Progress and Goals 2026 (January - April)

In previous years, I've sometimes chosen a Word of the Year and did updates during the year on how that focus was shaping decision or helping me meet goals. The last two years I did that WOTY/Goals check-in every month. Or almost every month. This year I didn't choose a WOTY, mostly because I just couldn't settle on a single word that seemed right. I figured I would come up with something by the end of January, but I didn't. Okay, maybe just catch up at the end of February . . and that came and went. I thought maybe I'd do a quarterly check-in but I didn't meet that particular goal either. (deep sigh) 

While I didn't meet my nebulous goal of doing any kind of an update on how I was doing with my goals, I do have some goals and I have been making some progress. This post might be mostly for me, but I do want to summarize some highlights of the year so far and what I've been able to accomplish on my goals. And what I'm still working on.

As I said, I didn't manage to narrow down to just one word that encapsulated what I wanted to focus on during 2026, but there is an over-arching goal. I decided this had to be a year that I worked hard on doing the follow-through on those goals. That I faithfully took the next step in making progress on the things I wanted to do, and was diligent and persistent in getting things done rather than just having vague notions of what I hoped might happen. 

And what are those goals? There are a bunch of things I want to do and learn and accomplish but I started 2026 with two big ones: 1) Improve my overall health and fitness; and 2) Move to a home that suits us better than the apartment we're in. Both of those are pretty broad and require me to make lots of small decisions and break down the big picture into smaller incremental action items that are measurable.

Improving health and fitness - I'm honestly not doing a very good job of changing my sleep habits, which is part of this picture, but I've taken some positive steps towards more healthy eating and losing weight. One thing I did was start meeting virtually with a nutritionist who is helping me set nutrition goals and provides accountability and feedback. I started those appointments just over a month ago, and certainly the travel weekends lately have presented some challenges, but overall I see improvement and I'm making progress in my weight loss goals. 

Finding and moving to a new home - Our current lease is up mid-June, so knowing that helped us work backwards to set deadlines. The first thing we had to do was decide what we were looking for, and we started off thinking that we should probably just look for a more suitable rental situation, but after my hubby met with our finance advisor, we decided that buying a house was going to be doable and potentially wiser financially. So we went back to browsing real estate listings to familiarize ourselves with what was available and what the prices were, and working with some numbers to figure out a budget. Then it was time to start rolling through the checklist of tasks:

-find a realtor to work with

-establish what we were looking for and start viewing houses

-choose a house and put in an offer

(there are lots of steps in here - and thankfully our realtor provided us a timeline to keep us on track)

-establish a closing/settlement date for the purchase by the end of May

-give our notice to our apartment and plan the move during the first two weeks of June

We are currently in that second to last step! We are in contract on a house we love and are so excited about moving into. Things are rolling along quickly now, and while we asked for a closing date on or before May 29, it's unclear whether we'll get the "before" that we would really like, and how early we can make that. At the latest we'll have possession of the house and can start moving during the first week of June. This is important, because we have a vacation house booked with the family right in the middle of June so we need to get everything cleared out of the apartment going on vacation, even if we just deposit all the boxes and stuff in the middle of the rooms at the house and deal with it when we get back! Anyway, we have documents we're signing and some tasks to complete over the next several days, and the very next thing on my to-do list is give our written notice to our leasing company that we will not renew our lease. 

And now . . . some highlights of the year so far!

January

Spencer, Kennady and Dan came to visit for New Years so we had most of the family here. We went to some Blue Jackets games. We had a winter storm that resulted in cancellation of my chorus travel plans and made for an interesting week as we experienced bitter cold and lots of snow.

February

Celebrated our daughter-in-law's birthday to start the month. Restaurant Week was extended because of the bad weather, so we did get to visit a burger place with friends. Our pastor and his wife hosted a game night with some other couples which was a lot of fun. I had to get a new phone. SuperBowl, the Home Show, a trip to Westcott House, outings with our son and his family, starting to flesh out some vacation plans.

March

I had jury duty the first week of the month, and was seated on a murder trial. It was quite the experience! Quite the start to the month too! Went to a women's conference with some ladies from church one weekend, and went to a few hockey games during the month. Our first meeting with our realtor was about the middle of March, so that kicked off our house hunting goals. I was in the world's largest human shamrock for St Patrick's Day! One weekend we went to Blackhand Gorge with the kids and also to Zanesville. At the end of the month I went with the chorus to Covington for the Sweet Adelines Regional Convention.

 

April

Holy Week was the first week of April, so added the Good Friday service to my schedule. We got together with the kids to hike and go out for dinner on Saturday, celebrated Resurrection Day at church on Sunday morning, and went to friends' for dinner on Sunday afternoon. We spent a number of evenings looking at houses. We made two trips to Maryland during the month. One was a very brief trip, just to attend a memorial service, but we did also enjoy time with our Maryland family. The other trip was a little longer and more fun, with the purpose of seeing our kids and granddaughter, and going to our daughter's choral concert. We made a decision on which house we wanted to buy and worked on all those things.

Do you have a Word of the Year for 2026, or goals you are working on? Leave a comment and let me know!

