I MAY have not done much this month

Hello friends! I was expecting to get back to normal this month, but I feel like I've still been settling into things (and what really is normal anyway?). I feel like we've still been in flux as we adjust to our new place and schedule. I also have been waiting for my vaccine before I go too crazy, and I'm happy to announce I've received both doses and immunity will set in soon! 

But I also recognize I've been putting a lot of things off and maybe making excuses because things aren't exactly where I want them to be. I've been doing a lot of research and planning for things, but I don't actually do any of them. I need to focus more on small steps to get started now and less on grand plans for the future. I hope to do better this next month. It's important to be kind to myself, but I also can't just let myself languish. 

Okay! 

Completed:

Nothing this month! But we're okay with that and we'll do better.

Updates:

30. see 30 new international films (13/30)

• I watched four films this month: Once (Ireland), I Am Not A Witch (UK/Zambia), Russian Ark (you guessed it! Russia), and 1945 (Hungary). Once was one that G has been wanting to see because of the soundtrack - it was good because of the music, but kind of just seemed like one long music video. Russian Ark was fascinating because it's a feature-length film that was filmed in one take. And it was filmed in The Hermitage and takes you on a kind of time-traveling trip through Russian History. Super interesting. I Am Not A Witch was interesting, but I'm not sure I like, got it? But patriarchy is the worst and I got that. 1945 was kind of a Hungarian western, so that was unique. A bit depressing. But I think it was probably the first Hungarian film I've ever seen! I love seeing films from different places. I want to stretch myself and see more from countries I haven't.

38. recover last.fm songs

• I've made it up to my transfer to Spotify and I have made playlists for every year to collect my favorites. I've really found some good old songs! And it's kind of fun to keep a yearly playlist anyway, so I started a 2021 one, as well. Anyway, I'm up to 2015, but I don't think the next few years will take as long to work through. I feel like I started getting more into TV shows for company around that time. But I'm starting to regret that, a little. I forget how much I love music until I listen more. It's been really good.

42. complete 10 unfinished series (reading, watching, etc.) (6/10)

• I have caught up on the GBBO backlog! I lost interest when Mel and Sue and Mary left, but it's still enjoyable in the end. And it was one I felt guilty about being behind on. I shouldn't put off consuming things that bring me joy.

46. keep a cleaning schedule throughout the list

• I have revamped the cleaning schedule and we've stuck to it for the month so far! One bonus of having a smaller apartment is that it's easier to clean, at least, haha. And moving into a new place is good motivation to keep it clean.

51. study artistic family tree

• I've started a notebook - that makes it official, hahaha. I'm keeping track of artists, etc. that inspire me, and then I'll see who inspires them, and who inspires them, and so on. I'm excited to see where it takes me, and what it inspires me to make!

90. try screen printing

• G got me a screen printing kit for my birthday! And then I haven't done anything with it, hahaha. But I will! This is definitely a situation where I just need to decide something and do it. Hopefully I'll have something for you next month!

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• This month's dumplings were greatly influenced by our new locale - we have an Indian grocery just up the road, and an Asian grocery just a bit further. It is SO NICE to have access to more ingredients. We did Idli for I - Indian steamed dumplings, and Jiaozi for J - potstickers. 

Thanks for reading/supporting, as usual! 

Happy Spring from Seattle!

Coming to you from our new apartment in Bothell! It's crazy how quickly this has all come together, and how quickly we've gotten settled. I think this is the fastest we've ever unpacked at a new place. Hopefully I'll be all settled with minimal interruptions from here on out! Moving was actually pretty good motivation to work on some things, so I still have progress to report:

Completed:

37. get a laptop monitor

• After moving in to our new place, we finally graduated to a grown-up TV (it's big! and smart!), so I've commandeered the old one to be my monitor. I tested it out playing Stardew Valley and it will be very nice. 

Updates:

5. digitize my lifebox

• I did a LOT of work on this in preparation for moving - I figured it would be much easier to move digital files than boxes of papers. I scanned so many things. Woof! I need to go through and organize what's left, but I am close to finishing this one!

17. create a workable studio space in our home

• We are in high gear with this one! Our new apartment has a much smaller second bedroom, so I am having to pare down and reorganize. I ordered a new skinny table to go along with my current desk for more workspace. I think that will help a lot, as I can keep projects out and store things underneath it. We'll see!

