What I Learned in January 2020...

1. I love my Aqua Notes.

Some of my best ideas come to me while I'm in the shower, which is unfortunate, since I have the memory power of a flea (at best). I've forgotten many a gem by the time I got out of the shower and over to some paper. Now and then, I've put a pad of paper on the shelf outside the shower - just in case - but nobody likes soggy paper. So when I opened my stocking at Christmas, I found that Ryan had discovered this brilliant product called Aqua Notes. Have you heard of it? It's a notepad of waterproof paper that hangs on the shower wall with suction cups. There's also a pencil that slides into a suction cup holder. Now when I get ideas in the shower...I can scribble them immediately and not have soggy paper!

2. Tom Hanks was a class act at the Golden Globes.
In my single days, I watched all the awards shows all the time. ALL. But I learned that Ryan isn't really a huge fan of awards shows (or beauty pageants) so I don't think I've watched a single one since we got married. I haven't really missed them, and in fact, I so rarely watch movies (on time, anyway) that I don't even know anything about what or who might be up for an award! But this month we watched the Golden Globes (where I was quite confused by the number of women who wore blazers without shirts) and as I suspected, I don't know anyone or anything anymore. But in the middle of all the confusion, I did watch Tom Hanks receive the Lifetime Achievement award, and I do know who he is, and I did appreciate his speech. He kept the main thing the main thing, showed that he cares about his craft, and honored his family. I really appreciated that. (And also...You've Got Mail? Still one of my favorites of all time.)

3. I am having fun with the One Second Everyday app.

Last year I noticed that every month, a friend of mine posted to Facebook a short video that included one second of video footage from every day of her month. It was fun to see her life scroll by in that quick, thirty(ish) second video. I decided I wanted to try it this year, so once the month is fully complete, I'll post it for you. But it was fun to see our memories scroll by a second at a time! (I will admit that some days it's challenging to find something enthralling to document!)

4. Everything at work.

I could write fourteen dozen posts and still not cover everything I have learned every single day at my temporary job. The one whose place I'm holding until she comes back from maternity leave seriously knows a hundred billion things and does them all with great poise and grace. I'll save us all some time and say I've learned so much this month - and yet there is so much more to learn. At this point I'm pretty sure I won't learn it all even by the time she comes back.

5. We are glad we left up a couple of lighted trees.

For the first time ever (in Shafferland) we left up a couple of our smaller Christmas trees for winter décor. We removed all the ornaments, but we left the lights. This has been an extraordinarily gray and gloomy month, and we have loved the extra warm and cozy lights!

6. Kobe Bryant and I were the same age.

When news broke about the helicopter crash that took Kobe Bryant's life, I learned that he and I were the same age. Everything about every death is sobering, but I don't know that I've seen my birth year displayed on a memoriam slide as often as I did in the days after his death. Everything about the entire sad situation created pause in my heart!


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Update on my January Goals:

* Finding fresh consistency in working out: Boom! I did it! It was, at times, painful and not pretty at all, but I ran my cutely-named 5K runs every Wednesday, I did my progressively increasing exercises six days a week, and I did my Sunday stretching (which felt so so good). I did miss two workout days - the two days I had women's ministry meetings after a full day of work and was just gone too long to work out. I was sore much of the month, and some of the runs made me feel sick, but I got them done! And while I'm choosing not to focus on pounds or inches this year, I feel better in my body than I did on January 1. That's a win in my book.

* Study in Psalms each day: Yes! I am learning things I never anticipated learning! The commentary I'm using to supplement my study is great about teaching me the backstory to some of the Psalms, and to be able to reaad them in context of what was happening to the writer at the time makes them even richer! I'm taking it nice and slow. It's not a race through the book. I read a few verses each day and really drink them in.

* Enjoy three at-home dates. On our monthiversary, we did the indoor picnic date, in the middle of the month, we had our root beer taste test/root beer float fun, and though my recap of it is forthcoming, last night we had a copycat New York City dessert date night!

* Get a fresh haircut. I counted down to this day. I told Ryan he may have to hide the scissors. I wasn't sure I'd make it. BUT I DID! I spent three and a half hours in her chair, but I walked out with all new hair! (Okay, newly overhauled hair. It was the same hair.)

* Finish the Atlanta scrapbook. This one didn't happen - womp, womp. The only reason it didn't was because I found out partway through the month that Picaboo had an unlimited pages sale going on, so I stopped work on that book to finish the last two books of 2019 so I could order those. (They're huge books, so I wanted to get them ordered for sure.) So even though this goal was kind of a fail...I did scrapbook my little heart out! And please let the record show that because of the sale, I was able to order three books and save $350. Oh my, yes. That's worth missing a goal for!

* Archive two months of blog posts. Yes! I completed archiving January/February 2012!

* Work on Scripture memory. I wrote about the really helpful lesson my friend Judy sent to me regarding Scripture memory, and I am pleased with how I did. A lot of the verses on the memorization list for January were ones I already knew (at least somewhat) from earlier portions of life, but I was still excited to review and learn.

* Organize entry closet and foyer table. Squeaked this goal in just this week! We were able to put aside some coats, hats, and gloves we don't wear anymore (having a garage sale sometime this year) and organize what we do wear so we can access it all easily!

* Read a book. I finished up Grace Hitchcock's book  The Gray Chamber in the first half of the month and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to try to read a second book but it simply didn't happen. See all of the above.

I'm pleased with everything I was able to accomplish while still acclimating to full time work, restarting small group, and more! I'm calling January productive!