Keeping Up With...2020 Goals (Sept Recap)

This has been such a strange year and it continues to be one as we edge closer to the end of it. I feel like the months are flying by but the days sometimes feel endless. How is that even possible?? We are more busy now with school being in full swing, even if it's all virtual, and a few of our favorite fall activities. AJ and Zak are also continuing in Scouts and this is a busy time for that. My Zumba classes continue to keep me busy and Adrian is heading into busy season as this is a GA changeover year so that means a ton of work for him over the next 3 months.

My goals continue to be hit or miss. My motivation is still pretty low, especially around eating well and working out. And I am having a horrible time finding my groove with working out around the boys' virtual school schedule. I was starting to find a routine, then I went away on a weekend camping trip with AJ and I got all off track again. While we had an amazing time, it has taken me nearly two weeks to get back on track and caught up from missing those 2 days (and being exhausted for like a week after!) I would still choose to go to the campout again, but I wish this old body recovered quicker. Ha!

This month I'm really trying to refocus on eating better and moving more. I've done a great job of staying active most days but I'm hoping to bump it up a little. I've also been slowly trying to chip away at my giant and ongoing to do list. I have things on there that are over a year old! I am down to just under 20 things on this list so I'm really trying to finish it in October and if not this month, then by the end of the year. Then if I can stay caught up on things I will have more time during the week for other things that need to be done. The other big thing I'm focusing on is just continuing to have fun and enjoy the boys being home. We've started celebrating a holiday every day and it's fun to try different things and learn new things thru that. I think I'm going to make it a goal next year to celebrate every day!

Here's how I did on my goals last month and my plans for each goal for the last 3 months of the year.