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 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Resetting the Wednesday Hodgepodge

A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!

Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1.  Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why.

 

I could make a case for each of the three options! Let's go with "reset". We've got a fair amount on the task list as we work through the house purchase, but most of May will be a time of preparing for the actual move, but with some limits to what we can do. We don't want to live out of boxes for weeks, for example. So I think it will be a good idea to do a bit of a reset of our usual routines after the upheaval and travel of recent weeks, and I think "reset" also implies a time of adjustment and preparation.

 

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music . . . what's your favorite form of art? Elaborate.

I do enjoy visiting museums and viewing paintings and sculpture. I'm interested in architecture, though I don't understand the technical side of it. I love a good book so literature might be a valid answer. But my favorite form of art is music. More than any other art form, music can also be woven into every area of life. I can attend concerts, listen to music, make music myself, but I can also have music accompanying me while I'm doing all kinds of other things. Music has the ability to inspire, to energize or to calm,  to spark our memories, and even to bring healing. 

 

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers?

 Dinnertime varies, but on weeknights it's usually 6:30 or as late as seven when we eat. It's not even unusual for us to eat later than that. Mostly that's a function of us both working and rarely getting home before five. 

We do like leftovers because they are such economical lunches! I cook once and we get two or three meals out of it, so what's not to love? My husband is much more willing to eat leftovers than I am, so if there's only enough for one lunch, I usually happily concede it to him. 

4.  What's the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating?

 I regularly go down little rabbit trails and holes just because I wonder about something seen in passing, or try to remember a detail about something that happened. Or even need to settle a friendly argument between me and hubby. So I'll Google it, or search for a specific photo, or ask AI. But what was the last thing? Hmm. I didn't go real far down this particular rabbit trail, but I was curious about the name of the venue where we had our chorus party on Monday night and wandered around google world for a bit finding out the history and who it was named for. 

5.  And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me - 

At what are you 'self-taught'?

 Teaching, as crazy as that might sound! I always wanted to be a teacher, but I did not finish my degree. However, I homeschooled my kids, so in a way I taught myself how to teach. I took my turn teaching in our co-ops and taught myself how to adapt curriculum and resources for use in a ten- or eleven-week class so it was fun (hopefully) and valuable. That set the stage for me to be on the founding board of a high school level tutorial co-op. I taught English composition, creative writing, literature, and history there and loved it. And I believe I had a natural knack for some of it, and did a good job, despite never having taken a single class in classroom management or instruction strategies.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We are in contract on the house! Inspections are this week and after that it's mostly a matter of waiting for all parties to get together on establishing a closing date. Our contract specifies closing "on or before May 29" and we would like for it to be on the "before" side of the equation, but we'll see what the seller has to say about that. I've got a checklist and timeline from our agent that is helping me stay on track with the things I need to do and documents to submit and all of that. And I've started thinking about making a wishlist of furniture and other things that we need to bring from Maryland and acquire new. So much anticipation!!

Are you resetting, restarting, or going full speed ahead in May? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm sharing in this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

I host the Wednesday Quotes link-up every other Wednesday. Stop by and share a few thoughts and quotes on the current topic here: WQ - Positive Impact. I host the Everyday Images photo link-up every other Thursday. And find the Scripture and a Snapshot link-up here every Sunday.

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 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

WQ - Positive Impact

We were placed on earth to fulfill a purpose, and that purpose is what gives meaning to our lives, you were sent to the world to make an impact and make a difference. ~Myles Munroe

As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself . . . Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility. ~Nelson Mandela

I think every player should think that he's a difference maker. ~Brett Favre

If you want to make a positive impact, no matter how far-reaching, start at home. Treat your family members like treasures. ~John C. Maxwell

John C. Maxwell had quite a bit of wisdom on this topic - here are a couple more:

It is hard to feel bad about yourself when you are doing something good for someone else. There are a lot of ways to lift your self-esteem, but making a positive difference in another's life has got to be my best leadership guidance. Serving others and working to add value to them will lift your spirits in a way that nothing else will. ~John C. Maxwell

If you don't love where you are right now, you won't love where you are going. Here is what I know: People who are passionate about what they do every day and love where they are in life are the fortunate ones. They have discovered their purpose. They are the difference makers who fully understand the gift of adding value, and yes, they can't help but love where they are going on their journey. ~John C. Maxwell

You are the light of the world―like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

~Matthew 5:14-16~

Be a fountain, not a drain. ~Rex Hudler

How are you making a difference in your world? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Wednesday Quotes is a bi-weekly opportunity for bloggers to share their writing, poetry, photos, or stories inspired by our theme. We've chosen the themes as a starting point for your creativity, and the only requirement is that your post include at least one related quote. Feel free to combine or "double-dip" with other writing or photo challenges as well. Of course, we'd appreciate a link back to us, if you'd be so kind. Add your link and please visit others and leave a comment! The link is open for two weeks.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks to Marsha at Always Write for introducing us to the Wednesday Quotes challenge, and for passing the hosting duties along so we can continue sharing great quotes! Wednesday Quotes is co-hosted by Kym at A Fresh Cup of Coffee and Sadje at Keep It Alive. 

