Monthly Goals : February 2025

Happy 2025! I didn't intend to not write at all in January, but between snow days, sickness, and just settling back into the routine of life, things got away from me! Let's see if I can stay on track!

 It's the first Friday of the month, so it's time for some new monthly goals! 

December recap

I missed doing this recap in January, so here's how I did with my December goals!

1. Read 3 (or more!) books - Yes! I can't remember my exact number, but I hit my reading goal for the year!

2. Implement a weekday - and weekend bedtime - Failed on this one so hard! I think I need to revisit this one!

3. Deep clean/declutter living room - Another fail!

4. Finish Charli's clothes and shoes and move at least one furniture piece out of her room - I finished hanging all of her winter clothes and swapping out some of her shoes but didn't move the furniture piece out. Boo!

5. Blog and social media schedules - I stalled out on this one. Dang!

6. Stick to our budget and spending/income trackers - I did okay on this one but stopped tracking towards the end of the month during the holidays. 

7. Find one new quick dinner recipe and actually make it - Didn't do this one either

8. Make Charli's eye appointment - Yes! Done and we have a follow up appointment next month!

9. Order new glasses - Yes! Two pairs and sunglasses! I'll have to share pictures soon!

10. Schedule a donation pickup - I didn't do this one yet but want to wait until we have more to give. I hate having them come to our house for just one bag of items!

February goals

There are some repeats for this month too! Maybe this will be my month for some of these!

1. Read 13 (or more!) books 

My goal for this year is to read 150 books! To do that, I need to read 12.5 books per month, so I'm going to round up to 13 just to make it easier to track!

2. Implement a weekday - and weekend - bedtime

I'm so bad about staying up too late, and then I drag through my days. I really need to work on this! That's what I wrote when I originally made that goal, but it still stands!

3. Deep clean/declutter living room

It's such a mess, and it makes our house feel chaotic as soon as you walk in. There's a lot of decluttering work we need to do, but this is my starting point. 

4. Finish Charli's clothes and shoes and move at least one furniture piece out of her room

It's consignment season, so I should be able to get all of the too small spring/summer stuff out for selling and see what else I need to swap around...just in time to start phasing out winter clothes and boots next month! 

The first furniture piece I'm going to move out is a small entertainment stand that has piles of toys, clothes, and who knows what else on it! I'll either donate it or just put it on a local buy nothing group!

5. Blog and social media schedules

I have a lot of this listed in a document, but I printed some schedule templates that I need to fill in so that everything is in one place, and I can check things off as I write and post!

6. Stick to our budget and spending/income trackers

I slacked on this a lot in January, but I have some financial and career goals, so I need to get on top of these so that I can make progress on those goals!

7. Find one new quick dinner recipe and actually make it!

I think I'm going to find a slow cooker meal to do, especially since next week is supposed to be cold and rainy!

8. Schedule a donation pickup

I've got a full black trash bag of items, plus I'll have that entertainment stand from Charli's room, and I'm sure as I work through consignment stuff, I'll come across more items that are still in decent shape but not pristine enough to sell.

9. Gather/hang up consignment stuff and start inputting them into the system

The two consignment sales I'm participating in have March drop off dates. If I at least get everything gathered and hung up and start inputting items into the systems, I'll be in decent shape in March and should just have to print and place tags. I'm usually doing everything the day before the drop off days, so I'll be doing really well this time!

10. Schedule an oil change for both cars

My car isn't overdue because I don't drive very far, but it's had an issue with running out of oil without warning before, so I'm trying to stay on top of the oil changes! My husband has a longer drive for his job, so we need to keep his running smoothly also! The oil changes may not happen this month, but I can at least get them scheduled!

Hopefully I'll do better this month than I did in December! 

I'd love to hear any goals any of you have this month!

Monthly Goals : December 2024

 It's the first Friday of the month, so it's time for some new monthly goals!

November recap

Before I dive into my new goals, let's see how I did with my November goals!