22. read 30 new Caldecott award or honor books (9/30)

• I checked out a stack before we left our library! Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Officer Buckle and Gloria, Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, Rain Makes Applesauce, and Du Iz Tak? - they were all pretty cute. And great illustrations, of course! Now I need that new library card so I can read some more!

40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf

• I just wanted to inform you that since we've moved, I've simply reset the center for my daily distance measurement to our new address. I'm keeping distances the same, and it's already much more exciting!

42. complete 10 unfinished series (reading, watching, etc.) (5/10)

• I wrapped up reading the Anne of Green Gables series at the beginning of this month - and I realized why I lost interest in it before. The first few books are wonderful and engaging as we live vicariously through Anne and her youthful adventures. But she disappears in the later books, and it's sad to lose her (especially for the neglectful fatherhood and moralizing of Rainbow Valley - yuck). I did enjoy Rilla of Ingleside, the last book, but that's probably because it centered on a young person again. Glad I can say I've read them all, but I doubt I'll do it again, haha. Anne of Green Gables itself still holds up, though.

53. get all the Stardew Valley achievements (29/33)

• I was surprised to get 2 achievements this month! I completed the museum collection and got all the stardrops. Just a few left! 

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• This month was G for Gnocchi and H for Halusky, which are both potato doughs, but were both delicious, so I didn't mind. :)

I'm looking forward to getting back into my daily routine now that all the moving work is done. And looking forward to exploring Seattle! I will look this next month to see what can be substituted moving forward to get as much done as I can. Less than 300 days left!

March 2021 - Big update!

Well, we've had quite a busy month - we're moving to Seattle! We'll be in Bothell to the NE of city center, but still part of the general sprawl. So productivity has been a bit limited with trips back and forth to interview/find housing and now working on packing/getting rid of things. I've hit pause on the larger things and I'll re-evaluate once we're settled. I'm thinking Seattle offers better options for replacements than Moses Lake would have, though, so I'm optimistic I can get more done there!

Completed:

None!

Updates:

22. read 30 new Caldecott award or honor books (4/30)

• This month I read We Are Water Protectors by Carol Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade. I loved the art, but the book felt incomplete story-wise, unfortunately. I did check out a stack of Caldecotts (on my first trip to the library in a year!! I might have cried.), so I'll try to read those before we move and have many updates for you in April.

35. watch 10 anime series (8/10)

• I just finished Kimi Ni Todoke today. It was pretty cute, but I liked the first season much more than the second. Still enjoyable! I just got a little impatient with their drama, haha.

42. complete 10 unfinished series (reading, watching, etc.)

• Good news on this front - 3 series have been caught up on! I finished all of Terrace House, ending with the original series and film. The most recent series was cancelled due to the death of a member and it left a sour taste. I'm not sure I can watch something so heavily manipulated by producers, especially when their meddling leads to social media bullying...it was nice to return to the purity (maybe? I'm not even sure now) of the first season and wrap it up wholesomely. I hope they can reform and find a way to produce the series more ethically. 
• Second was the Year of Polygamy podcast, which is amazing. Lindsay Hansen Park has done so much for Mormon history and women in that regard, in particular. It came at the right time for me and helped me process a lot of grief, and it continues to be very interesting and helpful now that I consider myself post-Mormon (whoops - I haven't mentioned that here before - hopefully no big surprise there!). 
• Last, we finally watched all of Legend of Korra. We had paused after season 3 because we weren't really loving it. I have issues with Korra's character and all of the absolute crap they put her through. I like ATLA because it's general vibe is lighthearted and fun, and Korra is def NOT that. Season 4, though, did redeem it a little, as we got to see Korra work through the trauma she went through in seasons 1-3. I still like the original series better, but I'm glad I've finished things up finally.

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• More dumplings! This is turning into a pretty fun challenge. We enjoyed both of this month's very much. E for empanadas with a lime pepita crema, and F for fritters, of the zucchini variety.

Okay, not too much overall, but it has turned into a very busy month, haha. Can I tell you how excited we are to move to Seattle, though? SO EXCITED. There will be so much more to do and it will be so much easier to get out and do it. Hoping for a smooth transition and that I'll be able to keep all the balls in the air while we do so!

One year left!

