somehow we’ve found ourselves at another 101 in 1001 list!

i’m writing this on july 22, but the fifth iteration of my 101 in 1001 list started back on april 4, 2026. the last few months have just been… *gestures wildly* so i’m a bit behind on my blog posts.

but even though i haven’t been writing, i have been working on the items on the list! but that’s a topic for another day.

if you’re not familiar with the concept, a 101 in 1001 is a list of 101 things you’d like to accomplish in 1,001 days, which works out to just less than three years. i started my first list back in 2015, and while my attention to the lists have ebbed and flowed throughout the years, i’ve stuck with the habit of starting a new list as soon as one ends.

i have a couple of personal policies related to my list, the main one being i can change any item throughout the 1,001 days as i see fit. after all, a lot can happen over the course of 3 years. in general, i try to set a good mix of short-term and long-term goals, so that i have regular progress and bigger projects to work toward.

my current record is 68 items completed, and i’m always striving to complete more. in fact, it’s always my first item on my list—beat my previous record of items completed. and it’s not just for the sake of hitting a higher number; they’re all things i want to accomplish, so it’s a way to motivate myself to do those things.

over the last few years, i’ve been trying to slow down and appreciate life more. i’m taking a hard swing away from hustle culture that was so prominent when i started my first 101 in 1001 list. i asked myself what hobbies i want to spend more time on, what i want the vibe of my life to feel like, and how i want to feel over the course of the next 1,001 days.

does that mean i have entire sections of items devoted just to disney dreamlight valley and pokopia? you better believe it. at first it felt weird, but then i thought back to my third 101 in 1001 list, in the height of covid, when i had a whole section devoted to animal crossing. and it was fun. i want more of that unapologetic joy in my life. so yes, 13 of the 101 items are specifically about the two video games i’m currently obsessed with, and i am so excited about it.

(it’s also helping me focus on those two games that i enjoy and have already paid for, instead of getting distracted by shiny new games that cost more money. here’s looking at you, tomodachi life.)

i also have a whole section devoted to florida. a tiny bit of my soul died when i realized i wanted to have a florida section (because, yunno… *gestures wildly in the direction of florida*). but i’m actually there quite often, because both my job and my in-laws are in central Florida. in fact, i go down enough that one of my best friends, amanda, and i got season passes to universal studios florida back in march. (hence all of the items specific to universal / harry potter world).

so without further ado, here is my fifth 101 in 1001 list! i will keep the dedicated page updated with progress and changes, but this is the unaltered list from april 2026, when it first started.

Personal Development

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

2. Get a score of 100 in French in Duolingo.

3. Get to 150 birds on my life list.

4. Learn how to drive a stick shift.

5. Learn how to change a tire.

6. Learn how to pick a lock.

7. Learn how to juggle.

Wicca, Folklore, & Spirituality

8. Read 12 books related to spirituality, folklore, or nature.

9. Learn how to read tarot.

10. Host four Wheel of the Year dinner parties.

11. Make a fairy garden.

Health & Fitness

12. Plan, plant, & maintain a full growing season in my garden on my own.

13. Be able to do the splits in any one direction.

14. Climb 3 “steps” in aerial silks.

15. Go on 25 hikes.

16. Learn how to stand-up paddleboard.

17. Spend a full day following only what feels good, leaning into my ADHD tendencies.

18. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

Travel

19. Travel to the Upper Peninsula.

20. Visit 5 Michigan State Parks.

21. Visit 5 new-to-us National Parks.

22. Go car or tent camping.

23. Visit Athina in France.

24. Visit Amanda in Oklahoma.

25. Build a “travel ritual” and use it on 5 trips.

Florida

26. Finish all of the adventures at Universal Studios Florida Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

27. Cast all of the spells at Universal Studios Florida Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

28. Unlock all of the achievements at Universal Studios Florida Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

29. Find all of the beasts at Universal Studios Florida Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

30. Visit one park at Walt Disney World.

31. Visit a manatee sanctuary.

32. Go to an Inter Miami game.

Local

33. Visit all of the wineries on the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail.

34. Visit the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary.

35. Find the tufted titmouse mural in downtown Kalamazoo.

36. See the moon tree at Fernwood Botanical Gardens.

37. Take a glass-blowing class at Glass Art Kalamazoo.

38. Take a blacksmithing class at a local forge.

Home

39. Finish the built-in bookshelves in my office.

40. Upgrade the main bedroom closets.

41. Upgrade the entryway closet.

42. Set up a craft studio in the basement.

43. Renovate the en suite bathroom.

44. Renovate the downstairs bathroom and laundry room.

45. Upgrade the bedding for both bedrooms.

46. Paint the guest bedroom.

47. Put up wallpaper somewhere in the house.

48. Create a reading nook.

49. Landscape the backyard.

50. Put up a bat house.

51. Put up the bluebird houses.

52. Get a hammock.

53. Declutter 100 items from my home.

54. Update the Home Book each year.

Food

55. Make 10 recipes from cookbooks I already own (at least 2 from each).

56. Make macarons.

57. Create a custom cocktail.

58. Learn to make 5 cocktails from memory.

59. Learn to make 10 go-to meals from memory.

60. Learn to make latte art with our espresso machine.

61. Add an herb garden to the windowsill and keep it alive for at least 3 months.

Creative

62. Refinish my hexagon end table.

63. Refinish my knitting table.

64. Repaint and dress up my lawn goose, Ryan.

65. Create a cool signature.

66. Learn how to rebind books.

67. Crochet a sweater or cardigan.

68. Finish all of my Woobles kits.

69. Sew a piece of clothing for myself.

70. Fix my manatee bowl.

71. Publish 15 blog posts (excluding 101 in 1001 update posts).

72. Learn how to make 3 origami creations.

Reading

73. Finish reading Animal Ark.

74. Read the Stormlight Archive.

75. Read the Princess Diaries series.

76. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

77. Finish the Book of the Month reading challenge each year.

78. Read and/or get rid of 25 books I already own.

Disney Dreamlight Valley

79. Decorate my entire valley.

80. Decorate all of Eternity Isle.

81. Decorate all of Storybook Vale.

82. Decorate all of Wishblossom Ranch.

83. Fill all of my chests on my storage island (after decorating each area).

84. Complete all of the memories.

85. Complete all of the Dreamlight Duties.

Pokopia

86. Decorate all of Withered Wastelands.

87. Decorate all of Bleak Beach.

88. Decorate all of Rocky Ridges.

89. Decorate all of Sparkling Skylands.

90. Decorate all of Caitland (Palette Town).

91. Unlock all of the Pokemon.

Entertainment

92. Watch all of Murder She Wrote.

93. Watch all of Nancy Meyers’ movies.

94. Watch all of New Girl.

95. Watch Heated Rivalry.

96. Do a themed movie night for each of the four seasons.

Just for Fun

97. Use our picnic basket.

98. Get my conch and daith piercings.

99. Get my daith and helix piercings.

100. Play all of our owned board games at least once.

101. Give myself an at-home dip manicure.

Okay, so I’m nearly a month behind on this post, but… life happens. We’re now 800 829 days into my fourth 101 in 1001 list, which means it’s time for our 8th check-in!

A 101 in 1001 is a list of 101 things I’d like to accomplish in 1,001 days, which is just under 3 years. It’s a nice balance between a new years resolution and a bucket list. I’m currently on my fourth list, with each one starting the day after the previous one ends—meaning I’ve been doing this since April of 2015!

I check in with my list every 100 days (or, in this case, 129 days… whoops) to keep myself on track and see how far I’ve come. So let’s get into it!

2 Goals Being Changed

I always give myself permission to change a goal—after all, it’s my list, of things I want to do, so if I no longer want to do them, I refuse to just let the items sit there unhelpfully.

This time around, I’m changing two of my goals.

15. Open a brewery Set up a craft room in the basement.

When we first moved into our current house, I dreamed of setting up our own “brewery” in the basement. Sean brews his own beer, and I loved the idea of getting a bar with barstools and a chalkboard menu where everyone could hang out. Well, since then, Sean hasn’t been brewing as much beer, and we haven’t really spent much time in the basement, so I’m reconsidering.

Now I want to set up the basement as a craft room instead of a brewery. It’s a bunch of wasted space right now, and I thought I’d use my office as more of a craft room, but that just hasn’t really happened. I think the basement will be a great spot where I can spread out, make a bit of a mess, and not have it impact my workday.

