem, it was not the best calorie week, and we are deep into the holiday season - parties, lots of work, minimal time for workouts & so much holiday/snacky food around! 

Weight = did not weigh in. Will do over the next few days, but was in a rush to get out the door to the office this morning

Calories = 1,731 - yikes! Definitely working to lower this for the week.

Steps = 13,450 - plenty of steps for the week, so that part is holding up okay and is certainly a focus as we close out the year. Which, really is a testament to actionable goals & how they can drive changes in day to day behavior. Still have work to do on how to connect that to food & calorie tracking, which should theoretically motivate me in the same way, but somehow... is a bigger challenge.

Workouts:

• 10 mile hike
• 6.5 mile hike
• Two 2 mile walks
• One strength class
• One workout class (30 minute split of strength &running) 

Goals for the week:

• Find ways to work out, despite my crazy work schedule this week (lots of in office days, with potential for evening stuff, as my manager is in town.
• Drop calories down, through no snacking & thoughtful meal choices 
• Plan & follow daily calories

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals for the week? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's going to be a very packed week, with lots of in office + commuting time, so I'll take advantage of the weekend to prep a few meals that will have planned leftovers, or planned overs, if you will. 

• Friday - chicken salads, with chickpeas, feta & sunflower seeds
• Saturday - chicken shawarma
• Sunday - one pan chicken broccoli cheddar orzo
• Monday - spaghetti & meatballs + garlic bread
• Tuesday - leftover shawarma
• Wednesday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
• Thursday - leftover chicken orzo
• Friday - grilled burgers (weather permitting) 

What about you? What are you making this week? 

Saturday Happenings

Yay for the weekend. I actually was really productive yesterday, so I'm feeling better about heading into the weekend. 

It's fun to have Nick home again, particularly as he loves having friends over. I see that a huge dent has been made in the pantry. I always encourage his friends to come over, and remind them that I've stocked up on snacks, so this is totally appropriate & I'm not at all surprised. ;-) I will need to stock up again at Trader Joes! The mini cones were a particularly big hit, but I see that someone heated up pasta leftovers as well. 

Here's what's on the agenda for today:

• Long hike (with weighted backpack - first time trying!)
• Clean fridge
• Laundry
• Wash sheets/make beds
• Meal prep
• Drop off return packages
• List a few things on eBay. I need a very light weight, super water proof jacket for our hike in NZ, so I'm going to sell my existing rain jacket, which is very serviceable, but not light weight & moderately water proof. I certainly don't need two.
• Start on my cardamom bread

That will get me started. The hike is going to take quite a bit of time. 

What about you? What are you hoping to do today?

Frugal Friday

Another busy week, but 'tis the season for that! Here's how we did with a few frugal wins here & there.

Saving on things we buy

• Nothing comes to mind this week. 

Earning money

• The teens got relatively big paychecks, particularly Nick, who was only around for one week. Sam's was close to double that. They are both thrilled. 
• I sold a sports bra on eBay & made $10. 

Avoiding spending

• Took home six individual Chobani yogurts from work, after they were destined for the trash

Eating what we have

• Sam unexpectedly was home for dinner on Friday, and our idea to do some returns fell through (one of the items we needed hadn't arrived yet), so we were at home without a plan. I found a package of 2 grilled burgers in one corner of the freezer, and then a lonely solo burger in another. That turned into dinner, and I defrosted a bun for Sam as well. I had my burger over a salad. 
• Made Sam dinner before work on Saturday, which he doesn't ask for but I mostly enjoy doing, and also gives me a way to use things up. He had one of the Chobani yogurts + granola, grape tomatoes & some chicken. I also made him lunch earlier in the day, because I was starving after a hike. We both had cheese quesadillas (ingredients leftover from tacos a week or so), a pear & chicken noodle soup. 
• I picked two jalapenos from our garden for the chicken fajita rice dish (which included rotisserie chicken saved from last weekend), and also cut green onions from the garden as well. I also added two containers of chicken broth from the freezer. I skipped buying the tortilla chips, but mostly because I can't be trusted with tortilla chips. The freezer is starting to look pretty good!
• Ate lots of leftovers, as we didn't have time to make anything new during the week. 

For others:

• We do almost all of our donations through structured charities, as those are the most bang for your buck, but I always retain some amount for private (anonymous) one to one donations. I hadn't found anything yet this year (to be fair, I've spent almost no time looking), so when I stumbled across a friend of a friend who had the death of a parent, a major medical crisis and a premature baby all within the same year, leading to medical bills and time off of work, I knew it was the one. It always feels nice to help someone directly, even though it doesn't scale. 

• I have Hyatt globalist status & that comes with awards you can use yourself or gift. We didn't have many Hyatt stays this year, so I had some awards to gift that would otherwise expire. I gave away a bunch on Buy Nothing, and it was so fun to hear about their travel plans & give them the various awards (club access, suite awards or guest of honor - which is basically full globalist benefits). Everyone was thrilled. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Fitness Monday

 My steps were *very* low earlier in the week, but my 13 mile hike on Saturday & a hike on Sunday helped to average things out for the week. The commute plus a full day of calls makes it challenging to get in steps on some days. My eating was pretty good, although a bit higher on a couple of days. Overall, I'm pleased with the progress, and would love to lose a couple more pounds before Christmas. 

Weight: 155.7 (up .2 lbs from my weigh in three weeks ago & 2.5 lbs from my lowest weight this year). Goal = 140. 

Calories: average of 1537/day

Steps: 13,729/day

Workouts:

• 50 minute elliptical
• 25 minute elliptical
• 13 mile hike
• 6  mile hike
• 2 workout classes (30 minutes run/row + 30 minutes strength)
• 2 mile walk

Goals for the week:

• Get in three strength classes & one hike
• Sort out some sort of workout for Wednesday
• Two long hikes (add bag with weight)
• Drop calories to 1425/day

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals last week?

Menu Plan Sunday

I'm feeling pretty scattered coming off of a very intense work week. As always, having a menu plan is one of those small things I can control that helps reduce week day stress. 

• Friday - cheeseburger salad (a fancy way of saying grilled burgers from the freezer, served over salads)
• Saturday - one pan chicken fajita rice
• Sunday - egg roll in a bowl
• Monday - leftover chicken fajita rice
• Tuesday - leftover egg roll in a bowl
• Wednesday - potentially leftovers - whatever is available
• Thursday - picking up Nick at the airport for winter break, so likely a sheet pan bake
• Friday -  chicken parmesan (freezer clean out item)

What about you? What's on your menu this week? 

