A New Year and New Goals

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that your year is off to a good start so far- to me it doesn't really feel like anything's changed since I'm still staying in and will be working from home for the foreseeable future. But, I already have lots of goals and plans for the year ahead.

First let's start with a highlight of December, which is an "Elf Exchange" that a group of my friends did. During the month, we each had to drop off a beer and festive treat at everyone's house. Some people also did little surprises, like a tie-dyed sweatshirt with a little black dog printed on it. It was such a nice surprise to know my friends were thinking of me even if we couldn't get together like we usually do. 

For my surprise, I got a mixed pack of holiday beer from Saranac and picked out what each person would like the most, and then made a few different kinds of Christmas cookies and truffles (you can see the "ugly sweaters" above!). I also included a little handmade card in each package.

Next up let's talk about my December goals!

Finish Previous Projects

For the most part, I did complete this. Here's a breakdown of everything I set out to do-

• Paint behind fridge. Done! This really didn't take much time at all and looks so good now. It was just kind of a pain to move it out and clean up, but I'm glad it's over.
• Hang my vacuum. Done! It's so nice to have a spot for it, and I've actually been vacuuming a ton this month since I can just grab it and go.
• Finish GBBO bakes. Done with a bonus bake! I finished the last two technical challenges of the regular season, and for Christmas I also did a bake from the holiday episode. You can see my season wrap-up here!
• Haleakala Rides. Done! I did the last two rides in this series- the very final one on Christmas morning. It was a really fun challenge and I can't wait to do more climb rides in the future.
• Finish up bathroom. This is the area that I didn't finish, but it's mostly because I changed my mind. For the floor tiles, since they're peel and stick you aren't really supposed to grout in between them, so I'm just going to leave it as-is. There are only two spots near the toilet where there's a bit of a space between, so I thought it might look weird if I tried to grout everywhere, and it might mess up the tiles. I also decided not to mount the towel rack- I'll keep the rods in case the next owners want them, but our system works fine for us and I don't really want to add more holes in the walls if the next owner doesn't want them!

25 Days of Christmas

I finished this and it was so much fun! I did an art project every day from December 1 to 25 and posted them all on Tik Tok. The majority were watercolor paintings, but I also did a cross-stitch sign, made ugly sweater cookies, and had an epic cheese plate for Christmas Eve. It was a really fun (and challenging) project for me to do, but I got so much better and more comfortable with painting by the end! It was so nice to see some improvement from my first piece to the last.

Now that we're in a new year, let's kick it off with some goals-

No Dairy January

Usually I do a Dry January, but like I said in my Best Purchases of 2020, local beer and wine is what's been bringing me a bit of joy during the pandemic. So, instead of getting rid of that, I decided to cut out dairy from my diet in January. Even though I still mostly eat plant-based, I've definitely added more and more dairy to my eating in the past year. It's been fun to make cheese plates for dinner, bake a lot more, and make more decadent foods in general. But, I haven't been feeling my best and I'm wondering if dairy has something to do with that. So, I'll be cutting it out this month and will see if it makes a difference!

Minimalist Challenge

This is a challenge that I've done the past few January's and has been a great way to kick off the new year! Basically, on January 1 you get rid of 1 item. January 2 you get rid of 2 items, and on and on. I'm looking forward to clearing out some of the junk I've accumulated!

Try All the Signature Series

For my fitness challenge this month, I thought it would be fun to try out all of the Signature Series that the instructors have on Peloton. I've tried a few of these already- the Jess King Experience, XOXO Cody, and Movie Buffs (among others). I like how these are different from the regular classes and show off the instructor's personalities a bit more! Here's a list with all of the series if you want to play along as well.

I also wanted to share some annual goals that I have, which will hopefully be updated each month-

2021 Combined Miles

I've never really had an annual mileage goal before, but I thought that it would be fun to have it be combined running, walking, and biking. Since the year is 2021, I thought it would be fun to try to hit that! That breaks down to about 168 miles per month, so let's get going!

Get Ready to Sell!

Dan and I are just about ready to sell our house and move somewhere new, so my goal for this year is to either actually move, or have the pieces in place to get ready to. This is part of the reason why I'm doing the Mins Game as I mentioned above, but I also want to sell some of our furniture, get rid of clothes that don't fit anymore, and do any projects that I've been putting off.

Music Challenge

I love music, and usually have music playing in the background on my Echo every minute that I'm awake. Elsie from a Beautiful Mess does a music challenge every year where she writes down different artists and every weekend picks one to listen to on their record player. I decided to use that idea and write down the top 100 albums of all time (via Rolling Stone). It'll be a fun way to discover some of the classics, or listen to some music that I already know and love.

What are your goals for the month or year?