71. Knit something other than a scarf Crochet a sweater or cardigan.

I’ve been honing my DIY skills lately, and the spirit of this item was originally to make something by hand that I could wear—but I wanted it to be a little more complicated than a giant rectangle. I originally figured knitting would be the way to go, imagining some sort of cable-knit sweater, or maybe something round like a pair of socks.

Well, I’ve been working my way through my Woobles crochet kits, and I realized that I really want to learn how to make granny squares, and then stitch those granny squares together to make a cardigan. It’s the same spirit of the item, just slightly different.

5 Goals Completed

Now that we’ve covered how the list is changing, let’s get to the main event—progress! I crossed five items off my list in the last 129 days, putting my total at 52 out of 101.

25. Get my antique sewing machine working.

I’m so proud of this one, and I’m honestly still struggling to believe that I actually accomplished it. A few years back, my dad and I refurbished an old 1913 Singer sewing machine. We replaced some of the veneers, sanded down and stained all of the wood, painted the legs, and even added gold detailing back onto the Singer logos in the metal stands. We just had one element missing—getting the sewing machine to actually work.

I had the old leather sash cord, but it had crumbled a bit, so we got a new one to replace it. It took me about two years, but I finally cut it to size and connected the sewing machine to the trundle peddle. And… it still didn’t work. I tried tightening the cord, which made it worse, so I eventually had to buy another new sash cord, and then took apart all of the sewing machine pieces and oiled the hell out of them. After about 45 minutes of deep-cleaning, everything was moving smoothly enough for the trundle to finally move the needle up and down!

I’m not sure I’ll ever actually use the sewing machine for any projects (I’m not confident in my sewing skills in general to throw a 112-year-old curve ball into the mix), but just knowing that I could is rewarding enough.

37. Organize my baseball hats.

Speaking of my dad, he raised us to be a baseball cap family. We went to a lot of professional baseball games when I was growing up, and I swear he bought a new hat at every ballpark. It took me until I was about 30, but then I quickly took after him and now have an unruly amount of baseball hats. I knew I needed to organize them, but I had no idea how.

I ended up finding some macrame hat organizers on Etsy, and decided to make my own version of them to organize all of my hats. After all, make something with macrame was another item on the list, so I could kill two birds with one stone!

I finished the first one, which had room for 10 hats, and then quickly realized I needed to double up the hooks, because I had more than 30 hats, and didn’t have room for more than 3 hat organizers. I figured I could get 20 on one organizer, then make a second one and I’d be good. Except… then I bought more hats. My current total is 47. (For the record, my dad does not have that many hats… I don’t think.) So it took a bit longer, but I now have 3 hat organizers, each with a 20-hat capacity. So I can only buy 13 more before I need to start downsizing.

62. Bake 5 different cake recipes from scratch.

A couple years ago, I got sucked into the cake baking side of Instagram, and I was mesmerized. Watching people spin a cake around on a swivel top, scraping at the icing to make it smooth, was so satisfying to watch, and I wanted to try it for myself. Plus, I wanted to graduate from boxed cake mixes to from-scratch recipes. I had made a few, but I wanted to try more varieties, so I put on my list that I wanted to make 5 cakes from scratch.

I’ve also been trying to learn more about my Celtic heritage and Celtic paganism, so I tied the cake baking to pagan holiday celebrations. I made two additional cakes in the last few months, bringing my total up to five: a berry Chantilly cake for Lughnasadh (which is the first harvest, celebrated halfway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox) and a salted caramel apple cake for Mabon (the second harvest, celebrated on the fall equinox).

90. Watch all of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

For a long time, I knew the name Mary Tyler Moore (though probably more in the context of Weezer than in the context of the woman herself), and I knew the show was a groundbreaking, feminist moment in society, but I hadn’t actually seen a single episode. I finally decided to start it back in September… and then realized all seven seasons would be leaving Hulu at the end of the month, so I needed to binge all 168 episodes in a single month if I wanted to avoid paying to rent any episodes online.

Amazingly, I succeeded, finishing up the final season on September 24, with almost a full week to spare. And I absolutely loved it. I could absolutely see it becoming a comfort watch for me, similar to The Golden Girls or Friends. It’s all set in the 1970s in a TV news room, and it just felt like an escape into a much simpler time. Which is saying something, given Watergate was all happening while the show was airing.

91. Watch all of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

On a similar note, I’ve wanted to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race for years now. I love drag, but I haven’t known much about it, and I’ve only gone to a handful of drag shows since college. Plus, I found out at one point that we have a family tie to one of the star contestants—my husband’s second cousin. I read her autobiography a few years back, but now that I’ve seen the show, I want to reread it. There were so many interesting behind-the-scenes descriptions that I didn’t have a full appreciation for the first time around that I think would be fascinating to reread.

All that said, Drag Race has many more episodes than Mary Tyler Moore—it has been on for an amazing 17 seasons so far, starting all the way back in 2009. (And let me tell ya, that Season 1 Vaseline filter was something else.) I started watching Season 1 at the end of October 2023, and finally wrapped it up in July 2025. Now I’m excited for the next season to air—and I’ve got plenty of spin-offs (All Stars, etc.) that I can add to my list, too.

12 Goals in Progress

In addition to the five items I’ve completed recently, I’ve also made progress on another 12 of the remaining 49 items on my list.

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

Slowly but surely! Each time I cross an item off my list, I get a little closer to beating my previous record, which I achieved in my second 101 in 1001 list.

3. Get a Duolingo French score of 30.

I’m really proud of how well I’ve stuck with French lessons lately! I’m trying to get to a CEFR score of A2, which Duolingo labels as Level 30. According to Duolingo, a Level 30 score means I’ll be able to “handle simple conversations about daily topics.” Seeing as I learned Spanish most of my life and haven’t had any formal French lessons outside of Duolingo, I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come! In fact, my best friend recently sent me a long text message entirely in French, and I was able to pick up on probably 75% of what it said.

I also made the jump to Duolingo Max this year, so I can (among other things) have AI-based video calls in French. I struggled for a bit with listening to and speaking French (I will forever be haunted by Athina telling me once in high school that I speak French with an Asian accent; I swore off ever speaking French again, but finally faced my fear). The video calls were hard at first, because it’s a totally different way to use your brain, but I picked it up quickly and try to do at least one video call per day to continue practicing my French!

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

I’ve been working with my allergist on allergy shot treatments since December of 2021, and I’m hoping we’ll be wrapping it up in the next year or so! I probably won’t finish it before this list ends in April of 2026, but I’m really happy with how it has gone. I take allergy meds every morning still, but I heard that we recently had a bad ragweed pollen plume in my area that was making kids, pets, and really anyone with allergies miserable for a whole month—which was news to me, because I hadn’t noticed at all. It really stood out to me that I didn’t notice any increased allergens in my system, so I’m taking that as a very good sign.

22. Refinish my hexagon end table.

I got a hexagon end table back when I was in college (aka more than a decade ago) and it has somehow followed me to every place I’ve lived since then. I think it might actually be the only piece of furniture I still have from college. It was painted a dark green with some awful apple decoupage on the top, plus gold leaf details hand painted with what I can only assume was a gold Sharpie.

A few months ago I stripped all of the paint (and apple artwork) off, but then it sat in my office with no plan for a long time. I finally decided on a style I want to go for (picture black paint, antiqued gold details, and witchy vibes) and picked up all of the materials I need! I’ve even replaced a piece of trim that had broken off before I bought it. Now I just need to replace some of the trim, and then get to priming, painting, and sealing! A perfect first project for the new craft room in the basement…

42. Visit 3 zoos.

I absolutely love zoos—I worked at the zoo in Grand Rapids every summer when I was in high school, and my husband even had an internship there one summer when we were in college. But I haven’t been to any zoos in a long time, so I wanted to make a point to go to a few. The biggest hurtle for me is how busy they tend to be, especially with a bunch of little kids. Well, that was taken care of when we got ads for an amazing fundraiser at our local zoo: Corks and Kegs at the Zoo!

They closed the zoo to the public on the first Saturday in September (which worked out to be a beautiful cloudy fall day) for a 21+ beer and wine festival throughout the whole zoo. There were probably 500 or so people there, but when everyone is spread out across the whole zoo, it doesn’t feel crowded at all. It was such a fun day.