Saturday Things

I'm feeling very behind on my prep for the holidays, as well as at work & home. When work gets crazy, life feels like it's hard to manage. Luckily, I only have one in office day next week, although the following week looks like it will be four. 😐

I whipped together a quick menu last night, and also pulled out another burger patty when Sam didn't need to work. We all had dinner together, and caught up a bit, which was nice.

Here's what the plans are for today:

• Long hike with M
• Christmas decorations (tree, all indoor & lights?)
• I need to finish a work project
• Go to the store for dinner ingredients
• Pick up a few gift card gifts
• Make a list of remaining items we need to purchase for NZ (only 8 weeks to go, so time to finalize everything)
• Finalize family photo shoot & figure out outfits
• Review calendar for next week & figure out workouts
• Make dinner
• Wrap gifts? This feels super optimistic

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish today?

Frugal Friday

 It's been another busy week, with lots happening with work + commuting to the office & just an overall intense schedule. As a result, not as much frugality as I'd like, but we made it through another week!

Saving on things we buy

• Used a $100 flight credit that was expiring to (slightly) offset the cost of Nick's spring break flights.
• Went through all of our United accounts (the four of us) & tracked all credits + expiration dates & other details, so we can now see what we have available & when we need to use it. 
• For all Christmas gifts, looked for sale prices, and clicked through Rakuten first to save a bit more. We don't buy for that many people, but there are usually bigger cash back offers over the Black Friday weekend, so we took advantage of that. 

Earning money

• Cashed out $21.46 on iBotta. We don't buy most of what is offered, so this takes a while to add up.

Avoiding spending

• Drove our electric car to/from the office each day, saving on gas. 

Eating what we have

• I was really not feeling it with a rotisserie chicken (just due to timing & a bunch of other things going on), but I did strip it and put the chicken in the freezer & then make broth out of the bones. I felt like a hero, given how much I didn't want to mess with it. ;-) 
• I then turned a bunch of the broth into chicken noodle soup, which helped use up an open bag of pasta, as well as some carrots that were getting old, plus some of the chicken mentioned above.
• I also roasted a ton of vegetables, including almost all of the zucchini (just a few more to go from a huge bag M bought), onions, more of the aforementioned carrots, and chicken sausage. I did a separate pan of roasted potatoes, leftover from the bag we bought for mashed potatoes.
• M made rice, which we used to round out a container of Korean beef from the freezer. 
• I dug out a naan bread from the freezer, and toasted that up for Sam, to go with his chicken noodle soup. 
• Sam ended up really liking the chicken noodle soup, so he ate that several times, and found another bag of naan in the freezer & had that as well. The naan served as a good dipper to the salad olivieh (a Persian dish) that we were sent home from the Saturday party with.
• Our freezer is in decent shape, after some intentional efforts to clean it out. 

For others:

• Researching a Donor Advised Fund creation, so we can maximize our charitable giving moving forward

That's about it on our side. What about you? Any frugal wins to share? 

How did we do with optimizing points & perks for travel?

One of my goals for 2025 was to optimize points, perks & miles for travel & track our value over the year. I'm currently not tracking the value vs cost for our credit cards themselves, but maybe I should, as that appears to be a fine distinction & otherwise sort of mixes things. That will be a goal for next year, perhaps. :-) 

Without further ado, here's how we did with this goal, including the approximate value of each:

• Used two free Hyatt night awards on a ski trip - $720
• Three free nights at the Corvallis Marriott (some with points, others with credit card points) - $760
• Three free nights at the Hyatt in Sedona on a girls hiking trip = $1144
• Two nights at the Hyatt in Boulder during orientation - $938
• One New Zealand business class flight using United miles - $9900
• Two nights in a very fancy Napa resort + a room upgrade - $2500
• Two economy plus flights to Greece using old British Airways points - $6000
• Two rooms for one night at Boulder during move in weekend - $600
• Four nights in a suite (we have three people, so it's either a suite or two separate rooms when we go many places) for the girls trip to Greece - $2572

Total value = $25,437. Wow! This is crazy & definitely not something we can replicate often. As you can see, we used basically 9 years of United miles (mostly accrued through work travel at my former job) to cash out for the New Zealand ticket, and similarly used old British Airways points accrued for years through M's old credit card for the two flights to Greece. 

2026 is a big year, with an anniversary/birthday trip to NZ as well as the girls 50th trip to Greece. I'm very happy we were able to cash out years of accrued flight miles for these special occasions. 

How do we earn points/miles/perks?

• Work travel. While inconsistent & not something to count on, I did make three international trips in 2025. Unfortunately, the hotels are typically ones without reward programs, and I had flights spread across all of the airlines. I'm still tracking the miles, because business class international travel is pricey regardless.
• Personal travel. Way less accruals, but we always make sure to have everyone's frequent flier mile program attached to the reservation. This is now something Nick will get a bit of value out of, as he is traveling a lot more for college. 
• Hyatt credit card* (this has a fee). We accrue additional points for every dollar we spend at Hyatt, as well as for other spend. I really like this card & the rewards, and have Globalist status, which helps when we travel. However, Hyatt has a more limited footprint outside of the US, so we are much more likely to use our rewards on domestic travel. An example of this is using a free night award in Boulder during move out & graduation weekend. The free night award is part of my credit card perks, but the room goes for $1k/night due to demand from graduation & move out. When planned well, these can save you a tremendous amount of money.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve* (has a fee). This is an all purpose travel card that you can redeem for flights or hotels. I cashed out most of my points for a few nights at the Marriott in Corvallis + some of the nights in Greece. I prefer to book flights directly, to minimize any problems if the flights are changed or cancelled. That said, I have a Southwest credit to use, so I will be trying that in 2026.

We put all of our spending on our credit cards, and I can also charge some of my work travel expenses (everything minus flights), which really adds up on the spending. We track the cost of each card against the rewards to make sure it pays for itself. I'll do a better job of capturing the full year's worth next year, so I can post about this. 

*My standard credit card disclaimer. Any credit card should only be used if you can comfortably pay off the balance each month, and do not accrue interest and/or spend more because you are using a card. No benefits outweigh interest charges. 

Happy to answer any questions and here about how you maximize rewards & points for travel!

December Goals

 It's the final countdown of 2025! I can't believe it. 2025 has been a wild ride at our house, so I'm glad we're finishing the year with a happy & healthy family - that's really all you could want at this stage. 

