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Today is the 100th day of my fourth 101 in 1001 list, which means I’m 10% of the way through! Time to check in and see how I’m progressing.
18 Goals Completed
At this point in my list, I should have 10 goals completed, and I’m excited to share that I’m already 18 goals in! My record so far is 21 goals by the first check-in (which was during my second list, which currently holds the record for 68 items completed), and this list isn’t terribly far behind.
2. Get my Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist certification.
This might be the goal I’m most proud of completing! I have used Salesforce Marketing Cloud since 2016 when I first started at Girl Scouts, and I’ve wanted to get the Email Specialist certification for probably 4 years now. At previous jobs, I’ve been too swamped with work to devote any time to it. Now that I have more flexibility at work, I set a goal with my boss, took the practice test, did a little bit of studying, and received my certification at the end of September!
17. Paint the main bedroom.
We had massive paint swatches in our bedroom for months. And not just one or two… we’re talking four different swatches on every single wall. One weekend in September, we make a final decision (after throwing four more color options on the list, naturally) and painted the whole thing. I’m so happy with how it turned out! We painted the walls, trim, and doors all a flat navy blue, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Now we just need to do the same thing to my office and Sean’s office!
21. Get our record player fixed.
Last November, we bought an amazing 1960s record player console. It was in great shape, but the record player itself didn’t work. After many phone calls to repair shops around the state, we found a great place in southeast Michigan that rehabbed it for us. It’s now the focal point of our lounge, and we love it!
33. Clean out both external hard drives.
I’ve had to external hard drives that I’ve been carrying around for years that had files and backups on them. I was terrified of losing anything, but I never went through and cleaned them out, which means I couldn’t really use them, either. I finally went through everything on both drives, and now one is reformatted and available for use, and the other is the Time Machine drive for my iMac!
43. Visit Dollywood.
I’ve wanted to visit Dollywood for a while now, and I finally made it happen last week! My brother lives in northeast Tennessee and has annual passes to Dollywood, so my mom and I flew down to Gatlinburg for a short trip, and we all went for my niece’s 14th birthday. It was super busy, but it was a blast!
48. Visit a state I’ve never been to.
A few weeks ago, we did a Honard family trip to New Orleans. I had never been to Louisiana before, but I’d always wanted to visit! I’m so glad we made the time to take a short family trip together.
51. Go to a Kalamazoo Growlers game.
This was a holdover goal from my third 101 in 1001 list, and I crossed it off almost immediately. We went to a game in mid-July with my parents for my dad’s birthday!
58. Take a sushi rolling class.
Another holdover goal from my third 101 in 1001 list! We actually purchased the tickets to the class during the third list, but the class itself was the second day of my fourth list, so it was one of the first goals I crossed off! We made a couple different rolls at our local Asian grocery store and had a blast. We’ll definitely be taking more classes there in the future.
64. Add an herb garden to the kitchen windowsill.
This was such an easy item, but so satisfying! We have a deep windowsill behind our kitchen sink, and it’s filled with plants. They’re beautiful, but they’re all decorative, and I wanted to add some herbs as well. I love making cocktails with herbs in them, so I wanted to add basil, mint, and rosemary. I got some from the grocery store and planted them in some small terracotta pots I had laying around, and voila! An herb garden.
68. Learn to punch-needle.
I loved working on crafts when I was little, and I’ve recently decided to explore crafts again, so I’ve got quite a few goals that revolve around learning new crafting techniques! This one was easy enough to learn—I picked up a cute punch-needle kit at Michael’s one day. Perfecting it, on the other hand, will be much harder… but I’m going to stick with it and see how I like it!
73. Finish my #NoNewFriends cross-stitch project.
Speaking of craft projects, I found an amazing cross-stitch design of three skeletons holding a seance. I tweaked it for my #NoNewFriends group (myself, plus my friends Amanda and Miranda) now that we all work together on the same team! Amanda is working on hers, and I made Miranda’s back in February…. and then never started my own. I finally started it at the beginning of September and finished it up last week!
74. Frame and hang my “Magic Castle” cross-stitch project.
My first big craft experiment was during my third 101 in 1001 list: cross-stitch. Of course, my eyes were much bigger than my stomach with this project, because I got a massive cross-stitch kit from Amazon. It’s called “Magic Castle,” but it’s clearly an unlicensed Harry Potter kit. It took me more than two years to finish, but I’m super proud of it. It had been sitting in a bin in my office, though, and I wanted to hang it up to show off. I picked up a nice frame from Michael’s and hung it up in my reading corner in my office!
86. Go on a reading retreat.
I’m sure we all have those “omg I’d love to do this one day” things that never end up happening. Some of my friends and I have talked about wanting to do a reading retreat—renting a quiet place, bringing our TBR pile, and sitting around reading all weekend. Well, I realized that with my parents’ cottage, we could totally do that without having to pay to rent a place. My book club scheduled it for mid-August, and it was amazing! We actually read all weekend, and got to know each other better. Some of us even brought book-inspired drinks, like a Red, White, and Royal Blue cocktail. We’re talking about doing more of them, and maybe even making it an annual tradition!
