Tag: Quarantine

2020: Fourth Quarter Goals

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At the beginning of 2020 I was super motivated to make some lifestyle changes. I wanted to use this year to prepare myself for the next chapter of my life which might include motherhood. COVID forced me to slow down and spend some much needed time working on my mental health and my relationship with my husband. This year might not have gone according to plan but it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

To finish the year strong, here are my 4th quarter goals:

  1. Be intentional about spending time with family. We’ve had to be creative in order to spend time with family and friends this year due to social distancing. I’ve still been able to spend quality time with the people that I love and I don’t want that to change because of the colder weather.
  2. Create a new holiday tradition with Brett. We love the Christmas season but this year many of our normal traditions most likely won’t be happening so we will have to create a new tradition together.
  3. Schedule my remaining annual and semi-annual health appointments. Dentist, PCP, and Neurologist. It’s going to be a busy 3 months with all these appointments but I will be glad to have them checked off my list for awhile.
  4. Save 50% of my holiday bonus for 2021 house projects. My company is super generous and always has a year-end bonus for employees. If we have one this year I want to save at least 50% of it for future house projects!
  5. Stick to my current health/wellness routine. This includes past quarterly goals of spending time outside, meal planning/prepping, and monitoring my water intake.

We are almost done with this crazy, unpredicatable year. Who knows what 2021 will be like but let’s finish this year strong!

Do you have any goals you want to complete before the end of the year?

Photo by Maddy Baker on Unsplash

Change Is Uncomfortable

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I’ve never been good with change. I get comfortable and then I want things to stay comfortable forever. I’ve learned that I grow the most in these periods of changes, in the uncomfortable moments when I’m forced to learn.

2020 has probably been uncomfortable for the vast majority of people. We’ve had to change where and how we are working and learning. We have had to adapt to the uncertainties that this pandemic has thrown at us. We have had to work together to stop the spread of a virus that we were learning more about every day.

To say that 2020 has just been “uncomfortable” would be an understatement.

All of these changes this year has given me whiplash. I’m tired, burnt-out, and wanting to quit most days. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat and it’s easy to forget that we are all feeling a level of anxiety that is probably higher than we are used to.

I don’t think that anyone can say for sure when this will be over. I’ve heard so many mixed messages from different sources and I’ve honestly just stopped listening to most of them.

If you are feeling uncomfortable, anxious, or burnt-out know that you aren’t alone. One day we will look back at this and be able to see how much change occurred in 2020.

How are you doing? Honestly.

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Photo by Priscilla Gyamfi on Unsplash

July 2020 According to my iPhone

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Another month flew by! July was a pretty great month, all things considered. We spent the 4th at my grandparent’s lake house, flew to New Hampshire, road-tripped from New Hampshire to Michigan with my sister, celebrated our Niece’s first birthdays, and I finally completed my class.

All in all, not a bad month!

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How was your month?

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Summer 2020 Bucket List

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Summer 2020 will go down as being the weirdest summer of our lives. A summer where graduation parties, weddings, and concerts were all cancelled. Life looks different right now but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still enjoy it!

Here are a few things that I will be doing during this weird summer.

  • Play badminton in our backyard
  • Walk local trails
  • Spend time at the lake with family while social distancing
  • Take a Michigan roadtrip with Brett for our anniversary
  • Make pasta sauce using veggies and herbs from our garden
  • Try a new restaurant for carry-out
  • Visit Lake Michigan
  • Host a social distancing cookout with a couple of friends
  • Take a day to do nothing
  • Do an outdoor house project
  • Send co-workers and friends cards in the mail
  • Have a picnic in the park

I’m actually really enjoying having a quiet summer for once! My husband is really involved in air shows so usually our summers consist of an airshow every weekend. It’s nice to be able to enjoy some time at home this summer!

What’s on your summer bucket list? Have you been able to make any plans?

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2020: Third Quarter Goals

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Every time when I go to write a new set of quarterly goals I am blown away by how fast time goes by. It’s already the third quarter of 2020 and I feel like the year just started. This year has not gone at all the way I pictured. 2020 started with a huge transition at work, then a global pandemic, and now another transition at work. All in all, not my favorite year.

One thing hasn’t changed though. I still love writing my quarterly goals. So without further ado, here are my goals for the third quarter of 2020.