Here are my goals to round off the year:

Financial:

• Help with financial planning with a couple of friends (who have expressed interest)
• Earn $200 of side hustle
• Meet with financial planner on tax advice
• Sort Donor Advised Fund (DAF)

Family:

• One date night with M + lots of hiking in preparation for NZ
• A fabulous Christmas/NY break
• Decide on the rest of our family travel for the year (if any) & budgets
• Help both teens with class registration & future planning
• Nudge DS18 & support on finding housing for next year

Fitness:

• Lose 2 lbs
• Regular fitness check ins
• 15 & 15 -strength training & No S days
• Meal prep for lunches
• Average 12,500 steps/day

Personal:

• Get together with friends x2
• Say yes to adventure & trying new things
• Declutter 50 items
• Finalize 2026 goals & bucket list

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish in December, as we round out the year?

November Goals Recap

 November whizzed by, and it felt like a month where I both got a lot accomplished & somehow didn't have time for everything I wanted to do. 

Financial:

• Follow up on some financial advice with friends - our scheduled time moved to December
• Earn $200 of side hustle - $206
• Finalize 2026 budget - yes, done!

Family:

• One date night with M - a great dinner out + so much hiking & planning for our upcoming trip
• Have a fabulous Thanksgiving + break with the family - it was really so much fun. Both boys worked a lot, but we attended a friends party, Nick hosted a lot, we did a 5k together & we had a great Thanksgiving meal
• Start on Christmas gifts - yes, almost done!
• Decide on NYE plans - yes, and very pleased that my parents will be joining us on the back half of our trip

Fitness:

• Lose 2 lbs - I lost 4 lbs
• Get back to regular fitness check ins - yes
• 15 & 15 - strength training & No S days - 9 & 8 - lots of hiking vs strength training
• Meal prep for lunches - yes, this is working well
• Average 12,500 steps/day - yes, 13,761/day

Personal:

• Get together with friends x2 - yes, lots of meeting up for workouts & hikes
• Say yes to adventure & trying new things - planned an impromptu trip with my parents, agreed to build course curriculum (even though I found out my work wouldn't approve), lots of adventure planning with M
• Declutter 50 items - 26/50
• Work on travel planning & budgets- yes, basically finalized NZ travel planning. Still need to work on 2026 planning & budgets
• Work on bucket list planning - some progress 

What about you? How did you do with your November goals? 

Fitness Monday

 Yikes, it was a very indulgent week on the eating side. Luckily, M & I have started hiking a lot more, so at least there's some offsetting with great exercise.

Weight: had to be up very early this morning, and forgot to weigh in. Coming shortly

Calories: 1,783/day - I most certainly did not stick to the plan for the week!

Steps: 13,772, despite my very low step day yesterday. Lots of hiking earlier in the week!

Workouts:

• Ran a 5k on Thanksgiving
• No workout on Sunday
• Hiking: 7 miles, 6 miles & 9 miles
• A couple of days with shorter walks

Goals for the week:

I want to get back on track with my calorie planning, meal prep & my workout classes. When I don't go to those, I definitely have less energy & miss the strength training. I don't want to undo all of the positive momentum from the past few weeks. 

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals over the last week? 

Menu Plan Sunday

Usually I get the menu plan created much earlier in the week & then schedule the post, but this week, no so much! I really struggled with sleeping last night & had all of the (unnecessary) anxious thoughts worrying about the teens, life & pretty much everything in between. 

Today is going to be a rough day!

• Friday - M & I shared the leftover Thanksgiving steak, and had some sides + butternut squash soup from the freezer
• Saturday - we ate at a party & had delicious Persian food. 
• Sunday - chicken noodle soup + bread (not feeling great, so this sounds like just the ticket)
• Monday - cheesy chicken broccoli & rice (using up the now frozen rotisserie chicken)
• Tuesday - leftover soup + bread
• Wednesday - leftover chicken broccoli & rice
• Thursday - chicken tacos
• Friday - leftovers or TBD

I'm supposed to go to a workout class today, and I'm so exhausted. Not sure if that will happen. Here's what else is on the list:

• Get organized for the work week. This includes reviewing my calendar & resolving any conflicts (I usually do this on Thursdays or Fridays, so I'm a bit behind).
• Plan my workouts for the week.
• Meal prep lunches. I think I'll roast some zucchini, onions, potatoes & chicken sausages
• Reply to a bunch of messages
• Figure out time for our family photos (first time having them taken since the boys were maybe 5? It's been *awhile* ;-))
• Figure out whether we need to cancel skiing
• Probably more, but too tired to think of everything!

What about you? What's on your to do list today? Any good menu ideas?

What to do with a rotisserie chicken & other Saturday things

 I must use a chicken I picked up earlier this week, with grand plans & haven't done anything with yet. I'd love to make chicken noodle soup with some of it, so that might happen.

We have to be up early tomorrow to take Nick to the airport for his flight, so perhaps an easy prepped dish for tomorrow as well. Who knows, but I welcome ideas!

M & I did a 9 mile hike yesterday, and we are slowly building up our miles for our New Zealand hiking trip. Then we came home, made piles of all the things we need to bring, and tried the multiple backpacks we had ordered. Our goal was to keep the lightest/smallest backpack we could reasonably bring on a four night hiking trip. We did pretty well, managing to keep to the 36L backpacks, when the hiking company recommended 40L. The size difference felt pretty significant between the two, so we opted to pack lightly & stick with the 36Ls. We then returned 3 of the other packs we had ordered. I will return the rest to REI, who was closed yesterday for "Opt Outside" day. We fulfilled that goal for sure.

I will say that M & I have had so much fun with this trip. The prep, the training, the discussions of what to bring, it has already brought so much fun into our lives. We will absolutely be doing more active trips in the future, and are looking at a really fun option for Camino de Santiago or Iceland in the future. 

The teens both worked yesterday, and once again I heard a lot of giggling after I was in bed. (Nick has one friend who is such a giggler. I always know when she's over. ;-)) I woke up to a bit of aftermath from whatever they got up to last night - our pantry is looking almost bare again!

M & I had the last of the leftover steak, I had many Thanksgiving leftovers & he had soup to round out the last piece of shared steak. It was delicious. Mashed potatoes + stuffing + cranberry sauce is one of my top favorites. 