1. Read 8 (or more!) books - Yes! I read 12 books in November, so that takes me to 97 for the year! Just 3 more to go!!

2. Start tracking my food again - I started the month strong, but I stopped tracking a few days into November. Oops!

3. Implement a weekday - and weekend - bedtime - Huge fail. I didn't do this at all!

4. Deep clean/declutter living room - Huge fail here too! I started this and then completely stopped working on it! 

5. Switch out Charli's summer and winter clothes and shoes - I'm almost completely finished with this one! I've got all of our her winter clothes hanging in her closet and her boots/closed toe shoes are near her shoe rack. I've still got to sort through some summer clothes and shoes to see if we're saving them for next year or putting them in the consignment pile. 

6. Blog and social media schedules - I did a little bit of scheduling but still have some work to do here

7. Stick to our budget and spending/income trackers - We did okay with this one. I got behind on tracking our spending and a couple of other things, so we definitely have room for improvement!

8. Find one new quick dinner recipe - I found several but didn't make any of them, so this one was half complete.

9. Make Charli's eye appointment - Fail - didn't do!

10. Order new glasses - Also a fail! I'm having a hard time choosing a color/style!

December goals

I'm going to have a lot of repeat goals on here! There are a few that I'm not attempting this month because I know I'll fail with all of the holiday activities, but those might make a reappearance next month!

1. Read 3 (or more!) books 

This shouldn't be any problem! I'm going to hit my yearly goal!

2. Implement a weekday - and weekend - bedtime

I'm so bad about staying up too late, and then I drag through my days. I really need to work on this!

3. Deep clean/declutter living room

It's such a mess!!

4. Finish Charli's clothes and shoes and move at least one furniture piece out of her room

I think finishing her clothes and shoes won't take too long. Moving the furniture piece will be a little slower but she has so much furniture in her room that she doesn't use, and it's taking up floor space that she could use to play in!

5. Blog and social media schedules

I've gotten a good start on these, but I want to set up all of my 2025 schedules!

6. Stick to our budget and spending/income trackers

Let's see if I do better with this one this month!

7. Find one new quick dinner recipe and actually make it!

I've got a couple of ideas from things I've saved, so hopefully I'll actually make one this month!

8. Make Charli's eye appointment

I used to be able to make appointments through the app, so I think since I have to call and do it now, I put it off more!

9. Order new glasses

I need to just commit to a pair and get them! I'm squinting more and more, so I need to be able to see better!

10. Schedule a donation pickup

This isn't urgent, but I didn't want to have an odd number of goals!

Phew, that seems like a lot! Hopefully I'll do better this month than I did last month! 

I'd love to hear any goals any of you have this month!

Wednesday Hodgepodge : November 2024

Hello again! This is a fun linkup that I've seen a few people join but hadn't joined before now. It reminds me of survey questions we used to post on Myspace, so it makes me feel young again to join this one! 

 

1. What was your favorite part about growing up in your hometown?

This is a hard one because I still live in my hometown area, and there have been so many changes - both positive and negative - that it's tough for me to remember what growing up here was like! I guess one thing that stands out is that I used to live next door to my best friend, and we used to spend a ton of time at each other's houses. That's not really hometown specific, but it is a great memory from growing up!

2. Do you prefer 'material' gifts or 'experience' gifts? If you answered experience, tell us about one you've received and truly enjoyed.

As I get older, I definitely enjoy experience gifts more since material gifts usually either don't last long or I tend to like the idea of the gift more than the actual gift! One of my favorite experience gifts I got was tickets to a concert from my parents several years ago. I was so excited to receive them, then I looked forward to the concert for months, and I had a great time that night! Now I can't remember the last concert I even went to!

3. Is brown a color featured prominently in your home decor? Your wardrobe? What's a favorite brown thing you own? Of the brown foods listed here, which one is your favorite and/or most often consumed...brown sugar, brown rice, pretzels, coffee, dates, cloves, German chocolate cake, whole wheat bread?

We don't have a lot of brown in our house. Our color is millennial gray, of course! 😉I have a few brown/tan things in my wardrobe, but I tend to skew towards black and gray. 

A favorite brown thing that we own is our brown, brindle dog, of course! Such a handsome pup!

My favorite brown food out of all of those is definitely coffee! I have to have my coffee daily!

