As a combination money-saver, stress-reducer, and positive environmental impact I’ve sold my car! I’m attempting to utilize my bike, electric bikes/scooters, and ride-sharing more.

Do you have any other ideas I should consider to reduce my waste?

My goal this month was to follow the Blogilates Glutes challenge. I also followed the Blogilates abs and squats challenges as well. I did modify the challenges by taking Wednesdays off and towards the end of the month I took a few days off as well so that I have 5 more days of challenge to finish in the month of September to complete the three challenges.

Here are my fitness stats for the month:

1. Biking: 74.6 miles
2. Pole classes: 4

Turkish language progress:

I now have 1,299 Anki cards. I’ve done 5,771 reviews. I have spent 6:05:12 reviewing with an average of 52 reviews per day. My grade is 68% D. It appears some data was lost as my time and reviews has gone down since last month. I’ve also missed a few days’ reviews this month.

I fell behind in my Rosetta Stone and have to catch up to finish Unit 9 this week! I will also have to work extra diligently to complete Unit 10 this month since I will be “on vacation” for 10 days.

I purchased a yearly subscription to Memrise and will start incorporating daily practice with that app. I also have been utilizing the daily lesson in Mondly (free).

I tried out a Skype session with a live person from Turkey to see how personalized lessons would work. I wasn’t thrilled with the technology of Skype and it was difficult to understand the trainer at times. The sound quality left something to be desired as well. I don’t think continuing is worth the price at this time. Perhaps I will consider it again when I have finished all the Rosetta Stone units.

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I’m doing this by earning more money, spending less money, and investing the money that I do have. Here is my monthly budget spreadsheet:

After getting my car in tip-top shape (replacing the timing belt), I sold it! Here are the final cost stats: $249.67 each month to legally own and drive my own car 🙂 – this is equivalent to paying $0.26/mile!

My writing goals!! I am considering self-publishing my middle grade fantasy that has been sitting for several years. I would want this to be published in time for the holidays and holiday sales. This would be my only middle grade book and I could then have an offering for younger readers. I also am in love with the cover art – I had it made by an artist whose work I adore = Donavon.

I nabbed three books from the library on plotting:

1. 90 Days to your Novel
   A Day-by-day Plan for Outlining & Writing your Book
   by Domet, Sarah
2. Fast Fiction
   A Guide to Outlining and Writing A First Draft Novel in Thirty Days
   by Jaden, Denise
3. Take Off your Pants!
   Outline your Books for Faster, Better Writing
   by Hawker, Libbie

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!

Here is my April goal check in blog post!

Here is my May goal check in blog post!

Here is my June goal check in blog post!

Here is my July goal check in blog post!

I’ve discovered more local fruit that I can forage! It’s raspberry season now and there are a lot of plums that are ripe. I believe that I have a mini plum tree in my own front yard! I also know of a location of a very productive plum tree and they are almost perfectly ripe! My housemate has a dehydrator that I played around with to dry out pineapple, apple, banana, orange, raspberry, and plum, as well as make some fruit leather. I can’t wait for the apples and pears to ripen so I can dry out a whole batch of them. I wonder how long they will last in my jars? Is there something I can do to make them last longer? I’ve also found some already ripened blackberries and have frozen a bunch and juiced some more. I’ve been making my own blackberry vinaigrette with them. The juice I made was a complete mess, but the juice is thick and delicious! If I can juice the blackberries in a larger volume and de-seed it, I can freeze it to use later in the year. Maybe I’ll make blackberry ice cubes?

I’m uncertain, but are these golden raspberries?

Do you have any other ideas I should consider to reduce my waste?

My goals this month were to bike at least 25 miles, take 4 dance classes, and do 4 strength training workouts. I met all three of these goals!

I went to exactly 5 pole classes, biked a total of 50.3 miles, and did 4 strength training sessions. Go me!

My goal in August is to follow the Blogilates Glutes challenge. I also want to throw in the abs challenge again.

Turkish language progress:

I now have 1,274 Anki cards. I’ve done 5,898 reviews. I have spent 6:07:28 reviewing with an average of 56 reviews per day. My grade is 72% C. I stopped adding so many new vocabulary words and want to focus on phrase building and grammar. I’m trying to find a course or tutor but it’s difficult as Turkish isn’t taught in all the schools around here. Any recommendations for a language learning program? I downloaded a few more apps to try out, like Mondly. I should be spending more time daily on my language learning but am having trouble figuring out what to study and how to study it without a strict follow-along type course such as my Rosetta Stone lessons. Speaking of Rosetta Stone, I’m now ready to start Unit 9! There are only 12 units in my Rosetta Stone but that seems silly. Shouldn’t there be more? I will have to find out if the course continues beyond what my app has downloaded.