87. Build our record collection to 25 albums.
Now that we have a functioning record player, it’s time to collect some records! We had a few before we got the console fixed, but once it was fully functioning again, we purchased more (including NSYNC Celebrity 🙌🏻) and raided my parents’ record collection.
89. Watch all of Sex and the City.
Sex and the City is one of those cultural references I never really got. Am I a Samantha? Or a Charlotte? Or…. who else was in it? Well, I finally watched the whole show, and even got through both movies and the two current seasons of And Just Like That. Honestly, it was a solid fine. I’m not sure I’ll continue to watch And Just Like That as more seasons come out, and I definitely don’t see myself rewatching the show (it definitely did NOT age well), but I’m glad I understand the references now, at the very least.
94. Get all of the trophies in Hogwarts Legacy.
I loved playing Hogwarts Legacy, and one of my favorite parts of Playstation games is earning all of the trophies. I only had a new remaining when my 101 in 1001 started, namely getting to the Map Chamber in every Hogwarts House. It was a fun mini-project to tackle this summer!
96. Go on a ghost tour or haunted history tour.
What better place to go on a haunted history tour than New Orleans? During our Honard family trip a few weeks ago, we did the History & Haunts Carriage Tour. It was so fun and interesting, thanks in large part to our tour guide. He made everything so theatrical, which added to the whole experience.
97. Learn to drive the pontoon boat.
My parents have had a cottage for almost 20 years now, and I’ve never been fully confident driving the pontoon boat. As part of the reading retreat this summer, my dad taught me how to drive it, and we took a couple trips around the lake, which was a lot of fun!
21 Goals in Progress
In addition to those 18, I’ve made progress on another 21! Some of them are nearly done, and some will require slow-but-steady progress throughout the whole list, but I’m happy with any and all progress I can make.
1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.
I’m making really good progress on this one! Each time I complete an item on the list, I edge closer and closer to marking this one off.
3. Get to Unit 100 in Spanish on Duolingo.
I’ve taken some time off the last few weeks because of travel, but now that I’ll be home for the foreseeable future, I’m striving to complete at least one Duolingo lesson every day! I had a good streak going before my trips, so I’m excited to get back at it.
7. Hit my goal for our emergency fund balance.
I haven’t made much progress on this in the last 100 days, thanks in part to Stanley tearing up many important documents that needed to be replaced. 😒 Although it’s actually mostly thanks to our 2011 Jeep Compass, which refused to start three different times, and started up just fine as soon as it was towed to the dealership. 😒😒😒 Thankfully, we have since replaced that car with a beautiful new Chevy Bolt EUV, so we will hopefully have far fewer car expenses coming out of the emergency fund, so we can continue funding it and have the money stay there.
9. Hike 5 times.
Sean and I really enjoy hiking, but 1) I’m intimidated by it because I’m not in the best shape, and 2) I always forget to actually plan hikes. This goal has helped me remember and stay motivated! So far we’ve done one, a new-to-us trail called Bow-in-the-Clouds Preserve!
13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.
Remember what I said about slow-and-steady goals that will take the whole 1,001 days? This is definitely one of them. I started my allergy shot treatment in January of 2022, and they say it takes 3-5 years to complete it. I’m hopeful that I can complete it in 4 or less, so I’m sticking with my monthly shot schedule so I don’t fall behind!
24. Put up a Little Free Library.
This one would absolutely be crossed off if the weather in Kalamazoo hadn’t been so rainy the last few weeks. My parents gifted me an IOU of a Little Free Library for my birthday this year, and my dad built it over the summer. We brought it home a few weeks ago, but it has been rainy ever since, which means the ground is too soft to install it. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get it installed in the next week or two!
34. Update our Home Book each year.
I’m not sure this one technically counts as in progress, because I updated our home book for 2023 during my last 101 in 1001 list, but either way, it’s been updated for this year.
47. Travel to 5 Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts (not including Orange Lake Resort).
I currently work for Holiday Inn Club Vacations (HICV), and one of the perks of employment is really cheap stays at our resorts. We currently have 32, and before this list started, I had only stayed at one of them, Orange Lake Resort, because that’s where we stay when we travel into town for work. I’m aiming to go to 5 other resorts during this list, and so far I’ve been to two: New Orleans Resort (for the Honard family trip) and Smoky Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg for the trip to Dollywood. We also have a trip to Scottsdale Resort planned for next year. It’s been fun traveling to more resorts and seeing how they all compare!
54. Visit 10 new-to-me places in Kalamazoo.
Even though Sean and I have lived in Kalamazoo for 5 years, there are so many places we haven’t been yet (especially thanks to the pandemic)! So far we’ve been to 9 new-to-us places in the greater Kalamazoo area, so only one more to go before I can cross this of.
