I'm linking up with Katie Elizabeth, Mia at Make Me Up Mia, Kristal at The Strong Family, and Carly at Carly Blogs Here for this Thankful Thursday. I've saved up my thankfulness for the whole month and I'm letting it go today. Almost everyday so far this month, I wrote down what I was thankful for that day. Honestly, I forgot a couple of days and had to go back and reconstruct what I was thankful for.
1/1 Waking up next to my handsome husband's smiling face. He does so much for me.
1/2 SNOW DAY! I get to spend all day with Mr. Handsome.
1/3 (Another snow day) Watching a movie with Hubs and having him tell me how much he likes watching movies with me.
1/4 So grateful that I have a warm home and warm food. Keeping those without in my thoughts this coming week.
1/5 We stayed under budget doing our weekly grocery shopping! Money we don't spend on groceries can go towards a downpayment on a house.
1/6 Two things! 50º! It was so warm today. I am thankful all the ice melted off my car and our walkways. And, I thought I had a UTI and I was able to see a doctor right away and get a prescription for some antibiotics.
1/7 Fresh sheets are so nice.
1/8 I got to leave the house and go to the JLP Meeting and now I'm a co-chair for my subcommittee!
1/9 Made a up a new recipe that Mr. H loved.
1/10 Google Hangout with my sisters.
1/11 Skyping with college friends.
1/12 High of 60! We went for a walk because it felt like Spring.
1/13 I opened the windows and cleaned up half the basement.
1/14 Mr. H took such good care of me while my back hurt today.
1/15 I am going to see a psychiatrist on the 30th! Yeah! Trying to make an appointment to deal with my mental health concerns made me start crying last month so I am so happy about this. I thought I had anxiety issues but the survey I filled out now makes me think I might be depressed.
1/16 We've used less electricity so far compared with last year! My suffering hasn't been wasted.
1/17 Got to go shopping with Mr. H after dinner.
1/18 :(
1/19 watched a movie with Ben
1/20 I got into the psychiatrist early. There's nothing wrong with me, at least nothing so wrong that I should be medicated.
1/21 I wrote a cover letter.
1/22 We got to bed early and Mr. H and I got to read next to each other in Bed. Our house is so clean.
1/23 E3 came! I am 10,000 days old and I had cake!
1/24 :(
1/25 E3, Mr. H, and my BIL went to see Catching Fire.
1/26 We went out to dinner at the Sea Dog. I love their patio, in the summer.
1/27 E3 and I taste tested all the doughnuts in town! I love doughnuts. I finally got the ball rolling on getting the big scrape on the side of my car fixed.
1/28 Ben thinks I have what it takes to be a SAHM. I didn't think I had what it took but I really appreciate his support.
1/29 I think I'm almost done with the every week allergy shots!
Progress Towards My Resolutions
Exercise Four Times a Week and
Stamp Every Day on My WiiFitU Calendar
I did not get a stamp everyday since I didn't get a stamp before I hurt my back and there was no way I was going to subject myself to excruciating pain to weigh myself that day. Then my sister came and we were to "busy" for me to play. Then I gave up. I thought getting a stamp everyday would encourage me to exercise more than four times a week. This does not seem to be the case so I am I just going to try to exercise four times a week going forward. I think I may have failed at getting in enough exercise this week. I will have to redouble my efforts in February.
| January | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 30 min | ||||||
| 33 min | 20 min | 36 min | 30 min | 29 min | ||
| 21 min | 29 min | 20 min | ||||
| 20 min | 30 min | 20 min | ||||
Eat Less Sugar
I haven't started yet but the candy from Christmas is pretty much all gone. We'll see how it goes in February.
Use My Clarisonic Five Times a Week and Floss 80% of the Time
The past week my skin has been so dry and sensitive so I gave it a break from the Clarisonic. Other wise I've done great.
 |
| I made a chart with stickers. |
Drink 8 Cups (64oz) of Water a Day
| January | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 36 oz | 66 oz | 42 oz | 29 oz | 36 oz | ||
| 66 oz | 66 oz | 25 oz | 76 oz | 64 oz | 75 oz | 85 oz |
| 64 oz | 0 oz* | 66 oz | 88 oz | 76 oz | 65 oz | 67 oz |
| 64 oz | 24 oz | 64 oz | 71 oz | 72 oz | 71 oz | 48 oz |
| 0 oz | 63 oz | 47 oz | ||||
Practice Gratitude and Minimize Envy
See above. I started having a hard time remembering to write things down.
