Sunday Sagacity – Post Vacation Update

Welcome to Sunday Sagacity, my twice-monthly reflection series that I created to chronicle my year-long goal to instill discipline in my life in some key areas. Each week, I’ll very briefly touch on each of those areas. I’ll talk about my victories and my failures, and hopefully gain the motivation and accountability I need to carry out my goals.

I’m finishing up a week-long staycation, and it’s been fabulous. My week has been filled with video games, movies, reading, board games, great food, and more! I’m dreading heading back to work tomorrow, to be honest. It’s been a much needed week of rest and relaxation that I wish could stretch on forever. Don’t we all?

Money – Well, got my brakes on my car fixed, so that was a hefty chunk. But this is an extra paycheck month, so no worries. I’ll be able to replenish, plus put extra money toward debt. So not too bad overall. I did buy a couple games, Concept and Love Letter, but it was expendable money. And I probably ate out a bit too much, but that’s what you do on vacation, right?

Quiet Time – Our health challenge is officially over, so this has slipped once again. It seems that good intentions aren’t everything. But it’s back to feeling more organic and needed and replenishing when I actually sit down to have time with Jesus. I just need to do it more often.

Physical Health – I’ve mostly sat on the couch throughout the past week, but before that I wasn’t doing too bad. The fitness center at my apartment complex is nice, so it’s easy to get in and get out. Another area of physical health I worked on this week was to go to the dentist. It’s been a while since I had a cleaning, so I’m starting over with a clean slate and plans to keep regular 6 month appointments. Next week I’m going to the eye doctor, so I feel pretty good about my overall health.

Healthy Eating – Today we are baking bread for the first time. It’s currently in our loaf pans waiting to go into the oven, so I’m super excited about trying it. The recipe is for a whole wheat bread – we’ve never baked bread before, but it’s something we want to do instead of just buying bread all the time. So that’s my healthy eating achievement for the month. And it’s probably not even all that much healthier. Darn.

Intentional Living – Okay, this is cool. On Tuesday, we went to a local game store, The Rusty Scabbard, to check out their game selection and look for the game Concept. We found so much more! The game selection is stupendous, and we did find Concept (and Love Letter!), but more than that, we found a place where we fit. An employee took the time to sit down with us and play through a game of Evolution, then invited us to a standing Tuesday night gaming group. We’re so excited to meet new friends and get involved in the community!

As I head back to work tomorrow, I have to immerse myself back into the world of people. It’s been a perfect world of isolation and laziness, but I gotta get back up and buckle down on the tasks ahead. More on that next time!

 

Sunday Sagacity – Midyear Checkpoint

Welcome to Sunday Sagacity, my twice-monthly reflection series that I created to chronicle my year-long goal to instill discipline in my life in some key areas. Each week, I’ll very briefly touch on each of those areas. I’ll talk about my victories and my failures, and hopefully gain the motivation and accountability I need to carry out my goals.

It’s been a while since my last Sunday Sagacity post, but can you believe we’re halfway through the year? Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like the older I get, the faster the days and weeks and years pass. Do you guys feel the same way? Like, wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that we were buried under all the snow from snowpocalypse 2015?

Much as the year has progressed, so my goals have progressed. There have been good weeks and bad weeks and everything in between. Here’s a rundown.

Money – My savings is kind of at a standstill, but I know the contributing factors. One is that extra money is theoretically going toward debt. The other is that I’ve spent a good deal of money lately, more than I normally would, on fun stuff. Concert tickets to see Taylor Davis in Nashville, the last few payments on a limited edition Batman PS4 console bundle, a Dungeons & Dragons board game (retails for $65) that I bought at Half-Price Books for $20, and a variety of lunches and dinners and ice cream trips with family and friends. And I may have gotten an extremely early start on Christmas shopping. I don’t regret any of these things, but my immediate goal is to get back on track.

Quiet Time – Thanks to our ongoing health challenge, I’m having quiet time every day. The great thing is that this is becoming a habit, something that leaves a noticeable gap if the day is drawing to a close and I haven’t done it yet. The not so great thing is that my quiet time feels less organic and more stilted than before. I’ve been fitting it in wherever I can in order to check it off the list, but I haven’t made it a priority. It isn’t really something that I’m always doing for Jesus, and that’s made it suffer.

