Hello everyone! Welcome to April’s coffee chat!
I love using this time to sort of refocus as the new month starts, and to just catch up. Although, I am going to guilt trip you a bit, as I feel I always share a ton in these coffee chats and don’t get too many comments chatting back! So feel free to read and leave a comment afterwards!
Anyway, I’m making my own coffee at home again. This time I’m using Dunkin’ Donuts ground coffee, putting it in the Keurig reusable K cup, and adding oat milk. I do think the Keurig is probably on it’s last leg now. We’ve had it a few years and after near daily use by three people, it seems that it just isn’t heating as well anymore and it does drip a lot after making the coffee. Maybe we’ll switch to a regular coffee pot next!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, I’m prepping for BirthMay! I know, I know, this is April’s coffee chat so I’ll bring it back to April soon. But I am so excited for BirthMay that I had to mention it. Get excited for a blog post from me every day in May!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my thoughts as I make my way through President Obama’s reading list 2021. I think I’ve mentioned this goal of mine at some point before. Or maybe I just thought about it because I am planning an entire post about it in May. But I decided I wanted to try to read all of Obama’s recommendations from 2021. I think it was a very ambitious goal to start honestly. For one, we do not have the same reading preferences so it’s not quite as enjoyable as I had hoped. Also, there’s so many books! The list is 24 books in total (I’m doing both the summer list and year end list) so trying to get all the books, read them, and read the books I want to read besides Obama’s books is a lot! I mean, my reading goal for 2022 is 64 books, so 37% of my books for the year are just going to be Obama’s picks. That’s a huge chunk of books to dedicate just to the influencer of Barack Obama. Anyway, I have a feeling I won’t finish the entire list by 2023, so this goal might be a two year endeavor.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, Pinterest is taking over my life again! I have really been dedicated to cleaning up my boards, adding to them, and making new ones even. Now, I’ve had my Pinterest since college, now about ten years ago, so there are tons of changes in the types of Pins that now interest me. My most used boards are an entire board dedicated to the show Madam Secretary, a board of “My Style” which I’ve determined is a weird blend of businesswoman meets comfy amateur hiker with a dash of archeologist, and multiple home decor boards. Oh, there’s obviously a hidden wedding board, although I’m not even dating anyone. If you’re curious my wedding is either going to be A) gorgeous glam, B) fancy outdoor woods, or C) courthouse. LOL but it’s still tons of fun!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, my mother has ONCE AGAIN going to Mexico without me! How rude! LOL. Anyway, we dropped her off at the airport yesterday and literally bought her ticket last weekend. I had been joking that she needed to go again soon and she said “oh actually I do want to go in April”, to which my dad said “so, next week?” as I started to pull the flight prices. We found a good price so I started buying it, my mom ran to get her passport, and my dad ran to get the credit card. I miss her already!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I finally started an individual brokerage account! I’d had my retirement accounts, but an individual brokerage sounded too scary! I finally opened one, and quickly realized I had no idea what I was doing. I have seen multiple people saying to buy into mutual funds, so I started there but I’m not sure if I should be buying stocks for specific companies too? And some of those stocks are so expensive! I have heard the tip to buy what you actually use, so I figured Google stock would be a good place to start. I have a Google phone, live by Google products for the most part, and so I looked it up. The price? Over $2,500! I have a set budget amount that I plan to invest per month and that is way over my budget for sure. Anyway, please feel free to share your strategy if you want. I could use the help!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, work has been incredibly busy! I’m definitely getting a ton of help from my team because it’s just so much. I have had to pretty much pull away from helping out everyone else as my work load has really increased these past few weeks, and luckily no one has really had an issue with that. But it is stressful to try to fit everything into my preferred 40 hour week, so it’s been creeping up to closer to 45 hours per week. Yikes! My focus in April will be to remember that it’s not life-saving surgery I’m working on, so to keep those hours down!
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, Foxy has been having a very selective hunger strike lately. His grandma spoils him with people food every day, so he often leaves the dog food and refuses to eat it most days now until he’s had all the people food. If he’s still hungry he’ll fill up with kibble, otherwise he ignores the bowl. The worst part is when it’s mixed with his wet food though, so then I have to throw it all out! Spoiled pup! He also was so offended that the weather was nice and he had to go on walks, that he refused to eat. What a little diva! Now that his grandma is in Mexico, hopefully he’ll gain a renewed appreciation for his kibble.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I have an update on my March monthly challenge! I have a whole post coming up, so I won’t go on too much about it, but the goal had been to do something active every day. For the most part, I managed it! I am writing this a bit before the end of the month, but I did miss one day. I knew it was going to be a busy day, so I had planned to do yoga in the morning, but completely forgot when I actually started the day. So the rest of the day passed in a flurry of activity and I did not have a window to do anything. It was disappointing for sure, but overall I think I managed it fairly well.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my Year 30 goal, create peace. As we approach my 31st birthday in May, that means my Year 30 goal is coming to an end. This is the last month for creating peace! I think this goal has gone well! It’s crazy to think it’s almost over! For me this goal was about maintaining a more simple and quiet life, and I do think I’ve really accomplished it. I do feel like I’m much more chill overall and have a lot more patience overall as well. At this point I have no idea what my Year 31 goal will be but I do hope it’ll be as great as this one was.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you, about my 2022 goal, again, but better. I feel like this goal has been going pretty well as well. I do think I’m learning a lot as I go on and have been doing better with focusing on applying lessons I’ve learned too. Even Fox seems to be embracing this goal! Well, to be honest he has no choice as I give him a daily reminder at the end of every day when I put him to bed. I always thank him for being a good boy or, if he wasn’t so good at least for trying his best, and remind him tomorrow is a chance to be an even better boy. And so we’ve both been doing well with this goal and it’s been really nice.
So that’s what I would share if we were having coffee! Let me know what you would share.
Thanks for reading!
Pamela
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