This time … with feeling

Happy Lunar New Year!

Also … mulligan! For sure, the best part of celebrating not one, but two New Year’s Days each, er … year, is getting the chance to take another look at your resolutions, your many, many resolutions, and … laugh 😆. Cut people some slack … good one, Grace! Why don’t you spin some straw into gold while you’re at it?

Still, we are nothing if not bean counters and uncomfortable truth-tellers here at LBYM so while we may not enjoy peering down into the vast gulf between our aspirations and … our selves, we also value accountability, a term that shares an origin with the word accounting. Yes, it’s difficult to change, but it’s darned near impossible if we’re not honest about the status quo.

In that spirit, let’s check in and see how I’m doing against my goals over the first 35 days of 2019 …

#1 Take the Instant Pot I bought in 2016 out of its box

Success! I even turned it on. Multiple times, in fact. I’ve made macaroni and cheese, Chinese pork ribs, steel-cut oatmeal, and spaghetti. I should just end the blog post here. Peak-end, people. I wouldn’t call myself a Pothead quite yet and no one is shopping for Instant Pot decals—actually a thing—but at least it’s out on our counters enough that my husband is passive-aggressively asking me where I store it. Status – achieved!

#2 Throw one thing away every day

I have three kids. They create more refuse than Hurricane Harvey. I am convinced Lunchables and craft time will bury the planet and doom humanity. I throw away a lot. What I meant here was throw away something substantial every day. Like all those 3.5-inch floppy disks from college. Not to worry. This is one I can catch up on real fast. Status – in progress.

#3 Set aside enough money to live overseas for three months

I’ve started researching accommodations and food in Taiwan (translation: I’ve browsed Airbnb and had dinner at a local Taiwan street eats restaurant). Status – in progress.

#4 Improve my Mandarin

Hai bu xing. Status – not achieved.

#5 Eat less meat

Aaaaaaaaand, that’s why we fail. Status – not achieved.

#6 Grow Net Worth

The stock market seems to be on an upswing and my husband recently got paid for eight weeks of work. So far, so good. I true up this number quarterly, so the exact growth won’t be confirmed for awhile. Status – in progress.

#7 Spend one-on-one time each week with my two older kids

Does it count if I follow my son around the house as he looks for his glasses? Status – not achieved.

#8 Buy female

I would like to point out that one of the two largest individual shareholders of Nordstrom Inc. is a woman. Status – in progress … but—really—could do better.

#9 Read a book a week

This is why I like resolutions. They remind and prod me to do things I know I enjoy that I otherwise would not prioritize. Faced with a daunting stack of books and not enough hours in the day, though, I had to get a little creative with this one. Ergo, I went to the library and checked out a glorified pamphlet. Result? I ended up reading a thin, but impressive book that opened my eyes to a topic I knew very little about. Status – in progress.

#10 Be grateful for all things

Status – in progress.