Halfway through February already. It’s like January crawls and February sprints.
Big Goal: I did everything I can until the 21st. I also did the other two tasks I needed to do and I emailed the person who helps me with taxes so they know it’s coming. Nothing more to be done here until Saturday
Progress on the big five:
Y: All done here for what I can do, signed contract, paid deposit, signed hoa form, waiting for them to submit.
G: didn’t find movers yet. will hope/plan to schedule for next week if i can pull it off.
S: Next step is blood tests and the second appointment towards the end of the month.
Sa: no progress here, i think this will have to wait a bit.
D: nothing for this one for now either.
Three Medium goals:
art: I did two more this week so making progress here.
cook: honestly not sure i have bandwidth for this one right now, got the one but who knows if any more.
peloton: still, nothing happening here. the other work is my exercise atm.
insta: honestly haven’t been tracking this one, but not doing terribly most days
Start: totally failed on this one, will see if i can do better.
Stop: yea not doing this
Continue: so so on this one, working but not as consistently.
Brave: trip coming up!
I’m proud of all the progress I’ve made. Things are moving. Slowly but consistently.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
First week of February was a mixed bag. In some areas I got more done than I’d intended and in others I just gave up before I even started.
Big Goal: I did the first round on the taxes. Several of my forms don’t come out until Feb 21 so I won’t be able to finish it until then but I’ve done most of the work I can on the rest. I have one more task I can do between now and 21st so I will see if I can work on that this week.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Good news on this one. I got the sketches, asked for a small change but hoping it’s almost ready to be submitted for approval.
G: Done done done. Now to find movers and space.
S: Went through one appointment, feeling good about the plan so far. Next step is blood tests and the second appointment towards the end of the month.
Sa: no progress here, i think this will have to wait a bit.
D: nothing for this one for now either.
Three Medium goals:
art: I think 5-8 is going to be too many unless we count parts, if so I am 2 in but this will go slowly
cook: honestly not sure i have bandwidth for this one right now, got the one but who knows if any more
peloton: yea, nothing happening here. the other work is my exercise atm.
insta: honestly haven’t been tracking this one, but not doing terribly most days
Start: i am taking longer walks but not as long as i wished
Stop: yea not doing this
Continue: so so on this one, working but not as consistently.
Brave: trip coming up!
Other things I need to do this week: Our trip is coming up so I just have to prep.
I’m proud of all the progress I’ve made. Things are moving. Slowly but consistently.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
Ok month two, here we go. This is a weird month for me cause I already have some existing commitments and then will be taking a trip in the middle of the month and also have my kiddo coming to visit. So not super consistent schedule the whole month. I will still do the best I can to take some steps onward.
Big Goal: Taxes is going to be the big one here. I have to start working on taxes. If i am lucky, I can finish too but rarely do I get so lucky. I still need to work hard to make a meaningful dent here otherwise March will be really challenging.
Progress on the big five:
Y: For this one, my hope is that the HOA work is submitted and, if I am really lucky, approved. If I am really really lucky, work can begin in February, too.
G: Ok the Feburary goal here is to pack the other 8+ boxes, hire someone to finish the packing so I can rent the space and someone to deliver in March.
S: The goal here is hair plan and medicine plan.
Sa: For this one, I really really would like to come up with a plan I like that I can do.
D: Not sure what new to take on here for Feb. Not ready to rent yet so maybe just do pickup at SFO?
Three Medium goals: (have 4 this month)
art: 5-8 food paintings
cook: 5 dishes that are vegetable heavy that I can redo often
peloton: do ten classes a week
insta: no insta after 7pm (too much anxiety before bed)
Start: taking long walks with Sadie (ideally 20+ mins)
Stop: no liquid after 8pm except water / herbal
Continue: keeping some sort of good skin regimen. It’s something I can do even when on the road.
Brave: Not sure about this one yet. Going on this trip will be brave. Can we have that be it for Feb?
Here’s to another month. Paying attention. Loving my people. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
So here we are. The longest month of the year is over. What a terrifying and anxiety-inducing month in the world. It’s been a lot and I am finding myself struggling with understanding how to live in this type of world and the dissonance of the horrifying big and the insignificant-seeming daily life.
For my personal plans, January was a good month, I worked hard to do as much as I could. I had some significant progress and other areas that didn’t move much.
One Big Goal: I did okay on the food this month. Not as well as I would have liked, but not nothing. I found a few vegetable-heavy meals I loved and plan to cook again. I expect this will be an ongoing journey, but at least dipped my toe in.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Lots of progress here, picked one, waiting for them to prep for hoa.
G: progress here too, packed a little and have a plan.
S: progress here with multiple appointments in February.
Sa: so totally did nothing on this one.
D: did TWO trips to the airport!
Three Medium goals:
Started basic skin regimen, not super regular but working on it.
Sort of made an art plan but also signed up for a class.
Did no dance class
Start: Started Stanford class and the Preamble
Stop: Stopped eating in Bed, but not back down to one snapple
Continue: did a little more on the list for trust but not enough
Brave: Sent the email!
I am super proud of all that I did. Good job moving onward, Karen.
And here we are, the last week of January. I have one more week to try to make some more progress and then we will move to another month. I will say that this setup has both been helping me and is being a bit hard on me. I can’t help but want to rush through all of it and be done so I have nothing to do. But I also know that’s not how life works and several of these are BIG items that will take a lot of time, money, and energy and while they are important, they are not urgent so it’s a good opportunity to learn to take my time here and make slow and steady progres.