Physical Health – Much like quiet time, this has become something that I do because I haven’t done it yet that day. I love playing basketball and tennis, but it’s usually too hot to do either of those things, so we usually head to the fitness center to use the treadmill or exercise bike. So I go in, do my 15 minutes, and get out. But at least I’m doing it! I just wish I liked this more.

Healthy Eating – This is something in which I’ve regressed. We were doing great about limiting fast food intake to about once a week, with exceptions for work lunches or nights when we ruin dinner. But recently, we’ve gone out so much. I contribute this largely to the number of guests we’ve had. It’s always easier to go when you have guests, so we’ve done fast food dinners a lot, breakfast at least once, and even ice cream runs several times. And my coworkers are always up to going out for lunch, so I haven’t done well there either. Gotta get this under control.

Intentional Living – We’ve had so many guests lately that I feel like our apartment has a revolving door. And that maybe I should start charging rent. I’ve had to be “on” and in hostess mode a lot lately, so maybe this is forced intentional living, but after the past few weeks, I don’t have the energy for anything else. Don’t get me wrong – it’s fun to have people over, but I need space and time between guests to decompress and recuperate. On the work front, Lindsey and I make it a point to maintain our friendship by having lunch fairly often, and I have an awesome new coworker that I think could be a great friend. I’ve also been going to life group, and while I’m not sure that it will ever get easier, I’m trying to open myself up each week.

So that’s it for this time. It almost feels like I’m a little bit at a standstill. Mostly, I think I’m just tired. We’ve had a ton of guests, I’ve been working a lot, and my schedule is just now getting back to normal. Hopefully in the coming weeks, I’ll recharge and get a much needed boost of energy! 🙂

 

 

Sunday Sagacity – How is it June Already?

Welcome to Sunday Sagacity, my twice-monthly reflection series that I created to chronicle my year-long goal to instill discipline in my life in some key areas. Each week, I’ll very briefly touch on each of those areas. I’ll talk about my victories and my failures, and hopefully gain the motivation and accountability I need to carry out my goals.

Got a lot of stuff going on, so I’ll get straight to the updates!

Money – It’s been quite a long stretch of time since Lindsey left and I’ve been without a coworker. Although that meant more hours, it also meant more money! Sadly, though my time is almost up to take advantage of sweet overtime pay, so I’m really trying to prioritize where to throw my money over these next couple of checks. My strategy thus far has been to pay down car loan debt, but I think if I use the rest of my overtime money wisely, I can completely pay off credit card debt! I have also been really great about putting money in my savings account, although I’m not always so great about leaving it there. Sigh. Still a work in progress.

Quiet Time – I have been having quiet time every single day, thank you very much! Due to our roomie health challenge, quiet time is now a staple in our household. Each of us has been setting aside time each day to spend journaling, reading our Bibles, praying, or worshiping with music.

Physical Health – Also thanks to our health challenge, I’ve engaged in some form of physical activity every single day. Whether it’s shooting hoops at the park, heading to the fitness center, or twisting my body into a pretzel doing yoga, I am getting up and moving about more. The greatest days are when my roommate Katie and I have time to play tennis together, something I’m learning that I really enjoy.

Healthy Eating – We finally found a vegetable that all of us love! That dubious honor goes to the humble corn on the cob. Before we discovered this, we were eating a lot of bread and pasta sides because it was too much work to make several separate veggies. Now about twice a week we make some oven-roasted corn with salt, pepper, and butter and we’re all happy! We still have one fast food meal out a weekend, plus I’m eating about one meal out during the week with work friends, so I could do better in that aspect. I have majorly cut down my soda consumption though, due to all the water I’m drinking for our challenge.

Intentional Living – Our friend April came up for a visit on Friday and is actually still here with us. We’ve made cookies, played card games, watched movies, gone to church. She, Jerelle, and Katie are all swimming right now as I enjoy some peace and quiet in the empty apartment. I won’t lie – I really wish I could just spend my weekends decompressing, so it’s always very hard for me to play hostess and entertain guests when I really want to be gaming, but the weekend has been fun regardless.

Well, that’s that.