4. Which 'Charlie Brown' character do you relate to most? 

I took a quiz because I wasn't sure, and I got Marcie. I didn't really know much about her personality beyond that she's one who follows around Peppermint Patty and says "yes sir" to her a lot, but reading the quiz results have me thinking that I could be her!

You're Marcie, an introvert.

You're unassuming, sweet, and intelligent. A bookworm, you're super insightful, and you're usually the voice of reason within your friend group. Sure, you love your solitude, but you're not afraid to step up to the plate when it comes to helping your friends and family.

5. What's a favorite item you've purchased this year?

This is a tough question because I can't remember most of what I've bought this year, which shows me I need to quit buying so much! Ha! I think one of my favorite items I've gotten recently were the yoga pants I talked about in my Prime Purchases post. They've been so comfortable! 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I've been feeling kind of blah lately. I think it's primarily because of work, and then when I get home, I'm wiped out because of work, so I don't get anything done. I'm working on figuring out my next career move because I think that's going to make a difference in my mood and attitude!

Linking up with Joyce!

Sentence A Day : October 2024

I don't know if this is a linkup anymore or not, but I used to really enjoy doing these Sentence a Day posts that recapped the prior month in a sentence or two. I'm also adding pictures throughout the month when I took a picture worth sharing. Finally, I've added a spot to share any blog posts I did on those particular days by marking it as OTB (on the blog). 

1 - Hello October - glad you're here, but I hate that Charli is starting off the month sick and going to the doctor!

2 - Assembly this morning at work that I thought would be really cool, but it was more like an advertisement for an event in town this weekend, so I snuck out of it a few minutes early...

3 - We had extra classes today due to yesterday morning's assembly, then we h

ad another assembly this afternoon to reveal the winners of a schoolwide initiative from the first nine weeks, so I was ready for some quiet after work!

4 - Home with Charli today and back to the doctor since her coughing has gotten worse, and she's started running a fever; got some meds, then we hung out at Mom's house for our weekly Friday night TV watching and snacking to kick off Fall Break!

5 - Stayed home today and watched Vandy beat Bama (yay!) and Arkansas beat Tennessee (boo!). 

6 - Another home day, and I was so lazy!

7 - Mom and I took Charli to a kid's playplace (where she had her 5th birthday party - and we hadn't been in since), then we had dinner and went to a thrift store that we love to visit, and I got some great shirts and dresses for fall!

Who could that be??

    

8 - Stayed home today and didn't get anything I wanted to accomplished because I was lazy!

9 - Ran errands with my mom while Charli stayed home with Will; errands tend to go a little faster without her with us for some reason! 

OTB: Tiptoeing Back Into Blogging

10 - Chattanooga day trip with Charli, my mom, Charli's bestie, and her mom - it was so much fun (except for trying to pick a dinner place and being hangry)!!

Free carousel in Chattanooga, and I didn't even get motion sick from it!

11 - Gymnastics and Walmart...big finish to our week!

12 - I hung out at Mom's house way too late last night, so I was dragging today, but it was a home day, so all was okay! 

13 - Mom, Charli, and I went to a french fry/ice cream place that we had been to once before and a cool library, along with some other errands.

Cool sculptures/reading spots outside of the library

14 - My grandfather (mom's dad) passed away today; I'm sad, but I'm more sad for my mom. 

15 - Home all day today for Charli to finish Fall Break; I decided to take some bereavement days at work to help my mom with anything she needed, plus get Charli to and from school as needed since my mom would be off work.

16 - Even though the reason I'm off work is sad, I do like being home more for Charli and taking her to school and her Girl Scout meeting, which was a movie night at the cat adoption place!

This cat wanted to control the movie!

17 - Ran a couple of errands with Will today, which is rare with our different work schedules.

18 - Took Charli to a birthday party after gymnastics and got to chat with a mom who I didn't know very well but liked talking to!

Henna at the birthday party!

19 - Happy birthday to my mom, even though it's been a rough week, and we didn't really celebrate her today.

20 - Mom loved her birthday gift!

21 - Back to work, and I'm a little bummed that neither my principal nor asssistant principal acknowledged my family's loss; a card or even an email would make a world of difference, especially when they say we're a "family." 

