Archives for May 2017

I wrote a New Year’s Resolutions post at the beginning of January 2017 and was so thankful for the positive response that I received from everyone. I plan to come back every month with a goal check-in, so that I have even more incentive/accountability to continue working on my goals. Here is my May goal check-in.

Goal #1: Publish at least one blog post per week on Luggage and Literature.

I missed two weeks of publishing in May. I’ve been extremely busy with work, and this was just the thing that I could let drop. Sorry readers! I do need to get some posts drafted ahead of time to remedy this for June, especially some travel posts. They’re more time-intensive to write, which is why I procrastinate more with them. I also need to edit a ton of photos for the travel posts for Roatan and Cayman Brac (as well as a few more local destinations), before those posts can go live.

Goal #2: Complete the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenges.

You can check out my previous post outlining my 2017 reading plans here. So far, I’m ahead of schedule for completing both the Reading for Fun and Reading for Growth challenges. My May Reading List post lists the categories that I fulfilled this month.

Goal #3: Play cello at least twice (preferably more) per month. 

I played cello seven times in May. I played educational outreach concerts with the Hastings Symphony, for two different church services with the choirs, and at baccalaureate.

Goal #4: Pay down debt.

 We continued making progress toward this goal. We have no credit card debt. Our vehicles will both be paid off in 2017, as we’ve been focusing our extra debt payments here. We haven’t been paying extra on our student loans or mortgage, as we’ve been focusing on our vehicles and my business/building debt first.

Action Steps:

• Prepare lunches on the weekend. I did this for probably half of the month. It needs to be something that I’m more focused on in June.
• Pack lunch or eat at home every weekday for lunch, unless meeting colleagues. I did this for probably half of the month. It needs to be something that I’m more focused on in June.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. I’d say on average we prepared and ate dinner at home about 5 nights per week, except when I was out-of-town and Mike was busy with scuba instructor training. 
• Prepare/freeze dessert items (I have a major sweet tooth, and if we don’t have dessert items in the house at all, I’m much more likely to go get ice cream or run to the store and purchase snack items). I still have some whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies and froze the dough into balls for quick desserts. We also have some of our Easter candy left over and in the freezer for desserts too.
• Curb spending on books by utilizing the library. I’ve been reading a ton from Overdrive this month. The only book that I purchased was Elevation of the Marked, because I couldn’t find it on Overdrive, and wanted to read the second book of the series. The rest of the books were loaned from Overdrive, loaned from friends, Prime books, or already in my Kindle from previous free book deals. Overdrive has already saved me a small fortune on books!
• Curb spending on clothing and accessories, especially by utilizing Pinterest for remixing my existing wardrobe. In May, I purchased a new pair of flip-flops, 3 tank tops, and a pair of workout capris. I’m trying to be more active in June, and thought the workout tanks and capris would help. The new flip-flops are NHRA flip flops! And because the other pair of black ones that I have are starting to fall apart.
• Use up back stock of MaryKay and hair products before purchasing more. In May, I did a MaryKay order, because I was out of a few things. I cut down on the shipping cost though, by ordering for a couple of girls from my bible study as well as for myself and my mom and sister.
• Clean out refrigerator/freezers/pantry and use up existing food rather than just purchasing more. In May we restocked the pantry, as there were great deals on things like pasta and hamburger helper, that we can throw together when we’re short on time. So that’s a good thing, and will save us money in coming months. I’ve been trying to plan our dinners around what we have in the freezer, to use up some of the meat in particular. We’ve had more fish and pork than usual, as we had quite a bit of that in the freezer. I also have some chicken quarters that need used up, if anyone has great ideas for those (I’m not a huge fan of dark meat, so they usually get used in soup, and it’s not really soup season).
• Curb unnecessary trips to Kearney (this is about half an hour from our town, so the gas can get pricey when we run there for no reason other than we’re bored/want to go shopping/etc.). We’ve been to Kearney and Grand Island a bit in May, but pretty much when we needed to do grocery shopping, or when Mike had to go to Men’s Wearhouse for a suit fitting. I’m satisfied that we met this goal.
• Take on additional cases and work more hours to increase income. The two associates in my law firm left (one moved to Lincoln, and the other left the practice of law), so my caseload is up quite a bit. One of the secretaries in my office went to work for the local school district, so that she’s on the same schedule as her kids, so my overhead is down a bit. Overall what this means is that my active income is up right now, but I don’t have any passive income. I’ve been doing a lot of praying, and having some conversations about what the future holds for my law practice (a new associate, a lateral transfer, office sharing/swapping). Stay tuned for more on this.

