Fun or Family goals

Next up, my 3rd domain, FUN or FAMILY goals! A bit of a mish-mash here, but I wanted to stick to 4 total domains, so I put the “Fs’ together. 🙂

Fun or Family:

Main Goals:

1. Try 5 new restaurants with Ivan.

We have had this one on the list for a couple of years now, and have not executed on it! In fairness, we have gone to way more than 5 new restaurants if you count when we travel. ha.

But there are many GREAT local restaurants in the downtown Madison area (and beyond) that we never go to. Or have never even tried. Seriously, within ~20 minutes from my house there are literally dozens of restaurants.

And we go to the same.old.places. all the time! Which generally, we love! Most of the time, we are not seeking a thrilling new adventure. We’re just a little tired and want to hang out and catch up and chat and eat our same old favorites without any effort.

BUT, variety is the spice of life, as they say. I am starting to feel like we are maybe in a bit of a “rut” but are calling it a “routine”.

I think going on at least 5 (this feels like a realistically low bar to meet) more intentional dinner dates- at new to us places- will sprinkle some more memorable evenings into our year.

And I have good news! We have our first one on the books. We have a reservation at Osteria Papavero on Saturday night. Our new-ish neighbor bartends there on Saturday nights and he and his wife raved about the food. He reserved a spot at the bar for us, so bonus- we’ll get to chat with him and get to know him a bit more, too! Should be fun! 🙂

2. Help Ethan through the college exploration and application process.

One of those goals that pretty much has to happen, but I wanted to list it it because it will likely take up a good amount of our time or at least mental energy this year!

We’re planning to get a couple of tours scheduled for this spring (added that to my Q1 goals, to make sure I can be off work/ available as needed).

3. Plan one family fun thing each season (e.g. a show, outing, biking, etc.)

It seems impossible when the kids are young and you are together all.the.damn.time, but now in high school, we’re finding it NOT EASY to have a lot of real, quality time together. They have sports, school, jobs, friends…we often don’t have spontaneous, big open slews of time together available anymore.

So, I’d like to be intentional about planning in a few things, to at least guarantee some fun times, all together. (And make sure that we allow the “2 weeks in advance notice” that their jobs require for asking off, if needed! Grr that is annoying to work around.)

I’m not counting this, but we did all go out to a movie together over New Year’s weekend, to Jack Black’s Anaconda. It was so fun! We also just celebrated a belated family Christmas gift exchange with my parents this past weekend (and all watched playoff football together), but I’m also not counting that. 🙂

Bonus Fun or Family Goals:

1. Read the next Harry Potter book (#4!) and watch the movie. I read the 1st 3 in 2025 (for anyone new here, this goal was kicked off by our trip to London last March and wanting to at least start reading a few HP books/ see the movies before going to the Warner Bros Studio tour!). Book #4 is ginormous and I actually brought it home from the library once this fall, but then my whole “crazy travel season” started and let’s just say, that book does not travel well. haha. I want to pick this back up now, though!

2. Watch a Spanish TV series. There’s a series on Netflix about the life of Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez which I think is in Spanish?? I know some of his music and I’ve scrolled past it many times, thinking it looked interesting. Bonus, Spanish listening practice. 🙂

3. Read a book in Spanish. I meant to do this last year, and didn’t. I need to identify at least one good option and request it from the library!

4. Order a gospel piano book, including a good arrangement of How Great Thou Art. I love that song (and I actually love a lot of old gospel songs). I’ve had the thought for years that I’d like to learn a nice piano arrangement of it!

5. Do my Christmas puzzle! I got a super cool Christmas puzzle as a gift I think last year, and I’ve never done it!! I want to do it. (Part of the issue is that during the holidays our sunroom table- which would be a perfect “puzzle doing” spot (if I regularly did puzzles, lol)- houses my light up Christmas village. So the table is unavailable! I could definitely do it on our basement rec room bar, though.)

6. Play a game with one of the boys at least 3x. We are not really a big “game family”. BUT, we have a lot of games in the hallway game closet. (The boys definitely used to really like games, and probably still do. We used to play games quite often.) Also, there are several games in there that would probably be a lot more fun now with almost-adult kids (versus… Candyland)! I think this would be a fun, low stakes family activity to revive now and then.

7. Bake something fun each quintile. I am not a huge baker, but I like to bake, occasionally. There are also several baked goods that I know Ivan likes a lot, but I rarely make them! I don’t need to bake every week, but I’d like to bake something tasty at least a few times per year. Could be a mix of old favorites and a couple new recipes! Of course, this is also a great way to lean into the changing seasons in Wisconsin.

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That’s all for Fun or Family! I think these feel realistic yet fun.

Speaking of fun, I am loving this new light I got for the bathroom. I tend to use our basement/ guest bathroom to shower in the morning (Ivan hogs our master bath at the same time, so we finally decided I’d just take over the basement bathroom.)

The boys had asked for some sort of fun light for Christmas to use in their bathroom when they shower (to not have the overhead regular lights on), and I found this little rechargeable, wireless cube online. I have it in the blue mode, but you can make it any color and it projects “wave-like” images onto the ceiling.

It was cheaper to buy a 2-pack, and I also enjoy a darker/ more relaxing shower environment, so I got one for myself, too! It’s a little spot of joy in my mornings, now. 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for some open space this week to work on some “deep work” projects (at work) that were impossible last week with all the post-holiday craziness! I’ve been using my Forest app for really focused sessions and it has felt so good. (I love the white noise options! And the little tree that grows…)

Extra Bonus pics: