It's the most fabulous time of the quarter in which I update you on how well or how well or poorly my 2026 quarterly goals are going.
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At least one trip with Dr. BB and Hannah
No progress made.
At least two trips with friends
April: Yes! I went to Chicago with Bestest Friend.
At least two trips to Michigan to visit my high school friends
No progress made.
Make homemade ice cream
No progress made. I am making a note in my July and August goals to prioritize this. It's summer!
Do one creative thing a week
April: Not really. I went to a museum and filled out a page in my journal by coloring it every day to track CBWC participation, but I didn't really do much.
May: Just a journal page. Why did I put this on my goal list again?
June: Egads. I filled out a page in my journal by coloring it daily to track if I lifted ten minutes every day. This goal is not going well so far this year.
Become a regular reader of at least five new blogs in 2026
April: No progress
May: No progress
June: I added a blog to my reader, so that's 20%.
Leave an average of five blog comments on other blogs every day
April: 19/30 - Egads.
May: 19/31 - At least I'm consistent?
June: 20/30 - Well, sorry friends. Some days I truly don't have the time.
Send at least five postcards every month
April: The sum total of mail I sent in April was three birthday cards. That's all!
May: Five birthday cards, a happy new job card, the mystery book package, and three pieces of bureaucracy for the month. Not a single postcard.
June: Three birthday cards, a Father's Day card, and a bill. That's it for the whole month. Should I just send every blog reader a postcard in July to get this average up?
Track how many people come to yoga this semester
April: We met seven times in April (5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1)
May: We met four times in May and there were 2 people there each time.
June: No meetings in June because my work is nuts in June. We'll pick back up in July.
Use a new journal to track goals, plan out the year, and take time to notice things I'm grateful for
April: Yes, I do like this journal format a lot.
May: Yes, it's great.
June: I've been slacking on planning every week, but still tracking goals and doing a grateful list every day.
Take a good photo every week and print them out once a quarter
April: I ordered photos on May 1. It's so fun to look back at the photos I choose.
May: Photos ordered on June 6 and placed in my journal on the 7th.
June: YES!! I really am loving this part of the goal. So many photos are just on phones these days, but these one see the light of day.
Take photo of five places at least once a month
April: Two of the places I take photos of are flooded, so I did what I could.
May: I did it!
June: Done.
I sort of hate doing this goal, but I think I'll like the results. This is January - June of the water tower. January - March on top and April - June on the bottom.
Pay myself and charity first
April: No progress
May: I did add to savings, but didn't do any charitable giving. I'll make it a priority in June.
June: Nothing new, just regular savings. But my husband and I had a talk about splitting things differently, so maybe in the next quarter.
Reread
April: I reread two books this month!
May: I reread Love Lettering.
June: Not a single reread.
Do a buddy read
Gratitude practice
April: Since I have been consistently using my new journal, this has been incorporated into my evening routine and I love it.
May: Yes! Still using my journal for this.
June: I love doing this every night.
Be consistent in working out (at least 80% of days of 30 minutes of intentional movement)
April: 24/30 (80%) days - Nailed it.
May: 25/31 (80%) days - Yes!
June: 26/30 (86.7%) days - Now we're doing it.
Spend 750 hours outside
April: 45 hours, 33 min
May: 48 hours, 37 minutes
June: 46 hours, 8 minutes
I wanted to make this goal work, but it just isn't going to. If I want to do other things, including working out and cooking, this time goal is just not going to be met. I'm going to keep tracking for the rest of 2026, but if I can't get to sixty hours in JUNE - peak OUTDOOR TIME IN WISCONSIN - I can't make this goal work in my life.
Get on the same page as my husband about home repairs, investments, and a will
April: New fact to me: my husband is horrified by our yard. Guess what moved up in our list of priorities?
May: We did something about the beds around our house and fenceline. Now we have do deal with a water softener and the crumbling retaining yard in our backyard. These are not things I necessarily had in mind at the beginning of the year.
June: Water softener installed. The retaining wall is still a discussion. We've gotten two quotes, but really need to talk with our neighbors so no one is surprised by it.
Do two more iterations of CBBC on my blog
I have no intention of doing this until fall.
Date night with Dr. BB every month
April: We went to see a friend's band play one evening.
May: Literally nothing. *sigh*
June: We went to Frostie Freeze? Does that count? (I'm counting it.)
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Just April goals:
Complete journal project through 2020: I only did it though February.
Figure out taxes: We figured it out. It wasn't pretty and it felt gross to write such a big check to the federal government in 2026, but it's done.
Participate in CBWC: Done!
Organize one tote from my mom's house: Look, I know the totes have been there since October or something. I KNOW. I just...don't want to deal with it.
Clean out the photos in my phone gallery: You would be horrified. I'm horrified. And yet there still remains 4165 images in there.
Just May goals (every single one is a rollover goal):
Complete journal project through 2020: Done.
Organize one tote from my mom's house: I think you all know this didn't get done.
Clean out the photos in my phone gallery: I got it down to just over 3000, but there's still a lot to do.
Just June goals:
Complete journal project through 2021: I did through June, so this will have to be a rollover goal to finish in July.
Organize one tote from my mom's house: I did it! I cleaned out one tote and now that (empty) tote is in the basement. The second (and last tote) is harder because it's photographs, so that's a larger organizational project. Maybe over the winter?
Clean out the photos in my phone gallery: I didn't do this at all. Rollover goal to July.
Lift weights for ten minutes every day: 26/30 days. Not too shabby.
Message my accountability buddy every day: 25/30 days. I'll take it.
No candy: There is so much candy at my job in June and the first year I worked here, I was on a sugar high all the time because I kept helping myself to candy. So no candy. I had ice cream three times and a cake ball someone made, but that was about it as far as desserts. I immediately ate a chocolate Lindt ball on July 1, though, so I don't think I've learned any real restraint.
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I don't think any of this is terrible. It is sort of fun to look at it every month/quarter.
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Do you think you could get 750 hours outdoors in a year? When's the last time you sent a postcard to someone?
Ha ha no I don't think I could get 750 hours outdoors in a year. I hike a lot and I have a dog, so whatever time that totals is good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I sent a postcard was at the end of June! I have a loose goal to send postcards to everyone on my blog list once a quarter and so far I've sent postcards three times so I'm ahead of schedule. I say once a quarter but it's really "when I feel like it".
BUT THE PANTS ARE HEMMED.
ReplyDelete(They are, aren't they?)
A date to Frostie Freeze totally counts.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could hit 750 hours outdoors. We spend a lot of time outside on summer weekends but not enough to offset how little I'm outside in the cold winter months! I am sure you exceed my time outside since you go on walks w/ Hannah year round!
ReplyDeleteA couple things here. Maybe we should agree to make July the "postcard challenge" month. I also had a goal of sending postcards this year and I'm failing miserably. I mean, how hard is it really??? I just have to do it!
ReplyDeleteAlso... when both my parents were gone and I had to go through their stuff, there were some things where I found it easier to deal with after time had passed. Like for example... there was a bunch of really personal stuff, like my mom's eyeglasses. Obviously you can't donate those, and I just couldn't throw them in the trash (too soon). A couple years later I was going through the stuff and was like "why the hell am I keeping old glasses?" and was able to be much more ruthless about throwing things away. So... give yourself a break if you're just not ready to deal with some things.