Goal #5: Be healthier.

I’ve pretty much fallen off the wagon with this goal entirely. I’ve gained back the weight that I lost. I have a cold right now. I haven’t gotten enough sleep. I ate like crap when out-of-town, and haven’t kept track of what I’ve been eating. So I’m not even going to break down what specific actions steps I met/didn’t meet this month, as June just needs to be a total reset. The only positive, is that I was gifted an RTIC cup (which keeps your drink cold with ice for 12 hours), so I’ve at least been drinking enough water this month.

Action Steps:

• Drink no more than 3 pops per day, preferably no more than 2 (but I’m realistic about my job). 
• Drink at least 8 cups of water per day.
• Eat/drink at least 2 servings of dairy per day (when I did Weight Watchers, the studies showed that this contributed to weight loss, plus I know that it makes for healthier bones and teeth).
• Eat at least one fruit or vegetable per day, preferably more.
• Drink 1 cup of water before each meal.
• Take my water bottle with me during the day.
• Pack lunches or eat lunch at home during the week.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week.
• Do 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups 3 times per week (in law school, I had a professor who expected all students to do 10 push-ups at the start of each of his classes, and was surprised how doing this 3 times per week actually made me feel stronger by the end of the semester).
• Exercise (walk/swim/yoga/YMCA class) 3 times per week.
• Walk at least 6,000 steps per day, preferably more.
• Sleep 8 hours per night.
• Continue taking a daily multivitamin. Met.
• Track food daily in My Fitness Pal.
• Continue utilizing my Fit Bit to monitor activity, steps, food, sleep.

Goal #6: Take one trip or visit one local area attraction per month.

I get stir crazy if I stay home for too long. To combat that, I think that this goal will help. Although monthly travels to exotic locations aren’t realistic in my stage of life and with my career, a monthly trip somewhere is realistic. So it can be international, domestic, or just a local area attraction, just some reason to leave my house and my town. Plus there are several museums in my area that I’ve been meaning to visit, but just haven’t gotten around to. So I’m actually really looking forward to this goal. This goal is in progress.

Action Steps:

• January: The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA), and The Great Platte River Road Archway, Kearney, NE (I’ve wanted to visit the archway since we moved to the area, but haven’t gotten around to it yet…probably because Mike is absolutely not excited about visiting it). We visited MONA in January. After looking at the admission price for the Archway, we opted to skip it for now.
• February: Roatan! What a great time! I’ll be posting about this in the future, so stay tuned!
• March: Scuba diving at Bonne Terre again, perhaps The Roatan trip was February into March and was glorious. Bonne Terre ended up not working out in March, but I did go to Sioux Falls, SD. I met up with my parents for a day, then also spent a day with my friend Tara. It was really fun!
• April: Black Hills for Easter with family, I hope. Met. We spent 4 days in the Black Hills with family. We also spent some time wandering through downtown Rapid City, went for a drive in the Northern Hills, and stopped at Homestake Mine.
• May: Topeka, Kansas to watch NHRA drag racing, and Witchita, KS to see family. This was really fun, and a much needed escape.
• June: Stuhr Museum, Grand Island, NE
• July: Michigan again and Canada, perhaps This isn’t going to happen due to having trials scheduled. So, I may try to go to the Willa Cather museum/visitor center in Red Cloud, NE.
• August: Total Solar Eclipse on August 21 right in my area
• September: Kaaboo in Del Mar, California, if I can find a partner in crime to go with me. This is going to happen! My friend Jamie can go with me! I’m so pumped!
• October: Pioneer Village, Minden, NE
• November: Florida perhaps (Mike wants to get his full cave diving certification, and I’d like to go back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal)
• December: ??
• I also need to plan a get together with my dear friend Tara. She and I have talked about several different options, but need to nail down the date and location of our visit. Met! We got together in March in Sioux Falls, where she lives. And she’s going to come and visit me in June!
• In 2016, I also had a super fun girls weekend with some of my closest friends from college. We talked about making it an annual occurrence, so I need to check in with those gals as well, then nail down the date and location of girls weekend 2017!