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. Here is my December goal check-in. And because we’re at the end of the year, I also want to weigh in on how I think that I did with meeting each of these goals.

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

I posted 5 times in December, and once per week, so this was met for the month. Overall I think that this goal was helpful in reminding me to publish blog posts more regularly in 2017. I met it most months, and came close the other months. So I’d consider it successful.

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

Met in November. This was successfully (and pretty easily) met this year. I’m going back to the PopSugar Reading Challenge for 2018, as it has more books listed, and will be more of a challenge for me.

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

I didn’t play cello in December. 🙁 I played cello most of the months of the year, but skipped in those months when I wasn’t gearing up for a concert. 

Goal #4: Pay down debt. 

 We continued making progress toward this goal. Our credit cards are paid in full every month. We paid off Mike’s pickup and my old Acadia (but then I had to buy a new vehicle due to major mechanical problems with the old one). I’ve been paying extra on my business and building loans. Overall I think that this was successfully met in December and in 2017. 

Action Steps:

• Prepare lunches on the weekend. Met.
• Pack lunch or eat at home every weekday for lunch, unless meeting colleagues. Met.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
• 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 cookie dough, and I also made some extra oatmeal raisin cookie dough for freezing when doing my Christmas baking.
• Curb spending on books by utilizing the library. I’ve been reading books that I previously purchased at the Friends of the Library book sale, from Overdrive, and that I already had on my Kindle. I’ve purchased a couple of books when they were on Kindle sales, as well as used my Audible credits. But in December I reduced the frequency of receiving my Audible credits, which cut that cost in half.
• Curb spending on clothing and accessories, especially by utilizing Pinterest for remixing my existing wardrobe. Pinterest continues to be very useful in making my wardrobe feel fresh. I didn’t buy any new clothes in December.
• Use up back stock of MaryKay and hair products before purchasing more. I didn’t purchase any MaryKay or hair care products in December, except for travel sized items needed before our trips.
• 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 purchased items needed for the Christmas holiday.
• 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.). Met.
• Take on additional cases and work more hours to increase income. My workload is more where I’d like it to be at the present time.

Goal #5: Be healthier.

I got back on the health wagon in June, as it was simply necessary. Since then, I’ve read The Beck Diet Solution twice, and have found it quite helpful. 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). I lost a bit of weight, and then gained it back. Over the course of the year, I improved my eating and am eating more healthfully. But I still have a lot of work to do with respect to exercise. I think 2018 will be the year for that (stay tuned!).

Action Steps:

• Drink no more than 3 pops per day, preferably no more than 2 (but I’m realistic about my job). Met.
• Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. Met.
• 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.
• Drink 1 cup of water before each meal. Met some of the month, but not consistently.
• Take my water bottle with me during the day. Met now that I have a couple of insulated cups that keep my water cold all day long.
• Pack lunches or eat lunch at home during the week. Met.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
• 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.
• Walk at least 6,000 steps per day, preferably more. Met about 75% of the time.
• Sleep 8 hours per night. Met probably 90% of the time.
• Continue taking a daily multivitamin. Met.
• Track food daily in My Fitness Pal. Met about 25% 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. Met!

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. Whew! What a whirlwind of a month! Stay tuned for posts about all the fun I had!
• Labor Day weekend (August-September): Yellowstone. This trip is something that we added this month. We went with our friends Randall and Paige, and had such a fun time!
• September: Kaaboo in Del Mar, California, if I can find a partner in crime to go with me. This was so, so fun! Jamie and I had a great time eating Mexican food, admiring artwork, and taking in amazing concerts!
• October: Willa Cather museum in Red Cloud, NE. I didn’t make it to the museum, or really go anywhere, which was sort of nice after September being sort of a whirlwind kind of month.
• 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). We went to Rapid City for Thanksgiving. The trip to Florida was moved to December, and is a different area than Orlando, so Harry Potter will have to wait.
• December: Panama City Beach/Destin, Marianna, Florida. This was very fun! I had a great time traveling around the area, and doing a couple of dives. Mike was able to get his full cave diving certification, so it was also successful for him.
• 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.

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 November goal check-in.

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

I posted 3 times in November, but earlier in the month, not in the final two weeks of the month.

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

You can check out my previous post outlining my 2017 reading plans here. Completed! You can check out what categories I checked off in November 2017.

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

I didn’t play cello in November. 🙁

Goal #4: Pay down debt. 

 We continued making progress toward this goal. Our credit cards are paid in full every month. We mailed in the payoff on Mike’s pickup. I’ve been paying extra on my business and building loans.

Action Steps:

• Prepare lunches on the weekend. Met.
• Pack lunch or eat at home every weekday for lunch, unless meeting colleagues. Met.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
• 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 cookie dough.
• Curb spending on books by utilizing the library. I’ve been reading books that I previously purchased at the Friends of the Library book sale, from Overdrive, and that I already had on my Kindle.
• Curb spending on clothing and accessories, especially by utilizing Pinterest for remixing my existing wardrobe. Pinterest continues to be very useful in making my wardrobe feel fresh. But I purchased a ton of new clothes in November, to replace quite a few things that were past their useful life.
• Use up back stock of MaryKay and hair products before purchasing more. I didn’t purchase any MaryKay in November, but did need to buy some new hair care products.
• 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 perishable items this month.
• 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.). Met.
• Take on additional cases and work more hours to increase income. My workload is more where I’d like it to be at the present time.

Goal #5: Be healthier.

I got back on the health wagon in June, as it was simply necessary. Since then, I’ve read The Beck Diet Solution twice, and have found it quite helpful. 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). And I’m down about 5 pounds since June. I’m not making very fast progress, but haven’t gained weight which is important. I’ve been looking at Peloton bikes, but we’ll see if that’s in the cards, as they’re quite expensive.

Action Steps:

• Drink no more than 3 pops per day, preferably no more than 2 (but I’m realistic about my job). Met.
• Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. Met.
• 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 most of the month.
• Drink 1 cup of water before each meal. Met some of the month, but not consistently.
• Take my water bottle with me during the day. Met now that I have a couple of insulated cups that keep my water cold all day long.
• Pack lunches or eat lunch at home during the week. Met.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
• 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.
• Walk at least 6,000 steps per day, preferably more. My Fitbit died, and I was waiting for a replacement.
• Sleep 8 hours per night. Met probably 90% of the time.
• Continue taking a daily multivitamin. Met.
• Track food daily in My Fitness Pal. Met about 50% of the time, which I will need to improve upon in December.
• Continue utilizing my Fit Bit to monitor activity, steps, food, sleep. Not met, because my Fitbit died.

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. Whew! What a whirlwind of a month! Stay tuned for posts about all the fun I had!
• Labor Day weekend (August-September): Yellowstone. This trip is something that we added this month. We went with our friends Randall and Paige, and had such a fun time!
• September: Kaaboo in Del Mar, California, if I can find a partner in crime to go with me. This was so, so fun! Jamie and I had a great time eating Mexican food, admiring artwork, and taking in amazing concerts!
• October: Willa Cather museum in Red Cloud, NE. I didn’t make it to the museum, or really go anywhere, which was sort of nice after September being sort of a whirlwind kind of month.
• 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). We went to Rapid City for Thanksgiving. The trip to Florida was moved to December, and is a different area than Orlando, so Harry Potter will have to wait.
• December: Panama City Beach/Destin, Marianna, Florida. I’m looking forward to this!
• 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.