December 28, 2020 – January 3, 2021
Bucket List Items Accomplished
- Make perogies
- Make a hot toddy
- Take a bubble bath or bath bomb bath with candles and a drink
Things I Enjoyed this Week
I have started three 30 day challenges this January.
- I’m participating in an Uber Frugal Month with the Frugalwoods again. I did this challenge last January and felt it helped me refocus my spending habits to work with my goals. I’m still saving for my move to Japan (early this year please, please universe). I would like to prioritize experiences and more bucket list items in the next couple of months and keep my spending low in general.
- I started the new Breath: A 30 Day of Yoga Journey with Adrienne on YouTube.
- One of my goals this year is to achieve middle/center splits. I am using this Middle Splits Stretching Follow Along video on YouTube from TrainLikeaBallerina as a stretching routine for the next 30 days. Here is where my middle splits are starting from.
- I want to continue posting the new words I find in the wild from books or podcasts.
- Pillion – the secondary seat behind the rider on a horse, motorcycle, or bicycle.
- Leading strings – straps used to support a child learning to walk. They said this phrase so many times in the show Bridgerton.
- I watched no Oscar Best Picture Winners.
- I taught myself no new constellations this week.
Meal Prep and New Recipes Tried
I made the following new recipes. I finished the last few recipes for my 30 different international breakfast recipe challenge I started a couple of months ago. I also made some other things, including some soup for my first meal prep of the year.
- I made Pierogi Ruskie: Potato-Cheese Pierogi with my Mom using this recipe from The Spruce Eats.
- Manakeesh (Lebanese Flatbread) from Simply Lebanese. It took me forever to get to a shop that carries za’atar. These little flatbreads were so flavourful and worth the wait.
- Adjaruki Khachapuri (Georgian cheese and egg bread) from Curious Cuisiniere. The egg and cheese filling puffed up too much for me to add another egg on top, but these were fabulous.
- Ful Mudammas (Egyptian fava bean dip) from Tori Avey. I also looked at this Epicurious recipe. I didn’t buy pita, but instead used some of the chapati I made for the next recipe to serve with the dip.
- Mas Huni (Maldivian tuna and coconut on chapati) from this Saveur recipe. I used this Indian Chapati Bread recipe from Allrecipes.
- Banana Po’e (Tahitian banana pudding with coconut cream) from Talking Tahitian.
- I started the new year with a nice bath and a Classic Hot Toddy. The recipe is from Cookie and Kate.
- Squash Kale and White Bean Soup from Pure Joy Home was my lunch meal prep for the week. I used a boxed kale salad for most of the veg to use it up.
- Flavor the Moments Apple Blackberry Baked Oatmeal was my breakfast meal prep. The apple layer is the best.
Updates
- I completed six activities on my bucket list this December.
- Try a sensory deprivation tank
- Eat morel mushrooms
- Learn to juggle
- Try cognitive behavioural therapy
- Eat a seafood boil
- Make perogies
- In the month of December I read and listened to six books. I listened to an audiobook for just one of them. Here’s what I finished reading this month. The Sorcery of Thorns was one of the most enjoyable fantasy worlds I have read.
- Here is the final update for my 20 in 2020 list of goals. I accomplished about 12 of these goals. I am quite proud of this considering what the year 2020 was like.
- Move to Japan
- This is planned for 2021 now.
- Write the JLPT N4
- The December test was also cancelled due to COVID, so I will have to try in 2021 when I am in Japan.
- Write the JLPT N3
- I aim to write this in 2021 instead.
Save $20000- Embrace intuitive eating habits. Eat what you are hungry for when you are physically hungry
- I’m still trying to figure out how this can best work for me. This work will continue into 2021.
Donate bloodRead 50 Books (I started in December 2019)- I read and listened to 80 books within a year. Audiobooks made up a big chunk of them, but about 30 of them were book books. Here’s my Goodreads Summary for 2020.
Do the splits- Do daily stretching for plantar fasciitis
- I will be picking up a regular stretching routine again to work on the splits in the New Year and might roll some of these stretches into it. I haven’t been having issues with these muscles, but that’s not a good reason to be totally complacent.
Make 30 new recipes. Updated to 60 recipes.Cook more Japanese food. Cook 30 different recipes by the end of the year.Go to the gym, do yoga, take extra cycling trips, or go on big walks a couple of times a week.- I was not always consistent, but I am proud of how much exercise I did last year, despite everything.
- Do the C25K program and run a 5 km race
- This is still on hold. I might try next year once I can get some running coaching from my partner in Japan, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic goal for me since I get bad knee pain.
Meditate before bed- I did this on and off throughout the year. I will be recommitting to it for 2021.
- Get seven or more hours of sleep consistently
- I have not achieved this. I will be working on a more consistent sleep routine in 2021.
- Use up all pantry and freezer stuff
- I backslid a little on this since I stocked my pantry with all sorts of miscellaneous things for my 30 recipes in 30 days challenge. I’m not able to move by the end of the year though, so I have some extra time.
Sell or donate all your unneeded posessions- Most of this is complete.
Complete twelve 30 day challenges- I completed these 12 different challenges this year
- Uber Frugal Month with the Frugalwoods
- 30 Days of Yoga with Adrienne
- Seiza challenge (30 days, 30 minutes goal)
- No added sugar
- SNAP grocery challenge
- Skincare
- Gratitude
- 10k steps
- Learn a new word each day
- Do 30 random acts of kindness
- Do 30 days of exercise
- Cook 30 recipes from 30 countries in 30 days. This was not consistent since I had a long break in between, but I did 30 breakfast recipes, so I’m calling it a win.
- I completed these 12 different challenges this year
Post things online regularly. Update this website- I have completed a post for every week of this year.
Cross 20 things off my bucket list. Updated to 30 activities and 30 food related quests for a total of 60 things done by the end of the year.- I did 58 activities and 69 food related things, for a total of 127. This has been a great year for little accomplishments. Hopefully onwards to bigger things next year.
- Move to Japan
Mayfaring 
Well done on achieving the goals you did and being so consistant in your blogging, I’ve loved following along every week to see what you’ve been up to! Fingers crossed your Japan move can happen this year.
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Thank you so much for your support and kind words throughout this year. Reading through your New Day New Thing posts lifted my spirits many times. Your commitment and the variety of things you did and accomplished were great sources of inspiration and much needed levity.
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This was such a lovely message to read, thank you.
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