Ok, holy cow, how did it get to be mid-June already?!?! I'm waaaaaay overdue on getting this progress report posted. In my own defense, we did move at the end of May, which took a lot of time and effort. Oh, and, we didn't have regular Internet service at home until just last week. So, it's not like we've not been doing anything at all. Quite the contrary, I've just been super-busy. D'oh!
May was a so-so month for me. It was generally busy, particularly with move-related activities. Looking back, nothing really stands out for me in terms of accomplishments. My back was sore the entire month (and still through to today, in fact), so exercise has been limited. I don't really recall reading or writing much last month, either. Oh, sigh...
Self-Improvement
1a. Watch less television. A bunch of shows ended their regular seasons, so I guess I stopped watching TV at the end of the month. Moving and only having antenna reception certainly cut into things the last week of the month, as did travel for work. In general, though, I was terrible in this area.
1b. Read more books. If I read a book in May, I can't remember what it was. I've been overwhelmed trying to keep up with weekly magazines. I'm sure I read something, but I just don't recall now what it was.
1c. Improve my vocabulary. Uh, yeah... ha ha ha... I really suck in this area!
1d. Keep a cleaner house. Huzzah! We moved, so we had to clean the apartment top-to-bottom, so score one point. :) We also now have wood floors, which I've been dry mopping frequently. We're not anywhere near done unpacking, though, so this is really a push/draw more than a straight-up win. I'll take what I can get! :)
Health & Wellness
2a. Exercise more. Hurt back, after being sick, so certainly no improvements here.
2b. Lose the fat. Yeah... well, see... this is really rather dependent on exercise, which didn't happen. I gained some weight, actually, in May, and not the good kind, either.
2c. Eat better. We ate lousy last month. Why? Because we kept packing stuff up. We also tended to eat later at night, which just amplified the badness.
2d. Address form issues that are affecting my knees, hips, ankles, and shins. Mitigated/closed.
Professional Development
3a. Write more meaty blogs. Did I write more in May? I don't recall. I don't think I wrote much of anything the last half of the month. I'll again blame this on moving. May disappeared very quickly.
3b. Begin writing articles. I did write an article, for work, that got published. w00t!! :) That's about it, but it's progress.
3c. Begin writing white papers. Still pending...
3d. Attend webinars and other free or cheap training programs. No time, so no, this didn't happen (again).
Fiscal Responsibility
4a. Finally pay off high-interest debt. So focused on moving, I really couldn't tell you how much progress, if any, we made on things.
4b. Start putting aside money for emergencies (goal: 3 months' expenses). Continued to add to savings, which is turning out to be remarkably easy. So, this is good news!
4c. Begin investing in aggressive funds. Pending available capital, deferred until 4a and 4b are good.
4d. Continue reducing expenses. May was not a good month for reducing expenses. We ate out waaaaay too much, gas prices are up, food prices are up, and we had a bunch of extra expenses. So, no, not a good month. This should improve over the Summer, at least until the Little Miss arrives.
