My 20 in 2020 List at 25% of the way through the year (Part 2)

I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to see the second half of my 20 in 2020 list, so I will just give a very brief morning update here before getting on with it. 🙂 

Yesterday was pretty uneventful in our household. 

Super uneventful, actually. The kids didn’t have school (Easter Monday) and they did a lot of nothing. I wasn’t really in the mood to argue with them, so they spent most of the morning watching TV combined with a sprinkling of video games. It was “too cold” to go outside (I always find this argument very odd, since I know for a fact that if it were 38 and sunny at school, they would most definitely have outdoor recess….) But anyway. I sort of gave them a bit of a free pass, since they had given up TV for Lent and now had it back. (They could still watch movies with the family during Lent, but the silly cartoons/ TV shows they like were out). 

Just a couple of their “weapons”. They have made at least 10 different swords, shields, and scythe type things!

They did spend a really long time making more of these paper weapons that they have been into. They somehow stumbled across You Tube videos with step by step instructions and they have made some amazingly complex weaponry!! I couldn’t believe how strong and sturdy they turned out. The boys have literally spent hours doing this over the past 5 days or so and also used up a hefty supply of computer paper, glue and tape. Whatever floats their boat and keeps them happy, occupied and off of video games! They also played a couple rounds of this new game my Mom sent them as an Easter gift. We played it as a family after our Easter dinner on Sunday and it was really pretty fun. 

I mostly just worked all day with a few interruptions to help with lunch and some questions about their piano theory assignments. I also had a “parent/coach meeting” via Zoom with Asher’s swim coach tonight which was actually pretty much just as good as being in person! This whole tele-conferencing deal is sure interesting. It does make you wonder when things go back to normal if we will need to resume all these in person meetings all the time. Or could it be possible to permanently use this platform for certain things?? Definitely is some food for thought. 

Anyway, on to the rest of my 20 in 2020 list:

11. Go to Chicago around either the holiday season for a day or during the summer for a day to a museum.

          Reason: I don’t have any very important reason for this. I just feel like we never really go to Chicago, despite it not being too far away. I especially have wanted to take them there around the holiday season for a fun day, but it always seems to not work out. Asher’s birthday is in the beginning of December, and he has had swim meets or a birthday party on all of the available weekends it has seemed every year. I thought maybe putting it on this list would make me plan ahead better to find a way to squeeze it in. Another option would be to head down for a day this summer (I obviously made this list before COVID-19). We have been down to Navy Pier and the Shedd Aquarium, but it has been years and the boys were quite young. There are tons of other good museums they haven’t been to yet either. 

          Current Progress: None. Haven’t given it any real thought at this point. 

12. Organize online photos and back up my older digital photos to Amazon Prime photos.

          Reason: I take a lot of photos. This past year we got the Amazon Prime back up service, which I really like. All of my recent photos are on there, and we pay the extra to get video back up too. However, all of my older photos are on a really old external hard drive. This always makes me nervous, and besides, having ALL of my photos (at least post-birth of my kids) on Amazon Photo would be really convenient. Then I could access any of them from my phone or any computer. 

          Current Progress: None yet, but I am actually thinking about getting started on this. Hahaha. I know that basically sounds like no progress, but I did actually write on my April goals list: “move/ organize 2 years’ worth of photos to Amazon Prime photos”. That is at least marginally better than nothing! Baby steps. I think I’m going to pencil a little session in for this weekend. 

13. Clean out Gmail inbox, establish sorting system and maintain.

          Reason: This one is a little embarrassing to post on a public blog. But, here goes. Until recently, my main personal Gmail account had something like 85,000 unread emails in it. Yep. You read that right. I also literally never deleted any emails from it, for, like, YEARS and years on end. It was insane. I just somehow developed this weird ability to not even see that little bubble on my phone displaying “84,682” emails. I could usually find whatever I needed using the search feature, and I tried to deal with anything important right away before it got sucked into the black hole of my inbox. As I have gotten more into time management and productivity techniques, however, I realized this was pretty sloppy. It was a disaster waiting to happen, especially with more and more school emails, volunteer related messages, etc. coming in all the time. I vowed to get my inbox down to 0 and also set up a good sorting system within it. 

          Current Progress: DONE!! I did a mass delete of the Promotional folder which got rid of a ton. I still had thousands left though (like 40,000 emails?) so starting in January I sorted and deleted at least 1,000 per day until they were all gone. I now have a good system in place and my inbox is nice and neat! 