As for today:

• I needed a strength training class, but couldn't get off the wait list for the only one that worked for my schedule. I will likely do an easy walk instead today, maybe with some yoga at home.
• We are all going to a party at one of Nick's friend's parents houses. Their daughter also goes to Boulder, so Nick spends a lot of time with her. Her parents are both Persian, so M will get a lot of chances to practice his Farsi.
• I am hoping to roast some veggies & chicken sausage for lunches next week.
• Figure out a dinner menu & a plan for the rotisserie chicken
• Make sure all of Nick's clothes are washed & packed for tomorrow

I'm sure there's more, but that's all that I can think of for now.

What about you? What's on your list for today? 

Frugal Friday

 It's been a fun week, having everyone home, although they are working a lot!

Saving on things we buy

• Used an expiring $20 pizza reward when Nick was home. I don't know who exactly ate the pizza, but when I woke up in the morning, the leftovers were gone & there were plates in the sink. Glad he's continuing his ways of having friends over. (I told him it was fine before I went to sleep.) ;-) 
• Used a $150 dining credit & tried a new restaurant for a date night with M. We LOVED the place & will definitely be back. We ate at the bar, as they had a menu more to our taste & while even the bar was fancy, it was more chill than the restaurant, which we preferred. Very old school, classy vibe & we had a great time. My credit card offers rewards for certain things, and if you don't use it, it expires. The card has a fee, so we try to maximize all of the credits to get the full value out of the card. We always use the travel credits without planning, but have to remember the other credits a bit more diligently. 
• Used a $10 off of a $50 purchase to pick up some things we needed for holiday baking (I made cardamom bread which has a few unique ingredients I don't stock on hand) as well as picked up dinner ingredients, 4 bottles of a wine I prefer that was 30% off, and I bought Nick a Chipotle gift card for Christmas (his request). The Chipotle gift card generated a $10 grocery store reward. I also uploaded my receipts to Fetch & iBotta, and earned $2.55 through iBotta. I picked up the free corn bread, which we won't use, but I'll add to a Little Free Pantry. 

Earning money

• I received an offer to consult on a course, but my current employer was very hesitant about it. At my previous employer, this would have been met with a lot of excitement for me, and would have been viewed as a big positive, so I was quite surprised. Oh well, won't be spending the time on that project, I suppose. 
• Both boys are picking up a lot of shifts, and working a lot. Nick is particularly pleased.

Avoiding spending

• Nothing really jumps to mind this week. 

Eating what we have

• Made Nick a quick dinner when he got back from work - Mac & cheese (it's been waiting for him in the pantry!), bread, cucumbers & hummus & meatballs. It was an eclectic meal, but saved him from eating out & used up things on hand.
• Used up two containers of taco meats to make tacos, as well as the last of a bag of shredded cheese. 
• I also made chicken patty sandwiches for the boys, which used up some buns we had in the freezer. 

For others

• Helped out a neighbor

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Hope everyone in the US has a wonderful & safe Thanksgiving.

We got up this morning & did a Turkey Trot together. I was pretty pleased with my time, especially since I started in the back with the walkers & the teens.

The teens were moderately difficult to get out of bed this morning. They both worked last night, and then came home & all I know is that there was a lot of laughter & giggling last night while we were in bed. I woke up this morning & our entire pantry was spread out on the dining room table. It also appears that a double batch of chicken nuggets was prepared. Just a regular teen gathering. ;-) They are all having fun & working hard, which is all that really matters. 

We still don't have a dryer, and as Nick says, the laundry situation here is worse than in college. 😂 I have a huge amount of laundry currently in the sunshine. We line dry a lot of our clothes (indoor), but both teens have heavy cargo pants, hoodies, etc that do not easily dry, plus work clothes that they are going through very quickly & come out of the wash very wrinkled. It's been a lot of fun so far. M was hoping he'd be able to repair the dryer, but the first part was wrong, they were out of the other part, and now we are missing yet another part. Good times, good times.

Very much looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner & chatting with my favorite people this evening!

Hope all of you are having a lovely day with people you care about.

Fitness Monday

 Overall I feel good about my progress last week, but need to stay on top of the splurges, as we head into holiday season! M & I starting to do some hiking in advance of New Zealand, so expect to see more hiking whenever the weather looks good.

Weight: 155.8, up .3 lbs, after a bigger dinner on Friday & Saturday. 

Calories: 1519/day

Steps: 14,051, thanks to a couple of big hiking days

Workouts:

• 30 minutes elliptical + 2 mile walk
• 2 workout classes
• 2 days of 1.5 mile walks
• 7.5 mile hike
• 8.5 mile hike

Goals for the week:

• Limit Thanksgiving splurges to just Thanksgiving
• Stick to my cleanish eating habits the rest of the week (minus Thanksgiving)
• Get in consistent & challenging workouts

That's it from my side. How are you doing with your health & fitness goals?

Menu Plan Sunday

 

• Friday - I got Nick on an earlier flight (standby), as he got to the airport with friends who had earlier flights (shared Uber). I wasn't planning on him being home, so swapped dinner to his favorite pizza delivery. 
• Saturday - grilled fish + roasted acorn squash unexpected date night out!
• Sunday - Philly cheese steaks
• Monday - tacos (one of Nick's favorites)
• Tuesday - spaghetti + meatballs 
• Wednesday - leftover tacos
• Thursday - we are having *our* traditions, of steak, mashed potatoes, stuffing, acorn squash & pomegranate martinis. M will have pumpkin pie, the boys & I will likely have ice cream. I will probably have one of the Trader Joes peppermint mini cones, which are delicious. 
• Friday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs, or Nick's choice before he has to head back to school 

What about you? What's on your menu for the week? 

Saturday things

 First up, my frugal fail for today is that I cancelled a workout class last night, because M & I checked the weather & it was going to be perfect for hiking. However, I must have had a finger slip, because I somehow registered myself for another class, without meaning to. Drat! I, of course, didn't show up & got charged $14. So irritating. 

I was able to move Nick to a standby flight that left much earlier yesterday, and he shared a ride with some girls in an Uber to the airport. He was thrilled & got in almost 5 hours earlier than planned. This was a win all around, as M could pick him up after work, we got to have dinner with him & spend time with him, and he didn't have to hang out at the airport all day. Winning all around.

We hadn't planned on him joining us for dinner, so I used my expiring pizza rewards, and then wisely added in a second pizza, as there was a discussion of some of his friends showing up later that evening. I woke up this morning & we have just a few slices of one pizza left, vs the two larges we started with. I love that a few of the friends got a chance to hang out last night. M & I were long asleep, or we would have enjoyed the chance to see everyone.