71. Crochet a sweater or cardigan.

I mentioned above that I recently swapped this one into my list—and I’ve already made some (very basic) progress on it! I picked out the pattern I want to use (a sunflower granny square pattern), and I ordered / received the yarn I need for the whole thing. I’m going to focus the rest of October on finishing up all of my Halloween Woobles kits, but after that, I’m going to start learning how to make granny squares so I can start on this sweater!

77. Fix my manatee bowl.

Back in the beginning of 2020, during my first ceramics class, I made a slab bowl that accidentally looked like a manatee, and I loved it. Except, since it was one of my first projects, I didn’t realize that I made the clay too thin. We never put anything in it, but one day some sort of tremor must have vibrated through the bowl just right, because it broke into four or five pieces, and no one was even touching it at the time.

I finally went to repair it a few weeks ago, only to learn that Gorilla Glue / other superglues aren’t great for repairing ceramics. No matter how many times I tried, they just didn’t stick together. Apparently I need to use an epoxy instead, so I’m going to try that next, and mix some gold powder in with the epoxy to go for a kintsugi look. Wish me luck!

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

I’m gonna be honest, friends, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to cross this one off. The problem is that I keep buying more Book of the Month picks. I started with fewer than 50 books on my list, but I’m now up to 103 books. I’ve read 42 of them, which is pretty close to what I started with, but that is less than half of what I need to read to cross this one off. I’ve been focusing on only reading my Book of the Month picks, but I just don’t see how I can read 61 more books in only 172 more days.

80. Read and / or get rid of 25 books I already own.

Of course, those 61 more Book of the Month picks only account for one of my reading goals, and I have a whole section devoted to reading. I have thankfully made progress on getting rid of some of the books I had on hand the day I started this list, with my current total at 11. Apparently I just need to focus my attention on Book of the Month picks that I had before this 101 in 1001 started, and then get rid of them as soon as I’m finished, so that I can make progress on two items at once.

82. Read the Animal Ark series.

That being said, there are some books I will never get rid of—my Animal Ark series. These were my favorite books as a kid, and as part of my last 101 in 1001, I collected all 50 of the original American series. I’m now working my way through them, slowly but surely. I’ve read another 11 in the last 129 days, putting my total at 33 out of 50.

85. Read 10 self-help books.

I have a hard time listening to audiobooks, because I don’t realize that I’ve tuned out the narrator until 10 minutes later and I have zero clue what’s going on. Thankfully, the same thing doesn’t happen for nonfiction books, so I’ve been taking this approach with the self-help books I want to read. I’ve added two more to my list in the last 129 days: Nobody Wants Your Shit by Messie Condo and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. That puts my total at four out of 10 self-help books so far.

90. Watch all of Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World.

I absolutely loved Boy Meets World as a kid. Mr. Feeny basically raised me, and one day I’ll convince Sean to be Plays with Squirrels for Halloween. I tried watching Girl Meets World when it first came out (which was my original introduction to Sabrina Carpenter, fun fact), but stopped watching after like two episodes. I started watching Season 1 of Boy Meets World last week, and I’ve already zipped through most of the first season. It threw me off that Eric is supposedly a ladies’ man at the beginning. I’d like his character arc to backtrack to loveable idiot ASAP, please and thank you.

So there you have it—52 of 101 completed, with 172 more days to go! I won’t think about how many days I’d have per item if I want to finish them all by April 3, 2026. But any amount accomplished is still really exciting, so I’m very pleased with my progress!

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It’s hard to believe another 100 days has passed, but it’s time for another check-in on my fourth 101 in 1001 list!

A 101 in 1001 list is a collection of 101 things I’d like to accomplish in the next 1,001 days, or approximately 2.75 years. It’s longer than a new year’s resolution, but shorter than a bucket list. Every 100 days, or 10% of the list, I check in with an update about what I’ve completed and made progress on.

4 Goals Completed

I’ve completed four more goals since the last check-in, which puts my current running total at 47!

7. Hit my goal for our emergency fund balance.

This was both really boring and really exciting at the same time! I have a specific goal in mind for our emergency fund, and we were quite a ways away from it for a while, but we were able to use our bonus this spring to fully fund it. Now we’re set if anything happens—but here’s hoping we don’t need to!

28. Build a pergola in the backyard.

Speaking of spending our annual bonus, we used another chunk of it to get all of the supplies for a pergola in our backyard. Sean has been hard at work all spring getting it set up, and while we’ve got a few more steps (like adding a trellis, staining it, and hanging up string lights), I’m considering this done, because it’s up and our furniture has been placed underneath it. Bring on summer!

30. Transplant the redbud tree in the backyard.

This task was less about financials and more about brute strength—we have a redbud tree in the backyard that was way too close to the house, and we had a perfect spot further back from the house where we could put it. We needed to move it either in the late winter (before it begins budding, but after the ground thaws) or in the fall (after the final leaves fall off, before it snows), so when we had an unseasonably warm day in March, we dug it up and transplanted it!

I will say, jfc redbud trees are hard to transplant. At one point I was laying on the ground with both of my arms and both of my legs wrapped around the trunk of the tree, trying to leverage it out of the ground, and the root ball was not budging; the trunk was just bending from the roots to where I was holding it. We eventually got it out (after busting the metal wheel barrel because it was so heavy), but it was a workout. We were a little afraid that the trauma of the move had killed it, but in April, the buds started appearing, and it now has leaves, so she turned out okay!

49. Visit a country I’ve never been to.

This spring, we did a Panama Canal cruise with the Honard family, which included stops in Colombia, Panama, Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire! I hadn’t been to any of the five countries, but I technically crossed this one off with the first stop, which was to Colón, Colombia.

9 Goals in Progress

In addition to the four completed goals, I’ve made progress on another nine goals since the last check-in.

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

Slowly but surely I’m getting closer to my record of 68! I know I only have 300 days left, but I’m feeling pretty confident (or maybe just stubborn?) that I’m going to beat my goal this time around.

3. Get a Duolingo French score of 30.

I’m currently on a 270 day streak in Duolingo! It’s taking some time, but I’m currently at level 21 in French, which I’m really proud of. (Of course, now that I have two new direct reports on my team who are based in Cancun, I’m once again second-guessing if I should continue with French or switch back to Spanish.)

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

This is another “slowly but surely” goal, but I’m feeling better about it during this check-in than I have been before. I had an annual visit with my allergist back in May, and I mentioned that the shots are working, but not so well that I can stop my daily allergy pills. She’s switching up the serum that they use to see if that helps fast-track my treatment. The next time I need a new vial, I’ll get a “new” dog serum, and she’s moving the cat serum to the other arm, which should help it keep its potency. I’m not 100% sure I understand it, but I’m feeling optimistic about the changes!

37. Organize my baseball hats.

I mentioned in the fifth check-in that I had made a macramé hat organizer, and that I just needed to make a second one and all of my hats would be organized. Well, I didn’t start the second one until this past May, and since then I’ve acquired enough new baseball hats that I now require a third organizer. So I need to finish up the second one still (I’ve only got a handful of stitches left), and then do the whole process over again.

This was also slowed down by my recent hand surgery, but that’s a story for another day.

62. Bake 5 different cakes from scratch.

This has been such a fun project! I didn’t make much progress in 2024 because I tried doing keto again, but when I gave that up, I was able to jump back in. I made a lemon lavender cake to celebrate Ostara (the pagan celebration of the spring equinox) in March, which was such a fun way to celebrate.

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

Just like in my previous check-ins, I’ve technically made progress by reading more of my Book of the Month picks, but I’ve also gotten more behind by…. buying more Book of the Month picks. WHOOPS.

I’ve read two more books since the last check-in (Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi and Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez), but I’ve also purchased 16 more, meaning I’m at 31 out of 98. Lololol my bad.

80. Read and/or get rid of 25 books I already own.

I got rid of two more books this time around: Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon and The Power by Naomi Alderman! I had finished The Power right before the previous check-in, and then gave it to my mom when I saw her a few days later.

One thing to note about this item on my list: I marked all of my books with post-it notes at the beginning of the 1,001 days so that it was truly only books I already owned. In previous lists, I’ve done the same thing, but I’ve gotten rid of books that I obtained after the list started, which isn’t really the spirit of this list. So while I’ve technically only gotten rid of two more books since the last check-in, I’ve gotten rid of more books than that in the last 100 days.

