End of the month list update: January

When you start the year with a spending fast, you limit the goals you can work toward. A lot of my items are cheap as free to work on, but others require some kind of investment. That's okay. I pushed most of those out till February at the earliest and did what I could...and I'm off to a decent start.

Reach out to my friends: This is such a hard thing to quantify, but I have gone out of my way a few times this month to contact or visit someone I haven't talked to in a while. I'm so lucky to have good friends.

Fix my health issues: I met with my OB/GYN to talk about my depression/anxiety--among other concerns--and she gave me a new prescription. I'm still adjusting to it, but other than making me sleepy some of the time, it's not bad. I also made an appointment with an endocrinologist for next month to see what's going on with my PCOS.

Bake something new each month: I tried an overnight cinnamon roll recipe for David's birthday breakfast and was disappointed. I'm not great with breads and rolls anyway, but I'm not convinced this was my fault. I'll have to try a different recipe. I also tried to make my mom's sugar cookies with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and avocado instead of butter. They were less than palatable. I don't think I'll be doing that again.

Eat at 5 new-to-me restaurants: As I mentioned before, one of my spending cheats was eat at 24 Carrots with Camille. Ah, vegan restaurants. Even if you don't expect your veggie burger to resemble a real burger in taste or texture or any other way, it's still just mediocre. The smoothies were good, but I think people tend to use a heavy hand with spices and seasonings to compensate for the lack of animal products. Hanging out with Camille was fun, though!

Figure out a cleaning schedule: Rather than trying to overhaul my week all at once, I'm adding chores in one at a time. It's far less overwhelming that way, which means I'm more likely to stick to it. So far I've got dusting, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and doing dishes on a regular rotation. Everything else happens...sometimes...but eventually I'll get it worked into the schedule. When I do, I'll share it here so you can see what is working for me.

Write a monthly think piece: (I'm not sure "think piece" is the right word, but I'm not sure what else to call them since they're more...thoughtful than my usual blabbing. Whatevs.) Just this week I wrote about how it's okay to not do it all (and not feeling guilty about "guilty pleasures") and earlier this month I talked about the difference between spending fasts and spending freezes.

Contribute regularly to my other projects: You can read all my Beesley posts here, and while none of my new Tipsaholic articles have gone live yet, you should still check out some of the recent posts. There's a recipe for paleo nachos that I might just need to try.

And as a reward for sticking with me through this boring post, here's a little gem from our trip to Target the other day:

Me: Come on tiny. Come on not-so-tiny.
Mila: I'm not fatso tiny!
Me: I said "not-so-tiny."
Mila: Oh. Why you said dat to me?
Me: Because you are not as tiny as Margot.
Mila: Oh. (pause) Well you are my big fat mama.
Me: ...

Parenthood is the best.