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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