81. Read all previously unread books on Alyse Ruriani’s Anti-Racist Bingo: Reading List Edition.

My last reading update for this check-in post! I haven’t technically finished any more books on the Anti-Racist Bingo, but I’ve made progress by reading a few more essays from Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.

91. Watch all of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

I’m so so so so close to being caught up on Drag Race! I had just started Season 16 during the last check-in, and I’m now toward the beginning of Season 17, which is the most recent season. Only 12 episodes left before I can cross this one off!

Overall, I’m very happy with my progress! I’m just about halfway through my items, and 301 remaining days feels totally doable to get a bunch of those crossed off.

Until the next check-in!

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It’s hard to believe that another 100 days has gone by! We’re now 600 days into my 101 in 1001 list, which is 101 things I want to accomplish in 1,001 days.

It’s longer than a to do list, but shorter than a bucket list, and it’s a concept I absolutely love! In fact, this is my fourth iteration of the list, starting one as soon as the other one finishes, all the way back to 2015.

Every 100 days, or approximately 10% of the list, I check in on what progress I’ve made, and if I’ve made any changes. So let’s get into it!

1 Goal Completed

Not as exciting as previous check-ins, but a goal completed is still progress! This time around I crossed one item off the list.

95. Send out Christmas cards.

I’ve wanted to send out Christmas cards for a long time now, but I never really got around to it. I always loved receiving Christmas cards from my friends, and in 2024, I finally made the time to do it. We sent out a card featuring one of our favorite photos from our trip to Maine this past fall, and it made me so happy!

7 Goals in Progress

In addition to crossing one item off the list, I’ve made progress on another seven.

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

I might not have made much progress for this one, but I have made progress nonetheless! I’m now at 43 completed. Just 26 more to go before I can cross this one off the list.

3. Get a Duolingo French score of 30.

I’m at nearly a 200 day learning streak with Duolingo. I’ve missed days here and there (thank god for those streak freezes), but I’m proud of how much I’ve kept up with it. I’m currently at Level 18 in French, which Duolingo describes as being able to “ask and answer simple questions.” That also means I’m halfway between where I was when I started (Level 6) and the score I want to get to (Level 30)!

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

I keep going as the schedule demands! I’ve got a check-in with the allergist coming up this summer, so hopefully we’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.

34. Update our Home Book each year.

A new year means new updates to the home book! I got this updated a few weeks ago. We’ve had a lot of changes in the last few months, so there was quite a bit to update, which just shows how important it is to keep up with it.

41. Visit 5 Michigan State Parks.

Since we moved back to Michigan in 2018, we’ve paid for a Michigan Recreation Pass with our car’s registration. It gets you into all state parks for free when you’re driving that car. After buying a new car in the fall, we wanted to switch the Recreation Pass to that car, which meant we lapsed between January 2025 and May 2025. We didn’t go to a single state park from 2018 through then, so we figured it wouldn’t be a problem to lapse for a few months.

And then… we finally went to a state park in February of 2025. Of course.

We did a weekend trip to Detroit for a Red Wings game, and while we were there, we swung over to Belle Isle State Park! It’s an island in the Detroit River, right between the United States and Canada. [obligatory comment about running away to Canada.] It’s a beautiful spot, even in the frigid weather in February. I’m excited to go back this summer and see how it transforms throughout the year!

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

In true Caitlin fashion, I have made progress on my Book of the Month picks… and I’ve also purchased more in the mean time. So I’ve made progress, but I’ve also technically read a smaller percentage of the books on the list.

I finished the 29th book from my list earlier this year: The Power by Naomi Alderman. I really enjoyed it!

I also paused my membership for a couple of months, but restarted it in February and ordered 3 more books, so my total is now up to 82. Whoops!

91. Watch all of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

I’m so close to catching up on Drag Race! I’m currently at the beginning of Season 16, which aired in the beginning of 2024. I just need a few more binge sessions and I’ll be caught up to present-day and be able to cross this one off the list.

Not the most groundbreaking of check-ins, but I’m still making a lot of progress, which I’m proud of! Now it’s time to crank out more items so I’ve got a larger update in another 100 days.

Wow! I can’t believe I’m already halfway through my fourth 101 in 1001 list, but sure enough, it’s been 500 days since I kicked it off.

If you’re unfamiliar, a 101 in 1001 list is a list of 101 things you’d like to accomplish in the next 1,001 days, which is approximately 2.75 years. It’s longer than a new year’s resolution, but shorter than a bucket list, which is a really helpful timeframe for me to wrap my brain around!

I’m currently on my fourth iteration, with the next one starting immediately after one ends. I try to check in roughly every 100 days, so let’s see where we’re at now that we’re halfway through.

4 Goals Completed

While I’m still *technically* behind, I’m making regular progress, which I’m very proud of! Here are the four goals I completed in the last 100 days.

9. Hike 5 times.

I finally got my fourth and fifth hikes in back in August and September! And of course have gone on more than 5 hikes since then. I figured that would be the case—once I start, I’ll remember how much I liked it and want to do more! We finished up the list with Dune Ridge Trail at Indiana Dunes National Park back in August and Ledges Trail at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in September.

31. Landscape the front yard.

Whew! We finally feel proud of our front landscaping now that we finished wrapping the edges of the flower beds in brick. We’ve got plenty we still want to do (we’re not a big fan of lawns in general, so we want to bring the landscaping further down toward the street), but it at least no longer feels like an overgrown afterthought.

47. Travel to 5 Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts (not including Orange Lake Resort).

I’m so excited to have this one crossed off my list! I work for Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and we have 32 resorts across the U.S. and Mexico, but before this list, I had only been to one: Orange Lake Resort, the one we stay at each time we fly in for work. (Seriously, I’m beginning to know that place like the back of my hand.) I visited my fifth resort outside of Orange Lake in October: Mount Ascutney Resort in Vermont! It was such a great trip, and I’m so glad we made the effort to stay at the resort.

72. Make something with macrame.

Macrame is one of those hobbies that I’ve always wanted to do but never really devoted the time to. I made hemp and embroidery floss friendship bracelets like it was my job back in grade school, and macrame is basically the adult version of that. I got supplies for myself back in August, but they sat in my office closet for two months. Finally I bit the bullet and made a hat organizer for myself over the weekend! (More on that later.)

10 Goals in Progress

Meanwhile, I’ve got another 10 goals in progress!

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

Slowly but steadily getting there! I’m feeling very confident that I’ll beat the record that I set during my second 101 in 1001 list this time around.

3. Get a Duolingo French score of 30.

My best friend is French, so I’m trying to learn French despite only having learned Spanish up until recently. Duolingo tracks your CEFR score as you progress, and I’m trying to get to level 30 by the end of this list. That means I will be able to “handle simple conversations about daily topics.”

As of check-in 4, I was at level 10, and I have since gone up to level 14! I’m about halfway to level 15 now. I’m trying to practice every day, and am currently on a 122 day streak! (Sure, there are a handful of streak freezes in there, but nobody’s perfect.)

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

I’ve had pretty bad allergies all my life, and back in December of 2021 I finally got retested and started allergy shot treatments. (When the allergist came back into the room to see the results of my test, she took one look at me and said “oh you poor thing.” So if that gives you an idea of my allergeis…)

Typically the process takes 3-5 years, depending on how often you go and how extreme your allergies are. I’m currently getting my allergy shots at least once per month! Although now that I’ve hit my deductible, I’m trying to go even more often so that it’s cheaper, and then I can back off again starting in January. [Insert obligatory comment about how broken the healthcare system in the U.S. is.]

37. Organize my baseball hats.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve successfully made an item with macrame, and it’s my baseball hat organizer! I made a long, thin design with macrame and knotted some metal clips all the way down. I use those to attach my hats by the bill, and voila—a long line of my baseball hats! Of course, I have so many hats that I still need to make a second one, so this item can’t be crossed off quite yet. I’m planning to start the second one this week, though!

78. Publish 15 blog posts (excluding 101 in 1001 posts).

I really want to get back into blogging, but I’m having a hard time making it a habit again. Which is very evident by the fact that I wrote no other blog posts between check-in 2 and check-in 4, and since then I’ve only written one other. But it’s a fun one! Florida in February, Or: That Time I Met Joey Fatone. (Yes, he’s as delightful and kind as you want him to be.)

