Luggage and Literature

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 July goal check-in.

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

I missed two weeks of publishing in July. I’ve been extremely busy with work, with several trials and evidentiary hearings scheduled. Sorry readers! I do need to get some posts drafted ahead of time to remedy this for July, especially some travel posts. They’re more time-intensive to write, which is why I procrastinate more with them. I did get my Roatan dive photos edited, so I’m hopeful that the Roatan posts will go live in August.

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 July 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 zero times in July, due to my busy schedule. But I did get a ukulele on Amazon Prime Day, so I did play my ukulele several times, as I’m learning it.

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, as well as on business debt. 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. I made a significant payment on my business debt in July bringing that balance down quite a bit.

Action Steps:

• Prepare lunches on the weekend. Met this goal except for the last week in July. I was out-of-town the weekend of July 21-23, and didn’t get it done for the last week.
• Pack lunch or eat at home every weekday for lunch, unless meeting colleagues. Met this goal for most of the month, except for the last week.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met this goal, I think. I didn’t really track it, but know that we didn’t eat out much.
• 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). We have frozen peanut butter cookie dough so that we can make cookies after dinner. But because it’s been so hot, we’ve been eating Schwan’s ice cream instead.
• Curb spending on books by utilizing the library. I picked up 5 new books from the local Christian bookstore. The rest of my reading has been from Overdrive, Kindle First, and books that I already own.
• Curb spending on clothing and accessories, especially by utilizing Pinterest for remixing my existing wardrobe. I picked up a dress and a shirt from Amazon Prime Day, but have not purchased any other clothes or accessories in July. Pinterest continues to be very useful in making my wardrobe feel fresh.
• Use up back stock of MaryKay and hair products before purchasing more. I didn’t purchase any MaryKay in July, and am stocked back up for several months from May’s purchase. I purchased some hair products while out in Rapid City to replace what I was out of.
• Clean out refrigerator/freezers/pantry and use up existing food rather than just purchasing more. We have a well-stocked pantry and freezer, and are working out way through it. We’ve mainly purchased milk, bread, and produce.
• 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 did make a couple of trips to Kearney for birthday dinners in July. Otherwise we really didn’t have pleasure trips.
• Take on additional cases and work more hours to increase income. In July I was totally swamped at work, with several trials, so my billable hours were quite a bit higher than usual. It was a grueling pace, and I’m hoping August will be a touch slower.

Goal #5: Be healthier.

I got back on the health wagon in June, as it was simply necessary. Since then, I’ve been working my way through The Beck Diet Solution (stay tuned for a report in my August Reading List on this), and have found it quite helpful. Even after I finish it, I plan to go back to the beginning and re-read it. Essentially the book isn’t a diet, but rather helps you to work through the sabotaging thoughts that lead to weight gain. I’ve already started catching myself in them, and am hopeful that I continue to make progress in the right direction (a decrease on the scale).

Action Steps:

• Drink no more than 3 pops per day, preferably no more than 2 (but I’m realistic about my job). Met this goal.
• Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. Met and exceeded this goal, as I’ve been drinking 10-12 servings of water each 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). Met nearly every day.
• Eat at least one fruit or vegetable per day, preferably more. Met and exceeded most days. I’ve been packing 1-2 servings of fruit and vegetables in my lunch and it’s really helped with meeting the goal, reducing calories, and making my lunch feel more substantial.
• Drink 1 cup of water before each meal. Met with lunches, and sometimes at dinner.
• Take my water bottle with me during the day. Met now that I have an RTIC bottle that keeps my water cold all day long.
• Pack lunches or eat lunch at home during the week. Met this goal for most of the month, except for the last week.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met this goal, I think. I didn’t really track it, but know that we didn’t eat out much.
• 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). Not met.
• Exercise (walk/swim/yoga/YMCA class) 3 times per week. Not met. I think that I exercised once per week.
• Walk at least 6,000 steps per day, preferably more. Met probably 60% of the time.
• Sleep 8 hours per night. Met probably 75% of the time, because I was too busy at work in July.
• Continue taking a daily multivitamin. Met.
• Track food daily in My Fitness Pal. Met probably 50% of the time.
• Continue utilizing my Fit Bit to monitor activity, steps, food, sleep. Met.

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. I didn’t visit the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, NE. My friend Tara did come and visit me for our local Swedish Days festival, though. And Mike and I have spent a fair amount of time at Sandy Channel lately (Mike to scuba dive, and me to relax and read). I’ll have to visit the Stuhr Museum another month.
• July: Michigan again and Canada, perhaps This didn’t happen due to having trials scheduled. But I did go to the Black Hills for a weekend visit with my family, including some drag racing (against my sister!) and riding along with my dad (a 7 second 1/8 mile pass with lifted the front wheels off the ground).
• August: Total Solar Eclipse on August 21 right in my area, Cincinnati, Ohio for a conference, and Norwalk, Ohio for a Pontiac car show and drag races
• 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 or perhaps the Willa Cather museum in Red Cloud, 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 came to 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! I think this is going to be postponed to 2018.