Monthly Goals – March

A. Health / Home 

• Movement classes (5/5): I missed an aerial yoga class (didn’t get in because I was late by two minutes) but went to two yoga classes at the Attic. Meant to go swimming with D. but we both had skin issues so we rescheduled for April. I did end up making it to a kettlebell class (my second time) in Guelph; I was proud that I worked with a 6 kg weight this time. B. and I did two lift workouts (i.e. deadlift and strict press) at the school gym.
• Work on volleyball (3/5): Found lots of useful videos on Instagram. Work on volley hands drill at home with a ball, 1) setters hands, 2) aligning service position; doing this has helped me relax my traps a bit.
  

B. Financial / Auto

• Get taxes in order (2/5): I download T4s, and played around with some numbers but haven’t worked on it fully yet.
• Cancel subscriptions (5/5): Used Board Game Arena to play with a couple of friends and paid for two months ($6.90/month). Paused my Libro.fm membership ($19.94/month) as I currently have some unused credits
• Continue to look for ski sales (5/5): Last month I managed to get a discount on a helmet. Finally bought skis that including bindings ($339) at Select Sports. B. also purchased ski equipment for himself.
• Wedding (4/5): Look for Friday cocktail venue, inquire about makeup artist. I did book an appointment with the seamstress to get my second dress altered.

C. Personal Development / Self-care

• Learn about Ontario nature (2/5): Been following some herp groups on Facebook. Began watching a Great Lakes Untamed and following some birding groups on social media.
• Reading (5/5): Finished a thriller in a few days. Finished Lucy by the Sea and Oh William!, as well as Honor by Thrity Umigar. Reading Better and Faster by Gretchen Rubin and started The Future is Analog.
• Gaming (4/5): Picked up a few games from the Steam spring sale. Enjoyed Bottle Can Float and also finished Venba. Wasted many hours on Dorfromantik when I was tired.

D.  Relationships / Social / Travel

• See family and friends (5/5): Went to Activate with cousins and Japanese food afterwards. Spent some time with my grandmother on short shopping trips, went on a food tour with my sister and friends. Saw my friend S. at the mall for a short walk. Watched a Japanese movie with B. Sent time with my mother-in-law when she was in the hospital. Had dinner at Guanaquita with a friend who was visiting from New York state. Saw high school friends in Scarborough for dinner.
• Local outings (5/5): We went to the maple syrup festival at Westfield Heritage. Went to a baby shower at Little Mushroom Catering. Did a hike along the Walter Bean trail with a Meetup group.

More Deadlifting

Shockingly it’s been 2 months since we’ve done deadlifts. I’ve been away a lot during the weekends and we’d only done one squat workout in between. Finally squeezed it in on a Sunday night last weekend.

I pulled out my Harbinger wrist wraps, which I haven’t touched since I bought them 6 years ago while working with a personal trainer at GoodLife. Sumos at 95 lbs felt good! I could easily add more weight next time.

Warm-up

3×100 jump rope
3×10 banded good mornings
3×10 chest pulls with a green band

Lifts
5×5 deadlifts 95/95/95/95/95

Accessory work
3×10 bent over rows @ 45/45/4
3×10 stiff legged deadlifts @ 45/45/45
3×10 laying plate pullovers @ 10/10/10

March Updates

Currently reflecting on some recent purchases:

Presents: Was invited to a baby shower of a colleague. I’m not particularly close with her so I only ended up buying a onesie as a gift ($27.29) from Baby Charlotte (where I can acrue points for purchases). I did not spend extra money on gift wrapping. I also bought birthday presents for my mother, two books from a local bookstore ($45) rather than supporting a big chain like Indigo. I didn’t pay for wrapping as my mother usually doesn’t care for that stuff.

Shopping: Bought a pair of Kombi mitts for $30.78

Health benefits: Had an accident a few weeks ago; I slammed into the wall and chipped my tooth at my mother’s house. Thankfully the damage wasn’t severe and it didn’t go very deep. My coworkers suggested an emergency dental clinic in Cambridge that is open 7 days a week. I was able to book the afternoon off of work to go to an appointment. The procedure itself was only 20 minutes long! I had to pay out of pocket initially but the entire amount ($500) was covered by my health beneifts and I received the deposit the day (March 5th) after my dental appointment.

Haircut: I needed a trim as I’ve not been since November. I went back to my hairdresser at Marlowe, whom I’d been to 2 or 3 times. I asked for it not to be cut too short as I want to maintain length for the wedding reception in July. I paid a total of $98 including the tip and I’m just wondering if I can go elsewhere for cheaper in the future.