Quoting reminds me there are other people in the world besides only me. 

And other thoughts besides mine, and other ways of thinking. 

~Gregory Maguire~

Wednesday Quotes 2026 Themes

January 7 - Resolutions

January 21 - Motivation

February 4 - Eating Out/Restaurants

February 18 - Being Responsible

March 4 - Libraries

March 18 - Perseverance

April 1 - Simplicity

April 15 - Conquering Fear

April 29 - Making a Difference

May 13 - Family Ties

May 27 - Courage

June 10 - Teachers/Mentors

June 24 - Connecting with Nature

July 8 - Milestones

July 22 - Sunrise

August 5 - Patience

August 19 - Taking a Break/Rest

September 2 - Learning from Mistakes

September 16 - Best Friends

September 30 - Elegance

October 14 - Reaching Goals

October 28 - Dreams/Nightmares

November 11 - Integrity

November 25 - Generosity

December 9 - Beauty in Nature

December 23 - True Love

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 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. 

Share Four Somethings - April 2026

Each month we're each invited to share things in these categories: something we loved, something that sustained us, something we're carrying forward from this month to the next, and something we're making space for. I usually like to include a little bit of a bonus: Some Things I  Read and a little of What's Coming Up Soon. 

Some Things I Loved:

Right at the beginning of the month we celebrated Resurrection Day, which I love! Jesus Christ's resurrection and triumph over sin and death is the greatest display of God's goodness and grace, and is the reason we have hope and joy and can experience God's goodness and grace in all areas of our lives. I love this above all else all year, but I definitely have to lead with it during the Easter season.

That same weekend, we went on a hike to see the eagles at the nature area of one of the Metro parks. I loved the time spent with our son and his family, loved watching the eagles, and I loved that another family that was already there generously shared the binocular/camera/tripod setup they had which made it really easy to see. My granddaughter really appreciated that since adjusting our binoculars herself was a little frustrating!

I loved seeing my kids and granddaughter that live in Maryland a couple times this month. The first visit was really short, but we were able to watch part of A's karate class and it was adorable. On the second visit, this past weekend, we had a little more time to spend, and it included seeing our daughter sing with other alumni at the 40th anniversary concert of the Children's Chorus of Carroll County. I loved seeing her in that setting again and the joy on her face as she sang, and the music was so beautiful.

A couple weeks ago, we loved walking on the recently reopened Galena boardwalk in hopes of seeing some birds. We saw cormorants and ospreys and heard a lot of songbirds.

We love watching playoff hockey, especially when our teams are winning. 

We found a house we love, at a price in our range, and we are now in contract on it and the timeline has us closing on it by this time next month! I'm so excited!

Something That Sustained Me:

Lately it's been the assurance that God will work things out the way they're supposed to be, and help us have wisdom to make the right decisions. Some people call it coincidence, but often there's a series of coincidences that seem more than just coincidental, y'know? So as we were viewing houses, there were a few that we really liked but weren't ready to commit to offering on, and then a short time later we'd see them under contract. We were disappointed on a couple of those, but also felt like maybe those houses weren't quite right for us, and there was a reason we hadn't felt strongly about making an offer. There was one house we saw early on that we loved (except it didn't have a fireplace) but it was still early and we had others lined up to see as well. As I was crunching numbers I was pretty sure that there was a set of numbers on that house that was an error and couldn't possibly be that low, and we heard that there was a potential buyer putting together an offer so we moved on. But it was about ten days later that I verified that the numbers I thought were mistakes were correct, and figured the cost again since that first house we loved was still on the market. We had two more houses to look at, and although we really liked both of them, we'd decided that unless the last one we saw REALLY grabbed us, we wanted that first one. So that's what happened. Coincidences that the other houses we were really interested in were claimed by other buyers? And that the house we're purchasing was still available for us? Maybe. But the thought that it was God nudging us in the right direction sure did sustain me during the process.

Something I'm Carrying Forward:

A lot of housework! I sure did not get all the things on my to-do list done, so I will have to step it up over the next several weeks!

Something I'm Making Space For:

We're trying to make space for the Maryland kids by getting some of our stuff out of that house. We won't be able to actually move those things until we are in our new house here, but we're in the process of deciding what gets moved and what the kids would like to keep. And what we can just get rid of. We are hoping to have space in the new house to get a real piano.

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Some Things I Read:

I have been so occupied with house hunting that I've greatly neglected my books, or that's what it feels like. I haven't finished anything lately!

However, here are the books I'm currently reading:

Oracle of Philippi by Catherine Ensley (ARC)

A Tarnished Canvas by Anna Lee Huber

All of my reading news is at Just A Second if you're interested.

What's Coming Up Soon?

Our move! We are in the process of buying a house, in contract right now and doing all the inspections and that sort of thing. We don't have a firm date for closing yet, but it will be before the end of May and we'll be able to start moving in during the first week of June at the latest. I don't want to live out of boxes for the next month, but I also don't want to wait to the last minute to pack up and be ready to go.

Share something in the comments, or share four somethings with the rest of us in the link party!

This post will be linked at My Joyful Life in the Share Four Somethings link party.

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 ©2006-2026 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.