Spoiler alert: I did amazing on my January goals. That new year, new me energy is coming in strong!
January Goals
1) Develop a list of 25 recipe ideas. Complete! This started easy and got progressively harder, but I now have a list of recipes to draw from when I’m meal planning on the weekends. I used it last weekend, and it was super helpful!
2) Create snack kits for home, my car, and my purse. Complete! I bought the cutest little pouches for my car and my purse.
Here is what I have:
Car snack kit:
- Glucose tablets
- Fig Newtons
- Granola bars
- Peanut butter crackers
- Cashews
Purse snack kit:
- Glucose tablets
- Peanut butter crackers
- Fruit snacks
- Applesauce pouch
- Granola bars
- Cashews
- Protein bars
For home, I keep all of the same snacks on hand, but also have items that don’t need to be shelf-stable, like:
- Sargento Balanced Breaks snack packs
- Greek yogurt
- Apples and peanut butter
- Carrots and dip
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Boost high-protein shakes
A special shout-out to Sarah, who gave me TONS of snack ideas. I’m basically treating myself like a five-year-old. Except I’m also the mom who is keeping the snacks stocked? It’s complicated.
3) Set up my new nightstand and find a place for the old one. Complete! Right now, I have the old nightstand in a corner of my bedroom, and it’s working well as a tech charging station.
4) Keep a symptom log for my rheumatology appointment. Complete! It was super helpful to keep this log in the weeks leading up to my rheumatology appointment. For one, it helped me better understand the most problematic joints (my left ring finger, my left shoulder, and my right elbow) and see the ups and downs of my pain throughout the month.
5) Play around with budgeting spreadsheets to find one I like. Complete! I downloaded a spreadsheet that may work for me, and it has a lot of fancy Excel wizardry to make graphs and dashboards.
February Goals
1) Book my Airbnb for my reading retreat. I’d like to take a reading retreat in either March or April (depending on Airbnb availability). I’ve been favoriting Airbnbs like crazy, but I need to just book the place and make it happen!
2) Visit a thrift shop. I can’t remember the last time I went to a thrift shop, which probably makes Elisabeth clutch her pearls (if she wore them). But there’s a great one near me and I want to visit it sometime in February to see if I can find furniture/decor for my apartment.
3) Buy the girls new collars. My girls have lived a collar-free life until December, when I had to put collars on them for their microchip feeders (the microchip hangs off the collar). And now I am desperate to buy them much cuter collars because the ones they are wearing are a boring beige collar, and they deserve something a lot prettier!
4) Spend five hours working on my novel idea. I have the teeniest, tiniest bud of a novel idea percolating right now. I haven’t had any sort of writing inspiration in half a decade (at least), so this is very exciting for me! In February, I’d like to spend a few hours nurturing this idea and seeing if there’s anything there.
5) Figure out my 401K situation. I truly do not want to deal with this because money stuff makes me very anxious and overwhelmed. Basically, our organization was bought by another company, and they have a different 401K provider. I need to move the money in my old 401K to this new provider, and it seems very complicated. It’s not something that I have to do immediately, but I’d rather just get it all situated now and not have this task hanging over my head.
Do you have any goals for February?
I’m very excited about the novel idea!!!
Do you have the option to leave your old 401k with the old provider? It’s always worth asking if doing nothing is an option, lol. If not, it should be somewhat straightforward to roll it over into an IRA (very similar to a 401k but you’re in charge and get to chose what institution to move it to and the investments), or roll it into the new 401k plan. From personal experience over the last few years, I had a somewhat insulting experience with Empower (the rollover required a phone call so that they could try to sell me a financial advisor) and a smooth experience with Fidelity.
It’s been very fun to have this little spark of a novel idea, as I have been strictly anti-writing a novel for so long! We’ll see if I can keep the flame going. 🙂
You know I am HERE for a monthly goal of visiting a thrift store! Ha, you are correct that I don’t wear pearls and I would NOT be clutching them. I like visiting thrift stores and it fits with my mode of life, but I can 100% see not going regularly if I lived in a different part of the world (thrifting is very common where I live).
Love the snacks!!!
I feel like my “visit a thrift store” goal is very similar to your “drink a Dr. Pepper” goal, ha. Two things we both VASTLY enjoy, trying for the first time! Well, I have been to thrift stores before but it’s probably been 10 years! Eeps.
