Every year I tell myself that I’m going to blog my birthday. And, every May 1st, with the exception of a bacon omelet photo I posted in 2013, I fail.

This year, I was determined.

The fates were absolutely working against me today. I was coding a new feature for my Exhale WordPress theme that I thought would be finished by lunch. But, I missed that mark by a few hours.

Still, I was determined to sit down and write this post. And, here we are.

It’s been a solid year for me so far. Last month, I released the Exhale theme, which has dominated much of my working hours. I rebranded and refocused Theme Hybrid. These were some of my big work-related goals for the year, and I’m happy to have them done within the first half of the year.

As for my personal life…

2019 goal updates

Since my birthday is in May, I thought it’d make for a good time to look over and evaluate some of the goals I set for the year.

Writing

I’m woefully behind on my writing goals thus far. I done well in January and February with tinkering on a couple of novel ideas. But, I haven’t found a good balance between other creative pursuits and writing. I need to do better.

Reading

I’m doing great with my reading goals. I’ve read 12 of 40 books for my 2019 reading challenge on Goodreads, and I’m working on #13. I’d probably be a bit further ahead, but most of what I’ve been reading has been epic fantasy. I’ll still be on track for the year once I pick up a few shorter works to balance things out.

Some reading stats thus far (Goodreads stats):

• 12 books
• 6,897 pages
• Shortest book: 192 pages
• Longest book: 1,178 pages
• Average length: 582 pages

Watch less TV

I’ve definitely cut back in this area. Just keeping up with my reading has made this a reality. I’ve also saved over $100 this year by canceling both Netflix and YouTube Premium.

One thing I done was cut out a few shows that I began watching in the fall. I hate quitting things once I’ve started, but some series were just not that interesting to me anymore.

Tidying

I had a good stretch of tidying earlier in the year. I accomplished many of the big tasks like organizing clothes, books, and movies. I still have a lot of miscellaneous areas to cover.

I got a little behind recently because my grandmother wanted her kitchen and dining rooms tidied. It took us four Sunday afternoons to do it (time I would’ve been tidying my own stuff). But, I’m glad I got a chance to help her with it because it kick-started her journey into other areas of her house.

Bullet journaling

This has been hit or miss for me. I enjoy the process, and it definitely helps me organize work/life better…when I do it. I still haven’t built up a good habit with this.

Gardening

I’m nearly perfectly on track here. I cut way back this year so that I could focus more on work and other pursuits. My primary crop of potatoes is looking great. I should harvest them within the next month or so.

Outside of potatoes, I just have a few beds with a mix of veggies.

Finances

I feel like I’ve been doing better here. I’ve saved back a small bit. My big goal was not to buy a lot of new stuff.

The two “big” purchases I’ve made have been a couple of new sheet sets for the bed. It’s been years since I got new sheets, and dropping a few extra dollars for a couple of quality sets was well worth it.

I finally maxed out my $100 Amazon gift card from Christmas. I only bought books with it, so that’s helped me save a few of my own dollars.