Movie: Went for a movie with friends on the weekend. We used movie passes we had collected for volunteering ($0).

Movement: Missed an aerial yoga class by 2 minutes as I was struggling to find parking, so that was one of ten class pass that I didn’t benefit from. Went to use the school gym to do deadlifting on Sunday night so that was free!

Monthly Goals – February

A. Health / Home 

• Monitor blood pressure at home (4/5): Used it a few times to see how my blood pressure varies over the day. I do the reading in the bedroom while sitting on the bed and not moving. Typically, I take the pill when I wake up in the morning. Typically, by the time I am measuring it in the evening, it is higher as the medication wears off.
• Barbell workouts and exercise (5/5): Went to the school gym and did a squat workout with B. Both of us were sore for several days! As B.’s elbow hasn’t been great, I did not want to push him into the next workout (i.e. barbell press press). This weekend, I did a kettlebell workout at Barre and Belles in Guelph ($30) and woke up with sore abs. It was a good experience and I got to learn the get up; I signed up for another class ($30) in late March. Volleyball has been going well and I missed one session because of a concert. Altogether, movement is great for blood pressure regulation. It’s fun and keeps me going!

B. Financial / Auto

• Find free music (3/5): I canceled my Apple Music ($12.42/month). Been Listening to NPR Tiny Desk and also lo-fi on YouTube. It’s helpful that I have an iPad that I can keep plugged in.
• Use workout passes (3/5): I had cancelled a class at Barre and Belles last minute back in January; finally used up that pass. Also booked myself in for The Attic Yoga for aerial restorative; after that, I have 6 more passes I need to use up. Haven’t been to The Branches recently, though.
• Set up a FHSA (5/5): Had a $6000 GIC mature in January; originally I wanted to reinvest the money into an FHSA but I had forgot I rolled it over for another year. I ended up starting a FHSA account with a roboadvisor and put in $8000ta.

C. Personal Development / Self-care

• Language learning (4/5): Did some iTalki sessions with Z. Reviewed some terms with my mother, including grammar, subject, object and verb.
• Return to Korean (4/5): I restarted Korean in the second half of February. Mostly, I have been using Memrise, which I have a lifetime membership for. I also found a great website that explains grammatical structure very well and finished lesson 1. I may try to squeez in lesson 2 at some point.
  

D.  Relationships / Social / Travel

• Explore locally (5/5): Went to The Guanaquita Restuarant with an old colleague. My friend, D., paid for my dinner. Tried a new Indian restaurant, Masala Bay, for Valentine’s Day. Took Barry to Activate Scarborough, as well as Ital Vital for lunch. Purchased a $25 gift certificate to Willibald for B. for Valentine’s Day.
• Spend time with friends and family (5/5): Played board games with S. on Board Games Arena. Video chatted with C. on a Saturday morning. Went to a family gathering at my mother’s house. Took my grandmother and aunt out for lunch. Went for a walk with E.’s wife, S., who just moved here. Saw a movie with K. Went for an escape room with teacher friends.

Family Day Long Weekend

Taking time off: For the first time, I request a day off for cultural reasons (i.e. Lunar New Year). I’d thought about it for a long time and hadn’t done it when I was a temporary worker. Lunar New Year always fell around the beginning of the semester and if I was a new teacher in a new school, I didn’t want to look like I was slacking. This year, there was some encouragement from other Asian teachers to exercise their right and take a day off, so I applied and welcomed the support from the community. I ended up taking my grandmother out for lunch, which allowed my mother to get a break from caregiving.

Collingwood: Did a mini Galentine’s trip with my friend B. We stayed overnight at a motel ($175) and she paid for our entrance to Scandinave Spa, including robe rentals ($10/person). For lunch, we went to Bent Taco ($72) and then she covered the gas coming up and down from Toronto.

Chilling in an old ski lift

Shopping: I bought a pair of Sanrio/Victor branded slippers. They were quite expensive at $65 because they had Hello Kitty on them, but it meant that I could throw out an old pair that needed to be replaced. While wandering the ski village in Collingwood, I bought a Smith ski helmet ($145+tax) after the salesperson offered a 20% discount.

Badminton: Barry and I went for badminton at the local community centre. We signed up online through Active Kitchener and enjoyed a few games together ($5.40/person).

Cooking: I purchased a book, Simply Korean ($19) from some YouTubers that I follow. I like the tips that they give. We tried the japchae recipe and it was a success.