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I’m doing this by earning more money, spending less money, and investing the money that I do have. Here is my monthly budget spreadsheet:

After watching the millennial money on CNBC and the Graham Stephan Show React videos like this one, I decided to make a chart of my average monthly spending (an aggregate over the last 6 months):

My writing goals!! Sigh. Remember how fired up I was about accomplishing some of my writing goals? Well, I didn’t do a single thing towards accomplishing them in July. I still just don’t want to and I guess my focus really is elsewhere. When I have free time, I’d rather be outside, work out, take a pole class, watch a movie, or read a book. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick it back up in November with NaNoWriMo. I’ll still check in on my writing, but I won’t have high expectations for now.

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!

Here is my April goal check in blog post!

Here is my May goal check in blog post!

Here is my June goal check in blog post!

I found a wonderful boxed cinnamon roll mix that was fabulous!

I’ve been making more GF avocado toasts! I just take two plain rice cakes and spread with fresh avocado. I like to top them with a pinch of sea salt and pepper.

This year I finally made it out to the Seattle Street Food festival and had the best corn of my life and the worst donuts (Hot Revolution Donuts) of my life. We also tried out some dumplings from Kathmandu MoMoCha that were good.

I’ve been testing out my Eco-Nuts laundry detergent and I think I love them! I accidentally left the small cloth bag in my laundry full of nuts and it went through the dryer… but other than that they have worked amazingly!

Sadly, most of my seed starts have died but I have three small tomato plants, 3 squash humps (with 2-4 plants in each), 2 zucchini humps (with 2-3 plants in each), a cucumber hump (with 2-3 plants in it), and turnip leaves growing! I don’t think the carrots I planted made it since I don’t see any sprouting above ground. My indoor basil plant is dying and the plants in a jar (basil and mint) both died. I’m really hopeful that my squash, zucchini, and cucumbers will grow this summer though. I have also been scouting out possible foraging opportunities with the Falling Fruit app but have so far had no luck finding cherry or plum trees. I also am unsure when cherries are in season around here… I do have my sights set on a local plum tree (not listed on the app) and have been checking their ripeness weekly. I hope to dehydrate/dry the plums I pick.

On my travels out of state I was not particularly zero waste, sadly, but it got me thinking about the difficulties in reducing single-use items while traveling.

Do you have any other ideas I should consider to reduce my waste?

As far as fitness goals go: Though I signed up to participate in the Blogilates June Summer Sculpt program, I quickly ditched it as I was incredibly busy the first few weeks of the month traveling and taking a class for work. I want to take more dance classes in July and bike over 25 miles (hopefully some of those miles will be biked instead of driven).

I reached a landmark progress goal in my pole-dance career on 6/25 this month!

1. Total pole classes I’ve taken: 388

2. Total years spent poling= 5 (with a year break between pole 101 graduation and my next class)

3. Total money I’ve spent on pole classes: $6,546 (average of $17/class)

4. Total hours spent poling in classes: 616.5 hours = 25.7 days = 36,990 minutes

5. Total instructors I’ve had: 34

6. Total studios I’ve gone to: 11

I’ve performed in front of audiences three times!

Turkish language progress:

I now have 1,176 Anki cards. I’ve done 4,537 reviews. I have spent 4:58:46 reviewing with an average of 56 reviews per day. My grade is 67% D.

July 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 8 finished, word of the day in Anki, Rosetta Stone in Anki, Grammar study
August 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 9 finished, word of the day in Anki, Rosetta Stone in Anki, 100 Anki common Turkish vocabulary
September 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 10 finished, word of the day in Anki, Rosetta Stone in Anki, Grammar study
October 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 11 finished, word of the day in Anki, Rosetta Stone in Anki, 100 Anki common Turkish vocabulary
November 2019: Rosetta Stone Unit 12 finished, word of the day in Anki, Rosetta Stone in Anki, Grammar study, take a placement test

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I’m doing this by earning more money, spending less money, and investing the money that I do have. Here is my monthly budget spreadsheet:

My writing goals!! I wrote out a month-by-month plan to accomplish my writing goals.

July – Sell 1-2 At One’s Beast books for at least $11 to break even. Sell 1 Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things over $1.04 to start making a profit. Sell 1 Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams book over $1.64 to start making a profit. Redo the draft on my children’s picture book. Perhaps collaborate? Research illustrators and publishers for the book. Update to my author website.

August – Send out Flora to a new beta reader and get feedback. Find a geneologist to comment on the geneology aspects of the book and add in more genetics background for the magic. Research publishers to send Flora out to. Plan book specials for the fall/winter online.

September – Outline Aster & Tilde 5-book series completely. Re-read Aster & Tilde book 1 and edit according to the master outline

October – Write every day and work on Aster & Tilde Book 2

November – Participate in NaNoWriMo and finish writing Aster & Tilde Book 2

December – ??

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!

Here is my April goal check in blog post!

Here is my May goal check in blog post!

Maple Valley Days annual volunteering/book-selling event 

Donut adventures in Los Angeles, California

Veggie Fest in Redmond

Indie Author Night at Brick & Mortar Books

Stars Wars in Concert!