Hi kittens, I’m not dead. Read on for more info.

General Motivation

Some things have really helped me stay on track this month. I was finally able to hire for my department which has been a game changer in my work life. Simply having another set of hands has freed up my time and brain tremendously, which has in turn allowed me to focus and be more effective. In turn, this has allowed me to free up energy and time for other things, like continuing to order the house and prioritize health…

Health

The most important thing I’ve done for my health over the past couple of months is to finally tick off that major goal of setting up some mental health support via therapy. This is something that I should have done a long time ago, but like an idiot, I can see in retrospect how I was trying to muscle through some really challenging things and times thinking that because I wasn’t actively falling to pieces that I was fine. And the frustrating thing is that I KNOW this is bullshit! Had my experience been one of my friends or loved ones, I’d have pushed them to take advantage of therapy a long time ago. The ability alone to create mental space for and talk through the paths in my brain that have become entrenched and may need paving over has been game changing. I foresee there’s still a while to go in some of this work, but I’m grateful to have simply bitten the bullet and wondering again what took so long to do something that would have clearly been of benefit.

Anyway, if you think you may need therapy: seek it out. There are resources at most pricepoints (even though I know it remains a financial burden for way too many people…) and I don’t know a person alive who wouldn’t benefit from a check in with themselves at some point, guided by a professional.

Financial

This month I opened a new UK savings account and set up standing orders to pay into it. We made this a joint one to try and share the savings load a bit more than we have done to date. While this may seem odd and very basic, it’s been due to our unique banking situation over the past six years (both US and UK banking that we have to track meticulously, and US debt with UK income from separate jobs). I wasn’t actually eligible for a UK bank account when we first moved here and we had to develop a lot of work arounds, as well as phase my full financial set up in this country, which has taken years. Stemming from this, we have set up a probably too complex system with lots of joint collaboration on debt, but without enough household collaboration on savings. We have this is in our US banking, but didn’t in our UK one and it was good to change that up deliberately.

I also continued my culling project and sold multiple items. In fact, my personal moment of smugness this month was due to scoring a new winter coat–something I put off buying last year–by TRADING for it with a luxury consignment and vintage seller. I had another piece that I bought years ago, a classic case of shopping for a fantasy self rather my real self–which was still in pristine condition. Due to swapping, I effectively scored a brand new with tags, beautiful camel coat that would have cost me a few hundred pounds on its own for no cost, and got value out of something that otherwise was causing me a lot of unhelpful guilt. Second hand shopping, people!

Grooming

This year has been good for my hair (she admitted grudgingly). It’s taken literal months but I’ve finally found the combination of products that seems to produce a sleeker, shinier strand that I want and feels more professional.

On other fronts, this has also been a good year for my overall presentation skills…but perhaps more on that in the yearly wrap up?

Other

Completed another month of no/low buy challenges, continuing the slow but steady march towards the financial situation we want.

Deep cleaned the apartment and did some more settling and rearranging of stuff.

Read tons of books! I’d fallen a bit out of the habit and behind on my book goals, but more than made up for lost time over the past two months.

Began planning some 2020 travel. I’m sick of talking about it and not making it happen.

Did a small social media fast from Instagram.