22 - We all slept through our alarms this morning so we were late to work/school this morning...oops!

23 - Work then a couple of errands with Mom after work, including getting trendy shoes for me since I don't usually stay up with trends!

24 - Will and I took Charli to a trunk or treat at a high school, but there weren't very many people participating; then we found a really cool one at a middle school, and her best friend joined us. Charli's first haunted house (well, haunted theater in the middle school...but close enough). 

Wednesday is ready to get some candy!

25 - We finished setting up the Book Fair at work today, and I forgot how tiring that can be!

Let's sell some books and overpriced pens!

26 - Fall Fest at my daughter's school with her and my mom; fun day but tiring, especially after yesterday!

Before Charli decided Fall Fest was more fun with her friends than with Mom and Gran!

27 - Today was my grandfather's service and then dinner with some family members afterwards.

A little levity on a heavy day - the bathroom at the restaurant has double toilets, which seems super awkward

28 - First day of Book Fair was full of preview days for the K-2 classes, which is exhausting!!

29 - My husband, daughter, mom, brother, and I went to early vote today, and it was so fast since there was hardly a line!

30 - I have counted so much change today that my hands feel permanently stained; lots of kids emptying out piggy banks for the Book Fair!

31 - Busy day at work with Book Fair and helping in the office during class parties, plus it poured rain this afternoon/evening, which made Trick or Treating very soggy! 

Cutest Wednesday ever!

Phew, even with Fall Break, October was a busy month! We're flying through November now, too, so I feel like I'll be posting my November recap before I know it!

Currently : November 2024

I used to love joining another Currently linkup each month, but I discovered after I stopped blogging for a while that the one I used to join doesn't happen anymore. I was excited to find a new Currently linkup to join! 

Loving : The attempts at cooler weather. I'm a summer girl, and I love warm weather, but at a certain point, temperatures in the 80s get a little old, especially when you're sweating on Halloween because you wanted to wear the cute thin sweatshirt you got before you pack away your Halloween clothes for another year. I'm ready for crisp weather, but this week, we're still having highs in the mid-70s, so I guess I'll love and appreciate the cooler-ish weather and the much-needed rain we're supposed to have. 

Looking forward to : Thanksgiving Break! Listen, these kids at work have been wound up since the Tuesday before Halloween. I know this happens every year, but I'm feeling it extra hard this year for some reason and am so ready for a week off!

Smelling : Pumpkin stuff...for just a little bit longer. I have a very weird and specific schedule when it comes to pumpkin flavored and pumpkin scented items. I'm usually ready to flip the switch to Peppermint and Peppermint Mocha by November 1, but this year since I have some pumpkin scented items left that I want to use up, I'll smell that pumpkin-y fresh smell just a little bit longer than usual. 

Preparing for : Christmas shopping by trying to tighten up our budget and Christmas decorating by cleaning and decluttering. It's a coin toss for which one I'll be more successful at! 

Thankful for : My family! I'm always so thankful for how supportive and loving they are, especially when I come home crabby from work or am not myself. 

Linking up with Jenn! 

Top Ten Tuesday : Books with Election Day/Voting elements on the cover

Hello and happy Tuesday! I'm joining the Top Ten Tuesday linkup because I like the different book-related prompts each week and hope it'll push me to read even more!Today, the prompt is the Top Ten book covers with an item of my choice on them. Since today is Election Day, I thought I would share ten books with Election Day or voting elements on the cover. I haven't read any of these and am 1,000% judging the books by their covers so I'd love feedback from anyone who's read them! Also, all of these are geared towards younger readers, but I still think they would be interesting and informative, plus a little more fun to read than political books for adults!

 

Just a heads up - the product links are affiliate links, so if you purchase anything, I'll earn a small commission...that I'll probably spend on books! 😉

1. Duck For President

2. Grace For President

3. One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote

4. I Voted

5. If I Ran for President

6. The Little Book of Presidential Elections

7. My First Election Day

8. What Is a Presidential Election?

9. Leo's First Vote

10. V is for Voting

 

Linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl!