Japchae (잡채)

Monthly Goals – January

A. Health / Home 

• Cut back on social media (2/5): There were short periods that I uninstalled Instagram and/or logged off of it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
• Heart health (3/5): Month two of pills to deal with high blood pressure. I take them in the mornings and don’t have any issues; I’ve only forgotten once or twice. Cutting back on some sodium, although I don’t think I’m very good at this, and trying to shift our meals to more homemade foods.
• Find joy in movement (4/5): January renewal costed over $200, since I stupidly had hit cancel on my Alomoves at one point so I lost access to the 50% deal that had been grandfathered in for old Cody App users (I’m kicking myself hard for this one). Started volleyball with JAM on Tuesday nights and bought knee pads, since they’re indoor school courts ($35). Also bought a pair of Head ski boots ($240) and went skiing with the WCSSAA ski team. Used the gym at school a couple of times for two lift workouts. Meant to go another time but also fell and had some tailbone issues, where I had minor pain from downward dogs alone and had to ease off some types of movements.

B. Financial / Auto

• Shop for new glasses (0/5): Since September, B. and I updated our health benefits plan so that we can access each other’s unused portion of benefits. Since he doesn’t need glasses, I wanted to start looking for a pair. Previously, my benefits only covered enough for contact lens, which I wear on a daily basis. We didn’t get around to looking so I’ll shift this to another month’s set of goals.
• First home savings account (3/5): Started a FHSA account with just $2000 to start, although my goal was $8000. I was hoping to use the money from a GIC that matured but I missed the maturity date and had it reinvested for another year … Argh.
• Calculate net worth (5/5): Since we had a phone call with Educators Financial Group at the beginning of the month, we did an affordability assessment. We got the information in less than 2 days, and it gave us an idea of what we could afford. The numbers we got were realistic to what we had calculated, so that was nice to know.

C. Personal Development / Self-care

• Language learning (3/5): Did a few iTalki sesisons, including one in Korean. Even though the session went well, I decided not to continue with her. I hopped back onto Memrise (I have a lifetime membership) but fell off the wagon towards the end of the month as I became less focused. I’ve learned that there’s no point forcing myself to learn a language.
• Use Toggl to track language studying (3/5): Came across this tip from Lindie Botes, used Toggl to make a nice chart. I set up an account during the last week of December and used the premium trial for about 2-3 weeks.

D.  Relationships / Social / Travel

• Learn something new together (5/5): Last month, we did a SCUBA lesson together for the first time together. This month, we did a basic knives skills class in Hamilton. This was a present I had gifted to B. ($140) and we both had a great time.
• Explore locally (5/5): Visited Little Canada ($36/person) in Toronto with my aunt; we also tried a vegan restaurant downtown. Tried out Activate ($0, gift from D.) and went to my favourite Thai restaurant in Toronto, Jatujak, which I haven’t been in a long time.
• Spend time with family and friends (5/5): Dinner with my mother-in-law on Mondays, except one evening when I took my UWL volunteer out to Ethel’s Lounge ($45). Went ice skating and had Iraqi food at my sister’s house ($149). Another friend, K., treated me to dinner at The Guanaquita Restaurant for my birthday. Spent a day with my grandmother at the rehab centre and also helped transfer her back to my mother’s house.

(More) January Updates

EA Appreciation Day: I was a bit late but I gifted my eduational assistant (EA) a chocolate ($5 after 50% discount) and a $20 gift card to a coffee shop. She’s given me a couple of gifts for Christmas over the last two years and she’s been a wonderful asset to our classroom!

Volunteer: I also ended up taking my University of Wilfred Laurier student volunteer out for dinner. We went to Ethel’s Lounge for tex-mex (not my usual first choice) and dinner was pretty tasty! It ended up being $45 for both of us.

January birthdays: My friend K. treated my friend, B., and I to dinner at The Guanaquita Restaurant, which serves amazing El Salvadorean food! I am trying to cut down on cheese consumption (not always successfully) so I ordered the vegan platter, which included a tamale, pupusa and more! We had a great night together just chatting and catching up.

Visiting Scarborough: Drove into Toronto on the weekend and was able to take B. to try Indonesian food. The prices were really good for lunch; each of our plates was only $12! After lunch, we picked up some snacks from the Taiwanese supermarket next door. Spent an hour going skating with sister’s family, which was nice.

January Update

Auto: Was without a car for about a week to fix an enigmatic car issue ($200). It might have been a valve issue.

Expense reimbursement: Received about $59 for driving students to and from a volleyball tournament. I didn’t know it was possible to get this type of reminbursement! Glad my colleague, A., helped and encouraged me to fill out a form.

