It wasn’t until last week that I realized I had never completed a Q2 recap of my yearly goals! Oops. I was supposed to provide an update in early July but it just totally slipped my mind, so you’re getting the update in mid-August. (Side note: how are we only a few weeks away from September?!) Anyway, let’s recap these goals and see how I’m doing!
1) Read 100 books. As of today, I have read 82 so I am confident in my ability to reach 100 books (for the third year in a row!). Last year, I read 134 books so I have a secondary goal to beat that number if I can.
2) Complete the A-Z Instagram reading challenge. I only need three more letters to mark this complete but they’ll be tough ones: V, Y, and Z. My plan is to read You by Caroline Kepnes for Y and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler for Z, but not quite sure about V yet. Maybe Vox by Christina Dalcher?
3) Reread the Anne of Green Gables series. I’ve read three of the nine books in this series, so I won’t read them all this year but hopefully the first five or six.
4) Dye my hair purple. Complete! It was such a fun change, but quite the investment so it’s not something I’ll be keeping around. Womp, womp.
5) Save $1,000 in an emergency fund. I have almost $700 saved so far! Putting it in a separate savings account was exactly what I needed to FINALLY complete this goal. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s always so thrilling to sign into my account when it’s time to deposit money and see how my money is growing!
6) Get something on the walls of my living room. Not yet. I’m planning on doing a gallery wall for one wall and have gathered everything I want for that. I just have to do the hard work of organizing how I want the wall to look and getting everything up there. I need something for my other wall, though. Still looking!
7) Take control over my dermotophagia. Eh, not really. I’m still picking at my skin more than I should be. It’s so hard to stop!
8) Redo my bathroom. Completed this in March.
9) Visit Ireland. I went in May with my mom and we had the best time!
10) Visit Washington DC. This is likely not happening this year.
11) Build a necklace collection. Working on this one. I have a number of necklaces now (maybe 10?) but I’d like to buy a few more to round it out.
12) Pay an extra $500 toward my student loans. No progress on this one. It’s not likely that I’ll be able to do this since I have a bit of credit card debt to deal with currently. Ugh.
13) Go to a movie alone. Ah! I forgot I have this goal on my list.
14) Work out 150 times. I’m behind on this goal (crossed off my 83rd workout this morning) but I’m going to try to kick things into high gear to get on track by the end of September.
15) Lose 40 lbs. Lol, no.
16) Give Eloise a sibling. Complete! Today is Lila’s six-month “gotcha”-versary. 🙂
17) Start saving for a new apartment. Technically, I can consider this complete as I have started a savings account for move-out costs. Ha. I have $50 saved as of today and my goal is to have at least $1,000 by next August.
18) Do a spending freeze once a quarter. This isn’t going to be completed. Maybe doing a monthly “spend-free weekend” is a more realistic goal for me.
19) Develop a daily water-drinking habit. I’m still struggling with this but I just bought a Yeti tumbler to help me with this goal. I love my water to be ice cold (anything less than that is disgusting), and the Yeti surely accomplishes that. My ice cubes even stay frozen for hours! My goal is to just bring my Yeti with me everywhere and try to remember to reach for that when I’m thirsty.
20) Buy two bigger bookshelves. I bought one! I’m not sure if I’ll need the second one this year but I really, really love my Hemnes bookshelf from IKEA. I may wait until I move to buy the second one. I’m sure my brother would be grateful to only move one bookshelf and not two! Ha.
21) Complete Project 365. In progress! Haven’t missed a day, although there’s at least one day every week where I have no idea what I’m going to post about. (Thank god for my cats!)
22) Develop a skincare routine. Still on the struggle bus with this one! I just can’t get consistent with my skincare routine. Argh.
23) Start a vitamin regimen. Yep! I’m taking a multivitamin, vitamin D supplement, and iron supplement every day. Good news: my vitamin D numbers improved from 16 ng/mL to 28 ng/mL from January to August. Woop!
24) Replace all of my underwear. So, I threw out all of my old underwear. Any underwear that was so old that I couldn’t remember what year I bought it in… out. I bought five new pairs last month to begin replenishing my underwear drawer. I’d like to buy 10-15 more pairs. I don’t even know how long you’re supposed to keep underwear but I think my goal is to throw away anything that’s more than two years old. (We’re not even going to talk about how old the underwear I just threw out was. Nope.)
25) Write my novel. Making progress! I’m hoping that participating in NaNoWriMo in November will push me close to the finish line.
26) Try 10 new foods. I have not been keeping track of this at all. In Q1, I tried plantains and asparagus. In Q2, I think I could add avocado to the list. Maybe? I’ve had guacamole and I know I love that, but I never had plain avocado until last month. Does it count? You tell me. I need to figure out what new foods to try this year!
27) Track my money on Mint. I set everything up on Mint but I realized I much prefer the old-school style of using a spreadsheet to track my money.
28) Get all of my skin tags removed. Took care of this in Q1… and now I have a slew of new skin tags to deal with. Argh!
29) Sign up for a paid dating service and fully commit to the dating process for six months. This is a goal that won’t be getting completed. I’m using the free ones right now (I cycle through OK Cupid, Tinder, and Bumble based on how I’m feeling) and fine with it for now.
30) Visit five new-to-me parks around the area. I forgot I added this goal! I’m gonna need to get going on this if I want to mark it complete.
Definitely read Vox! It’s so good, so modern handmaids tale.
Happy 6 month Gotcha, Lila! I love following your 365 Challenge and seeing all the pics!
I am really curious to hear what you will think of Vox. I think the story line will make you feel enraged, but the writing will let you down a bit. That is my prediction (cause that is how I felt, ha!).
Congrats on saving so much money! That’s great!
I’m getting close on the A-Z challenge, too. I have Q, U, V, Y, and Z left. I have plans for all of the letters, just need to get the books from the library! Z was the hardest for me but I decided to read “Zero Waste Home” as I’m really trying to figure out how to cut down on waste as much as possible!
I crossed another thing off my 19 in 2019 list as I took Paul to a local children’s book store with animals while I had family in town. He LOVED it so I am sure we’ll go back!