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

I’ve been a Book of the Month subscriber since November of 2021, which means I’ve acquired a LOT of books. I set out aiming to read all of my BOTM picks during this list, but the problem is… I keep buying more. I started at 42 at the beginning of the list, and I’m now at 79, so my list has NEARLY doubled. Thankfully I’ve paused my subscription for now, so it shouldn’t be growing more for a few months.

That being said, I’ve read 6 more books since my last check-in: The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (loved), The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (really liked) The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center (enjoyed), The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren (really liked), This Spells Love by Kate Robb (meh), and You, Again by Kate Goldbeck (also meh).

80. Read and / or get rid of 25 books I already own.

On a similar note, I’ve got a LOT of books that I’ve picked up over the years (especially from Little Free Libraries; I have a hard time saying no to free stuff) that I want to simply read and get rid of. I just need to… actually read and get rid of them. Since my last check-in, I’ve read and given away one more book: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn.

82. Read the Animal Ark series.

I absolutely loved this series when I was in grade school. In fact, it made me want to be a vet when I grew up, despite being extremely queasy and unable to imagine putting an animal down. In my last 101 in 1001 list, I collected all 50 books, and this time around I’m reading them all. I was in a bit of a slump with them, but this past weekend I sat down and finished the book I had been reading: Dolphin in the Deep. That means I’m now 22 books down!

85. Read 10 self-help books.

I read another self-help book this month! It’s not your typical self-help book, which I really enjoy. It’s called Goblin Mode by McKayla Coyle, and it’s basically about how to be cozy and weird and anti-capitalist. My kinda book! I highly recommend it.

91. Watch all of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

And finally, I’m still trucking my way through Drag Race. Fun fact, my husband’s second cousin was one of the big names in Season 5, and since I had never seen it, I decided to finally watch all of them. I’m currently in the middle of Season 14 of 16. I’ve only watched 5 episodes since my last check-in, but cozy season feels like a great time to grab some popcorn and watch some dramatic reality tv.

So there you have it! Halfway done, and 42 goals complete. While I’m not technically on track for all 101 items, 42% feels like really solid progress. I can’t wait to cross even more off soon!

I’m writing this blog post more than 6 months after, and I still can’t believe this happened to me.

I work on the marketing team at Holiday Inn Club Vacations, and every February, we have the Sales & Marketing Awards, or SMAs, to celebrate our hard work from the previous year.

We all fly into Orlando from across the country and get together at Hard Rock Café at Universal Orlando. There’s a theme every year, and the company goes all out—decorations, costumes, food, drinks, and entertainment. This year’s theme was Mardi Gras, and the headliners were none other than Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone of *NSYNC.

But before I get into it, let’s back up. The party was on a Thursday, and Sean and I flew down the weekend before. I was going to be working in the office all week, so we wanted the weekend to relax by the pool before the whirlwind got started. And of course… it was in the 50s and rainy all weekend.

Sean and I actually have a theory that Florida is in the 60s and rainy all the time, and their whole “sunny and warm” brand is just a marketing ploy to get people to visit. I swear the last 5 times we’ve been down, it has been cold and rainy.

We went to brunch on Saturday at the Tick Tok Diner (easily one of my new favorite places in Kissimmee) and got bottomless mimosas.

That evening, we had dinner reservations at House of Blues in Disney Springs, which was so good. (Plus, I made Sean go to T-REX, the LEGO Store, and World of Disney with me, so it was a win all-around.) This all led up to the main event of the evening: Cirque du Soleil!

Cirque du Soleil partnered with Disney on a show called Drawn to Life, which celebrates Disney Imagineers through acrobatics. I’ve wanted to go for a while (it was on my 101 in 1001 list to go to a Cirque du Soleil show, and I knew the one in Orlando would be the best opportunity for me), so we finally prioritized it for my birthday weekend!

I loved it. It wasn’t quite the full Cirque du Soleil show that I was hoping for (I wished there were aerial silks!) but it was still so magical. I’m so glad we went, even if it was a bit cold and rainy outside.

Since our original plans for Sunday were to hang out at the pool, we decided to go to EPCOT; we figured no one else would want to go to EPCOT when it was cold and rainy.

Narrator: everyone else also went to EPCOT thinking no one else would go when it was cold and rainy.

While it was super crowded, we had a blast. We did what any childless 30-something does at EPCOT: eat and drink around the world. Of course, we didn’t do the “normal” drink-around-the-world, where you start in either Mexico or Canada, because we headed straight for France and got pastries and coffee for breakfast. Then we went on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure (which was cute but made me a little nauseous), and bounced around all over the park for the rest of the day, going in no specific order.

It was such a fun day. In addition to drinking and eating our way through the park, we found an amazing mug of Ed from The Lion King (in the America section, for some reason??) that happens to look exactly like Stanley. I literally almost spit my beer out when Sean pointed to it.

After our visit to America, we jetted over to Mission: SPACE, which was… an experience. It’s regarded as one of the most intense rides at Disney World. There are two paths you can take: Mars or Earth. Mars is intense, while Earth is slightly gentler. Naturally, Sean insisted we go on the Mars path.

Let me tell you… if the ride had gone on a single second longer, I would have vomited. As soon as our feet were on solid ground, Sean said the same thing, and then we noticed a poor woman wearing protective gear whose job was clearly just to clean up the vomit after each ride.

I will not be going on that one again. (But in happy news, I did get an awesome NASA hat in the gift shop!)

Oh, and I saw the 1989 Kelce / Swift coat of arms in England! I had seen references to it online but totally forgot until I saw it on top of a mantel.

We ended the day with a quick ride on Spaceship Earth, AKA the big geodesic dome that EPCOT is known for. I remember loving this ride when my family went to Disney World when I was five, so much that I made my parents go on it again so I could ride once with each of them. And let me say, mom and dad… I’m so sorry. That ride is awful.

Monday through Wednesday were a blur of work, happy hours, dinner with my in-laws, and a second visit to T-REX for a sad volcano cake and the skin of a giant axolotl stuffed animal that I got to bring home.

(Have I mentioned how much I love T-REX? It’s like Rainforest Café if it was all prehistoric animals and dinosaurs, and instead of a rainforest scene, your dinner is randomly interrupted by the meteor strike that killed them all. It’s wild.)

Then came the day we were all waiting for: the SMAs. Sean and I got dressed up in our finest Mardi Gras gear and caught a Lyft with my coworker Matt to Universal Studios for the party.

We met up with the rest of my team and hung out outside for a bit, since we knew Chris and Joey wouldn’t be on for a while. (There were other performers, but we weren’t nearly as excited about them, and we wanted to socialize a bit more instead.)

Then, we got a Teams message from our boss, Simon—it was a selfie of him with Joey Fatone. Amanda and I immediately responded asking where he was and ran to meet him. Thankfully, Joey was still there and was happy to take photos with us.

(Indcluding that photo a second time because how could I not, IT’S A PHOTO OF ME AND JOEY FATONE.)

While we were chatting, I mentioned to him that I loved the movie On the Line growing up, and whenever I hear the song Pour Some Sugar on Me, I still picture his character pouring sugar all over himself while singing it at karaoke. He laughed and said it was one of the dumbest movies ever, but they had a blast making it. And of course, out of all five of them, they chose Lance Bass as the one to star in a romantic comedy.

After the shock wore off, we headed over to our favorite mid-SMAs-hangout, the Red Coconut Club, which is done up for Mardi Gras every February. In what is now an annual tradition, we paid the DJ $20 to play exclusively 90s boy bands and girl groups, and it was just as magical the second time around.

Speaking of magical, we headed back to the Hard Rock Café with plenty of time to catch Chris and Joey perform. I loved it. They performed some of the best *NSYNC songs, included Tearin’ Up My Heart, Pop, It’s Gonna Be Me, and, of course, Bye, Bye, Bye.

Once the performance was over, we headed back to the resort, slept in, and packed up for our return trip home. Let me say, it was the wildest birthday week I think I’ve ever experienced, but it was an absolute blast.

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I’m officially 40% of the way through my fourth 101 in 1001 list, which can only mean one thing—time to check in!

If you’re not familiar with a 101 in 1001, it’s a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1,001 days, which is approximately 2.75 years. You can start it whenever, and you get to organize it and fill it with whatever you want! I love how customizable it is.

