Menu Plan Sunday

 Reality is back! We are back to work & school (Sam, at least - Nick has a few more days), so we need a menu & a plan to get back to life.

• Friday - steak, out in Las Vegas with my parents
• Saturday - steak again! I really don't eat steak often, but when I'm out, it's one of my favorites
• Sunday - frozen pizza + lots of salad
• Monday - chicken orzo dish (freezer)
• Tuesday -  spaghetti & meatballs + garlic bread
• Wednesday - creamy Dijon chicken
• Thursday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
• Friday - leftover Dijon chicken

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

2026 Goals

 I've thought a lot about my goals for 2026, and there's a lot I'd love to accomplish! Here's what made the cut for my goals for the year. You'll see much of this echoed in my monthly goals, in order to help me make progress against my yearly goals.

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys college expenses
• Earn $2000 in side hustle
• Stay on top of food waste with monthly pantry or freezer challenges
• Make an anonymous & meaningful donation to someone in my community
• Optimize points, perks, & miles for travel. Track value.
• Set a savings goal & be more intentional about spending.
• Monitor credit card expenses (cost of having cards & accruing points) to determine value over the year
• Find 3 expenses to optimize
• Figure out when I'm going to leave work

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life
• Monthly dates with M
• Travel:
• Plan & have two fantastic & reasonably on budget international trips - New Zealand & Greece
• Plan a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park
• Go on four local hiking trips
• Continue bucket list travel planning

Fitness:

• Lose 10 lbs
• 125 days - strength train, No S, meditate
• Average 12,000 steps/day
• Try a new workout
• Track protein & fruit & veggie intake & set goals around this

Personal:

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

What about you? What's on your goal list for 2026? 

January Goals

 It's time for fresh new goals for January, and for 2026! Here are my goals for the month. I'm going to be getting off to a slightly late start, thanks to a fun trip to Las Vegas (not usually the healthiest), and I also have a work trip thrown in later in the month.

But, here are my goals for a great month!

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys college expenses
• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items
• Be more intentional about savings & spending. We have a tuition payment due for Nick & our property taxes, so this will not be a savings month. However, I'd like to be very intentional about our "splurge" spending, and keep it low. I don't have a benchmark for this, so January's goal will be to establish one.
• Find one expense to optimize

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life
• A monthly date with M
• Continue planning our New Zealand trip
• Bucket list travel planning 

Fitness:

• Dry January! Technically, this will go from the day we get back from Las Vegas (1/4) to the day we leave for New Zealand (2/5), thanks to planned travel. This also includes not having any alcohol on a work trip, and I tend to be swayed by that business class travel, mostly because I don't enjoy the international work trips & this is like a "reward", which isn't great for the waistline or generally my health & fitness. So, Dry January + a dry work trip! 
• Lose 3 lbs
• 10 positive days in a month - strength train, No S, meditate 
• Positive eating: track protein & produce (will align on a goal on this after a month or so of data)
• Average 12,000 steps/day

Personal:

• 10 days of language lessons
• Declutter 50 items from the house
• Get together with friends
• Try something new & uncomfortable
• Say yes to more adventures
• Get to know our neighbors
• Try a new recipe

I'm trying to be realistic for January & get a sense of formalizing some of my goals for the year. What about you? What's on your goal list for January? 

2025 Goals Recap

 What a year it was, by the way! Nick graduating, college starting, both M & I finding new jobs, Sam swapping colleges, and lots of other adventures & misadventures along the way. So grateful for the many amazing moments along the way. 

Here's how I did with my goals for the year!

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys college expenses - Yes!
• Get a new job - Yes!
• Earn $3000 in side hustle - Yes, $8937
• Stay on top of food waste by doing monthly pantry or freezer challenges - generally did pretty well. Produce tends to sneak up on me if I'm not careful. 
• Once I get a new job, figure out a revised savings target. - Maxed out 401Ks, HSA & to put money in the boys 529s up to the corporate match

Family:

• Both boys successfully in college - yes, and they are both enjoying the experience they've chosen 
• Optimize points, perks & miles for travel. Track value over the year. - yes, and saved a ton. Our BA flights actually got cancelled, so I'm now dropping this to the revised total (I had to pay to book with United). We will use the BA miles another time! - Saved/redeemed $19,437 worth of value for the year. 
• Plan & have two fantastic trips to Europe - ah, 2025 started out with some big dreams! But, life and all of that. Instead, we will be doing New Zealand in February and Greece in June of 2026. 
• Figure out/plan for remodel - this is on pause, as we are both super busy with work.
• Enjoy Nick's senior year - yes, we got so much fabulous time with Nick & his friends. No regrets!

Fitness:

• Lose 10 lbs - I gained five pounds this year, so definitely not the direction I wanted to go
• Strength train 100 days - 152
• No S diet 150 days - 85
• Average 12,000 steps/day -12,323
• Meditate 100 times - I stopped about midway through the year, but did 38 meditations 
• Try a new workout - I tried a couple of new workout templates (strength & treadmill) & started spending a lot of time experimenting with hiking harder terrain, longer distances & prepping for our trip. 

Personal:

• Language lessons 100 times - I stopped after we decided not to go to Spain, and completed 31 language classes. 
• Declutter 500 items from the house - 385/500
• Take a college class - I taught a class, but didn't take any, although I've just started on a Coursera AI class
• Get together with friends - I had so many amazing memories with friends in 2025. I feel really blessed. Lots of casual stuff (hiking, workout classes) & a few bigger moments - Las Vegas concert, wine tasting, and a 10k trip, and more that I'm forgetting!
• Get better at pickleball - I think I played 2x with a friend, but definitely not enough to improve!
• Try something new & uncomfortable - taught a class, invited friends who don't know each other on a  trip, branched out & met new friends, getting a new job - definitely YES! 
• Say yes to more adventures - yes, see above. Lots of adventures in 2025, but a few highlights are planning NZ with M & the Las Vegas concert trip with friends. 

What about you? How did your 2025 goals go? Did you have some wins, and things you want to focus on again in 2026? Let us know so we can cheer you on! 

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?