14. Buy: new sunglasses, a nice smaller purse, new sneakers and a pair of Lululemon leggings. 

          Reason: This one sounds kind of frivolous to even write down, but I really don’t enjoy shopping and I have a tendency to put off getting things I need/ want if I don’t make a very intentional effort to get them. My old sunglasses from Target broke, so I spent most of the winter without any! I thought maybe I would invest in a decent pair, since my Target glasses are obviously not of the highest quality. I have always been afraid to buy “nice”/expensive sunglasses since I worry I would just scratch or break them though. Ivan got me a tote/ bigger purse for Christmas last year that I use everyday, but my smaller ones for going out to dinner or other events are pretty old now, so I put that on the list. My casual, go-to sneakers were also pretty worn out so I needed some new ones before our spring break trip. Finally, I thought maybe this could be the year I try the famed Lululemon leggings. I’ve never even tried any on, but am kind of curious what all the hype is about. Most of mine are just from the Nike outlet or Old Navy. I thought it might make a nice birthday gift to myself? 

          Current Progress: Not doing so great here. I did grab 2 new pair of sunglasses in February (one from Loft and one from TJ Maxx) but they weren’t much more expensive than my Target glasses, so I’m not sure if they’ll hold up any better. So far no purse shopping or Lululemon. I did get a cute pair of Keds that I like a lot to replace my old sneakers. 

15. Learn more about makeup application- get a tutorial?

          Reason: I am terrible at makeup. I mostly just have a bunch of random stuff from Target or Walgreens, which mostly works ok…But I never really feel like I know how the makeup is supposed to be applied. Especially when it comes to foundation; I just use a super light coverage foundation/powder combo thing which I don’t think necessarily does the best job. I would like to figure out the best brand for me and hopefully have someone give me some pointers. I don’t really feel the need to have all of my makeup be a fancy brand, but maybe some key items would be nice. 

          Current Progress: Nope. Haven’t done a thing about this yet. This one sort of overwhelms me, honestly. I don’t really even know where to go or where to start on this. If anyone is reading this and has ANY tips at all, please comment!! 

16.  Fix master bath ceiling, repaint walls. 

          Reason: Another boring one, but something we keep overlooking. We have some peeling drywall in our little master bath on the ceiling. The walls could use a coat of paint too. 

          Current Progress: Haven’t done this yet either! Although now thinking about it, we should be jumping on this during this quarantine time… Maybe need to move this up the list.

17.  New basement decor for above couch.

          Reason: We used to have sort of a “playroom” theme in the sitting area of our basement rec room. Above the couch currently hang 3 canvas paintings of a choo-choo train, a cartoon U.S. map and I think a cars/ traffic scene. My boys are way too old for the theme in general, and it just doesn’t go anymore with the rest of the basement decor! I just haven’t really gotten around to finding something to put in its place. 

          Current Progress: Not much here yet. I did look at a few art pieces when we were out shopping in January and saved photos on my phone. I’m kind of trying to decide what exactly I want to do there, though- I am considering trying to frame some cool photo art from our past vacations, but that sounds like a headache to choose and get made…so I’m not sure. 

18. Get new summer PJs.

          Reason: A goal for last year was to replace my old PJs. I did get some nice new flannel PJ pants that I really like. However, I want to get a more summery pair- the ones I have are definitely more of a winter style.

          Current Progress: Not done. However, now that it’s spring, I could probably start checking online and order some (but I’ll probably wait until the pandemic ends since summer PJs are not very essential.)

19. Fix paint at front door and repaint deck rails.

          Reason: Boy, these last 5 are really exciting, huh? I guess I started running out of more adventurous goals to list. But we really do need to touch up the paint at our front door outside, and our deck rails have started peeling pretty badly. I really want to get these both dealt with before summer is in full swing.

          Current Progress: Nope! Weather has been too crummy overall.

20. Try making tamales and pozole.

          Reason: Okay, I’m ending on a slightly more fun note than “painting deck rails!” I have always wanted to learn to make tamales. My understanding (from kind of watching my mother-in-law make them once, years ago) is that it’s pretty complicated. I am not super confident in my ability to do this, but I want to try. I also really would like to make pozole (a Mexican pork/ hominy soup that is delicious). Pozole is not difficult to make, but I’ve never personally made it and I really, really like it, so I decided I would make it this year. 

          Current Progress: Haven’t attempted either yet!

And that’s it! As you can see, I have a looooong way to go before I get anywhere near crossing all of the items off this list. But at least we still have 75% of the year to go! I think if I start prioritizing some of these items, I should be able to make at least some progress before the end of the year. 

Does anyone else make New Year’s goals list or anything like this? 

Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for snuggly boys! My boys both still like to cuddle and are more than willing to curl up with us on the couch and even still happily give us hugs and kisses. I am super aware lately of the fact that these days are probably going to be short lived. Ethan will be 12 this summer! I feel a strong urge lately to just really cherish every last moment of this and I am grateful that they are such sweet, loving kids.