Each time I’ve finished one, I’ve started a new one the following day, and I’m currently on my fourth iteration! Let’s see how the list is coming along.

1 Goal Being Changed

Since this list is entirely focused on things that *I* want to accomplish, I give myself full permission to change items whenever I feel like it.

I’m pretty stringent on what I change—I have to have a good justification for it. And even when I do change an item, I try to keep it in the same genre, as best as I can.

This time around, I’m only changing one goal.

3. Get to Unit 100 in Spanish on Duolingo a Duolingo French score of 30.

This is one of those items that keeps changing, almost exclusively because Duolingo is constantly changing up how their lessons are structured. (Not a complaint by any means; sure, it’s a little annoying, but it means they’re working on improving their product.)

This time around, though, I decided to switch from Spanish to French. I’ve taken Spanish for most of my life, but I’m really feeling drawn to French lately. Plus, it helps that my best friend is French and it helps me feel closer to her (and she can help me with pronunciations…).

Since I’m switching from Spanish to French, there’s a new grading system based on the CEFR levels. I started at level 6 (I had taken some French lessons on Duolingo several years ago), and I want to get to level 30 before the end of my list, which Duolingo describes as being able to “handle simple conversations about daily topics.”

2 Goals Completed

I started off my list really strong, which is part of the design—I mix the list up with things that are easy to accomplish and harder to accomplish to keep everything steady. I started out with 18 items in the first 100 days, which is good, because my progress is slowing down a bit. I’ve completed two goals since my last check-in, which puts me at 38—my first time being “behind schedule” since I started this iteration of the list.

69. Learn to felt.

I’m definitely one of those people that’s curious about basically everything in the world, and I always want to try new things. I’m a walking stereotype of the 30-something woman with ADHD who has a house full of half-started hobbies that she has since abandoned. I like using this list to actually try some of those hobbies that I’m interested in, to see if I actually like it or not.

And I’m glad I did, because turns out I absolutely hate felting. I got a simple kit from Amazon to felt a dinosaur (obviously) and holy cow, it was brutal. Not only did I stab myself five too many times, I also got so bored and impatient while I stabbed the felt waiting for it to knot up appropriately.

So, I’m keeping the dino, but… I’ll be tabling this craft and saving the supplies for people who truly enjoy it. (I also just realized as I was typing this out that I forgot to do his arms. But oh well, he’s just going to be armless, because I’m not doing that now. )

76. Take a ceramics class (again).

This one makes me so happy! Speaking of trying out new hobbies all the time, one that I had been interested in for a long time was pottery. I took a class back in the winter of 2020 (it was actually on my third 101 in 1001 list!), scheduled for January through March. And… you can see where this is going.

It was cut short, and I had to finish up a handful of pieces in the summer while being super stressed about COVID, which obviously isn’t the way I want to wrap up the class. But I also didn’t want to leave the activity behind, because I loved it. I saved up inspiration over the course of four years and finally prioritized it again this year. The summer semester was 8 weeks long and wrapped up about two weeks ago. I finished a lot of pieces (most of which I’m still waiting to be glaze fired), and in a fun turn of events, almost all of the students in the class are taking the exact same class together again in the fall!

I’m so glad I put this item on the list, because it kept me motivated to check the schedules of the ceramics classes and make the jump to sign up again.

14 Goals in Progress

While I’m technically “behind schedule” in terms of goals completed (though really, I doubt I’ll finish all of the items on my list within the 1,001 days, so what even is “on schedule” anyway?), I’ve got a bunch more in progress!

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

While I doubt I’ll ever cross off all 101 items in any given list, I’m constantly striving to beat my own record! So far my best is 68, which is what I hit in my second list. I’m now at 38, which means I’m more than halfway there!

And for those counting, I need to cross off 69 before I can cross this one off, because I need to beat the record, not just tie it, so once I hit 69 items completed, it will immediately jump to 70!

3. Get a Duolingo French score of 30.

As mentioned above, I want to get to a Duolingo score of 30 in French, which means I’ll be able to to have simple conversations about daily topics. I started out at level 6 when I switched from Spanish to French, and as of this week, I’m at level 10! I’ve gotten into a rhythm of practicing every day, so I’m feeling optimistic about this one.

9. Hike 5 times.

I added another hike to the list a few weekends ago with Sean, Stanley, my sisters-in-law, and my mother-in-law! We hiked one of our local favorites, Asylum Lake Preserve. It was a bit more of an adventure than we anticipated (it’s a loop trail, but the trail was closed when we were 90% of the way around the loop, so we had to back-track…), but we had a great time!

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

Slowly but surely! I get approximately one shot per month and should be able to wrap it up right around the time this list ends.

22. Refinish my hexagon end table.

I have two side tables that I’ve held onto for a long time; the hexagon one has literally been in my possession since I found it at a yard sale in college… 12 years ago. It was painted green with a godawful bright blue on the inside, and there were some gold paint pen details and apples decoupaged on the top. It was… bad. So I finally spent a Saturday stripping the paint off!

I’m going to paint it black and use some rattan webbing to fill in the gaps on the sides. I just need to pick out what finish of paint I want, then pick up the paint and other supplies and finish it up!

25. Get my antique sewing machine working.

My dad and I spent a bunch of time last summer rehabbing an old 1913 Singer sewing machine that he and my uncle found at a flea market several years ago. It’s just about done, but doesn’t actually function as a sewing machine yet. I’m nearly there; I ordered the sash cord recently, so now I just need to string it up and it should be working perfectly.

It’s not electric, so it’s literally just connecting the foot pedal to the sewing machine itself. It’s a bit intimidating because I have to get into the table surface and cut the cord to size, but in the grand scheme of things, I bet it won’t take me more than 30 minutes once I actually do it.

26. Repair and repaint my lawn goose, Ryan.

When Sean and I moved into our new house back in 2022, I commented that I really wanted a midwestern classic: the lawn goose. My grandma had a set that I loved, but my Aunt Carolyn took it after my grandma died (which makes sense because she bought it for her and everything, but GUH I wanted them. I know you’re reading this, Carolyn, and I hope you love them!).

But it turns out my grandma bought one for her sister, Fran, and once Fran moved in with her daughter, she was no longer allowed to put it out. Thankfully, my mom asked if I could have it and picked him up for me! He was in… rough shape, though. He had a chunk of his neck missing, and his rebar spine was exposed.

In July, I got some concrete repair patch and filled in all the missing chunks, so Ryan (yes, I named him Ryan since he’s a gosling) is now in one piece! I just need to give him a fresh coat of paint and he’ll be ready to show off all of his outfits (which… I still need to buy).

31. Landscape the front yard.

When we moved into our house two years ago, the front landscaping was nice, but it didn’t necessarily feel like us. We didn’t rush to update it, but we didn’t really take care of it, either, so it got a little overgrown. This summer we finally decided to tackle it, ripping all the landscaping fabric out (landscaping fabric is one of the worst things in existence, please never use it or I will never talk to you ever again), planting some new rhododendrons, and edging around the mulch.

We’ve got a few last chunks to do, but I’m relatively confident we’ll be able to get this done before the fall!

42. Visit 3 zoos.

I don’t know if this technically counts as progress, but it’s my list, so I’m going to do what I want.

In June, my parents got Sean and I tickets to see the Grand Rapids Lantern Festival at John Ball Zoo, which was magical! There were Chinese-style lanterns everywhere in the shape of different animals, sea creatures, flowers, and even dinosaurs.

That being said, while we technically went to a zoo, the spirit of this item was to visit 3 zoos and see the animals there, and basically no animals were out because it was after hours. So while I’m not counting that trip as one of the three zoo visits, I’m still saying I made progress on this one!

47. Travel to 5 Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts (not including Orange Lake Resort).

My job at Holiday Inn Club Vacations gets me quite a few nice perks, including getting to stay at our resorts for a heavily discounted rate. I’m used to staying at Orange Lake Resort, because we stay there almost every time we fly down to go into the office, but I wanted to stay at some more (especially since I started as a contractor and didn’t get the perk until I was brought on as a FTE six months later).

I’ve stayed at four resorts so far, and just last week, Sean and I made plans for to visit a fifth! We’re going to be traveling to another resort in October, so stay tuned for that.

57. Visit all of the wineries on the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail.

I’ve been wanting to work on this one for a while, but it feels like an activity that fits so perfectly into summer. There are 15 wineries on the trail, and we crossed two more off this summer (Cody Kresta and Lawton Ridge) for a total of three!

