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

Wow, I can't believe October is over, the month really flew by! It's so funny how this year has gone, the first two month flew by, the next 3 months felt like years and then it started picking up again. I know for us, October is always busy and this year was no exception. We purposely loaded our schedule up with tons of outdoor activities this month and did them all. Adrian and I both feel we'll be staying home a lot more in the upcoming months between the cold weather and COVID so we decided to do all we could do in October. We fell behind a little on the housework, but decided we don't care because we'll have plenty of time to catch up on that over the winter.

I did pretty good making progress on most of my goals for this year during this month, even if it was super busy. I think the only ones I didn't make progress on were the ones around the house. I've been reading a lot because Zak needs to read for 20 minutes most days so I read when he reads. My weight continues to go in the wrong directions and while I'm frustrated about it, I know exactly what the problem is and how to fix it. Honestly at this point, my goal is more to maintain for the next 2 months and then start over fresh in 2021. Next year that will be a huge focus for me! I will be reducing my other goals and expectations and really focusing on my weight and my health as I start the second half of my 40's.

I also am really trying over the next 2 months to finish everything that has been on my on-going to do list. For a long time it just kept getting longer and I rarely crossed anything off it. This year I have actually been making some progress and finished things that were on there for over a year. Unfortunately as soon as I finish 1 things, 2 more things go on the list so it's an ever growing list. But my hope is to catch up on everything over the next 2 months and then pick just a few places to focus each month next year and avoid this large and growing list!

Here's how I did on my goals last month and my thoughts on a few of them.

• Lose 25 20 pounds - I gained another 1 pound this month for a total of negative 1 pounds lost so far this year. See above for my thoughts on this. 
• Exercise for 20 minutes every day - I exercised all 31 days this month, 285 days so far this year!! I did really good with this goal, especially keeping up with walking Rocky each day. I'm convinced this is why I only gained 1 pound this month. It could have been so much worse!
• Finish 12 exercise related calendar challenges - I did all 31 days this month and finished another month! I'm proud of myself for keeping up with these this year, but won't be doing them again next year. It's a lot to keep up with and it's stressful when I fall behind. 
• Do 30 40 60 Bible Plans in the You Verse app - I finished 9 plans in Oct, and have finished 58 so far this year. 
• Read "A Little God Time for Women" - I've read all 305 days so far this year, I'm on track to finish this goal too.
• Read 20 books - I've finished 11 books so far this year.  In Oct I finished "How to Steal a Dragon's Sword" which was a quick and fun read! I'm finishing up one other book in November and then will try to read the last 3 books in this series to finish my year strong.
• Read the 12 How to Train Your Dragon Books - I finished 1 book in October and 9 books so far.
• Read "Feminine Mystique" - I read 11% in Oct have read 53% so far this year. 
• Write 45 35 meal plan blogs - I did 3 posts this month, 29 blog posts so far this year. 
• Write 52 weekly summary blogs - I did 6 posts this month, 44 blog posts so far this year. I caught up on all of my posts for this year and should be on track to do all 52 this year!
• Write 12 4 9 goal recap blogs - I've done 7 so far this year so this goal looks doable. 
• Pay off $5,000 of credit card debt - We paid off $650 this month, $3,750 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 and stain for the deck, but were too busy to do anything this month (see above). We are staining the deck in November and then we'll be done with house renovations for this year. We'll reevaluate for Jan.
• Finish my daily to do list every night - I did this about 20 days in October. Again, this was something else that I did not keep up with while having so much fun this month. I'm planning to be back on track in November! 
• Watch 50 70 movies - We've watched 57 movies so far.  Our October movies were "Goosebumps," "Goosebumps 2," "Beetlejuice," "The House with a Clock in its Walls," "Back to the Future," and "Gremlins."
• Go on 12 dates with Adrian - We've gone on 9 dates so far this year. This month we had our annual Columbus Day date! It was shorter than usual since the boys had virtual school but we still made it work. We went for our October wine tasting at Cooper's Hawk then out to lunch at Shake Shack. We came home and napped on the couch and then played a few board games. It was a fun day!
• 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 another virtual jam this month for a total of 3 virtual jams so far this year plus a ton of mini jams. I enjoyed checking out a new to me jammer this month & am thankful to Zumba for gifting me a free jam for my support of the jam program over the years.
• Clean out master bedroom - Done!!
• Play 1 game with Adrian each week - I have done this all 44 weeks so far! 
• Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 with Adrian once per month - We have played 10 months so far. We lost both of our games for September (which we played in Oct), just barely. This is the first time we have lost a month and just moved on to the next one. We started out both times thinking we would lose quick, then managed to do great and were one turn away from winning each time. Then we played our actual October game and we won very easily! We have 2 months to go to finish this season.
• Play Machi Koro Legacy with the boys - We have played 9 months so far and are having a great time playing this game as a family!! Zak won again this month and it was by far our best and most exciting month so far. We are eager to finish up next month and play our designed game in December.
• Have 6 9 nights out with friends - I've had 8 nights out so far. This month I went on another morning coffee run with my girlfriends. We went to Cup o' Joe after Zumba one morning, it was so much fun!
• 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 89 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: campout at Falling Rock, at home drive in movie, ice cream at Ice Cream Rollery, Monster Mash, D&D night (x2), Van Buren Acres, ice cream at Hayman's Dari Bar, Jersey Dairy, trunk or treat (x4), trick or treat, donuts at Krispy Kreme, pumpkin carving, Halloween party with friends (x2)
• 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.