• Lose 25 20 pounds - I gained 3 pounds this month for a total of 0 pounds so far this year. I gained back all of the weight I've lost over the past month or so in the last 2 weeks. Now I'm right back where I started in August. The good news is I haven't gained any more. The bad news is I'm not losing. I'm keeping this as a stretch goal and really buckling down!
• Exercise for 20 minutes every day - I exercised 28 days this month, 254 days so far this year!! I missed my first day of walking with Rocky over Labor Day weekend when we got thunderstorms in the evening that I wasn't expecting. And I missed another day that was just super busy and I didn't make the time to do any exercise, including going for our nightly walk. I'm making this a priority over the next 3 months, at least walking everyday. I'm hoping to work out 4 days each week, teach 3 days & do one additional day.
• Finish 12 exercise related calendar challenges - I did all 30 days this month! I fell behind here and there but doubled up a few days and was able to finish on time. I plan to do one of these each month going forward, I believe they are helping my strength.
• Do 30 40 60 Bible Plans in the You Verse app - I finished 8 plans in Sept, and have finished 49 so far this year. I think I'm on track to finish this revised goal without a problem. I'm hoping they do a Thanksgiving specific plan, and maybe an advent plan too.
• Read "A Little God Time for Women" - I've read all 274 days so far this year, I'm on track to finish this goal too.
• Read 20 books - I've finished 10 books so far this year.  In Sept I finished "Where the Crawdads Sing" which was fantastic! I clearly will not hit this goal. Right now I'm hoping to finish the 2 books I'm reading right now, make some more progress of "Feminine Mystique" and maybe finish one more book before the end of the year. I think 20 books is just too high for me with all that I am involved in.
• Read the 12 How to Train Your Dragon Books - I finished 8 books so far. I'm halfway thru the 9th book. I think these books will be my focus for the rest of this year.
• Read "Feminine Mystique" - I read 0% in Sept have read 42% so far this year. I never got this from the library this month. I am close to the top of the list so I should have it early in Oct and be able to focus on it for a good chunk of the month.
• Write 45 35 meal plan blogs - I did 5 posts this month, 26 blog posts so far this year. I did really good getting one written each week this month, even if some of them were short. I plan to continue doing these every week and should beat this goal without a problem.
• Write 52 weekly summary blogs - I did 7 posts this month, 38 blog posts so far this year. I finished 3 catch up posts this week from earlier this year and now only have 1 week that I haven't done a weekly summary for. That is a high priority over the next week to hopefully finish that post and be totally caught up for the year. I've been doing really good about getting a paragraph written each day so that makes it easy to publish these each week. I'm thinking about changing this format for next year to combine the summary with the goals blogs.
• Write 12 4 9 goal recap blogs - I've done 6 so far this year so this goal looks doable. I should have time to do each monthly recap for the next three months, especially since the end of each month is near a holiday weekend so I should have plenty of free time.
• Pay off $5,000 of credit card debt - We paid off $650 this month, $3,100 so far this year. We're on track to hit this goal!
• Renovate the boys' bedrooms kitchen - We got the paint bought to paint the kitchen but it has been so hot this month we haven't been able to paint. We did stain our fence and are getting ready to stain the deck so this may get pushed to next year since the outside stuff is weather sensitive. 
• Finish my daily to do list every night - I did this about 20 days in September. I did really good before I left for the camping trip but it all fell apart after that. I was just behind everyday for the rest of the month. But I'm heading into Oct with a refreshed attitude!
• Watch 50 70 movies - We've watched 51 movies so far.  Our September movies were "X-Men," "Robots," "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Batman," "Playing With Fire," and "Doolittle." We achieved this goal this month!! We have been pretty consistent with watching two movies each week so that is really bumping up the number of movies we've been watching. I've increased this to still average two movies each week, we'll see how we do. I'm looking forward to holiday movies!
• Go on 12 dates with Adrian - We've gone on 8 dates so far this year. This month we went on two dates. Early in the month, out to dinner at Lonestar Steakhouse to use a gift card I've had for a few months. Then later in the month we went to Cooper's Hawk for our monthly wine tasting and walked over to Condado for dinner. Both were fun nights out without the boys!
• Sub 80 days in the schools - I've subbed 21.5 days so far since January.  Unfortunately this goal is on hold until schools reopen, or possibly next year.  It's looking like next year since the boys will remain virtual until at least Jan. That is where my focus needs to be this year.
• Go to 6 Zumba jam sessions - I did 2 virtual jams so far this year plus a ton of mini jams. I'm pretty much calling this goal met since I've done so many mini jams, livestreams and trainings from Zumba over the past few months. I'm hoping in person jams are back next year!
• Clean out master bedroom - Done!!
• Play 1 game with Adrian each week - I have done this all 39 weeks so far! This has been great for us while we're staying home so much! We struggled in Sept to play as many games as we wanted to since our time was limited. But we played at least one board game each week so I'm happy.
• Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 with Adrian once per month - We have played 8 months so far. We didn't get to this in Sept so we're hoping to double up in October to still finish on time. We were too busy having fun outside & enjoying the beautiful fall weather!
• Play Machi Koro Legacy with the boys - We have played 8 months so far and are having a great time playing this game as a family!! AJ finally won this month, he was so excited! I did almost snatch his victory on my last turn but I wasn't able to get enough coins. He had a great plan this month and did an excellent job of staying calm and focused.
• Have 6 9 nights out with friends - I've had 7 nights out so far and beat this goal this month! This month I did a coffee run one Saturday morning with some friends and it was so much fun! We're doing a coffee challenge around the city of Columbus so we're hoping to do coffee at least once each month over the next year. We also had a wine night this month that was filled with laughs, food and wine. I'm hoping for 2 more nights out over the next 3 months, which seems extremely doable even though these are usually my busiest 3 months of the year.
• Go on an awesome family vacation to the Outerbanks - We have decided to cancel this trip due to the uncertain nature of travel right now. We debated about doing something else as a family but decided to just stay home for the summer instead. Adrian is taking a week off in July and we'll do a few day trips but that's all we have planned for the summer now.
• Do 100 fun family things (one thing each week during school & one thing per person each week over the summer) - We did 71 fun things so far this year and obviously this is a little different right now.  We are still having fun, it's just a different kind of fun right now.  This month we did: Franklin Park Conservatory, ice cream at Johnson's, play date with friends, Lynd's corn maze, ice cream at Cones & Concoctions, virtual state house tour, Urban Air, campout, ice cream at Dairy Hut and mini golf. Still going strong with this and hoping to still hit 100!!
• Go on 2 family camping trips - Same as with vacation, we went back and forth and decided not to do this but instead save our money and energy for a few fun day trips and invest in one or two big vacations next year.
• Deep clean the whole house - Done!!  We only have the basement left, but that is on hold until we renovate the kitchen.