Last month, I welcomed the new year by making some changes to improve various habits. We are cooking a lot more, and I feel that I am still juggling a bit on my house work and my family time. My bullet journal has been a huge help and I will tell you which pages work for me. I went back to buying my favorite age defying moisturizer with a new beauty consultant. I watched some documentaries and a new HBO show called, “And Just Like That”. Below you’ll find seven of the things I tried and loved in January.
COOK
Planning what to eat is key to do OMAD. Three main meals are prepared for the week and are eaten as left overs. Steamed vegetables and making the desserts also helps me to eat within my time of noon to 2pm. Pretty much I fast for 12 hours drinking only ice cold filtered water, French press coffee with a splash of whipping cream and/or a green tea. My favorite new recipes so far have been the Smoked Fish Tacos, Hearty Lasagna, and Chicken-Bacon Ranch Casserole. Also, we made home made pies like peach pie, cherry pie and mini fried cherry pies. My preferred pie crust recipe that I do use is by Martha Stewart.
HAIR STYLE
I got my hair trimmed by Tara at the Jour Salon in Rockwall, Texas. I just asked for long layers to be cut just past my shoulders and to blend the banes in the front to go with my face. This is my natural hair color and I do love my gray streaks. When I blow dry my hair, I use a large round brush for the ends to be flipped out. If I don’t want any bounce then I use a straightener. I minimally spray Tresseme #4 hairspray to reduce the fly aways on top. I don’t use any moose or gels.
REFRESH
Winter has killed my aloe vera plant. It will be replaced when I visit a nursery in spring. So I am back to using daily age defying moisturizer by Mary Kay ($25). Christi Martin is my new Rowlett Mary Kay consultant. My normal routine is washing my face with warm water. I do not use soap on my face at all. Just a squirt on my finger to massage the moisturizer into my cheeks, chin, nose, forehead and neck. In 2011, I started using this moisturizer on a periodic basis. I do not use foundation at all. I do use concealer under my eyes and on my eye lids before I use eye shadow.
READ THIS CHILDREN’S BOOK
My husband purchased this hardcover book at Half Price Books. Our kids enjoyed listening to us get into character as we told the story about a monster-under-the-bed. The illustrated book uses humor over fear to overcome a child’s wild imagination of what goes bump in the night. One night, when Ethan checks under his bed for his monster, Gabe, he finds a note from him instead: “Gone fishing. Back in a week.” Ethan knows that without Gabe’s familiar nightly scares he doesn’t stand a chance of getting to sleep, so Ethan interviews potential substitutes to see if they’ve got the right equipment for the job—pointy teeth, sharp claws, and a long tail—but none of them proves scary enough for Ethan. When Gabe returns sooner than expected from his fishing trip, Ethan is thrilled. It turns out that Gabe didn’t enjoy fishing because the fish scared too easily.
WATCH
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ The Secret Life of The Cruise on Amazon Prime was actually quite interesting to learn about this massive floating hotel called the MSC Seaside. I have always wondered or maybe I just overthink things. How do they manage the waste, filter water, load food and how much food is used per day? I do not have a desire to go on a cruise, but I would rather vacay on a yacht. It’s probably because I am not a big fan of large crowds and being in the middle of the ocean is just not my ideal getaway. Either way, I absolutely enjoyed hearing about the responsibilities and all of the behind the scenes operations revealed. I have much more appreciation for those who work on these ships and engineering.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ LuLa Rich on Amazon Prime is an unexpected 4 part docu series that I learned about the back story of a fashion start up with leggings that imploded from within. LuLaRoe is the name of the buttery soft leggings that were raved by a variety of women. Never a fan of them and I was not a disgruntled buyer. It certainly became of one of the multi-level marketing poster child that ruined many lives. I would not say it was a clothing giant retailer, but it certainly was a telling of how it unraveled. Hopefully, viewers will see the moral lessons to the endless cycle of deception that comes from get rich quick schemes.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ And Just Like That a new spin-off or a new chapter of the Sex and The City. I’m happy that these actresses want to share ideas of what life after 50 looks like. Many probably didn’t expect it to be as it turned out with oh my goodness Mr. Big’s death! Some blame the Peloton, but I am going to believe it was the result of life choices of what he ate, smoked and probably a side effect of the jab. I can seriously do without scenes with Miranda Hobbs trying to pine for another woman or being involved sexually. Although, the face plant of wrecking her own marriage could be exactly what she needs to wake up to tend to her garden. I don’t expect Samantha to make any returns other than being involved in a group text. Charlotte is very superficial and I wouldn’t be surprised that there will be more drama to unfold from her daughters. Carrie is better off without Big for the show to develop into something. The story of blooming her girl-friendly podcast to help others navigate the rollercoasters of relationships would be more of a budding future. It is the upgrade version of what she was doing as a career in writing a newspaper column and book. Carrie’s trip to Paris to spread her husbands ashes off a bridge was a bit over the top. Getting dressed up like she was going to fashion week and unceremoniously spilling ashes out of an Eiffel tower clutch purse? Really? Overall all that, there were new characters introduced to talk about relatable topics like fertility, parenting and living single.
FINANCE
My 52 Week Challenge is reaching my weekly goals as I log it in my bullet journal. I still haven’t decided what will be the event or activities that would go towards celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. I am certainly open to ideas. Comment below or tell me how your celebrated your anniversary? Either way, it has been good for me to do this and I’m happy about it. The challenge is a task to save money incrementally. During week one, put $1 in an online savings account. Week two, sock away $2 and so on until week 52.
JOURNAL
In my bullet journal, I have been documenting the progress by writing down my measurements on the Weight Log page. Each Saturday morning, I note my weight and waistline measurement. The following pages get my daily to monthly attention: Instagram Growth Track, OMAD Meal Ideas, Money for Savings, Watercolor Commission and a Task page. I did start a health tracker to note any type of illness, but I lost my interest to do that. Also lost interest in doing a year in pixels where you note the type of day it is. Other versions of this involved jotting down your mood for the day. It’s not something that I desired to keep up with. Frankly, I have so many moods during the day that I don’t think it would have been practical use. I did design a book shelf where I would write the blog name that I visited on the spine of a book. I read more blogs than I do printed books.