Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Sorry, Gretchen Rubin – I didn’t do very well with your January Happiness! We will get to that in a minute!

I am wrapping up January a little early. It’s been long enough, right?

However, I did pretty well with my own January list:

-wear my blues, burgundies, white, and other non-Christmas colored winter clothes and toward the end of the month start wearing my Valentine’s Day sweaters – Yes! Still doing this!

-read more and tv less/read more and scroll less/really try to stay off social media as much as possible – I read 3 books! My neck light is one of the reasons, but also I just had more time at home with snow days. I also scrolled less!

-plan something fun to do on MLK Day since I am off school – It was just too cold! I enjoyed my day mostly at home and made chili!

-at least one coffee shop date with Mason – this will have to be on a weekend or on MLK Day unless I get a snow day. We want to try a witch/Halloween coffee shop that is relatively new – We only did the Con Huevos breakfast but it was great!

-just found out one of my favorite restaurants is having a January special Tuesday through Thursday in the month of January so I plan to do that– I did this with a friend last week and it was lovely!

-bake/cook a new dish – Mexican beef in the crockpot. I finally bought crockpot liners so I am more motivated to crock. I only rock the crock on the weekends because it’s just too long during the week to be away from whatever I make.

-enjoy a snow day – if I get one – if not…might be making my own if you know what I mean (I swear I wrote that before Snowpocalypse and 4 snow days for teachers last week and 5 for students!) – this is hilarious!

-get excited about meal prep again – this is hard to do when I’m off my routine/still on winter break mode – yeah, not really. I’m not feeling too inspired.

-walk with Eddie Otis after school even when it’s really cold – no – it’s just been sooooo cold.

-listen to more music in the house – the Echo Show is already making this easier – I am not really doing great with this yet.

-go to a speakeasy – not yet. Did I mention it’s cold?

-plan some cozy happy hours at places that have fireplaces or a dark ambiance– went to Mojito for tropical ambiance!

-work smarter, not harder with home chores-create a routine and assignments for people inlcluding myself, of course – stick to it. – doing ok with this. My laundry and dish routine are going pretty well

-work on January happiness project – much will be the declutter part – not found the motivation yet

-read How to Winter when it comes in at the library for me – with my luck it will come in on the first day of spring!

-start a bath night ritual – I have a wonderful tub and never use it -too cold! I have been wanting to shower quickly!

-re-start my spray tan membership to fake Vitamin D toward the end of the month- it really helps! This time I will go clear and light or medium and no double leg. That’s too much. I just want that – ‘did she or didn’t she just come back from vacay?’ look – not yet but they are running a 5 spray deal for 7.99 if I can buy that by the end of January

-see friends that I haven’t seen– saw one and that was great!

-continue with “Soup Sunday” where I make a different soup and use that for one of my lunches during the week – some Sundays I have done this but not every one

-start planning my spring break whether I plan to go somewhere or stay home – not yet

I am sure I am forgetting things! As you can see these are very “low level goals” in the words of the Big Boo podcast. They just help me to be more intentional with my time and help me to enjoy life more, frankly.

What about you? January goals?

Some unexpected things that happened in January:

So many salads! Erica is doing the garden cup salad delivery thing and we are having that for lunch plus I have been bringing salads to go with some of my meal prep meals. I have been making my own simple dressings and craving salads at dinner, too. Crazy!

I read 3 books in January – that is about my summer number! I can’t believe I have read this much!

I have had an unintentional damp January where I haven’t had alcoholic drinks very much.

Official Happiness Project:

I was supposed to get more sleep and declutter. My sleep was really good after I was sick and felt better and then my sleep was very good when I had the one 5 day week of school. My problem was lack of consistency. When I knew I didn’t have school I stayed up about an hour too late which makes it harder to fall asleep right away – missed my sleep window? – and I still get up about the same time. The sweet spot for me is 9:30-5:30 or 6.

I just wasn’t in the mood to go through areas of the house. I did do the front hall closet but then it was mainly just a shuffling of junk to another area. I do plan to come back to this!

I really enjoyed January! It went by faster this year for some reason!

How did you do in January?

Amy