In 2017, I Hereby Resolve To:

2017 Resolutions on Good Books & Good Wine

1. Read four short stories per week and review them. I really do enjoy short stories and I have quite a few anthologies within my Netgalley and Edelweiss shelves. If I give myself the space to read four per week instead of one a day, I think I will be more motivated to actually read the short stories. Eventually, these anthologies will be cleared off my digital shelves too. Yay! Also? I feel like it will be easier to read a short story when I have the baby than it will be to read an entire book.

2. Continue my efforts at decluttering. I would like to specifically unhaul 150 books and to clear out and get rid of one bookcase. We currently have 6 bookcases, including two of those ugly black three shelf Walmart cases in our living room. I’d really just like to get rid of that case to free up some space in our house.

3. Join a gym after having the baby or buy a treadmill. I am leaning a bit more heavily toward joining a gym. I will need self-time and time out of the house once our child is here. I will say that I have gained more weight with this pregnancy than is probably healthy and more than I am comfortable with. During my first trimester I was making such a long drive each day and was just too exhausted to continue to exercise. So, after having the baby I want to be comfortable with myself again and drop down to pre-baby weight. Plus, I’ll be sweating for the wedding.

4. Floss and whiten teeth. I am all over the place with flossing. I know, I know judge away. There’s some days where I am super good at remembering and other days where I completely forget! I want white teeth for the wedding, not that I have yellow teeth by any means, but mine aren’t quite where I want them to be.

5. Earn One $25 Paypal Redemption and One $25 Amazon Gift Card via Swagbucks per month. So, part of what made my 2016 Christmas shopping and bill paying less stressful was that I had a nice cushion of Amazon gift cards thanks to Swagbucks. I also had an accumulation of Paypal redemptions as well. Some months are a bit more profitable than other months, but I find this is actually worth my time.

6. Bring my emergency savings account up to $3723. I started my savings account at the end of May 2016. According to Mint, my emergency savings should be $3723 at a minimum. Right now my account is at $1600. I feel like a total adult actually having a savings account for emergencies and lucky that I have not had to touch it. So, I feel like even though I am taking a paycut with my new position, this should be doable. It basically amounts to $177 going into savings per month or $44 a week based on a four week month. Either way, I feel like an actual adult putting money into savings instead of blowing it.

7. Cut Out Soda Entirely. So, one bad thing about 2016 is that I kind of got back into drinking soda. It is not a daily thing, but if it is there, I will drink it. I had cut soda out completely in college and I would like to cut it out completely again. I am already ahead of the curve in that I really enjoy water, so this shouldn’t be impossible to do.

8. Make it through one month without spending money on eating out. This is going to be hard and I will have to get Josh on board with it. However, we spend SO MUCH MONEY on eating out. Probably in the ballpark of $200 between the two of us per month. I have to wonder if we can actually handle making it through without dining out or getting take out food for an entire month. I figure if we do it, we can put all our money saved toward something fun, like our wedding maybe?

9. Delete Facebook off my phone for 30 days. I waste SO much time just scrolling through social media — Facebook in particular because these days it is a little bit more interesting than twitter. So, rather than spend at least 30 minutes a night scrolling and scrolling, I want to see if I can break my addiction and just not have it on my phone for 30 days.

10. Wake up early. So, from what I understand of my new position, I don’t have to be in until 8. I am a bit of a morning person and I would like to stay that way. While I do not plan to continue getting up at 5:00 a.m. like I was for my old position, I would like to get up at least by 6:00 a.m. every morning. This may be subject to change with the baby, everyone says get all the sleep you can. However, until I have the baby I’d like to continue to carve out this quiet space each day for myself.

11. Get my Netgalley ratio up to 82%. Right now, my ratio is at 76%. If I was not not download anything new off of Netgalley, I would need to review 21 books to get to this ratio. Totally doable — I am listening to one book that I’ve got a Netgalley download for and I am also whittling my way through an anthology that I’ve got on Netgalley as well. I can totally smash this goal.

12. Complete one 5k. So, 2016 I said I would do four 5ks, but then I got knocked up and that did not happen. I think that combined with my goal of joining a gym and getting back into shape, at least one 5k is doable and will make me feel accomplished and as though I am back in the saddle again. Also, I do not plan on being pregnant after Theodore is born in 2017, so I don’t think getting knocked up will deter me like it did in 2016.