  1. Monthly date night. As things start to open back up and return to “normal” I want to continue to prioritize time with Brett. Having a weekly date night has been great but I’m not sure if that’s as feasible with our normal schedules. Making the time at least once a month to have a date night will make our relationship so much stronger.
  2. Spend at least 30 minutes outside per day. I know this was a goal last quarter but I loved it! With the weather still being nice I want to make sure that I continue spending time outside. This has been really good for my mental health.
  3. Start meal planning again. Staying at home all the time has it’s perks but I have basically stopped meal planning. I’m able to grab what I want whenever I want since I don’t have to worry about packing a lunch for work. I want to start being more intentional with what I’m eating.
  4. Find a new outlet for my anxiety. I’ve had anxiety for a long time and I’m always looking for new ways to channel my anxiety. I’ve been feeling really anxious for the past couple of weeks and I know I need to find an outlet for this anxiety.
  5. Write down some professional goals. I feel like I talk about work a lot which is probably because I spend so much time working these days. My career is at a weird point where I’m pretty senior in my department and I have some new opportunities. I want to spend some time thinking about what my short-term and long-term career goals are and what I need to do to accomplish them.

Here’s to hoping that Q3 of 2020 is the best one yet!

Do you have any quarterly goals?

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Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

 

June 2020 According to my iPhone

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It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these monthly picture posts. I usually write a little description of what picture is but I think this time I’ll just leave you with the pictures.

June was another month of working from home but we finally got to spend some time with family! I started a little container garden on our back deck, studied hard for my exam in July, and spent so much time outside. It was a good month!

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How was your month?

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Five on Friday #21

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It’s finally Friday, friends!

It’s been a sad week but I’m going to continue to work on educating myself to be a better ally. I’ve ordered books, listened to podcasts, and have tried to be as educated as possible. History is happening right before our eyes and it’s easy to stay quiet and let it happen but it’s important to stay involved. Right now I am trying to listen and learn as much as possible.

Here are five random things for this Friday:

  1. Our stay at home order was lifted early this week. It was supposed to last until mid June so I was really surprised when it was lifted. We did have a 7 pm curfew for a few days because of the riots and looting. The protests in my city were mostly peaceful though. Were you able to attend any protests this week?
  2. I have a certification class and exam in July that I’ve been studying for. I’m really excited for the class even though it’s been moved to a virtual class format. Like I’ve said before, my background is not in finance so I feel like I still have a lot of catching up to do in terms of my knowledge of the financial industry. This is a huge step for me but I really need to focus!
  3. We actually have plans this weekend! We are going to hang out with some of Brett’s friends (while social distancing) in our backyard. The weather is supposed to be really nice and it’ll be good for my extrovert husband to spend some time with his friends. I think it’s been hard for him to not see his friends as much as he was used to.
  4. When I was planning our wedding I got really into hand-lettering as a hobby and stress relief. I still have so many pens and brush markers but haven’t really touched them in a couple of years. I started hand-lettering again last week and have been loving it! I keep extra paper in my desk drawer and whenever work is feeling too stressful I sketch something and it makes me feel much better. I used Creative Lettering and Beyond with these Sakura brush pens when I was learning.
  5. The mosquitoes are so bad this year! We are thinking about getting our backyard sprayed just so we are able to sit out. Have you ever had your yard sprayed for mosquitoes? Did you think it was worth it?

How was your week? What are your plans for this weekend?

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Photo by Niklas Veenhuis on Unsplash

Five on Friday #20

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Happy Friday, friends!

It’s been a pretty challenging week but I’m feeling energized and ready for the weekend! Our stay at home order in Michigan has been extended through June 12th so we are just hanging out at home but I am perfectly okay with that. I will never take time with my family for granted.