SAVE $ FOR A HOUSE
I called Comcast and managed to save $10 a month on our cable/internet/phone bill. This year we turned the thermostat down to 60º form 64º. Our suffering has not been for naught. Last January we spent about $193 on our electricity bill, we have electric heat, and this year we're on tract to spend $152. See also my review of my new face lotion and toner below. I'm doing freelance work and Mr. H has already done more tutoring work than he did last year.
I'm working on reducing our food costs by buying more in bulk, see my post on meal planning. But I still went over our grocery budget and spent $238. I was aiming for $160 but I would have been happy with $200. We still spent less on groceries than our average for last year. I am going to aim for $180 in February. And our "net worth" is still over $1,000 below where it was when I stopped working at my temporary job. Christmas was expensive but my mom said she'd reimburse me for my plane ticket to the Keys since Mr. H and I hadn't planned on me taking that trip.
Try to Spend Less on Beauty Products
The lotion is great! It is fragrance free so it smells like sunblock and reminds me of summer. It costs less than half as much as the Burt's Bees stuff I was using and it is twice as big. The cheaper toner feels so wonderful and moisturizing on my skin. There's slightly more in the bottle (6.7 oz versus 5 oz) and it costs way more than half as much as the $21 a bottle toner from Origins that I had been using. The only problem is that it's fragrance free so it smells odd because it doesn't have the lovely scent that the Origins United States toner has.
I called Comcast and managed to save $10 a month on our cable/internet/phone bill. This year we turned the thermostat down to 60º form 64º. Our suffering has not been for naught. Last January we spent about $193 on our electricity bill, we have electric heat, and this year we're on tract to spend $152. See also my review of my new face lotion and toner below. I'm doing freelance work and Mr. H has already done more tutoring work than he did last year.
I'm working on reducing our food costs by buying more in bulk, see my post on meal planning. But I still went over our grocery budget and spent $238. I was aiming for $160 but I would have been happy with $200. We still spent less on groceries than our average for last year. I am going to aim for $180 in February. And our "net worth" is still over $1,000 below where it was when I stopped working at my temporary job. Christmas was expensive but my mom said she'd reimburse me for my plane ticket to the Keys since Mr. H and I hadn't planned on me taking that trip.
Try to Spend Less on Beauty Products
 |
| Target Toner for $4.19 and Face Lotion for $6.99 |
Be Nicer to Mr. H.
I think I'm being nicer. He never thought I wasn't nice to him to begin with so I didn't ask his opinion.
Don't Stop Myself Because of Fear
I checked out a book on accounting to learn more about hanging out my own shingle but I didn't finishing the book (or the other books I checked out about starting a business) before it was time to return them. I've been writing cover letters.
Thanks for joining in with us! I am a fan of that Boots Toner, I enjoyed it :) I love looking back at your month!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteLoved your monthly recap! You are doing an awesome job at your goals and I love the flossing one! I think I need to add that into my 2014 a little more :) Thanks for linking up with us!!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteI loved reading through your thankful list for January!! So glad you linked up with us! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm thankful that you guys had this wonderful idea for a link up.
DeleteWord to the wise: if you are concerned about your professional reputation locally, I would not blog about mental health concerns. The stigma against them is sadly still immense. I think it's a much bigger concern than, say, running errands in your yoga pants. I've seen people get burned professionally by this. :(
ReplyDeleteI try to keep my blog mostly anonymous. I blog about a lot that I wouldn't want prospective employers to know about before meeting me: how much I like to shop, my rant about first world problems, that I did a cleanse, that my blog is titled exile in vacationland, that I am married, etc. I use my picture but I do not use my name. If a prospective employer or client googles my name they will not find this blog. I checked. It is possible that prospective employer or client would find my blog since it's about Maine and I do have unique characteristics so that is a risk I take.
DeleteBut really I wouldn't want to work some place where mental illness is stigmatized. One in four people will have a mental health concern at some point in their lives. Lawyers have high rates of mental health issues (including addictions) and if they go untreated that can keep you from doing good work. So it doesn't make sense for someone not to hire me because I've admitted to making an appointment with a doctor to be sure I'm okay. (Not being employed is hard and I was concerned because I was sleeping 10 hours a day and I've cried almost as much in the past year (4 times) as I've cried in my whole entire life up to now.) Also, there's the Americans with Disabilities Act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. As soon as I get working my results and skill will speak for themselves and that will keep people coming to seek my counsel.