Hello friends! Happy February! I don't know about you, but I am so excited for it to be March and then April and finally warm again! We are feeling very cooped up, but don't you worry! Being cooped up gives me a lot of opportunity to work on my 101 list - when I'm not re-watching Survivor, hahaha.

Completed:

43. subscribe to 5 art magazines for a year

• I guess this one is done! I've subscribed to 5, but not gotten the full year for some, but it's the subscription that matters! I've done Bound and Lettered, Letter Arts Review, American Craft, and Calligraphy Crush x2 years. Such great resources and I'm so happy to support them with $$$.

95. healthy food plan for 3 months

• So this one is technically done? I tried my best to follow the principles of Intuitive Eating and wrapped up my three months Valentine's weekend: a weekend in which I definitely overindulged and ended up making myself sick. I think it's fitting to end my experience that way, almost, just to remind me of how far I still have to go. I think intuitive eating isn't something I can just pick up and say I did it for the three months. It definitely takes trial and error and changing your mindset completely about food. I have to work very hard to overcome the scarcity mindset - the idea that if I don't eat something I'm missing out on my chance to enjoy it. I'm reminding myself that I can always have more and there's no need to overeat the things I enjoy. I actually enjoy them more if I stretch them out over more meals, and I can always get them again later if there's not much to start with. I've also realized I eat a lot when I'm bored - I am learning to examine my hunger and find something else to do if I'm not actually hungry enough to eat something. I really like the principles of Intuitive Eating, and I feel like it's helped me in these three months. This is definitely something I'll keep working on!

Updates:

2. digitally transcribe my journals

• Okay, so I'm about halfway done with these, but I'm going to have to work everyday in very steady chunks if I want to keep being on track. I'm feeling a little bit daunted by this one, not gonna lie.

3. study daily routines, develop one that works for me, and keep it for at least 6 months

• Still going strong, but I've added more time in the morning to organize my day and work on 101 List things - there's still plenty of art time after that. I am so very distractible, though - I might need to implement some things to help keep me more on track.

8. pick me up list/Sara canon

• I've put together a list of possible candidates, so I need to narrow and memorialize them somehow, haha. I think it would be cute to put them in bullet journal pages or make a poster or something. I'll think on it!

10. create a personal cookbook

• Here's another one where I've done a lot of legwork - collecting recipes from Pinterest and various locations that I love. Now I need to decide how to put them together! Only the hard parts left, haha.

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (3/12)

• For Black History Month, I chose Toni Tipton-Martin who is actually more of a food writer/critic? but I'm totally counting her. She has collected recipes from African-American history since its inception and has published two books regarding her collection. I cooked from one of them, Jubilee, this month. We made sweet potato biscuits, island banana bread, ginger punch, West African groundnut (peanut) stew, and gingerbread with lemon sauce. It was really fascinating to just read the cookbook and see the history of the recipes. She included original recipes next to her updated ones, which were very entertaining reads. I also appreciated learning about the different influences and outcomes of Black cooking - it's not all soul food.

22. read 30 new Caldecott award or honor books (3/30)

• Getting serious on this one now! I read two this month - Black and White by David Macaulay and Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall. Black and White was really interesting - it's like 4 stories in 1, but they're all connected. But are they?? Hello Lighthouse was gorgeous - beautiful watercolor illustrations and a look inside a lighthouse and its keeper's life. Time to go get a big stack from the library and read some more!

30. see 30 new international films (9/30)

• This month I watched Sorry We Missed You, from the UK. It's kind of a depressing look at the gig economy. Yeesh. 

34. curate saved links

• I put a lot of work into this this month, but I'm nowhere near done. I've got saved links everywhere I can have them - Pinterest (which is becoming my main repository but still needs culling), Feedly, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, etc. I think it comforts me to save something knowing I can go back and find it later, but I haven't really done that so far. It's really like reading all these things for the first time. I'm hoping by going back through I can actually take action on them instead of just having them sit in the ether. Maybe I'm happier just knowing they're saved somewhere. We'll see. I just want to remember everything and never lose anything good.

35. watch 10 anime series (7/10)

• I re-watched the beginning of and finally finished March Comes in Like a Lion - super cute, great cats, would recommend. It's very chill, it's about shogi, but not. Very character-driven, not very action. Very different from Haikyuu! I like different things.