Here are five random things this Friday:

  1. I accidentally bought 5 tomato plants on Monday. I thought I was only buying 2 and it would be an easy way to start a container garden but there were actually 4 tomato plants in one of the containers. I have found gardening to be super relaxing so far. I have a little herb garden, my tomatoes, and some various flowers. I really think I needed a relaxing hobby to de-stress. Do you enjoy gardening?
  2. A couple of month’s ago Influenster sent me their Be Mine VoxBox which included the Live Clean Apple Cider Shampoo and Conditioner. I was skeptical but excited to find that they were 97% plant derived, cruelty free, and free from dye and parabens. They are also under $5 a piece on Amazon so they are super budget friendly! I’ve been using these products for about 2 months now and I really love them!
  3. For most of my life I have believed that credit cards were bad. I got my first one at 21 that had a $500 limit to take with me to study abroad. I just got my second credit card in 2017 which is the one that we mostly use for purchases. It has great cash back rewards and I’ve been trying to utilize those. I never buy anything that I couldn’t afford to buy with cash unless it’s a well-thought out and very necessary purchase. Because of that I am able to pay off my credit card each month. I have found that paying the balance every other Friday on my payday is super helpful instead of paying one lump sum at the end of the month. How do you feel about credit cards?
  4. I’ve started re-reading the Harry Potter series and I almost forgot just how much I love the books! Reading them reminds me of being a child and being so excited to go to bed every night just so my mom could read us another chapter of whatever Harry Potter book we were currently reading. I fell in love right away and they are still so comforting to me.
  5. On Wednesday night Brett and I went to my grandma’s house for dinner. That sounds anti-stay at home but we had a nice little social distancing dinner with her, my mom, and my dad. We sat in her garage 6 feet apart and caught up on life. My grandma lives alone so I think it was really good for her to be around people safely for a couple of hours.

How was your week? Do you have any plans this weekend?

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Photo by Max Eberlein on Unsplash

 

Marriage in Quarantine

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One thing I quickly realized because of quarantine was that my marriage was far from perfect.

Every relationship has it’s problems. You can’t have a relationship without fights and disagreements because each person has their own ideas that make them an individual thinker.

I realized that my marriage wasn’t perfect because I didn’t feel like I had enough one on one time with my husband. I didn’t feel loved or appreciated because I wasn’t spending enough time with him. I guess it can be considered a good problem because after all these years all I wanted was to spend some time with him. I craved an at home date night consisting of dinner and a movie. Nothing complicated or expensive.

Being asked to stay home has been a blessing because I’ve been able to spend so much time with Brett that we normally don’t get to have together. I realized how much I missed him even though I see him everyday.

Brett has a million hobbies which means that he is always on the go. I travel with him some of the time but it’s too overwhelming for me to go to every single airshow and amusement park especially when I have migraines. This has forced him to slow down and stay home with me.

We still aren’t perfect but I’m so much happier. I know once our stay at home order is lifted Brett will be right back to traveling but I hope this time has shown him how important our time together is too.

How are your relationships holding up?

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2020 Spring Cleaning List

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I shared my spring cleaning list for 2019 and really enjoyed having it to reference this year. 2020 is a bit different since I’ve been home basically 24/7 for the past 2 months so my house has been a bit more organized than it normally is. I still have some deep cleaning and organizing to do though!

It’s been raining pretty much non-stop in Michigan which means our water table is super high. We have a partially finished basement and have never really had any issues with flooding. This week, however, we started to get a puddle of water on the finished side of our basement. It’s leaking up through the cement and into the carpet. There’s not a ton we can do about the situation other than to try and keep it dry. We will most likely need new carpet though! I will just have to live with the fact that my basement won’t be clean and tidy this spring.

Here is my 2020 spring cleaning list. Let me know what’s on your list to tackle this year!

  1. Move furniture and clean the floors
  2. Clean and organize the fridge and freezer (house and garage)
  3. Dust the blinds and wash the curtains
  4. Organize the basement “pantry”
  5. Deep clean the laundry room
  6. Clean out and re-organize the storage room
  7. Dust the shelves in the dining room and re-decorate
  8. Mount the TV in the living room and clean out the TV stand
  9. Take out winter clothes from our closets and add in spring clothes
  10. Deep clean the mudroom and put away winter boots and shoes
  11. Finish painting the rest of the furniture
  12. Clean out dressers and donate/sell clothes
  13. Power-wash the outdoor furniture and patio areas
  14. Dust the walls and ceilings

It’s Memorial Day on Monday which means we have a 3 day weekend! I’m hoping to cross off a few of the items on my list this weekend since we can’t go to the lake like we usually do for Memorial Day.

What are your plans for the weekend?

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash