Hello friends! My humble request is at the bottom, so you have to read everything, ha!
Completed:
88. support 20 local restaurants/business
- All done! This one started because a restaurant we wanted to go to closed down before we actually went. In that time another restaurant has opened and closed in that same location and we also never went, hahaha. But we have been supporting local businesses and I love it. Especially now, we feel it's really important to keep supporting our favorite places and finding new ones! I counted our favorite restaurant twice because they actually had to close completely for a few months due to the pandemic, so when they finally reopened I went the first day and got double credit. We found a few new places we really like, too, and we feel happy knowing the money stays more local than going to big corporations.
99. complete a reading challenge
- The Popsugar challenge is finished! I finished it very early into November, actually, so it already feels like I did it ages ago, haha. My last book was a book from a series with more than 20 books (Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett). It was good! I am debating if I want to do the challenge again next year. It really was fun, but I also felt like I had to focus on those books more than any others, so it was a bit restrictive. We'll see! I think they're dropping the new challenge list tomorrow, so we'll see if it sparks my interest.
Updates:
3. study daily routines, develop one that works for me, and keep it for at least 6 months
- This month's thirty day project (#72) was using my Daily Rituals books (the original and Women at Work) to use different working styles, so I could get a jumpstart on this one. I feel like I'm staring to realize what works for me and what doesn't, and I'll try to do 6 months of keeping to it daily starting next year. I really love studying these things and trying them out. Super fun. I also read My Morning Routine to supplement more and I read about a study in the 50s that showed that more than doing things to specifically increase productivity, it was enough to just make a change. So part of my routine might just be changing up little things every once in a while. Change, in and of itself, can be a routine.
17. create a workable studio space in our home
- So I switched my table from being long to being wide and it's made a big difference. I think having more arm space on my table is good. And now I'm not right in the spot where the sun hits, which is good, but I do miss my view out the window.
- I ALSO created a workspace kind of unintentionally downstairs. I reorganized our dining room and pushed our table to the wall instead of being in the center of the room. I also put a shelf on top of the table and organized all my teas and it makes me SO happy to sit there and look at them. G and I did a lot of NaNo writing there this month and he said he really likes it because it feels like writing out at a café or something. Which is really nice as we can't really do that right now. So it's a bonus workspace, I guess! Still working on the upstairs studio space.
31. a year of (silly) holiday celebration
- Almost done! This has been a lot of fun. This month we had Sandwich Day, Cook Something Bold Day, Rock your Mocs (moccasins) Day, and Drinksgiving (virtually, of course).
58. see 30 new documentaries (27/30)
- A few this month! Best Wishes Warmest Regards (the Schitt's Creek behind the scenes documentary), Cat Heaven Island (so many cats), The Most Hated Family in America (I read Megan Phelps-Roper's Unfollow and it made me want to know more about Westboro. What a good book! The doc is okay. I prefer her story in her own words. So powerful.), and The Babushkas of Chernobyl, which was cute and sad and also so interesting.
60. r/52weeksofcooking - year-long cooking challenge
Apples: German Apple Pancake
Sous Vide: Onsen Tamago
Seasonal: Brown Butter Chai Scones
Mushrooms: Creamy Mushroom Pasta and King Oyster Mushroom "Scallops"
Gourds: Brown Sugar Roasted Carnival Squash
95. healthy food plan for 3 months
- I read Intuitive Eating on sort of a whim? But it made a lot of sense and I feel more drawn to it than an actual eating plan. It's more about eating what your body wants, but honoring your hunger and fullness - not eating when you're too full or not really hungry. I love the idea of connecting more with my body and really thinking about what I want and not just mindlessly eating. So I've officially started this as of November 15th and we'll see how it goes! Here are the principles of it if you're interested in knowing more!
Your help requested:
- For December's 30-day challenge I am exorcising 2020. I want to get rid of 2020 in all of its terrible glory and send it off and say good riddance. I'm going to try to finish up as many things as I've got in progress to start 2021 with the freshest slate possible. I also want to clean my house and just get rid of things and go into 2021 giving myself the best start I can. So! If you want to join me, please! I feel like the more people we have doing it the better. And if you have any more ideas for what I can do, please share!
- I'm also planning my ultimate lucky New Year's meal (#55) because we need all the help we can get to make 2021 a good year! I've done a fair amount of research already, but if you have any suggestions for foods or traditions, I am all ears.
- In 2021 I need to knit a line a day scarf, but I'm having trouble deciding what to do. The ones I've seen before have been temperature or mood tracker based - you use a different color each day for the line to represent the temp outside or your mood for the day. These are okay, and I'm open to them, but I was thinking it might be more fun to do something else. Like maybe a tracker of each day I get fries - that would be easy - white if no fries, yellow, if fries, and it might even end up looking like fries in the end. Some other ideas: number of pages read each day, what main color I wore, amount of screen time, how many cups of tea I drink, hahaha. What do you think of these? Any other ideas?
Okay, you guys are great. We're gonna make it through 2020 and 2021 is going to be amazing! We will make it so!