Skiing: Was asked to help out with the ski team at their WCSSAA competition. The day prior, I ended up going to Select Sports and bought a pair of ski boots ($240 + tax after the 20% discount); I also got a pair of Smith goggles ($65 + tax) and went with the cheapest available. At the hills, I was able to rent a pair of skis and poles at no charge, but bought a pair of Le Bent ski socks ($45) as I accidentaly socked my own socks by stepping into a puddle.

Lifting: Did two lifing workouts in January. My goal in December was just to show up at the gym at work. I didn’t realize our school facilites were so nice! Barbells, squat racks and plates that are in amazing shape. I brought my old barbell collars to use.

Here is what we did last weekend. We used an old Krissy Cagey from Cody App:

Warm-up
3×100 jump rope
3×20 banded good mornings
3×3 assisted pullups with green band

Lift
5×5 deadlifts 85/85/85/85/85 lbs

Accessory work

3×10 bent over rows @ 45/45/45 lbs
3×10 stiff legged deadlifts @ 45/45/45 lbs
3×10 laying plate pullovers @ 10/10/10 lbs

Total time: 60 minutes

Mini Series: Nature in the Wintertime

Came acrosss this free mini series that Wild Muskoka put out. These are three great short videos to get you thinking about nature during the winter!

Day 1 – What are the birds telling us?

Day 2 – The gift of trees

Day 3 – Read the story written in wildlife tracks

Annual Goals 2023

Last year, I didn’t write about 2022 goals. While coming out of the pandemic, I think many of us were feeling like we’re just in survival mode. I can’t recall if I forgot altogether or if I didn’t intend on writing about the.

Either way, I still don’t always focus on annual goals because I don’t even know what I want to achieve in the future and I find it a lot harder to track. Sometimes goals pop up in the middle of the year when I least expect it; take mushroom identification, for example! I often write this post as a reflection of the year rather than a review of actual goals.

Home/Health

• Finding movement (4/5): B. and I are doing videos about once a week. While I’d like to do twice a week, we haven’t found that rhythm yet. We explored some pilates, although we didn’t pursue it rigourously as we had intended. Mainly, we stick with familiar instructors, such as Calvin Corzine. Together, we did a SCUBA trial lesson in December to see if we’d like to pursue the certification process in town. On my own, I started going to a new studio, The Attic, which is slightly closer to home than the yoga studio that I trained at. I tried taking barre and also aerial yoga, both which aren’t offerings at The Branches.
• Return to bachata (3/5): I began taking classes in the spring and even strated using the dance shoes that were purchased in September last year. However, once the summer started, I didn’t pursue it much even after purchasing a 3-month membership to Brenda Liew’s online courses. I’ve realized that bachata is still a very social hobby for me; I don’t tend to listen to bachata on my own and need a partner to feel motivated when I’m dancing.
• Find music again (3/5): Currently subscribed to Apple Music because I like the higher quality. Often I will listen to old music that I’m already familiar with. Some new artists I listened to more of this year: Joji, Noah Kalahan and Laufey. Listening to music helps with mental health.
• Use public transit more often while traveling (3/5): In Ottawa, we tried to walk everywhere, although we did drive to some relatives’ house, which was further away. In British Columbia, we took public transit (bus) in Victoria and Vancouver, but was mostly driven around by a friend. As usual, in Montreal, we took the Metro a lot and walked a ton! During the summer, I found a GO train that goes from Agincourt to Kitchener. In Niagara Falls, we left the car and walked everywhere around town.
• Address blood pressure issues (5/5): This one popped up unexpectedly towards the year end but I was able to address it within less than 2 months with a diagnosis and medication.

Finance / Auto

• Try Evernote premium (2/5): I paid $99 + tax for the year. I don’t find myself using it in any special way, however, so I will not be renewing the subscription.
• Upgrade credit cards (5/5): I upgraded the MasterCard in the fall There is not a huge difference in perks, but the new one that I upgraded to has travel benefits that we won’t use in the near future. Still hanging onto the American Express credit card as I’m trying to get another bonus in a few months’ time.

Travel / Personal Development

• Stained glass (5/5): Super new fun hobby! I have a lot of my own equipment now. I wasn’t able to go after October because volleyball coaching has taken most of my energy. I made two medium sized pieces that I gifted to my mother and my aunt.
• Go camping (5/5): Did a lot of camping this year! I went to Sandbanks in May for our “spring opener”. In July, I camped at  Rockwood Conservation Area in July, Six Mile, Bass Lake. In the fall, I rented a cabin at McGregor Point Provincial Park and my mother-in-law enjoyed it.
• Travel (5/5): In addition to camping, we did a lot of small trips this year – Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Niagara Falls.