38. recover last.fm songs

• If you're not familiar with last.fm, it's a website that tracks all of your music listening and it's wonderful. You connect it to your music player of choice and it just keeps track of everything. And once upon a time there was a wonderful music service called Grooveshark - I was such a fan I ordered merch. One day it suddenly disappeared and I lost all of my playlists. Luckily I had already been using last.fm, so now my only job is to go through the backlog, day-by-day and recollect my favorite songs. It has been a slog so far, but a joyful slog, nonetheless. I've rediscovered some real gems. I figure I have about 5 years to work through before Spotify took over, and even after then, I don't feel like I invested completely in Spotify, so I'll be working through that backlog, too. Yay for good music!

40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf

• You were promised pictures. Here they are!

Adventure scarf! The light blue is every day I've stayed home all day. Whoops! Pink is up to 1 mile from home (aka I went for a walk), teal is up to 5 miles (I ran an errand in town), and purple is up to 25 miles, AKA we visited the bakery in the next little town over. I am trying to weave in ends, but it's hard because there's no back side - I'll worry about those loose ends later. :)

Fries scarf! I think this one's pretty easy to decode - a yellow row = I had fries :D

41. make a 24 hour comic each year

• I decided to follow actual Hourly Comic Day this year, and I tried digital for the first time. You can see it here! https://www.instagram.com/p/CK0I_JZjZMI/

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• Dumplings continue! For C I make cilok - an Indonesian tapioca scallion dumpling with peanut sauce, and for D I made ducana - a Caribbean sweet potato dumpling that got wrapped up in foil and boiled. 

Well, two things done this month puts me at 40 total! What a nice, round number. I've just got a year left now, as my list is set to end on Tuesday, 2/22/22. I'm recommitting to working hard and also thinking about how I can cut myself some slack and modify these impossible ones that are left, haha. I'd like to continue my pattern of increasing goals completed for each list, if I can. COVID put a wrench in a few of my plans, and a few others may need some changes, too. I think I'll take this next month to really examine and figure out my game plan. 

Thanks for reading and your support, as always! Here's to sunnier days!

Nice to meet you, 2021

 It feels like we're off to a good start, but I can't believe all that's happened just this month. What a crazy, terrible, beautiful world we're living in.

Completed:

55. ultimate lucky New Year's meal

• Have you been waiting on pins and needles for me to tell you what we ate? I sure hope so.

Baked Fish - viewed as lucky in many cultures as they can only swim forward - no going backwards!

Toshikoshi Soba with fish (traditional in Japan for New Years Eve), also dumplings - symbolizing money

Cider and 12 grapes at midnight (the tradition in Spain is to gobble one for each toll of the bell - we failed miserably, but hopefully the other foods make up for that...)

Greek Vasilopita - there's a quarter hidden in there! It's for luck!

Hoppin' John and cornbread - representing my Georgian heritage - cornbread for gold, black eyed peas for prosperity, pork for wealth and prosperity

Lentils (representing coins) and Sausage (Italy) and salad with greens and pomegranate - representing money, wealth, prosperity, good luck

Homemade marzipan pigs - pretty sure these go along with the wealth aspect of pigs and pork

• Most of these have to do with wealth/prosperity. So if we get all the money this year, I guess we'll know why! Even if we don't, it was fun to learn about different cultural foods and eat them all ourselves! Hopefully we've at least built up some luck for the year to come. :)

69. display 5 pieces of my art

• All done! I ordered some photo tiles from Snapfish - they had a very good deal and they print square, so it was perfect to order some of my instagram work and not have to worry about cropping or anything. I got 4 of them, and already had 3 pieces otherwise, so I get extra credit for this one!

Updates:

3. study daily routines, develop one that works for me, and keep it for at least 6 months

• I've officially started my 6 months and I have a schedule that I'm trying my best to stick to. It seems good so far!

11. study 12 famous chefs and cook 5 of their recipes each (2/12)

• This month was Samin Nosrat and her excellent cookbook: Salt Fat Acid Heat. We made some amazing chicken, delicious salads, and a killer chocolate cake, among others. I really recommend the book, as well as her series of the same name on Netflix. And if you need more Samin, she has a quarantine cooking podcast called Home Cooking that is just delightful. I learned this month that she came into cooking with no background - she ate at Alice Water's Chez Panisse and loved it so much that she asked to be a dishwasher and worked her way up into cooking. Her approach to cooking is so encouraging - if you mess up, it's just dinner and you can try again tomorrow. I love how popular she's gotten despite not fitting the stereotypes or matronly expert or charming keeper of the hearth. She's single, she travels, and everything is just so good.

