Today we’re having a Sunday Afternoon post because I am a football fan. It’s my second favorite professional sport (after hockey) and my third favorite sport overall (roller derby is my favorite).

For those of you who care, we’re cheering for the San Francisco 49ers at our house. I’m actually not a 9ers fan. I’m a Raiders fan. And in the playoffs, I was certainly cheering for the local Seahawks. However, I happen to have graduated from this state school that no one ever remembers exists- the University of Nevada, Reno (yes, there’s a location other than Vegas). And when you are a UNR grad, you never really expect a player from your college to make it to the NFL, let alone be one of the starting quarterbacks in the SuperBowl (in his second season, no less). Which means, 49er fan or not, I’m rooting for Colin Kaepernick.

 

Blogging

The purpose of these two goals is, yes, to grow my blogs, but also to support and highlight blogs and bloggers I enjoy. Just like I will be posting 2 new to me blogs every week in my round ups, the point here is to draw attention to blogs that others might not be familiar with. (Blog swaps will not count toward either of these goals.)

Write one guest post per month. January- How I Write @ Heart Like a Dog

Publish one guest post per month. January- Guest Post: Ralph the Rez Dog from Kim @ Eyes on the Dollar

 

Writing

Writing fiction is my side hustle, though I have yet to make any money from it. I’ve found that I devote much more time to the blogs than I do my fiction, though, because I am on a schedule. I feel accountable to my readers to get posts up when I say I will. And because I am a procrastinator, deadlines are a must for me. I get the energy I need to work on something from an impending deadline.

I am hoping to transfer the power of those two things- accountability and deadlines, to my fiction this year.

Submit at least one piece to a paying venue per month.

December submission: Yes

January submission: Yes

Complete the first draft of my novella and start edits. I haven’t written anything all week.

 

Finances

A lot of financial goals will actually end up as floating goals- ie they will be things I expect to complete well before the year is out. But I do have some long term financial goals that I think will work for year-long tracking.

Create and track a practice stock portfolio. Expect post two this coming week.

End the year “on budget” in the categories I’m tracking.

Final January Numbers

Category	On Budget
	Month	Year
Groceries	No	No
House	Yes	Yes
Eating Out	No	No
Allowance – E	No	No
Allowance – C	Yes	Yes

 

Finished the month $3 over on groceries, quite a bit over and eating out, and only circumstantially over on my allowance. I had to buy some food for a work party this week from CostCo- that meant it had to come out of our bank account, so I count it as my allowance spending. However, in two weeks, I will be fully reimbursed for that spending, so I’m over for the month only because of the timing.

 

 

Floating Goals

Refinance the house. We have a few more pieces of paperwork to get back in, but the process is moving along.

Replace all the windows in the house. This may be put off until fall because we need to get a plumber out to look at a myriad of problems that are slightly more urgent than the windows.

Publish new photography/flash fiction book. My artist launched a successful Kickstarter project this week. I am very excited for her. We’ll take more after her big convention at the beginning of March.