2014 Goals Update

At the beginning of the year I shared some goals for 2014. Now that we are solidly into the year, it is time to give a quick update. Perhaps if I make this sort of post a monthly event, I will achieve more than I have so far.

Beauty: I said I would try out new hairstyles regardless of my hair cleanliness. I have not really done this yet. I have been trying out varieties of my normal high bun or scarf wrapping techniques, but the motivation still comes from extending the hair washing one more day. This limits my options for hairstyles so I will try to do better in the coming months.

Health: I have been having so much fun at my sister's zumba class! And we have been eating a lot more citrus and strawberries, along with locally grown rainbow swiss chard (did you see Melinda's instagram picture?) and mushrooms for J. Yay fresh and local produce!

Finance: J and I earned 78% of our living expenses for January, beating our goal of 75%. His consulting business is growing extremely fast all of a sudden so we expect to earn back the deficits from a few past months this February. This means we are working towards our goal of restoring our bank account to the pre-move number! I do have to say that budgeting for food has been a bit trickier now that we both leave the apartment for work. Planning out meals really helped keep the spending down and sometimes we end up purchasing lunch because we did not have left overs to carry with us. However, we are still under our $400 monthly food budget.

Spiritual: I am pretty sure we have been to church for the majority of the Sundays in 2014 so far, but I am not sure if we met the goal of 75% attendance.

Creative: I have not broken out the sewing machine yet or finished my Habitat chairs or end table. However, I have hung my thrift store art and started working on a picture gallery wall. That counts, right?

Intellectual: I am halfway through a novel and picked up my copy of Anna Karenina from my parents' house, which is almost like reading it. At the very least, it is a step in the direction of finishing one of the Russian novels I have started over the years. I didn't mention this in my original goals post, but I am learning a lot about running a business by working with my dad every day. I have taken over managing the manufacturing and shipping schedules along with learning about other responsibilities. It has been a lot of fun so far and I don't even have to wake up before 9 AM! Keep in mind, that is a huge part of it being fun.

Blog: I have written at least three thrift store finds posts so far. These posts are my favorite because I can share the wonderful/wacky things that I find without having to purchase them myself. J is thankful because we really have no more space for more furniture, regardless of how awesome it is. As I mentioned earlier, I have made no progress in fixing up my current thrift store purchases but I am definitely thinking about those projects. Lots and lots of thinking. I do think that my pictures have improved, ignoring the ones taken inside my thrift stores. I don't even bother with those pictures because the lighting is hopeless and there is no good way to stage vintage furniture on icky old carpet.