30. see 30 new international films (8/30)

• I watched Sweet Bean (Japan), The Life Ahead (Italy), and Downton Abbey (UK/US). Hubster says Downton totally counts, haha. I liked them all okay. I am excited because our library just got us all access to Kanopy! It has a lot of international films, including a lot of the Criterion Collection (aka cream of the crop). I'm excited to watch some there this month.

35. watch 10 anime series (6/10)

• I finally finished catching up with Haikyuu! I came late to the scene, but it's such a lovely show. Sports anime are just so wholesome, in general (though I don't usually care for sports in the real world - funny how that is), and this series gives you lots of Hai-cuties to root for. There may be a season 5 before my list ends, but who knows with delays these days. I'm glad I've had it to keep me company.

40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf

• The scarf has begun! And by that I mean the scarves have begun because I couldn't give up my idea of one for fries and another more serious one. So we have the fries scarf that's a simple binary - if I had fries I knit with yellow yarn, and if I did not, I knit with grey. The second scarf has 8 possible colors, depending on how far I travel from home (thank you, Emily!!). There is a color for traveling no distance from home, and I'm a bit self-conscious about how often that color show up so far. But it's going to be lovely to see as weather gets warmer and I go outside more and we hopefully are safe to travel more and farther. I'll get a picture for you next month, when it will be a bit more impressive.

53. get all the Stardew Valley achievements 

• I should really revise this to get all the base achievements, because there are a few having to do with the in-game game Journey of the Prairie King and those are never going to happen. But there are a few "bonus" ones I'd like to do. Let's just say everything except JoPK, hahaha.
• In fact, I  did one of the bonus achievements this month! Only 3.2% of all players do this, so I'm going to brag about it. Stardew Valley is a game in which you play a weary corporate worker who decides to try their hand at farming. Throughout the game, you are able to restore a community center and bring joy to the town. However, they also offer a route that allows you to support the corporate greed of Joja, the terrible workplace you had just escaped. So I started up a new file and decided to be as evil as possible, naming my character Karen McButt and naming all my animals after Survivor villains. I didn't make friends with anyone and sometimes I gave them trash. It was great. I just focused all my time on making money so I could earn the upgrades and get out of there. I was able to do it by Fall 25 of the 1st year and honestly, that was a lot quicker than I expected! And now I never have to play with Joja again, hahahaha. I'm only sad I can't reap the benefits of my soda machine. Oh well!

86. develop a budget and stick to it for a year

• So in preparing for this, I realized I don't really overspend too much, except for in the treats department. I can justify anything, haha. So we've set up a fun money budget for each of us for the year, and we're going to just try to keep an eye on other expenses. I think tracking spending will be enough for us to stay aware of how we're doing. But the year has started as far as my personal budget goes!

91. play 20 games from Board Game Geek's top 100 (10/20)

• This month brought a life-changing discover: Tabletopia. This website has tons of board games to play online for free, including many that are highly rated by Board Game Geek! I was able to play Die Quacksalber Von Quidlenburg and Roll Player this month, checking 2 off the list. Added bonus, we were able to play with faraway friends. I love the internet. If anyone else wants to play online, just let me know! I still have 10 games I need to play, but I'm hopeful I can wrap this up soonish with the help of Tabletopia. It's a lot cheaper this way, too, hahaha.

96. wikipedia cooking challenge

• I decided upon the wikipedia page List of dumplings and seeing that there was a dumpling for each letter of the alphabet, it has morphed into an Alphabet of Dumplings challenge. 52 weeks in the year means I'll make a dumpling every 2 weeks. So this month so far, we've made apple dumplings (Northern US) and Banh Bot Loc Tran (pork and shrimp tapioca dumplings from Vietnam). I'm very excited for this one!

Whew! That's a lot of updates! But so it is with the beginning of a new year. 

2 more done this month puts me at 38 total, and lots more in progress promise that number will continue to rise. This is my last full year of the list, so I've got to be working hard!

Happy new year to you all! I hope it finds you well.

