Yikes, fam, I’ve not updated against this in a long time. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but there’s kind of a lot on!

Let’s whiz through this, okay?

Money

My credit rating is officially “Excellent” and we’re nearly out of credit card debt. It should be gone before the end of the year.

Relationships

This summer I’ve actually been doing a lot more chatting and bonding with my siblings, even though we are literally scattered across three continents right now. I’ve not been as good a friend as I would wish and am definitely going to correct that moving into fall.

Basic Bitch

My weight continues to bother me, but I’ve made some minor lifestyle adjustments that I hope will have some positive impact. There’s a pandemic on, ya know? I’m not happy with my weight, but I’m also not going to beat myself up about it more than is healthy.

Elsewhere

Reading for pure, unadulterated fun. I’ve downed a political biography of Putin, discovered and devoured a new romance author, and am currently making my way through the hilarious Kevin Kwan’s latest. Read everything, kittens.

Currently I’m doing a no-buy challenge with X. — who, let the record show — has already broken hers! But it was for a thrift store find of a “Knives Out” style sweater so we shame her, but we also forgive her.

Double checked my voter registration.

Listened to albums.

Swapped over my wardrobe for the encroaching cool weather – I’m delighted!

There, now that we’re through that, what do we think about goals in the year 2020? I swing back and forth between thinking they are valuable and useless this year. I honestly can’t decide if it’s healthier to accept the losses of this year or rage against the dying of the night, or whatever.

This month we’re taking it easy when we need to and going hard when required. We’re rewatching our favorite TV shows or movies instead of trying to get invested in the lastest prestige drama. We’re swapping out the beach days for long calls with friends for the same vibe. We’re eschewing makeup for skincare. We’re girding our loins for annual budget battles and committing to using any clout we have in our professional spaces to other peoples’ benefit. We’re not avoiding hard conversations. We might be working from home and unable to travel to see family, but we’re doubling down on staying connected anyway.

What energy are you bringing to July, my doves?

While clearly I made this board prior to the explosion of bad news, I’m harnessing summer energy this month regardless.

If we’re lucky we will travel to the States to see my husband’s family – though we’re keeping an eye on everything and there’s still a chance this isn’t happening. We’re eating well and exercising daily. We’re watching our wallets. We’re keeping ourselves steady in an unsteady world so we can then turn energy outward.

And yeah, summer is protest season. I’m signed up for two so far. I encourage you to do the same.

Another weird month in lockdown, a lot of plans disrupted, a lot of progress to celebrate or report back on.

Money

After a lot of governmental shenanigans, stimulus checks arrived for expats and we put ours straight towards debt without hesitating. The ‘Rona may still hold sway but we are staying steely-eyed and focused.

Money was spent however, especially since I shredded my athletic shoes and put irreparable holes in my workout pants – in the crotch and thighs no less. Fetching! Both were replaced. We picked up some household goods like pairing knives, a cooling fan, and an Ikea shelf, and I also bought a batch of new knickers to replace pairs that I’ve owned since before we moved to the UK and were becoming, er, unbecoming. And then, I confess that stress lipstick was purchased at one point.

I plan on purchasing some additional items for summer – believe it or not, I don’t own any shorts and seeing as how we’re already sweating in our city flat in late May, it looks like August is going to roast us – but after that, I’m going to close down the wallet for several months. I’ve got everything I need and am trying to be extra careful to stay aware of needs vs. wants right now.

Relationships

Long calls with siblings and parents, good therapy sessions, controlled mental health symptoms, positive work relationships. My friendships have not had the focus I wanted this month, so will be spending more energy on that in June.

Basic Bitch

Weight was a problem this month, no two ways about it. But I’ve been sticking with my virtual barre classes (shoutout in my favorites post of last month!) and have started tracking my food again, because while it might be basic, it’s honestly the best way to keep myself on a health track. I upgraded a free app to a annually paid version to help with this and it’s helped. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH – do not focus negatively on your quarantine response and coping mechanisms. My health and weight goals predated the pandemic and we’re all doing the work to figure out what healthy means for us on individual and macro levels right now. This is what’s working for me, but YOU DO YOU, BOO.

