New Years Eve
Before KJ went to bed we played hard with Nala outside in the backyard. After being couped up sick for so long and not allowed to go outside, he really LOVED it!
Did you guys stay in or go out? We stayed in and it makes me feel old to say this, but where it’s safe. Between stray bullets and drunk drivers, 31-year-old Kelli likes to be indoors where it’s safe. (17-year-old Kelli is mortified I’m so lame. )
New Year’s Eve is always the night that we have a ton of whatever frozen appetizers Mr. Hungry picks out (we kind of wrap New Year’s Eve into his birthday, because with a birthday so close to Christmas he deserves it!) This year we started with a leftover salad pack.
Then, it was onto the appetizers! I ate about half of the plate and picked off some of the breading from the shrimp because I hit my deep-fried limit for the year.
While we watched Holiday in the Wild, we also had some of the seasonal mini cheesecakes from Trader Joes, which weren’t that great. We both liked the maple brown sugar ones, but the other flavors were kind of weird. We intended to finish with these delicious adult beverages, but ended up going to bed.
Real party animals over here! But really, we are both still taking cold medicine, so it just didn’t sound all that appealing. My eating has been so weird recently from not eating anything while being super sick to eating a ton of treats. I’m ready to get back to normal healthier eating! I have been drinking green juice daily though! Pretty proud of that!
New Years Day
We took little man to mass and then we all went to the park! Grandma and Granpa were able to join, which was a fun treat for little man!
After naptime, we went on a family walk, also known as the first exercise I’ve got in over a week. It felt great, so I asked Mr. Hungry to snap the first pick of 2020 with my fur baby and human baby!
The rest of the day was spent doing house cleanup and I hit the grocery store right after little man went to bed. That’s it for our first day in 2020!
Every year I review the goals I set for the previous year to see how well I did, I’m sharing them below.
Here were my goals for 2019:
Business: Continue to grow the blog and WTE? Meal Plans subscribers. Consolidate and block schedule my work so that I feel less frazzled.
- The blog experienced a 26% growth this year in terms of page views, which I’m pleased about. Meal plan subscribers also grew by 25%, so it’s been a good year!
- I’m forced to block my schedule. I work only when there is childcare available or when the baby is asleep.
Mind: Continue gratitude, journaling at least once a week. Regularly attend mass and try to pay attention, even though it’s not easy with a little one. Record my most significant success every month (instead of looking retroactively like I did above.)
- I did not do this activity throughout the year, but gratitude journaling is something I miss doing. I usually fall asleep, making a list of things I’m grateful for.
Relationship: Once a month, get out for a date night. Now with a little one, I think this is more important than ever so that Mr. Hungry and I can stay feeling connected instead of being in doing mode all the time.
- We don’t have date nights out every single month, but we do have some date nights where we pick up food and watch a movie. I think we’ve averaged about once a month.
Fitness: This year is going to be about regaining my fitness level, so activity daily (walking or working out counts) will be the goal! I’d love to be able to complete a race this year, averaging less than 10 min miles. I also want to regain my strength, but that’s harder to measure. Lastly, the goal is to stay injury-free, which means I have to PACE MYSELF and probably incorporate yoga 1x/week.
- Except for the weird shin injury I had, I’ve stayed mostly injury-free. The longest I’ve run on the treadmill is 4.5 miles. I feel stronger than I’ve ever been thanks to strength training more often than doing cardio.
Body/Health: Get back to my “happy weight” – so I need to lose around 25 more pounds (have not weighed myself in a few weeks.)
- Done! It took me literally all year, but I did it! I’m glad I took the slow approach though, slow and steady wins the race!
Goals for 2020:
So many people do the “one-word” thing, and at first, I thought it was too general or too vague. One word can easily be forgotten. Maybe, but it can also be easily remembered. I guess we will see!
So I’m trying out the one-word thing and my word is relationships.
For so long now, I’ve prioritized building HH and working before anything else. Before, family. Before, friends. Sometimes before God. Before, life in general. It’s what you do when you build a business. It takes that kind of grit, it really does.
But, I’m not building from scratch anymore. It’s been four years since I walked away from a full-time job to work on the blog, private practice, and teach. I’ve said no to so many experiences to keep this boat afloat because that’s what it takes to build something from scratch. Both financially and structurally.
Now, I’ve still got a long way to go to where I see HH in the future, but I can take a night or two off without the walls falling in on me. I have to let myself do it.
This year, I want to say yes to experiences, instead of always “having to work.” We hope to be blessed with more children in the future, so I know I need to learn to make time for life now before those blessings come along.
Also, I want K and any future babies we have to be born into a community. For that to happen, we need to participate in the community we have willingly. Thanks to the encouragement of a couple of friends, I actually have a retreat booked for next month!
So, my word this year is relationships. Do you have a word? I’d love to hear it!
Other hopes for this year:
- Continue a steady growth rate for Hungry Hobby, particularly focused on providing awesome stuff to my email subscribers.
- Continue to focus on strength training over excessive cardio. Continue to get stronger!
- Keep up with meal prep, especially lunch since I often eat too light or skip because I’m working during naptime.
nice information.