It has come to my attention that I never did a Q3 recap of my 2024 goals. Blasphemy! Well, not all of these updates are very exciting but let’s dive into the update anyway, shall we?
HOME
1. Create a book nook in my bedroom. I have a cozy reading chair and a cute side table. In Q3, I added a lamp but that’s all I did.
2. Finish my living room gallery wall. Complete! My living room gallery wall makes me very happy. I’ll probably continue to play around with it, add things and remove things, but I’m happy where things are at now.
3. Move to a two-bedroom apartment. Not complete. I decided to stay put for another year.
4. Buy a new area rug and a new coffee table for my living room. No progress made. I’m less and less convinced I’ll accomplish this goal.
5. Reorganize my home: add shelving to my kitchen, hang an organizer in my kitchen pantry, and buy new organizing containers for my closet. Complete! The shelf was hung in March. I hung a headband organizer that I already had on the pantry door to organize small items like cat treats, oatmeal packets, snack bags, etc. And I added organizing containers to the shelves inside my pantry to make it easier to store things.
MONEY
1. Switch to a rewards credit card. No progress made.
2. Complete monthly budget posts on the blog. I was doing great on this goal until September when the hurricanes happened. I’m going to combine September/October budget updates in one post next month so it’ll get done!
3. Add at least $1,000 to my emergency fund by the end of the year. No progress made.
4. Pay off the majority of my LASIK bill. I’m making payments, but I haven’t made any additional payments yet.
5. Complete a no-spend month. Complete! It went great!
HEALTH
1. Figure out an exercise routine that works for me. Complete. Joining a gym was such a great decision I made this year!
2. Lower my resting heart rate. Currently, my resting heart rate according to my Apple watch is 84 BPM, which is 7 BPMs lower than Q2. I haven’t been wearing my watch as much as I used to, so the numbers may be a little skewed, but I’ll take what I can get.
3. Use my standing desk more often – get to a place where I’m standing for two hours each day. Oof. No progress made.
4. Get a sleep study done. Done! And now I’m on CPAP therapy for my severe obstructive sleep apnea.
5. Be able to comfortably walk 3 miles regularly. I haven’t specifically worked on this goal but I feel like all of the other exercise I’m doing has improved my endurance.
HOBBIES
1. Read 100 books. (85/100) I am four books ahead of schedule!
2. Read 6 books by Agatha Christie. (5/6)
- Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
- Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
- A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
- Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie – ★★★☆☆
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
3. Reach 100 listeners per episode on the podcast. No progress made. We’re not going to make this goal, especially since we decided to take the rest of the year off recording episodes. (Between the hurricanes and it being Bri’s busy season at work… we needed to create some margin in our lives.)
4. Update the blog with a new theme and reorganized categories/tags/pages. Complete! The big recategorization project is DONE and I launched a new blog theme in May. I’m so happy with the way it turned out!
5. Watch one season of a show every month. (6/12) I am very much off track for this goal.
- January: Only Murders in the Building, season 3
- February: The Bear, season 1
- March: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, season 1
- April: New Girl, season 1
- May: Suits, season 1
- June: Bridgerton, season 3
1. Spend a long weekend at Rainbow River. Take a solo vacation. Burn through one candle every month (3/6). This is such a simple, satisfying goal! I burned through three different candles since July and since we’re now in the perfect season for candle burning (holiday scents!), I am pretty confident I’ll get this goal done.
2. Get my nose pierced. Done! (But then I had to remove my piercing because the CPAP mask was irritating it so much, so I’ll have to get this piercing redone at some point.)
3. Get more tattoos. No progress made.
4. Take a cake decorating class. No progress made.
5. Find a dry shampoo that works for my hair. So far, I’ve tried two dry shampoos – I Dew Care Dry Shampoo Powder and Not Your Mother’s Plump for Joy – and neither have worked like I wanted them to. I didn’t make any progress in Q3.
6. Listen to one new album every month. (7/12) I am behind on this goal and don’t really see myself completing it since it’s almost time for Christmas music all day, every day. But maybe I can add one or two more albums to this list!
- January: Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS
- February: Noah Kahan, Stick Season
- March: Florence + the Machine, Dance Fever
- April: Beyonce, Cowboy Carter
- May: Billie Eilish, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT
- June: Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us
- July: Maggie Rogers, Don’t Forget About Me
7. Learn how to back into a parking space like an overconfident white man. Um, no. I still find this stupidly difficult.
8. See a Dolphins game in person. Not complete. And the way this team has been playing this year, that’s a good thing.
9. Buy new luggage. Complete! I bought a new carry-on in May.
10. Start working through the “I’m Dead, Now What?” planner. I’m working on it but didn’t make any progress in Q3.
So much progress! You’ve crossed off some huge items on the list – exercise and the CPAP!
I have a standing desk but don’t stand very much…and then last week I saw an article that says that standing isn’t that great anyway, so I’m taking that as a permission slip to not stand unless I want to.
Why am I not taking a cake decorating class or learning to back into a parking space? Or for that matter parallel park? I’m taking some notes from your goals.
I think you’ve done great on the biggest goals here! And yes, maybe this is not the year to go to a Dolphins game. Although- Tua is back. We ALMOST won yesterday (arg! And, fun fact- after that I turned on the Bears game and THEY also lost in literally the last second of the game. I must be cursed.)
I’m also obsessed with my holiday candles- I light one every day. It has the added bonus of covering up pet odors!
You accomplished some big goals so I would pat yourself on the back. The sleep study/CPAP thing alone is huge and should have a big impact on your health! But it’s a bummer that you need to re-pierce your nose since it’s been irritated by the CPAP mask. 🙁
Friend! Friend, friend. Friend. I have been totally MIA and overwhelmed with I don’t even know what but I am back and happy to see your posts again. I love the fact that you are so organized with your goals. I had a word for 2024 which is CONNECTION, but not many goals. Just a word, which was kind of vague… We have two months of the year left and I have some theater productions and friend get-togethers I am going to, so that will be my connection for the rest of the year.
I love the new album goal– I am going to do this in the new year (I am very motivated by September or January starts but no others).
I really like Aveda dry shampoo, FWIW.
I’m especially impressed with the resting heart rate! That’s awesome progress and health-related goals are so hard. Also, you’ve done such great work with HIIT (and I love that your mom joins you). I am okay at backing into a parking spot, but I absolutely CANNOT parallel park. I think my vehicle has some assist function but I’m too scared to use it. I look ridiculous when I try to parallel park and I think I’d rather walk for an hour over trying to parallel park. Sigh. I really should work on that because it would be very convenient to be able to do this more easily. At the very least I should explore how my car can help me?! Demerit alert, I suppose…
Considering all that has happened in the last month, we’ll let your late quarterly recap slide this time, friend. 🙂
What great progress! And it’s great that even when you didn’t do something (move), you’ve still made decisions about it!
Many years ago we lived in an apartment building in Philadelphia, and it was difficult to see if someone was coming if you parked front end first, so we would always back in. I think that’s when I got good at it, it gives you SO MUCH visibility once you learn to do it. I have faith in you and Ruby getting it down. Just find an empty parking lot to practice in.
So many goals you are crossing of and moving further along with. So cool.
Boot for the nose ring being taken out just when getting it. But I guess health comes first.
I find it much more easy to park backwards when you have cars left and right for orientation. Parking this way or parallel parking is the most commensurate here in Germany. Hardly anyone if parking front in. I only learned that when driving in the US. You can do it.