13. Take more pictures. I swear, I will join an Instagram 30 day challenge just to force myself to take more pictures. Right now I am in hardly any pictures because I hate the way I look due to all my pregnancy weight gain. I have more than just a baby bump and it actually bothers me. However, I did get two new lenses for my DSLR for Christmas and I will have an actual baby to take pictures of, so I hope this will be more motivating. Also, I do get a little bit jealous when people have threads of all their awesome pictures from the year and I basically have memes I saved to my phone, not actual pictures of things that happened and memories that I made.

14. Keep up a Bullet Journal and document via Instagram. So, I love the concept of bullet journals. I even have a board on pinterest with 110 pins on it. I think that maintaining one of these journals will help me to hit my different goals and keep me accountable. In fact, while goodreads was erroring out, I began making a January Habit tracker in the bullet journal. I’ve decided to use a grid paper moleskine. If I can last through my moleskines, then I will give myself the present of upgrading to a better notebook.

15. Declutter my blog-personal inbox. I would like to keep my blog and my personal inbox down to under 50 unread emails. I’ve had times where it has been over 300 unread emails. This will take a pretty large effort, but honestly, I think that I can do it. Especially if I just get through all my emails that are on there right now and then keep on top of it. I have 60 unread emails at this moment and 989 altogether.

16. Schedule date nights. So, I know that having to care for another human being and keep our son alive is a pretty big deal. I also know that Josh gets all weird when he doesn’t get attention or feels ignored. I am thinking that in order to have a decent marriage we should probably spend time with each other in ways that do not involve him reading comic books and me reading books for blogging. Luckily, there are a ton of movies in 2017 that I want to see and a whole lot of things to do here. Plus, people actually want to hang out with our kid, and we could probably sweeten the deal with cash. So, maybe if we plan for once a month, that could actually be doable. Also, I will not be so exhausted by the end of the day and week from three hours of commuting per day. Yes, this is probably achievable.

There you have it, all sixteen of my 2017 resolutions. I hope I can accomplish at least a few of these resolutions. Let me know what you have on deck for your 2017 resolutions down in the comments!

 

 

 

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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. Great goals! Definitely like the idea of reading short stories since you’ll have a newborn. When Caleb was a newborn, I read a lot of nonfiction since I was exhausted and you can kinda pick up and put back down nonfiction.

    Really good idea to have date nights. Having a. Any can be stressful and I won’t lie… my husband and I were often at each other’s throats because we were sleep deprived and stressed. Taking some time out to remember each other and be more than a mom is important. Of course my son is my biggest priority, but I have to remember that I’m still me, still have a husband, job, etc.

  2. Love these goals! Having a decent savings account is the most “makes me feel like an adult” thing in my life. There’s just something so adult about having a well-stocked savings account for emergencies. So like when my 20 year old AC unit goes out (knocks on wood) I can say “as a responsible adult I will not panic.” Also, taking more pictures… I went years without taking them because I didn’t like how I looked. But now I’m okay-ish with how I look in pictures, so I really need to do better about that too! I really don’t want to look back in 30 years and regret not taking pictures! Good luck on your goals!

  3. Good luck with all of your goals! I’m particularly fond of the one about savings, as it was something I worked on in 2016 as well (and was also partially successful on). Here’s to us saving more in 2017!

  4. I love the first item. We’re having babies around the same time, so I should look into short stories to read, too. Seems like the perfect little something to pull out of the nightstand before turning in for the night.

    Cutting out soda is something I should probably do too. I had a cold in December and I’ve been dealing with excess phlegm in my throat. The thing that helps? Bubbles in the soda. Plus now Diet Coke is aspertaine free, so I’ve been indulging a little too hard.

    Regarding deleting Facebook, I did this and not only have I had more time not spent on the phone, I also feel less anxiety. I’ve cut down my friend list to mostly family and close friends. It seems that my family stresses me out, so I go on FB once, maybe twice a day and it has left me much happier. I hope you see the same results too!

    Wishing you luck on meeting all your 2017 goals! You can absolutely do it! Here’s to a great 2017 (and healthy babies!)!

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