I’m going to buy new sheets in February. We currently have our flannels on, which is appropriate because it’s still getting below zero every night. However, our regular cotton sheets were thrown out when I tore giant holes in them with my anklet (I didn’t realize it would do that and now I wear socks to bed to avoid it happening again) and we didn’t replace them at the time. Nice sheets are expensive, though, so I’ve been putting off this task! It’s on my February goals list, though.
When Zelda was an itty bitty baby, she had a yellow collar with orange bumblebees on it and it was SO CUTE and precious and it got lost when she went in for her spay surgery. I’d love to have the collar now to see how TINY it must have been. Anyway, your girls definitely deserve cute collars!
Sheets are so expensive! I should really buy another set for myself, just so I have one extra to rotate with, but ugh, the expense!
A little bumblebee collar is SENDING ME. So cute!
Yesss your snacks look SO GOOD and I love those pouches!
Thank you for so much inspiration!
Way to go on your goals in Janaury! I hope you can carry that new year energy into February! The 401k thing is such a hassle. I’ve been through multiple rollovers since I changed companies nearly yearly for awhile there in the early 2010s. I hope you can find an easy process! I rolled mine over to Charles Schwab but there was an office I could walk into to get help w/ the process. That was pre-covid and that office is now closed. But I am glad it was around when I needed it as it’s easier to walk in and ask for help than call an 800 # (for me at least).
My goal for February is to keep up with my OTF classes for the month. I went to 10 in January and have 10 scheduled for Feb so I feel good about that. I also would like to find a new PCP. I had an appt to see a new person on President’s Day and then she resigned from the practice! I am glad that happened before I met with her, though.
Way to go on keeping up with your OTF workouts! That’s great progress. But boo on finding a new PCP. I hate that process.
There’s a whole how-to guide on the rollover process so I just need to DO IT and stop whining about it, ha.
Yay! Great work on your Jan goals!!!! Your snack bags are so cute!
I can’t wait to see the collars you get the girls. How are the feeding stations going? I haven’t asked in a while!
I love that you have a novel idea. Don’t love you have to deal with moving your 401K, ew. Get it done though. Sigh.
My Feb goal is speedwork!
Feeding stations are going very well! But I haven’t learned anything new, haha. Lila eats more than Eloise, but she doesn’t OVEREAT. She usually doesn’t eat the whole amount of food she’s given. And Eloise is a professional grazer who still doesn’t eat as much as I want her to, but I guess that’s enough to satisfy her?! It’s so odd.
Having a recipe list of tried and true recipes is fantastic. We meal plan once a week and yes, we also repeat a lot of dishes or cycle them in and out, so having a list to pull from makes meal planning so much easier! Way to go.
You did really great on your other goals, too.
I also want to go thrifting again in February! Let’s keep each other accountable 😉
I have LOVED this recipe list. It helps so much when it comes to meal planning!
Yes, accountability buddies for thrifting! I think I might go this weekend. 🙂
I’m laughing at I’m basically the mom who stores the snacks – it’s complicated. Bah ha ha. Hooray for tackling so many of your Jan goals. The recipe list looks awesome. I make a pesto pasta chicken thing in the crockpot and my people love it. Good luck on the writing project – I’m excited for you here. I bet your idea is great. Eek, I’m not a money organizing person myself, so I feel you on the 401K thing. Do you have someone you can reach out to to ask for input?
I do not set goals for Feb (or any other month). My writing goals are to keep up with the times I’m expected to write a chapter for my writing groups. That tends to keep me on track. I make daily to do lists and deleting emails and organizing my google photos is a high priority for me right now. I don’t have a specific set goal, but I’m hoping I can sit in front of the tv and work on these things during the superbowl tomorrow. (No, I’m not capitalizing that word, because the Bears aren’t in it. So there).
I don’t know who I can reach out to ask for input, but there’s probably SOMEONE who can help me. Right?? I literally just want to pay someone to do this for me, lol.
Organizing photos is SUCH A CHORE.
Hi friend, well done for January!
I have rolled over my 403b (same as 401k but for state employees) and it was a little bit of a pain but not majorly. If you get a human on the phone they will help you.
Or you can open your own Ira from example, with fidelity, and just contribute on your own accord so you are not bound by the employer. Unless they match then yes, stay with them 🙂
You really are on fire with your goals. So amazing.
How exciting you have an inkling of a story idea. Hope you can help it grow. Exciting.
I feel like I am currently not doing a very good job when it comes to goals. I feel I struggle with all of them and staying on top. I know it is not completely true but it feels like it.