M & I did get up & enjoy a gorgeous 7 mile hike this morning, and talked about our New Zealand plans, Thanksgiving, work, etc. It was so lovely. It turns out both boys are scheduled to work tonight, so we may use our $150 credit card offer (expires before the end of the year) at a place nearby. It's a very fancy restaurant, and we're not interested in a fancy meal, but they also have a bar with a much more casual menu, so we would try that. We'll see how the day progresses.

I think the teens (Sam is about to advance beyond that category!) are planning to go to the climbing gym, so Nick can sign up for a two week trial membership. He will then add in a monthly option when he's back for Christmas break. This is the best choice vs paying for day passes, as far as we can tell.

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

Frugal Friday

A few wins this week, as we head towards the end of year! 

Saving on things we buy

• Stopped by CVS to pick up some vitamins & travel face wash (for the NZ trip) & used a $1 off a purchase, my $10 rewards, and then a 10% off a full price item coupon. All together I saved $13 or so. 
• I used a $250 credit card reward (good for only certain shops) to buy Sam Airpods for Christmas (his request), for $21 out of pocket. 

Earning money

• Cashed out $42 on Rakuten
• Received a settlement for $.61 - with the cost of stamps, I'd rather they had skipped me & given someone else an actual $1. ;-) 
• Sold sunglasses on eBay & made $17
• I made $114 using a credit card reward. 

Avoiding spending

• I received Southwest A list status matching with my credit card, which saves me about $60 on an upcoming flight, as I won't need to pay for early boarding. To be fair, paying for early boarding is never a "must do", but I really like to know I have room on board for my bag, and potentially even sit next to M. ;-) 

Eating what we have

• Eating leftovers, roasting veggies, trying to stave off food waste.
• Made a big yogurt bowl for Sam while he was studying, and included lots of blueberries, pomegranate seeds & granola. He was very pleased, and it kept him from having less healthy & nourishing snacks, as he tends to do a grab & go. 
• Eating lots of fruit & veggies, which tends to be way less expensive than packaged snacks. That said, I did buy some snacks ahead of Nick's arrival. 

For others

• Helped my parents with some financial stuff.

What about you? Any wins to share?

2025 Goals Check In

 Well, 2025 has been a ride for sure! Always good to check in on how things are going, with just a few weeks left in the year.

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys college expenses - Yes!
• Get a new job - Yes!
• Earn $3000 in side hustle - $8792!
• Stay on top of food waste by doing monthly pantry or freezer challenges - generally good, more always to do here
• Once I get a new job, figure out a revised savings target. This one is a bit on hold for specifics until I have that information.  - We decided to max out 401ks, HSA & to put money in the boys 529s, up to the corporate match. 

Family:

• Both boys successfully in college - this looks different than I expected when I set the goal, but yes. 
• Optimize points, perks & miles for travel. Track value over the year.  - yes, and this year in particular was an insane amount of money. Will share more in full year wrap up. 
• Plan & have two fantastic trips to Europe. Spain in March, Italy in October. - ha, no. Due to work changes, we pushed everything out & we are doing New Zealand in February. For our anniversary, we stayed close. I am going to Greece in June with my friends, so 2026 will be the year of two international trips. 
• Figure out/plan for remodel - didn't even tackle this. It's on pause, as we are both again super busy with work. 
• Enjoy Nick's senior year - yes, we got so much fabulous time with Nick & his friends. It was wonderful. 

Fitness:

• Lose 10 lbs - I'm up about a pound from the end of last year, but five pounds from my low of last year. 
• Strength train 100 days - currently at 156!
• No S diet 150 days - 78
• Average 12,000 steps/day - 12,095
• Meditate 100 times - I really stopped this about 1/4 way through the year, but did get in 38 meditations
• Try a new workout - I tried both tread & strength class formats, and liked those. I also ran a 10k, although not new to me, it's not a standard workout. 

Personal:

• Language lessons 100 times - I stopped after we decided not to go to Spain, but did 31 language lessons
• Declutter 500 items from the house - 350/500 so far
• Take a college class - I actually taught a class, but didn't take any!
• Get together with friends - so many amazing moments with friends in 2025 - Las Vegas concert trip, local hikes, lunches, dinners with a new friend group, a wine tasting, and a 10k, plus more than I'm forgetting. 
• Get better at pickleball - nope!
• Try something new & uncomfortable - Pulling together a disparate group of friends, being the initiator of a new group of friends, teaching a class, getting a new job... YES!
• Say yes to more adventures  - Yes! See above. Lots of adventures in 2025, but a few highlights would be planning NZ with M, and the girls trip to Las Vegas + concert. 

That's where I stand with goals. 

What am I going to do between now & December 31st? 

• Unless I pick up some pickleball, probably going to leave that one. ;-) 
• May do a few more Spanish lessons & meditation
• Continue focusing on weight loss + step goals + No S days
• Declutter more
• Work on savings goals for 2026

What about you? How are you doing with your 2025 goals? Any last minute things you are still working on?

Working on my 2026 goals

 I feel like I have so much I want to accomplish in 2026, maybe because it's a milestone birthday, or as the boys get older, they require less of our time (definitely not less money ;-)), and I have more time to set goals for my own self development. Regardless, there's a lot on the list this year. I may cut back as it gets closer to January. 

For now, here's what I'm thinking.

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys college expenses
• Earn $2000 in side hustle
• Stay on top of food waste by doing monthly pantry or freezer challenges
• Make an anonymous and meaningful donation to someone in my community who needs it
• Optimize points, perks & miles for travel. Track value over the year. 

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college
• Monthly dates with M
• Travel:
• Plan & have two fantastic international trips - New Zealand & Greece
• Plan a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park
• Go on four local hiking trips
• Plan a trip to Hawaii with M, the boys & my parents

Fitness:

• Lose 10 lbs
• Strength train 125 days
• No S diet 125 days
• Average 12,000 steps/day
• Try a new workout

Personal:

• Practice Spanish 100 times
• Declutter 500 items from the house
• Take a college class or art class
• Get together with friends
• Try something new & uncomfortable
• Say yes to more adventures
• Get to know our neighbors better
• Host at least 4 events at our house
• Master a complex cooking technique, or at least one difficult recipe
• Offer to have 2 networking chats with new grads

What about you? Have you thought about 2026 goals? If so, what's on your list that you hope to accomplish? 