Prime Purchases : November 2024

Happy Monday! I'm joining the Prime Purchases linkup today because I love to share the cool things - and the duds - that I've purchased, plus I like looking at what other bloggers have bought and enjoyed, especially as we head into the holiday season and I need gift ideas (for myself and others!). 

Just a heads up - the product links are affiliate links, so if you purchase anything, I'll earn a small commission...that I'll probably spend on more Prime Purchases! 😉

Yoga Pants

I'm always looking for comfortable clothes to wear on the weekends, so when I discovered these yoga pants with the cool leg detail, I decided to give them a try. I really like how these fit, plus the way the legs are designed make them look a little more put together than just plain sweats. I got these in black, but I think I want some dark gray ones too!

Smile Graphic Novel

Guts Graphic Novel

Our daughter has gotten into graphic novels lately, and as a librarian, I love that she found a book format that she enjoys and wants to read! She got Sisters from her book fair back in September and read Smile and Guts from both of our school libraries. She's read them all multiple times, so we decided to order them for her so she'd have them to read anytime she wanted to. 

USB Charging Port

I'm trying to set up a device charging station on the narrow table behind one side of our sectional couch. I've got a little wooden box with dividers that I've been using, but the plug situation isn't great. I got this smaller USB charging port plug in hopes that it would solve the issues that I had with the charging station. I haven't set it up yet because I haven't taken the time to do it, so we'll see how it actually works once I make myself do it!

Chipboard Sheets

This is 100% a purchase for my husband! He plays Warhammer and watches Warhammer terrain creators online. A couple of them suggested using these chipboard sheets to build various terrain items, so he wanted to test it out. I'm curious to see what he'll end up building with these!

I Am Wednesday (Little Golden Book)

Our daughter had book character dress up day at school on Halloween. She wanted to wear her Wednesday costume, so we ordered this I Am Wednesday book for her to have since she wasn't wearing a "traditional" book character costume. Turns out, there were a couple of other Wednesdays that day, including her teacher's daughter, so she never even got this out of her backpack! It's a short, cute book, plus it helped me get a book toward this month's goal of reading 8 or more books!

Boho Hexagon Earrings

I love earrings. I won't talk about how many pairs I have, but it's my biggest collection! This is the first of three earring orders from Amazon this month (plus a couple from a fall festival). These boho hexagon earrings are so small and pretty! I like all of the colors on them because they can go with a lot of different things. Plus, they're lightweight, which my ears appreciate!

Birthday Candle Earrings

Earring order number two was this set of fun birthday candle earrings! Even though my birthday isn't until July, I saw these while browsing, and they were a decent price, so I decided to order them and give them a try! I like how it includes multiples of some numbers, although I think I'll be out of luck when I turn 66, but I guess I can order another 6 sometime in the next 25 years...

Tiny Screw Back Earrings

Our daughter got her ears pierced about a year ago, and my mom got a couple of spots in her cartilage pierced about a month after that. Because of that, we get free earring coupons once a month. We discovered that we like flat back earrings, especially for cartilage and for wearing all of the time. Unfortunately, the store we get the coupons from has a limited flat back selection, so I decided to find some flat back earrings online and came across these tiny screw back earrings. There are a lot in this package, but I wanted to wear them in my bottom three earlobe piercings, and I wanted my mom to have some for her cartilage piercings. The backs of these are hard to screw on, but once I got it, they've been so comfortable and haven't moved! 

Mermaid Gymnastics Leotard

Our daughter's gymnastics gym has a night near Halloween when they encourage the students to wear costumes or themed leotards. I didn't want to get her a Halloween specific leotard since I knew she'd only wear it a couple of times at the most, so we browsed until we found this mermaid gymnastics leotard. It still had a costume vibe, but it's something she'll wear over and over again until she outgrows it.

Platform Snow Boots

My final purchase of the month was these platform snow boots. They just arrived, so I haven't tried them on or worn them yet, but they looked so comfortable and cozy that I wanted to give them a try. Of course, it's going to be in the 70s for the next week here, so I don't know when I'll get to wear them. I guess I'll miss this weather in January and February...

Linking up with Tanya!