Smell ya later, 2020!

Exorcising 2020 has been so very productive and helpful. I am going to make this a yearly tradition, I think. It's so great just attacking the year and getting everything done that you can before the new year begins! It's especially nice for those goals you've had in progress forever or have just been meaning to do for months. Thanks to all my hard work (and because some of them have been in progress all year), I proudly present EIGHT! completed items (bringing me to a total of 36!):

Completed:

18. try 20 new ice creams (local companies)

• Pretty great that I'm finishing up ice cream in winter, huh? But we were so close to finishing, I just had to! Though, while typing this up, I realized I had counted one flavor twice! So we hurried out to the store and got one last flavor: Umpqua Huckleberry Cheesecake. This has been so fun. Lots of delicious Tillamook and Snoqualmie, but also a few wonderful local shops when we've been able to travel. I also really loved Umpqua's garishly colored Cotton Candy, haha. Yay ice cream!

31. a year of (silly) holiday celebration

• This month we did Giving Tuesday, Repeal Day, Ambrosia Day, Ice Cream Day, International Tea Day, Wear Your Pearls Day, Eggnog Day, Thank You Note Day, Call a Friend Day, Still Need to Do Day, and Make Up Your Mind Day. This was a blast and it ended up being a good year for it. Next year we are going to look at more religious holidays and see what we can take from those celebrations. It's fun to have little things to look forward to and learn from!

47. go through the Coverville backlog

• All caught up! It's fun to go through these. The podcast is a little hit or miss for me, as far as the actual cover songs, but when it's a hit, it's a hit. It's worth it for those. I'll keep staying up with it!

49. read the apocrypha

• I started the apocrypha back in October and I didn't think I could finish it this month, but the exorcising spirit really helped with this one, and I breezed through it in a solid week or two. I really enjoyed the book of Judith, but otherwise it was kinda meh. Glad to say I've read it, I guess!

58. see 30 new documentaries

• Got the last three this month! My Octopus Teacher, Little Miss Sumo, and Jasper Mall. I liked them all very much. So many good ones on this list, but my favorites have to be Spelling the Dream, Frozen II: Into the Unknown, The Imagineering Story, Love on the Spectrum, Most Likely to Succeed, Boys State, and 63 Up. 

60. r/52weeksofcooking - year-long cooking challenge

• I can't believe this one is all done, but here we are! This was so fun. I would do it again if I didn't have other cooking challenges to do. Maybe in the future!

30 minutes: Curried Couscous

Sage: Pork Scallopini with lemon and capers (and sage!)

Jewish - Very Sad Challah (ask me for the dramatic story and Reddit's reaction, haha)

Garnish: Japanese Christmas Cake (Strawberry Shortcake)

63. [redacted]

• Last one, I promise! I'm all done with redacted goals now.

79. try 30 new salad/side dish recipes

• We are terrible at eating vegetables along with dinner, haha. If it's part of the dish, that's great, but we're not so good when the main is only meat or grains. So this goal has definitely helped us eat more and I love it. I hope we can keep it up! 

Updates:

15. Wilkes Weekly newsletter

• This is really finally happening this year, so let me know if you'd like to be on the list!

40. knit a year-long line-a-day scarf

• Thank you for your ideas! I think I'm going to actually make two scarves, because it's just as easy to make another when I'm already doing one, right? And it's just one line of stitches a day. I'm going to the fries scarf because I think it will be delightful. And then, Friend of the Blog Emily recommended an adventuring scarf - something that shows how far from home you went. Which I love, and I am hoping will show our return to normalcy this next year. I'll post more next month!

55. ultimate lucky New Year's meal

• The meals have been planned and we'll have 2 today and 3 tomorrow! I guess I can't count it complete yet, so tune in next month for photos, etc.!

59. publish a yearly best of list

• It was nice to have Procreate to put this together this year - I think it made it a lot easier to create it and print it easily. And as always, it's so fun to look back at our year and see what our favorites were.

72. complete 12 30-day projects

• Exorcising was just so good. I got so much done! That being said, I am exhausted and may take a break from 30-day projects for the next bit here. I've spent so much time checking things off that I'm ready to be chill for a bit.

I have big goals for 2021, so I'll take my little break and get back to it! Happy New Year!! May 2021 be so much better than this year!!

Your input humbly requested

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!