Fitness Monday

 It was a very good health & fitness week. A few of the changes that I attribute to having the biggest impact are: 

• No snacking
• Tracking my food before the day starts, to have a good plan before I get distracted
• Focusing on filling up on lots & lots of veggies, so I'm not as hungry & not as interested in snacks
• Measuring alcohol, because apparently I had a very heavy pour before this
• I suppose the "what you eat" mattering almost as much as how many calories you are eating. Which I've always known, but after cleaning up my eating to be eliminate all of those little unhelpful calorie intakes, I started to see some actual progress.

Weight - 155.5 (down 4.5 lbs from my high a couple of weeks ago). Goal is ~140. Down 1.9 lbs since last week. 

Calories - 1415/day. This includes one meal out (lunch) with our neighbors this weekend, and three days (Friday-Sunday) where I had wine. I want to be able to have some special occasions, and enjoy a glass of wine on the weekends while we make dinner. To make that fit into my calories goals, the rest of the meal choices have to be very on point.

Steps - 13,432 - I worked hard to make sure I got in my steps this week, even with the weather not being terribly cooperative a few of the days.

Workouts:

• 4 workout classes
• 1 5 mile hike
• 1 3 mile walk
• 1 2 mile walk + 30 minutes of elliptical

Goals for the week - my biggest goal is just to keep going. My appetite has definitely shrunk a bit, and getting through those first few weeks of uncomfortable hunger means that I don't necessarily want to go through that again. I'm fine with some splurges, but if I plan them out & make tradeoffs, I'm hoping I can stick to my bigger goals. 

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals last week? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 Another busy week whizzing by, and having a meal plan always helps me feel more prepared. Here's what we will be eating this week. 

• Friday - crazy, crazy day, so M & I enjoyed a glass of wine while we made our "go to, easy, no other food is available, we don't want to prep a proper meal" dinner of chicken wings & gyozas. Luckily, I'd consumed a lot of vegetables earlier that day & throughout the week. ;-) 
• Saturday - butternut squash soup, sourdough bread & roasted carrots
• Sunday - one pot chicken and rice
• Monday - leftover soup 
• Tuesday - easy sesame chicken and rice
• Wednesday - leftover one pot chicken
• Thursday - leftover sesame chicken
• Friday - we get to pick up Nick from the airport (hurrah!), so something fast

What about you? What's on your menu this week? 

Saturday things

 I slept in this morning (although, woke up to messages from my boss, which was a very fun start to my day), and the extra sleep was so fabulous! I'm not a napper, so sleeping in (until close to 7), felt glorious.

Nick took some gorgeous pictures of the Aurora Borealis earlier in the week, from outside his dorm:

I want to start working on some of my goals for 2026, as well as lock in a bit more on our budget & plans around that, which sounds like a good thing to do this weekend.

Here's what's on the agenda for today:

• Morning hike, hopefully before it rains
• Meeting our neighbors for lunch. Getting to know our neighbors was on my bucket list, and I met another neighbor for a walk earlier this week. These particular neighbors also have a son who is a freshman at Boulder, so I'm sure we will have a lot to talk about!
• Menu planning - almost done with this
• Keep an eye on work (yay)
• Go to the outdoor store to find hiking boots & a backpack for M. I got him one for our anniversary, but he wants to try on some other options & see which he prefers. We both have a list of other things we need for a 5 day New Zealand hiking trip. I want him to have lots of time to break in his boots & experiment with gear.
• Meal prep (may shift to tomorrow)
• Make butternut squash soup & roasted carrots

That's it from my side. What are you up to today? 

Frugal Friday

It's been a busy week, but I didn't have to drive to/from the office, which made all the difference in my schedule. I also had a weekend at home to meal prep and get things done, which was also wonderful. 

Saving on things we buy

• Received $1.34 back on our Lyft ride from the airport on Sunday (LV trip). Sam took us to the airport, but had to work on Sunday. I also stacked the cash back offer with a $10 credit, to save a bit more. Altogether, our out of pocket spending was ~$20 including tip, which wasn't too bad. We did price out parking, but it was more than one way of a ride share. 
• I won three free nights in Las Vegas + a $1500 credit (can be used for food, spa, etc) & it needed to be used by the end of January. I didn't want to waste such a big value, as it's at our favorite hotel, but also didn't want to pay for a flight for a "bonus" trip, and schedules are tight in that timing. Instead, Michael & I were already invited to a NYE event, so I was able to tack those days on & my parents will join us. We also purchased their flights, and it's their Christmas gift. They were super thrilled & have been wanting to go to Las Vegas for a few years now, but decided to instead spend their travel money visiting the grand kids. At 75 & 73, it always feels great to help treat them, because you never know how long they will be able to travel (and, enjoy travel) for. 

Earning money

• Sold a book & a hat on eBay & made $13.

Avoiding spending

• Picked 5 pomegranate from our tree. Now, last year we had 40+, but this year we had...squirrels. I'm frustrated (they also ate everything in our vegetable garden), but we will enjoy the 5 pomegranate. 
• I also picked green onions that we've planted & replanted continuously, and didn't need to buy any for a recipe. 

Eating what we have

• Made an orzo dish that didn't turn out that great, but did use up some freezer/pantry ingredients (orzo, rotisserie chicken, chicken broth). I'll need to spice it up when serving leftovers. 
• Roasted an enormous amount of veggies + the last of the chicken sausages, and used that as the base for my lunches this week. 
• Also made a Dijon chicken dish, and used up chicken broth from the freezer. Several of our dinners were big enough to eat 2x, and still have leftovers for the freezer, which is always nice. 

For others

• Can't think of anything this week, but this is a good reminder to look for opportunities next week. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Thursday Happenings

It's a pretty quiet day at work (and can I just say HURRAH) after a very busy Monday-Wednesday. It's nice to have a few minutes of down time. 

M & I have been eating leftovers, I've been eating the delicious roasted veggies & we enjoyed the front half of the week's glorious weather. It's now pouring buckets, which I know we need, but is still a bit gloomy.

A photo of the giant bowl of roasted veggies (plus chicken sausage on top). It was huge, but the angle makes it hard to tell, so water bottle for comparison. 

I discovered one of my credit cards was fraudulently used, so I spent some time tracking that down, reporting the card as stolen, marking the transaction as fraud, combing through other transactions & then checking my credit report. Luckily, everything else looks okay. Fingers crossed. 