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

This is one of those amazing but infuriating list items that grows in size every time I feel like I’m making progress on it. I’ve had my Book of the Month membership since November of 2021, which means I’ve got a lot of books that I still need to read.

As of the beginning of this list, I had 42 books to read, but I have since purchased more, which means the moving target is currently at 69 books. I have read five since my last check-in, which puts me at 22 so far! And only 47 to go… which means I’ve actually made negative progress since the list started? Cool.

82. Read the Animal Ark series.

Animal Ark was one of my absolute favorite book series when I was in grade school. I finally purchased all of the books for my personal collection (though I only bought the ones on the American reading order… I might add onto it with the Great Britain reading order books later.) as part of my third 101 in 1001 list, and now I’m working my way through reading all of them. I’ve finished two more books since my last check-in; I’m currently reading book 22, Dolphin in the Deep, out of the 50 books I’m counting toward this item on my list!

91. Watch all of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

Another fun one, but this one is a beast! I’ve been interested in Drag Race for a long time (fun fact, my husband’s second cousin is a favorite from Season 5) so I’m finally making my way through all of the seasons. I’m currently in Season 14, which means I’m almost caught up to real life! I’ll definitely watch All Stars once I’m done, but I won’t count that toward this list; just the regular seasons of the US run, up to the present.

Wowza! Technically I’ve slowed down on completing goals, but I sure don’t feel like I’ve slowed down on progress. Thanks for joining me on this adventure!

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I’m now 30% of the way through my fourth 101 in 1001 list!

For those two don’t know, a 101 in 1001 is a list of 101 things I’d like to accomplish in 1,001 days, or about 2.75 years. I’m on my fourth list, with each one starting exactly one day after the previous one ends. I check in on my list with a blog post every 100 days, which is about 10% of the way through the list, and now that I’m 300 days in, it’s time for a check in!

Warning: there’s quite a bit of hockey in this list.

9 Goals Completed

I’m excited to say I’ve completed 9 more goals in the last 100 days, which still puts me 6 goals ahead of schedule so far with 36 out of 101 completed.

8. Journal every day for a month.

I really love the idea of journaling, but I struggle to stick with it. (I have the feeling I’m not alone in that…) I thought I found a great solution in the Finch app, which I’ve been using religiously for just more than 6 months now. I wrote a medium-sized reflection every day for an entire month… and then promptly stopped journaling again. I still use the app a lot, but not for journaling. But oh well, at least I crossed this item off my list!

27. Upgrade our towels.

This is one of those “it was super easy, I just need to prioritize it” tasks. We had still been using our old towels from waaaay back when we lived in Cincinnati, and time had done a number on them. Those have since been turned into rags, and I ran to Target to get a really nice, fluffy set of blue bath sheets.

44. Go to a Red Wings home game.

The first of the hockey items to be crossed off the list! (Maybe for the fifth iteration there will be a whole section devoted to hockey…) At the end of January, Sean and I did a short weekend trip over to Detroit to see the Red Wings play the Vegas Golden Knights. It was so fun—and we won! Plus, we got to meet Lance, the team organist, who was so sweet! (And who inspired me to get a pair of sparkly red boots for the next item on the list…)

45. Go to a Red Wings away game.

Less than two months after the Red Wings home game, Sean and I traveled with some of my family members to Scottsdale for a Spring Training trip, and the Red Wings happened to be playing the Arizona Coyotes the same weekend! We knew we had to go, since the game was played at Mullett Arena, the arena for Arizona State’s hockey team. It’s a whole story, but it’s a humorous blip in the NHL timeline, and we knew we had to participate. And it’s a good thing, because they are no longer going to be playing at Mullett Arena (or in Arizona at all).

(And yes that photo is in Arizona, despite it looking like a Red Wings home game…)

46. See a Cirque du Soleil performance.

Another travel item off the list! Sean and I went to Orlando back in February for a work trip, and to celebrate my birthday, we saw Drawn to Life Presented by Cirque du Soleil at Disney Springs! There wasn’t quite as much aerial entertainment as I hoped, but it was still absolutely amazing.

50. Buy a medium-sized suitcase.

Sean and I each got a Carry-On and a Large suitcase from Away before our wedding so that we could use them for the combination wedding / mini-moon trip and again for our honeymoon. Of course, we needed the Large for these trips because we needed lots of stuff / were going to be gone for a long stretch of time. But on smaller trips, my Large now seems… like overkill. So I finally treated myself to a Medium Flex suitcase and got it in a super fun hot pink color! (P.S. use my referral link to get $20 off your first suitcase from Away!)

52. Go to a Kalamazoo Wings game.

I swear, this is my last hockey update for this check-in! When making the Local section of my fourth 101 in 1001 list, I knew I wanted to check out all of the local sports teams (and by local, I mean local—Kalamazoo, not Grand Rapids!). Sean and I went to one of the last Kalamazoo Wings games of the season, which was also the combination Scooby Doo Night and Bring Your Dog to the Game Night! We left Stanley at home (he would not have enjoyed himself) but had such a fun time seeing all the dogs. Plus, the themed jerseys were ridiculous. In the best way.

59. Make paczkis.

Growing up in Catholic school in west Michigan means I fell in love with paçzkis (POONCH-key). They’re a traditional Polish donut that are very common in Michigan on Fat Tuesday. In fact, I call it “Paçzki Day” instead of Fat Tuesday. I wanted to try making my own, and, well… I did. I’m glad I tried, but it was difficult and I don’t think they turned out great, so I’ll stick to purchasing them from here on out.

88. Listen to all (previously unplayed) episodes of 99% Invisible.

If you’ve had any type of conversation with me in the last few years, I’ve probably brought up the podcast 99% Invisible. It’s my absolute favorite. It’s a podcast about design and architecture, especially the things we all interact with but don’t really think about (that is… the things that are 99% invisible to most of us). A few years ago I started at the very beginning (way back in 2010) and I finally made my way through aaaaall the episodes, up to the present. And don’t worry, I’m working on a post where I list out all of my favorites. (Warning: there are many.)

15 Goals in Progress

In addition to being quite a bit ahead, I’ve also made progress on another 15 goals!

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

As mentioned above, I’m now at 36, which means I’m more than halfway to this goal!

9. Hike 5 times.

When we went to Arizona in March, I went on a hike with my husband and my sister called Tom’s Thumb. It was tough, so I ended up stopping about halfway and waited for them to finish the hike, but I’m so glad I went!

12. Be able to do the splits in any one direction.

I downloaded two apps to help me stretch! I need to get back in the habit of doing stretches every morning, but I’ve at least got the tools.

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

I keep going regularly! I’m just over two years into a 3-5 year process, and my allergist wants me to stop taking my daily allergy meds once pollen season is behind us so we can see how the shots have been impacting my day-to-day life.

16. Add built-in bookshelves to my office.

These still aren’t done, but I’ve made great progress, and they’re incredibly useful already! In the second check-in, I had one “leg” of my desk built, plus two bookshelves on top of my desk ready. I’ve now got three bookshelves behind my desk, and both “legs” of my desk (they’re two dressers, but they’re what my desk sits on, so that’s a leg, right?) plus the tabletop bookshelves still up. I need to get the extenders onto the desk shelves, then secure everything, trim it out, and paint it all!

28. Build a pergola in the backyard.

We’ve decided what we’re going to do for this one! We were originally going to build one ourselves, but Sean found a great option that’s metal with motorized louvers, so we’re going with that! Now we’re saving up before we order it.

34. Update our Home Book each year.

I updated the home book for 2024 in February! Now I just need to keep it up for the next two years and I’ll cross this one off.

47. Travel to 5 Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts (not including Orange Lake Resort).

I took two trips to two more resorts in the last 100 days! We had a short stay at Orlando Breeze Resort back in February, and in March, my family and I stayed at Scottsdale Resort. Just one more and I can cross this off! Nothing planned yet, but we’ve got some ideas we’ve been throwing around.

53. Go to a Kalamazoo FC game.

We have tickets purchased for an upcoming game!

69. Learn to felt.

I’ve purchased a kit for this. Now I just need to start it up and see how it goes.

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

I’ve read more books, but the total of books keeps going up, too! I’ve read 4 more books, but I’ve purchased 11 more, so I’m currently at 17/64. Thankfully my subscription is paused for a few months, so hopefully I can catch up.

