First Month Recap

Here it is February!

January was not too bad. I was so busy with work and getting my new small group study ready.

I'm looking back on the first month of 2020 and decided to recap it.

My goals for the year were written down and begun!

One of my goals is to hike on 10 new trails by June.  Well, I hiked 3 times in January and 2 of those times were new to me trails.  Another one will be hiked tomorrow if the weather continues to be mild.

I guess I've had a good start as I thought I wouldn't be able to even begin this goal until mid-March but due to the mild winter we've had so far here in eastern NY, I've been able to carve out some hiking time on the weekends.

I've started reading in Jeremiah as one of my spiritual goals is to complete all the major prophets in the Old Testament this year. 

I'm doing pretty well with not going on social media (specifically Facebook) as much and instead am reading more and watching some movies that were on my want to see list.  We have Netflix so this makes that goal a lot more reachable.

Also, my personal physical fitness goal is to work out cardio 5 days a week.  I'm not doing all that great with this but I think some of it is because my shoulder and neck are still being worked on by my chiropractor.  The first week of January I worked out 5 times but 2 were just ball and yoga stretches.  Then I worked out cardio for 3 days, then the next week 4 days and this past week NONE!  Yikes.  I need to get moving. I'll be happy if in February I can get 4 work-outs a week in and then hopefully I'll begin to increase it to 5 days.

I've been doing pretty well with cutting out refined sugars in my daily meals.  What helped so far is that I gave up wine and cocktails for the month of January.  I haven't lost the 7 lbs I want to lose but at least I'm more intentional about what's going into my body and I haven't gained weight so that's good!

One of my  goals is to be more intentional about doing face time with friends.  I've actually had to put a boundary around a  relationship that has become a bit toxic.  I won't go into details but let's just say it's been very free-ing! I'm done with negativity and drama and judgmental attitudes...i don't need those kinds of people in my life. 

Anyways, so I've had a good conversation and prayer time with my spiritual mentor over the phone as well as have had dinner out with one of my very close friends (Lynn).  And I sent a card to my cousin Matthew who is in an assisted living facility out in central NYS.

Dave and I haven't gone on any dates yet this year but we did have a lovely in-home date last Friday evening.  It was just the perfect way to relax after a very hectic week.

In January, the preschool agency where I teach children with special needs hired a new Site Coordinator and she starts Monday. I signed up to organize a welcome breakfast for her and bought her a nice plant to welcome her to our site.  She was a special education teacher where I used to work as an aide in the public schools.  Also one of my team members is leaving to go work elsewhere and we hired a new young lady to be the other TA in our classroom.  My friend from church, Cindy, is now working for the agency as well, at our site, as a classroom 1:1 aide and sometimes she subs in my room!  Work was very busy this past month.

At home:  we had Claire with us for the first part of January and then she headed back to UNH for Spring Semester and moved her self into her new dorm room.  She's into her 2nd full week of classes and is very busy rehearsing 2 nights a week with the Dance Company for their big show in April.  Dave and I bought tickets to the show and made our hotel reservation.  We also made plans to visit pastor friends of ours who have a church somewhere in NH.  We will be visiting them the day after the show.  I ordered tickets to go see one of my fave authors at a bookstore in Vermont the end of March.  My sister Joy is going to go with me.  It's something fun to look forward to.  Dave and I have both been increasing our Scripture reading time and praying.  We are both in small groups (his is every Monday morning before work, at the church, and I lead one in our home every other Wednesday evening). Our oldest daughter has been busy with her job and she also joined a new young woman's Small group study held at the church every Tuesday evening.  We are getting a real taste of the empty nest these days as she is coming directly home from work less and less.

I've read 3 fiction books this month and finished up 2 other books (a prayer journal I began last January 2019 and a fiction book I started during Christmas break).  

I'm currently reading a fiction book, a memoir, my bible study booklet, and the book of Jeremiah in the New King James Version.  I'm also doing an online Bible study via the You version Bible app with a friend from my neighbor's church called Crazy for You.  It's excellent! And I completed a devotional about the power of prayer and I completed one I did with my cousin Trisha online.

I've written 3 blog posts centered around my Word of the Year (Thrive). 

Well that pretty much sums up January.  How was your first month of the year?