I'm heading to an afternoon workout class, and otherwise, just trying to chip away at some to dos on the list, including taking a long work training. A quiet meeting day is the perfect time to catch up on trainings and the like.

What are you up to today?

Better late than never - October Goals Recap

 I'm again late on this, but it really helps me to complete my goals at the end of each month, & see how I did. While not perfect, October was a pretty good month on all fronts except... fitness. Menopause is kicking my b*tt, and I'm not enjoying it. I've oddly gained weight in my upper midsection, and it's making all of my clothes not fit. I know I need to make pretty significant adjustments to my nutrition/calorie intake, but luckily my fitness routine is good & I'm focused on strength training as well, which is super important as we age.

Anyway, here's how I did this month. 

Financial:

• Sort out 529 contribution + match -  done
• Figure out fitness reimbursement - $480 submitted, done
• Meal plan & use up 3 freezer/pantry items - used up chicken & dumplings, + 3 containers of chicken broth, & bonus points for cleaning & organizing the pantry
• Start planning for 2026 budget - planning has begun

Family:

• Get Nick's Thanksgiving flights sorted - done
• One date night with M - lunch + couples massage for our 20th anniversary!
• Start planning post Christmas trip - have sent initial plans + reservations
• Have an amazing 20th anniversary with M - yes! 

Fitness:

• Lose 2 lbs - gained 1 lb
• Get back to regular fitness check ins - started at the beginning of the month & fell off by the end
• 15 & 15 (stretch & No S days) - 14 & 7
• Run a 10k - yes, & felt great
• Average 12,500 steps/day - 11,881

Personal:

• Successfully complete huge work project - yes, went really well & got great feedback
• Get together with friends x2 - lots of hikes, walks + trip to Las Vegas
• Finish planning concert trip - yes, and it was amazing
• Have an awesome long weekend with my sister + BFF + Brunch with my parents - yes, fabulous
• Say yes to adventure & trying new things - nothing really came up
• Continue to work on work/life balance - took a day off & thoroughly enjoyed it
• Declutter 50 items - 89/50
• Work on travel planning & budget - yes, lots of great progress on both of the trips (NZ & Greece) 

What about you? How did you do with your October goals? Any wins to share?

Fitness Monday

 

Weight: I dropped 2.6 lbs, although the last time I weighed in was more like several weeks ago, so this isn't a month on month drop. For clarity, I'm just going to share my actual weight, to make it easier to understand. It's hard to follow along otherwise. So, I'm currently at 157.4, and my ideal weight is around 140, as I have a pretty muscular build. 

Calories: average daily calories of 1,582. Monday-Thursday was a little more difficult, as I was eating three meals a day out of the house, due to work events. Friday-Sunday were really great eating days, with well planned calories & great overall nutrition. 

Steps: I'm keeping a close eye on my steps, as I need to not drop from the 12k/day to hit my yearly goal. I had some lower days early in the week (all of that office time + the commute on both sides really slowed me down), but I did do some walking 1:1s, went to the gym before a dinner event (x2) & went on a long hike this weekend (after my regular workout). All that to say that I finished the week with 13,289/day steps. 

Workouts: same story as above, with some challenges getting in my workout earlier in the week due to the commute & in office days + evening events.

• 2 elliptical workouts
• 1 - 7 mile hike
• 3 workout classes 

Goals for the week: my goals for the week are to keep up the progress. The only anomaly to my schedule is that we are going out with friends on either Friday or Saturday, which always risks spiking the calories. I will plan out my calories in advance & choose a healthy-ish option for dinner. I've found that tracking my calories & planning my meals in advance is incredibly helpful to staying on track. There's no mental debate if I can eat something. It's either factored into the calories for the day, or not. I sometimes swap a piece of fruit for another, but any swaps I make need to balance out to the same calories.

Overall, it was a pretty good week, considering my crazy schedule Monday-Thursday. What about you? How are you doing on your health & fitness goals? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 Trying to get into a bit of a rhythm again, and meal planning definitely helps with that.

Here's what we're eating this week.

• Friday - Chicken & orzo (chicken broth + rotisserie chicken from the freezer)
• Saturday - creamy Dijon chicken
• Sunday - Korean beef rice bowls
• Monday - leftover chicken skillet
• Tuesday - grilled chicken & rice
• Wednesday -  leftover Dijon chicken
• Thursday - leftover beef bowls
• Friday - leftover grilled chicken & rice

Lots of chicken again this week! I need to stock up on some fish, so we can rotate that through.

What about you? What's on your menu for the week? 

November Goals

 I'm very late to the party, but as with many things in life, better late than never. My core focus this month is fitness. The rest of my goals are a bit on autopilot at the moment, but that's an area I really need to focus on, as I wrestle with my menopause body changes.

Financial:

• Offer to help with financial planning for sister + BFF (they've expressed interest before)
• Earn $200 of side hustle
• Finalize 2026 budget

Family:

• One date night with M
• Have a fabulous Thanksgiving + break with the family
• Start on Christmas gifts. We buy for a very limited number of people, so this is usually pretty straightforward.
• Decide on NYE plans. 

Fitness:

• Lose 2 lbs
• Get back to regular fitness check ins
• 15 & 15 - strength training & No S days
• Meal prep for lunches
• Average 12,500 steps/day

Personal:

• Get together with friends x2
• Say yes to adventure & trying new things
• Declutter 50 items
• Work on travel planning & budgets
• Work on bucket list planning

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish in November?

Frugal Friday

 This won't be my usual list, as I have had a crazy week & no time to write a proper post. 

A few frugal things I've been up to:

• Jumped through some hoops to register status on my credit card, to get Southwest A list, which will be nice & save some money on future travel.
• Ate dinners from the freezer (mostly M + Sam, some me), because I didn't meal prep or have time to really cook. For example, last night was half of a frozen cauliflower pizza + some shrimp scampi (freezer) + salad. 
• Ate the free lunch at work, Monday-Thursday. Also had free dinner at work Monday, Tuesday & Thursday, although would have definitely preferred being at home.
• Went to a company merchandise sale, where everything was $1 (limit 10) & all of the proceeds went to the Make a Wish Foundation. Bought 8 items. Sam can look through anything he wants, and found a hoodie that I think will work for my nephew. Will donate anything that's unclaimed. 
• Sam picked up a few extra work shifts. I tried to leave easy dinner leftovers for him to reheat.
• The majority of our trip last weekend was comped - we paid for tips & M arranged for a surprise spa service, which we also paid for. 
• Drove to the office extra early one day to participate in a volunteer event, which was loading cars with food supply donations at a non-profit. We ran out of a lot of things, and folks can only come through this particular food pantry once a month, so I felt terrible that they weren't going to be getting any meat, canned goods or dairy. We did have a lot of fresh produce, bread, etc, but I know that won't last long when trying to feed a family. 

