Update on January Mini-Goals

January is flying by. I can't believe it's already the eighth; I hope the rest of the month continues to fly! Because tomorrow, life is going to start getting a lot more complicated. School starts; I'll be in two classes and "graduating" in May. To be prepared, I've been doing my best to work on my goals as much as possible in this first week.

1. I'm honestly not sure how I'm doing on my weight loss goal. My weight has fluctuated so much in the last month, between the holidays and being sick, that I'm not sure what my real base weight was! While I'm not giving up on this goal, I am not going to be heartbroken if I don't get to the weight I had in mind, as long as things keep going in a generally lighter direction!
2. When my last class ended, the professor recommended that we work ahead to be prepared for this semester. While I haven't put in nearly as much work as I intended to, I do have a little bit of a jump start. It's still going to be a heck of an effort to stay caught up, but hopefully this headstart will help.
3. I'm doing a pretty good job at tackling my list! I have quite a few things in progress, although some of them (mostly my reading projects) are undoubtedly going to be put on hold now that school is starting. Yesterday, I did cross one item off the list; Henry taught me to install a light fixture. That's one of the little house tasks that people have always told me is easy, and I just felt like I should be able to do. For Christmas, I bought Henry a few new light fixtures for his house, so it was a good opportunity to learn. It may have taken me two or three times as long as it would have taken him, but I have a pretty decent idea of how to put things together in the future!
4. I'm not sure there is such a thing as being all the way caught up for me at work, but I am definitely getting closer. My first day back at work I finished three manuals, which finished one massive upgrade project that I've been working on since September. As long as I keep focused, I should be able to safely attend my forums.
5. So far, I am on budget! It's still going to be a rough month based on tuition and car insurance, but I've managed to stay under budget so far as far as my normal expenses of gas and groceries, which should help. My goal is to keep on a relatively strict budget for the rest of the year; I'd like to put $10,000 in savings this year. It won't be easy, but Henry and I have been talking about taking a trip to Europe and I'd like to be able to go without regret. On top of that, I've been looking at a lot of people my age and realizing that I'm going to be making my future life a lot more difficult if I don't get a little more discipline. While I'm certainly not in bad shape, if I really focus on saving, I'll be in much better shape when it comes time for me to buy a house.
6. My sasparilla turned out great! I actually did most of the work for this on New Year's Eve before heading out to a party, but it's ready to drink now. It was a surprisingly easy process; I just had to mix a bunch of stuff together and bottle it. The longest part of the process, hands down, was sanitizing all of the equipment. My sasparilla doesn't take like the stuff I remember buying anywhere--I remember it tasting more like cream soda, where mine tastes like root beer barrel candies. 

In the next week, my goals are to focus on school, get back into exercising (now that most of my sickness has disappeared) and, to cross one or two more things off my list for the month, try to make both risotto and brownies.