56. Complete the Give a Craft Beer Trail.
Southwest Michigan has a program called the Give a Craft Beer Trail, where you can check into local participating breweries. Some offer discounts if you check in, and depending on how many you visit, you can earn free swag like a cooler backpack and a winter hat. There are 27 breweries on the tour, and so far we’ve been to 14 since the list started!
I’d been to many of them already, but I wanted to start fresh with the list and see how quickly I could get all of them crossed off. The program resets every year on January 1, so fingers crossed I can get to the remaining 13 before the end of the year, or I’ll have to start all over!
57. Visit all of the wineries on the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail.
Once I added the Gift a Craft Trail to the list, I wanted to see if there was a similar program for wineries. After all, Michigan has amazing breweries and wineries! There isn’t an incentive program like there is for the beer trail, but there’s an unofficial wine trail that I’m striving to complete! So far I’ve only been to one, but since it’s an unofficial program, I don’t have to get to all of them in a single calendar year.
60. Learn to make 10 cocktails from memory.
Mixology is one of my new-ish hobbies, and I really want to have a bunch of fun cocktail recipes in my back pocket that I can make at any time. My goal is for people to come over, tell me what kinds of cocktails they normally like, and whip something up for them without a recipe! I’ve got some classic ones down, and had classic cocktails on my third 101 in 1001 list, but this time I decided to leave it open-ended so I could pick any type of cocktail, not just classic ones. So far I’ve got three more memorized: the Gin Basil Smash (which I apparently haven’t taken a photo of), the Aviation, and the Hugo.
62. Bake 5 different cake recipes from scratch.
Cake baking is such a fun hobby for me, but it’s also so intimidating. I’ve decided to try out 5 different from-stratch recipes to get some practice in, and so far I’ve made one: a blue ombre cake!
78. Publish 15 blog posts (excluding 101 in 1001 posts).
Speaking of hobbies, I really miss traditional blogging, and I’m trying to figure out how to fit it back into my life. Somehow over the last year or so, my only blog posts have been related to my 101 in 1001 lists, so I want to publish 15 that aren’t check-ins or introductions to new 101 in 1001 lists. I’ve published two so far, both of which about my trip to France, which I had been meaning to write for a year!
79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.
Raise your hand if you have countless books in your house and keep buying more even though you haven’t read the ones you already own. 🙋🏼♀️ I have a bunch of Book of the Month books, and I really want to focus on reading all of them, since, yunno, I’ve paid for them.
I’ve inherited some from my mom once she has finished hers, and others I’ve found in Little Free Libraries, so I’m only focusing on ones I purchased from my own Book of the Month account. At the beginning of the list, I had 33 unread Book of the Month picks, and since then I have ordered 9 more, but read 6 of them. So I’m at 6 of 42. The math is confusing, but I’ve figured out a tracker to make sure I’m staying on goal. 😂
80. Read and / or get rid of 25 books I already own.
On a related note, I’m fully aware that I have too many physical books. I’ve gotten many of them for free from Little Free Libraries or ARCs, and I know get rid of them as soon as I read them, which is fine. I just… need to actually do that. So far I’ve only gotten rid of one, but I’ve got a couple set aside to save for my Little Free Library, so more progress is on deck!
81. Read all previously unread books on Alyse Ruriani’s Anti-Racist Bingo: Reading List Edition.
This is one I’ve barely made progress on, because I haven’t finished any more books on this list. I had already completed 4 before this list began, and I’m still only at 4, but I’ve made progress on Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay, so that still counts!
82. Read the Animal Ark series.
Animal Ark was my absolute favorite book series growing up. I had this on my last 101 in 1001 list, and while I didn’t read them all, I did collect them all. Now that I have all 50 (or at least the 50 on the American series list…. there are a lot of spin-offs), I’m ready to read them all. So far I’ve read through book 16!
85. Read 10 self-help books.
Are you sensing a theme with books? I’ve got a whole section devoted to reading, because I love it, but wowza it takes time to read all these books. 😂 I took a break from non-fiction and self-help books during the pandemic because my brain couldn’t handle them, but now that things have settled down a bit, I’m excited to read more of them. So far I’ve finished one, and have downloaded quite a few more that I’m interested in.
88. Listen to all (previously unplayed) episodes of 99% Invisible.
I’m obsessed with the podcast 99% Invisible. It’s my absolute favorite, but I hardly make time to listen to it. I’ve made a little bit of progress—I was on episode 425 when the list started, and I’m now on episode 431—but they continue to put out episodes, with 556 currently published. Time to ramp up my podcast listening time!
93. Watch all of Hannah Montana.
I watched Hannah Montana for a couple of seasons back in high school when it first came out, but I never ended up finishing it. I thought it would be fun to rewatch the whole thing, and while some episodes are painfully cringey, it’s been a fun project! I’m currently about two-thirds of the way through the third season, out of four. It has been a fun, lighthearted watch while cross-stitching!
All in all, I’m very pleased with my progress on my list so far! Now it’s time to keep working on those remaining items…
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