40 by 40 : Month 1 Update

I'm nearly one month into being 39, so it's time for my first 40 by 40 update!

1. Get another tattoo - Not yet, but I did find out that a tattoo artist who I follow on TikTok for her amazing glittery looking tattoos will be at a convention in Chattanooga in March. I want to see if it'll be possible for me to go because I would love one of her pieces!

2. Visit the beach - Definitely not yet!

3. Do a cartwheel - No, but I've been debating asking Charli's gymnastics coach for pointers. We'll see if I'm brave enough to do that, or if I'll just keep Googling it...

4. Purple hair - Not yet

5. Ride a bike - Not yet

6. Get a curl cut - Not yet

7. Find a skin care routine - Not yet 

8. Get my nose pierced...again - Not yet

9. Buy a new phone - Not yet

10. Create a will - Not yet

11. Have family pictures made - Not yet. One of our friends who is a photographer does amazing Christmas picture sessions with snow, usually in the fall, so that's the tentative plan for our family pictures!

12. Go to the eye doctor/get new glasses - Not yet

13. Make our family notebook - Not yet

14. Go to Cheekwood during the fall or spring - Not yet since it isn't fall or spring yet!

15. Try five new restaurants/coffee shops in the area - We tried two last month! One was a food truck that was at the farmer's market event I mentioned in my July Sentence A Day post and the other was where we had my belated birthday dinner with my in-laws. They were both really good...or at least I think so since I didn't have all of my sense of smell and taste back yet... (2/5)

16. Go to the dentist - Not yet

17. Take a picture in front of a Nashville mural - Not yet. Charli has a dentist appointment downtown (that I need to...ugh...call and reschedule), so whenever we're in Nashville for that, I'm going to go mural hunting!

18. Stick with our budget every month, starting in August - This one was a little bumpy for us! I recently had a change at work that switched my pay days from weekly to every two weeks, so we had to relearn how to budget our money when we didn't have money coming in weekly. We also both received pay raises, so we had to account for our new incomes, which unfortunately also made us spend a little more since "we had extra money" (theoretically). Half credit here. (0.5/12)

19. Set up a craft area - Not yet. I have a couple of ideas of how I want the space to look, but I haven't done anything yet because my plans involve moving a lot of furniture around, and some of it from upstairs to the basement, which I know Will is going to be thrilled about!

20. Go to a UT football game - Not yet since the first game isn't until September 1!

21. Do a 5K - Not yet. I think I'm going to aim for doing one on Thanksgiving. That gives me a little over three months to get back into the walking habit, plus it's so nice to feel like you accomplished something before stuffing your face!!

22. Take a weekend trip with Will - Not yet. If I can make the tattoo appointment in Chattanooga work, then that might be our trip!

23. Go kayaking - Not yet

24. Pay off most of our debt - Not yet. I'm working on some side hustles/ways to bring in extra income, so hopefully those will pan out and we can start paying extra on these things!

25. Go on six fun/different dates with Will - Not yet (0/6)

26. Go on six fun/different mom/daughter dates with Charli - I'm counting the splash pad and exploring the state park for our first one since it was somewhere she and I had never been to together. Plus, mom kept us supplied with snacks, so that made it even better! (1/6)

27. Try a new workout class - Not yet

28. Watch all of the Marvel movies/shows - I found a list of all of the movies and shows in chronological order of when the events happened in the MCU, and wow, let's just say I underestimated how many titles there were! I haven't started any yet, but I think this will be an item that I make a lot of progress on during the colder months!

29. Try two new recipes a month - We did two pretty simple recipes this month - one, a ham, cheese, and honey sandwich on waffles (Will didn't try it, but I enjoyed it!), and the other was the infamous red bag chicken from Aldi, which was really good! We've eaten that chicken several times in the last few weeks!

30. Read 100 books - So far I've read 6 books, so I'm a little short of my goal of 2 per week, but I'm making progress! (6/100)

31. Get a new tablet or e-reader - Not yet

32. Replace my broken Pandora bracelet - Not yet

33. Make a house projects list and complete one a month - I started lists for all of the rooms, and with the help of my aunt and grandma, we completed one task - clearing off the dining room table (along with the area on the floor around the dining room, Charli's room, and Charli's playroom! Woo hoo!). (1/12)

34. Buy new makeup and start a makeup routine - Not yet

35. Use the Instant Pot - Not yet

36. Play bingo in Kentucky - Not yet

37. Complete a 30 day challenge [TBD] - Nope but I'll look into picking a challenge before my Month 2 update so I'll at least have an idea of when I should do this. 

38. Monthly social media free days - Completed on August 4! (1/12)

39. Make $500 from freelance writing - $0 so far, but I have a few ideas of where to find some fast jobs, so we'll see if month 2 is better!

40. Get Koopa's DNA done - Not yet

The first month flew by, but I made some decent progress! Let's see how month 2 goes!