New Blog Direction

With the presidential election now in the rear view mirror, and COVID vaccines on their way, plus hubby having received his first dose last weekend, I'm feeling ready for a new direction here. 

This blog was resurrected from it's dormancy primarily in response to the pandemic, when my previously travel-heavy retirement life was put on hold, and it was a wonderful outlet in which to reconnect and share the stress we were all undergoing. Now, though, with several major stress points smoothing out, I think I need to morph my blog into more more of a structured and/or personal accountability blog, in order to have the motivation to keep it up.

With regard to structure, I'm planning to do a weekly Five Happy Things post, or a weekly Simplicity post. Happiness for me is often about simply paying more attention, and that is an area I want to devote more time to. Simplicity can refer to areas where I've streamlined for greater peace of mind, including clutter, spending, mindfullness, and health. So lots of directions I can go there.

With regard to personal accountability, here are the areas where I want to be held more accountable, and which I've divided into daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Daily Goals

• Exercise (Run, walk, hike, bicycle, kayak, do yoga, or lift weights)
• Practice guitar
• Practice 15 min of Spanish
• Limit processed sugar intake to Sat/Sun only
• Consume eight cups of water
• Complete a unique household chore

Weekly Goals

• Read and finish one book
• Weight loss check in (goal is to lose 20 pounds this year)
• Menu plan and grocery shop, including at least one new recipe
• One game night in lieu of TV
• One reading night in lieu of TV

Monthly Goals, organized by Theme

• January  Home
• February  Romance
• March  
• April  
• May
• June  
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

I'll do a write up each week on how I'm doing, including progress on my monthly theme.

Monthly Theme (Home) progress report 

Selecting Home for January seemed like a no-brainer in that we recently completed the last remodel I believe we will do in this home. At this point there is nothing significant remaining to be done inside the house and it feels great!

Purchased/accomplished this month to date: Remodels completed, arches and crown molding removed from our bedroom, new mirrors hung in all four bathrooms, new art and shelving for powder room ordered, received, and displayed, two new lamps purchased for our bedroom, windows cleaned, and new sliding door for upstairs guest bedroom's bathroom doorway ordered. 

Before arch removals

After arch removals

Still remaining: Installation of shower glass for last two bedrooms, which has been scheduled for Monday.

I'll be back on Monday, and then each Monday thereafter to give a progress report, plus I plan to do a second post each week that will alternate between Five Happy Things and Simplicity.

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If any of you are tracking goals as well, please feel free to share here how you are doing.