Elsewhere

More Agatha Christie. Also lots of romance novels, because self care. I’ve nearly read 100 books so far this year!

I declared my “make a garden” project ticked off. We don’t have a terrace anymore and I can’t see us moving for a very long time, so I’ve built an indoor Eden instead. As the proud mother of 13 thriving plants, I think we can adjust this one a bit.

Dramatic reduction of plastic in my life, blog post coming.

It could not be more “back to basics” than this past month has been. Between working remotely, barely leaving the house, and just trying to get by, my world has become fairly small, fairly quickly. While this week as I type this I’m having a bit of a down one and struggling with the limitations of lockdown, I have to be fair and acknowledge that I’m fortunate that it’s all bad thus far.

I’m not sure our apartment has ever been this clean, this consistently. Laundry and dishes are being done daily. I’ve organized and RE-organized shelves and storage to declutter and tidy our spaces. I’ve actually hung some of our artwork, which is ridiculous seeing as we’ve lived in this apartment for eight months now…

Who knows what’s going to come our way in May (2020 seems to be trolling us all now), but looking back on the strangest of Aprils, I’m pretty pleased at what I have to report.

Money

Even though I’m on a reduced salary (voluntarily) the compulsory asceticism of the past few weeks have some definite financial upsides. We continue to prioritize cooking with occasional “splurges” on meals from local favorite restaurants. Lack of even daily bus or Tube travel has meant that savings from pennies and pounds has added up nicely. We’ve got a reliable and delicious coffee subscription service that thus far has not let us down and is far cheaper than what we’d spend out and about in normal times.

That being said, we did spend some money this month. We restocked the liquor cabinet, and I finally got a pair of decent headphones after sending a series of cheap ones to their graves over the past few months. This and my pin from Paris are going to count as my birthday presents this year, so I feel okay about them. I also picked up a pair of “comfy but high quality” work from home trousers that are pull on, but look like normal pants and could be worn outside as well as in, and a light trench to replace a similar coat that was ripped and stained beyond repair.

Lest you find this horribly extravagant, we continue to operate mostly with cash day-to-day and have even topped up our emergency fund a bit. A good feeling in normal times, a great one right now.

Relationships

I’m so grateful to be quarantined with someone I love, like, and feel safe with. Not everyone is nearly as lucky right now, and people in unhealthy or unsafe circumstances deserve kind thoughts, donations, and offers of safe help wherever you can.

In other areas, I’ve kept up with therapy, though reduced the frequency of appointments due to the current situation, and it continues to help keep me balanced. Texts and calls with friends continue, with more scheduled.

Basic Bitch

Let me preface this with a firm statement that no one should feel weight shamed or weight shame themselves right now, we are literally in the middle of a public health and economic knock down! Speaking only for myself and my body, I stepped on a scale for the first time in weeks and was annoyed at what I saw. Between a knee injury and then quarantine I have not been as active as I wanted for the first quarter of the year, but in the past month I actually put on weight. Which is diametrically opposed to a specific health goal I gave myself for this year! For some reason, and I’m sure there is a psychological underlying cause for this pettiness, this gave me the motivation I’ve been lacking and I started (and have so far maintained) daily workouts. More details in my favorites post tomorrow, but I’ve found some really interesting options even in the depths of quarantine. I hope that next month I will have lost the weight gained and will be able to report a continuation of the habit. I decided to focus on weight loss this year because my own health process and

Elsewhere

Paid off all but one credit card. Death to debt!

Ticked off goals related to gratitude and mood.

Baking and album listening goals continue, though the baking one is definitely going on pause to focus on weight loss!

Nurtured my houseplants

Reading goals also pushing along, I’ve read over 70 books so far this year and started on some classics and biography book goals this past month as well. At the rate I’m going I’m going to read at least 200 books this year, so might as well tick off every single book goal I’ve got while I do it. What else are we gonna do, we’re quarantined!