Big Goal: I didn’t get to cook a lot more this week because I still had leftovers we ate and also we ordered two nights for different reasons. I still have items at home to cook so I still feel good about this so far. I’ve been mostly making healthy choices and eating a good amount of vegetables.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Still waiting to hear back from hoa but got one more quote and about to get one more. I feel closer to being ready to make a decision and get things moving on this one. Next steps: get final proposal, make a choice, fill out hoa form.
Another week has passed. January always feels like it’s crawling and racing at the same time.
Big Goal: My goal for January is to work on prepping meals. Good week for progress on this. I’ve ordered groceries with lots of vegetables this week and made chicken, sheet pan ratatouille with a LOT of vegetables, and roasted zucchini and tomatoes, and roasted sweet potatoes and beets. Most of the days this week, I ate a lot of vegetables so we will consider this a lot of progress. In fact the Ratatouille dish I made has been one of the best things I’ve ever eaten and I plan to make it every week for a while. So I am feeling good about the progress here so far and have some good plans for this week as I still have zucchini, broccoli, and lentils that are waiting to be cooked this week.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Progress here. Got a quote, emailed for a few more, waiting on HOA for coverage.
G: Made progress on this one, too. Researched options, email ready to go.
S: Made appointment with doctor and removal. Good progress, here, too.
Sa: No progress on this one, will do some research first.
D: Here too, no progress, will also do research so I can have a plan.
Three Medium goals:
skin: started on this. maybe not the ideal way but making progress.
art: didn’t do much more than last week. I think I actually want to find a few classes, let’s see if I can.
dance: no progress on this one.
Start: Started both classes. Yay!
Stop: Mostly there on both. At least happy with progress so far.
Continue: Fixed chase account, done with AAA. Still more to go.
Brave: typed up the email.
Other things I did:
Got appointment to fix my microwave that decided to not heat anymore.
Pay Attention: This week people were really kind to me:
I had some moments I wanted to save but now that I am sitting to write them down, I forgot them all.
I seem to still be giving myself a hard time for not getting it all done. So I am having to constantly coach myself to slow down and that I will have time to get through my list and that all my list is mostly nice to have etc. It’s taking a lot of self-coaching to stop my thoughts that definitely seem to be moving at a pace that’s just not great.
Here’s to another week. Paying attention. Savoring and living in awe. And taking steps to move onward.
my tree is up all year round. this new snowflake ornament is a gift from a friend.
Let’s take stock of progress I made last week and what I hope to do this week.
Big Goal: My goal for January is to work on prepping meals. I’ve made some reasonable progress on it. I’ve looked up options a little and I think I will be starting with a combo of three things: single sheetpan, grain bowl, or soup. This allows me to do simple things that can cook with minimal prep while I am busy and allows me to eat a lot of vegetables. I started with some ideas this week so we’ll see how well I do. My hope is to do a bunch of prep/cooking while I am in class on Mondays. Let’s see how it goes.
Progress on the big five:
Y: Emailed, made appointment, person came, emailed and got response from hoa. next step: messge guy back for proposal. prep application. call the retractable place. email hoa again for payment.
G: didn’t do anything here so these are still next steps: Research storage options, prep email, sort for 2 hours.
S: Emailed nurse for the san jose place name. next step: call place, make appointment.
Sa: did nothing on this one, need to come up with a different plan. Work up to 7 minutes be EOM.
D: didn’t do anything on this either. I have to think about this more. Maybe one trip to airport.
Three Medium goals:
skin: researched a bit on basic skin regimen and did minimal stuff.
art: bookmarked some sketch ideas but need to organize.
dance: did nothing on this, this week.
Start: registered for both: Stanford class and the Preamble
Stop: stopped the bed eating but didn’t decrease snapple yet.
Continue: trust: opened chase, confirmed F., no progress on others yet.
Brave: not ready to send the email yet.
Other things I did:
Booked tickets for D to come home
Booked all our college tour appointments, flights, hotels and Sadie boarding.
Pay Attention: This week people were really kind to me:
My friend Michelle sent me tree ornaments I love.
There was a long line at one of my regular cafes, the person took my order in the line and charged me so I didn’t have to wait.
At another cafe, the person had my coffee all ready before I even came up to pay
This was a tough week and I felt really sad, angry and overwhelmed about the world. I noticed I was beating myself up a lot about not getting everything done so I am trying to pay attention to kindness people give me, and to all that I *am* doing so that I can be kinder to myself.
Ok that’s it for now. I won’t officially start January until next week, so it’s a three-week month for me. So we’ll see how far I manage to get.
Ok so we’ll see if I keep these up but for now I plan to put them here because I am feeling like it. The plan is to have a plan for each month across different areas. And then maybe if I am on top of it, I can see how I progress each week.
One Big Goal: The plan is to have a big goal for each month, something I’d like to either really do in that month or make considerable progress in that month. We’ll see if that will be possible. For January, the plan is to focus on prepping meals, figuring out a way to cook at home in a way that’s scalable and flexible depending on if Aurelia’s or my plans change. How do I cook and shop in a way that scales/adapts and is suitable for our life?
Progress on the big five:
Y: Email the company, see if I can make an appointment.
G: Research storage options, prep email, sort for 2 hours.
S: Email nurse for the san jose place name.
Sa: Work up to 7 minutes be EOM.
D: I have to think about this more. Maybe one trip to airport.
Three Medium goals:
Start basic skin regimen
Make an art plan (bookmark photos to paint)
Do one dance class
Start: Stanford class and the Preamble
Stop: Eating in Bed, back down to one snapple
Continue: Going through the list for trust
Brave: Send the email
Ok that’s it for now. I won’t officially start January until next week, so it’s a three-week month for me. So we’ll see how far I manage to get.
