May Progress Report: 19 for 2019

I can’t believe we’re already more than a third of the way into 2019. As Gretchen Rubin has been known to say, “The days are long but the years are short.” That feels especially true now that we are parents of two young, VERY energetic and determined kiddos. 

It’s so easy to get swept up in various identities (wife, mom, sister, friend, employee and so on) and not give ourselves the time and space we need to focus on our own growth. That’s what these annual lists do for me. I’m not picking anything groundbreaking and in some ways, maybe my 19 for 2019 is just a glorified to-do list. Regardless of how you or I view it, I love spending time in December dreaming up everything I can reasonably attain the following year. 

I’ve only fully checked off a few items so far, but so many of them are in progress. I feel like I’m off to a great start and am cautiously optimistic that I might get to all 19 of these this year!

1. Post my 19 for 2019 more prominently

I had already accomplished this before I published the list 😉 I made the list page 1 in my planner. Having it right in front of my face almost every day is a great way to ensure it stays in my brain. 

2. Plan monthly dates with my husband

So this is one that I technically can’t check off until I’ve actually planned 12 dates, and since a lot of places aren’t taking reservations for December yet, I can’t check it off yet. However, we’ve successfully had four dates so far this year—one for each month—and our May date is coming up soon.

3. Plant a fruit and vegetable garden

No progress here, and I kind of wonder if I’ve missed the boat on this for the year. Research needed.

4. Read the Harry Potter series

SO MUCH PROGRESS! I just finished the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Why didn’t I listen to my mother and read these sooner? I am loving them just as much as she insisted I would.

5. Learn basic ASL

I haven’t forgotten the very little bit I learned last year, but more effort is required.

6. Get decent at Photoshop

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m decent yet, but I’ve made progress. I’ve invested probably close to 10 hours in training so far. The other day I designed a quick and easy press pass for something at work, and did it somewhat easily. This is probably not impressive to most people, but I’m feeling good.

7. Redesign master bedroom and bathroom

Ugh, I need to get a move on this one. I’ve been really distracted by wanting to update a few things in our kitchen instead. However, the bedroom needs to be a bigger priority.

My husband is super laid-back about design, which is great sometimes, but in this case—when I have no real clue what to do—it’s not as helpful 🙂 I’ve pulled a bunch of inspiration images but need to sit down and review them to figure out what I’m drawn to. Also, I need to figure out what to do with our existing furniture that is still perfectly functional but not right for us.

8. Re-learn two songs on the piano

Haven’t done this. Ought to do this.

9. Figure out kids’ artwork display

I checked this off a few months ago. It’s not a showstopper, but a found I cork board at Hobby Lobby in January and it was just the right size for one of the walls in our kitchen. It’s not the best quality and I’ve decided that’s ok for now. It gets the job done.

10. Go to AMI

Plans are in progress… 

11. Catch up on Shutterfly albums

I’ve started a few of our annual albums but haven’t finished them yet. I have, however, created a few of the small 6×6 books to commemorate our trip to Disney and a family photoshoot we had last year when our son turned one.

12. Paint the kitchen

This is not done yet. We know what color to do, but neither one of us wants to tape off the entire kitchen because it’s just kind of a pain. It’ll get done… eventually.

13. More planned one-to-one time with each kiddo

I think I could definitely be better about this, but saying it has to be “planned” kind of eliminates a lot of things. If I take my daughter to the park after an appointment, spur-of-the-moment, does it count? It’s quality time, but it’s not planned, so I don’t know. Anyway, I’ve had three planned times with Dude and two so far with Bean. We’ve done long walks together and made trips to the library. I need to get more creative with what we’re going to do!

14. Walk 1,000,000 steps

So as I mentioned here, this might be easier than I thought. When I was basing my goal on the steps my phone tracked, 1,000,000 seemed within reach but challenging. Now that I’m wearing an Apple Watch and seeing how much I really AM walking each day, I believe I’ll hit this goal sooner than expected. For comparison, according to my phone, I walked 73,400 steps in January. In April, using the watch, I clocked 220,172 steps. I’m just shy of 500K for the year right now.

15. Get “jacked”

I’m trying to accept my body for what it is. It’s not fair to my body to look at photos of myself in college when I was younger and more active and then expect this 33-year-old mother-of-two body to look that way. It’s taking time, but I’m becoming more and more ok with myself as time goes on.

I still want to be jacked though. I want to feel strong. I’ve been be.coming for the last two months and it’s making a huge difference. Last night I managed more push-ups than I’ve been able to bang out in years. (It still wasn’t that many, but progress is progress.)

16. Reconnect with old friends

I’m planning to really focus on this in June, which is when my Happiness Project is all about friends. I think I need to give some thought to exactly what I want to accomplish here though.

17. Offer better support to my dad and grandma

I think maybe I’m doing slightly better on this… or maybe not. I think that no matter how much I do, I’m going to feel like it’s not enough. They are both grieving the loss of their spouse and that’s not something I can fix with 100 visits. I do call my dad every day to check-in (which, given his preference for silence, probably bugs the heck out of him) and I mail cards with photos of the kiddos to each of them at random.

I may need to have an actual plan in place for this one—something like visit # times, call # times, send # of cards. Otherwise, I’m never going to feel like I’ve done enough.

18. Try my own Happiness Project

CHECK! If you search “happiness project” on my site, you’ll see plenty of posts on this.

19. Say yes

Ugh, another really abstract item for the list. What did I mean here? Say yes one time? Say yes every time? Oh well. I have been trying to watch my NOs though, and the mindfulness is helpful.

Baby steps.