I really, really need a weekend at home to get my life back in order & prep for the week ahead. Looking forward to meal planning & shopping, and getting organized. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

All of the tired things

First off, we had an absolutely incredible time in Las Vegas. M planned everything, and I have such amazing friends, all of whom gelled fabulously. I feel so lucky that I have such amazing women in my life. The trip was pretty much perfect from top to bottom, especially impressive was the 8 different flights out of four different airports, none of which were delayed at all! We had wonderful dinners, laughed A LOT, loved the concert, and just had total shenanigans by the pool, at the casino & getting ready for dinners. I'm incredibly lucky.

After I planned this trip, my work decided that our mandatory "in office" week would be this week, complete with 14 hour days (work + evening social events). I knew that the timing would be abysmal, as Las Vegas isn't exactly a place known for getting a lot of sleep. I'm absolutely exhausted. Laundry is everywhere, the house is a wreck, I haven't seen anyone since Sunday... 

I will be VERY excited when Friday rolls around, and I can get back to my regularly scheduled life. As with everything, work stacks up while we are spending time in training sessions & getting to know each other. It's all very valuable, especially as a new person, but it's time intensive on top of other work, so I'm falling behind there.

That's all. Life is good. This weekend made me feel incredibly spoiled to have such an amazing network of people I can laugh with, and who are there for me through all of life's many adventures.

Frugal Friday

It's definitely not going to be a frugal weekend, but here are a few things we've been doing! 

Saving on things we buy

• Booked our hotel in Greece to take advantage of a credit card offer. I received: a $250 statement credit & a few perks as well. A $100 hotel dining credit, as well as breakfast for two for our stay. I should be also receiving a $100 cash back statement from the credit card, so I will keep my eye on that. I chose a hotel that was also associated with Hyatt, where I have status, so we can get our third meal for free as well. 

Earning money

• Sold a set of Air Tags & made $62. 
• My insurance let me know that I was eligible for an incentive for a wellness visit/yearly check up. Sam & I have both had a yearly check up, so I filled that out & had no idea how much we would get. I received $75x2, which I will definitely take! 

Avoiding spending

• Met an acquaintance at Starbucks (more on that below) & used a Starbucks gift card to pay for my tea.
• We get Apple TV through our credit card, so we cancelled Netflix. 

Eating what we have

• We made a delicious sheet pan dinner, and ate that for two nights. 
• M made rice on Sunday, so I turned that into an opportunity to defrost two dishes that needed rice to round them out - the beef/tomato/garbanzo bean dish & chicken curry. This moved things out of our freezer, and saved us time on a busy week.

For others

• A friend of a friend has a daughter who was just diagnosed with lupus. She introduced us & asked if I would be willing to talk about what my experience has been like. Her daughter is much younger (12), but shared all of the information, and hope it helps as they navigate this. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

It's Wednesday

 Which means, I only have 1.5 days left until I'm on vacation! Woohoo. I'm very excited about seeing my friends & seeing how the group mingles. Luckily, it's a fabulous group of women who I adore. Two of them are hikers, so I can also imagine future hiking trips together. 

My sister works wayyyyy to much, so it's great for her to take a "forced" break from work. And, it's almost my BFFs 50th birthday, so this will be an advanced celebration for both of us. Plus, Alanis! Can't wait. I'm not much of a concert person, but think it will be fabulous. Let's hope I can stay awake long enough. I'm an early bird. ;-) 

I also expect that the Halloween costumes in Las Vegas will be...quite hilarious people watching.

What I need to do today:

• All of the meetings
• Work on team strategy stuff
• Catch up on a project
• Finalize packing
• Check in for flight
• Sort dinner
• Find 2 more items to give away
• Attend treadmill class (it's my 5th hard workout in a row, so that will be tricky!)
• Work in the yard for 15 minutes at lunch (the sunshine is a game changer mid-day)
• Laundry for Sam before I leave. Yes, he knows how to do his own laundry, but our washer is intermittently leaking, and I'd just prefer to monitor it & deal with it before we leave.
• Pick up the house

What are you up to today? Anything fun? 

Bucket list for the upcoming decade?

I hope I won't need an entire decade, but turning 50 has got me thinking about what I want to check off of my bucket list. I have a BUNCH of travel destinations & a few other things in mind. Mostly, I feel so incredibly grateful for everything in my life, and I want to keep pushing myself, trying new things, helping other people & just experiencing life. 

This is not at all complete, as I'm actively soliciting input, so please share what's on your bucket list! And, in no particular order.

1. Take an art class
2. Improve at Spanish
3. Another family trip to see M's mom (and, sister, cousins, etc.)
4. Another trip to Hawaii with my parents
5. Make an anonymous & very meaningful donation to someone in my community who needs it. (I have nothing in mind for this, but something in this general arena of giving. May ask a friend who is very connected in the community for suggestions.)
6. Get to know our neighbors more.
1. Invite our elderly neighbor for dinner
2. Make plans with our neighbors behind us who have a son at Boulder as well
3. Go for a walk or hike with our neighbor across the way
4. Learn the name of the neighbors & I occasionally chat with. (Embarrassing, but true!)
7. Travel bucket list:
1. Hiking trip to New Zealand
2. Italy with M
3. Greece girls trip
4. Take M to Japan
5. Hike the Camino de Santiago
6. Iceland
7. Patagonia
8. Maldives
9. 10+ national parks
10. Spain/Portugal
11. Banff/Lake Louise
12. Alaska
13. Ireland
14. Scotland
15. Lots of additional hiking trips 
8. Get comfortable with entertaining
9. Create a scholarship at the high school the boys attended
10. Figure out my "next act", after my current job
11. Master a complex cooking technique or at least 5 difficult recipes
12. Create at least 5 meaningful surprises for other people
13. Volunteer at a local school
14. Learn a new hobby with M
15. Offer to have a networking chat with 5 new grads

Hit me with ideas! Very interested in hearing from you on what you would put on a bucket list, or wish you had done at a different time in your life.