82. Read the Animal Ark series.

I have read 3 more of these since the last check-in, putting me at 19 total out of 50.

85. Read 10 self-help books.

I’ve kind of made progress on this one. I started reading one in February, but I ended up really disliking it, so I didn’t finish. For this item, I really want to finish 10 self-help books, so I’m not counting it for my total, keeping me at 1.

91. Watch all of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

I’ve made lots of progress (and I’m really loving this show)! I’m now more than halfway through Season 11.

It has been so much fun to work on this list for the last 300 days! Thanks for joining me, and I hope you’ll continue to follow along.

This post contains affiliate links that I could make commission off of. All opinions are my own. Learn more.

I can’t believe I’m already 20% of the way through my fourth 101 in 1001 list!

If you’re new around here, welcome to my favorite topic to blog about: my 101 in 1001 list. It’s a list of 101 things I’d like to accomplish over 1,001 days, which is approximately 2.75 years. I started my first list in April of 2015, and as soon as one ends, a new one begins.

I aim to do check-ins every 100 days, which is 10% of the list, so it’s now time for my second check-in.

1 Goal Being Changed

I always allow myself to change as many goals as I want throughout the 1,001 days, because it’s my list, and I want it to be full of things that are still relevant to me. This time around, I’m only changing one, and it’s really more of a clerical change than anything.

2. Get to Unit 100 Finish Section 5 in Spanish on Duolingo.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this goal changes regularly throughout the 1,001 days. The main goal is to make a lot of (measurable) progress with my Spanish lessons, but Duolingo is constantly changing up its model, so the benchmark is going to change. They just went from overall Units to Sections with Units inside, which means all the numbers have changed around. Finishing Section 5 should be about the same progress as I initially had on my list.

9 Goals Completed

Since I’m checking in every 100 days, I should be finishing approximately 10 goals per check-in, so I’m very pleased that I’ve crossed 9 off my list in the last 100 days! Plus, with the 18 I completed in the first 100 days, I’m at 27 completed already, which is pacing quite a bit ahead of schedule.

18. Paint my office.

I’m so excited about this one! I have A Vision for my office, and it will involve a lot of work (more on that in the in progress section below!), so I’m trying to do it incrementally so it’s not overwhelming and doesn’t cost a fortune all at once. The first step was painting the walls, trim, and doors a deep forest green, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. I honestly might paint the ceiling next to make it a cozy cave…

19. Paint Sean’s office.

Similar to my office (and the main bedroom, which we completed before the first check-in), we painted the walls, trim, and doors of Sean’s office, this time choosing black! I’m obsessed with how it turned out, and Sean loves joking that he finally got the black room his mom never let him have when he was a kid.

24. Put up a Little Free Library.

We were so close to putting this up at the end of the first 100 days, but we were just a few days late thanks to rain. My dad built a Little Free Library for me, and once the copious amounts of fall rain subsided, we put her up! It’s such a fun thing to have in our yard, and it’s a great way to get rid of books once I’ve finished them.

32. Edit down my iCloud photos.

I have so many photos saved on my iCloud account. I got my first Macbook back in 2009, and all of the photos I’ve taken since then are on my account. We’re talking tens of thousands of photos. I knew a bunch were duplicates, and probably even more were crap, so I wanted to go through all of them and clean out what I didn’t need any more. It only ended up taking about 10 days of going through photos in small chunks, but I deleted more than half! It feels so good to have that done.

38. Finish decanting the jars in my spice drawer.

Our new house (I say new, but we’ve lived here for almost two years now…) has ample kitchen storage, which means we can finally have a fully-functioning spice drawer. Except… all the bottles were mismatched and it was driving me crazy. For a while I was repurposing Everything But the Bagel jars from Trader Joe’s whenever I finished one, but a few weeks ago, I bit the bullet and ordered a big batch of spice jars and decanted them as soon as they arrived and I cleaned them out. It’s so much tidier now!

54. Visit 10 new-to-me places in Kalamazoo.

We were at 9 during the first check-in, so I only needed to hit up one more place. We visited Toba Sushi and Grill, which we had been wanting to visit for a while, and it was delicious!

56. Complete the Give a Craft Beer Trail.

The Give a Craft Beer Trail was a sprint to the finish. It’s an annual list, and it refreshes each new year, so I need to visit all the breweries in one calendar year. We made it by the skin of our teeth with a SW Michigan brewery crawl in November, joined by my parents and my aunt!

70. Learn to crochet (again).

I learned to crochet waaaaaay back in 2014 (I even wrote a blog post about it!), but it had been so long that I totally forgot how to do it. I kept getting ads for Woobles kits, and when they had a Harry Potter collab come out, I jumped on it. I’m now feeling much more confident with my crochet skills. They’re basic, but I at least know how to do some standard stitches and know what to Google now.

By the way, that’s a referral link, and if you use it for your first purchase, you get $5 off and I get $5 off my next order!

93. Watch all of Hannah Montana.

I watched the first season or two of Hannah Montana when it first aired, but I never knew how it ended, and I thought it would be a fun, light item to add to my 101 in 1001 list. I was right! I really enjoyed rewatching it, even if so many of the episodes were painfully cringey.

17 Goals in Progress

I’m super proud of how many goals I’ve already completed, and that doesn’t even count the ones that are in progress!

1. Beat my past 101 in 1001 record of 68.

This one is pretty straightforward—every time I cross off a different goal, I get one step closer to crossing this one off!

2. Finish Section 5 in Spanish on Duolingo

I took some time off from Duolingo, but lately I’ve started a somewhat consistent practice that I’m proud of! I’m not practicing that much each day, but I’m striving to do at least something on Duolingo each day.

8. Journal every day for a month.

I’ve been using the Finch app for the last few months for my everyday tasks and self-care, and there’s a reflection section that has been working super well for me. I just need to keep up the daily reflections until early February and I’ll have this one crossed off!

Btw, if you want to join Finch, add me! My friend code is GA7VBHSSL9, and you’ll get a special micropet egg with my invite link.

13. Finish my allergy shot treatment.

I’m about two years into the process now! They say it should take 3-5 years, and I estimate mine will take the full 5 years. At least, that’s my assumption based on the allergist walking into the exam room after my allergy test saying “oh my god, you poor thing.”

16. Add built-in bookshelves to my office.

These built-ins. They’re all part of My Vision for my office, and it was all going well, until…. I discovered that the three Billy Bookcases and one of the doors didn’t get delivered with the rest of my order. And of course they’re currently sold out. So I have all of the pieces for the desk side of my built-ins, but not the bookshelf side (which will be behind me when I sit at my desk). I’ve hit a bit of a motivation slump with it, so it has looked like the photo above for the last two weeks or so, but I’m hoping to crank out the desk stuff in the next week or two.

44. Go to a Red Wings home game.

We have tickets to a home game this month! I’m so excited to go—it will be so fun, especially since we’re (knock on wood) somewhat good right now!

45. Go to a Red Wings away game.

We also have tickets to an away game later this spring, which will be really fun!

47. Travel to 5 Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts (not including Orange Lake Resort).

As of my last check-in, I’ve visited two, and I haven’t visited any more since then, but we do have a new reservation at Orlando Breeze Resort, which I haven’t been to yet.

60. Learn to make 10 new cocktails from memory.

I added one more cocktail recipe to my repertoire with Lavender Haze! It’s so good, especially with purple edible glitter. Highly recommend! Plus, who doesn’t love a good Taylor Swift reference?

62. Bake 5 different cake recipes from scratch.

Last week I made another cake from scratch, taking my total up to two. I made the lemon curd cake from Chelsweets, which includes homemade lemon curd and homemade frosting. It was delicious!

75. Finish a sewing project.

I started a sewing project back in December, but I’ve hit an intimidation wall since then. I’m making a doll, and I have the body pieces sewn and cut out, but everything else is really intimidating. Hoping to jump back in soon!

78. Publish 15 blog posts (excluding 101 in 1001 posts).

I’ve written one more post since the last check-in: my herb garden work in progress! I’ve got plenty more ideas, so I’m hoping to actually write and publish them soon.

79. Read all of my Book of the Month picks.

I’ve been making my way through all of my Book of the Month picks lately, finishing 7 more since the last check-in. Of course, I have also purchased quite a few more since the last check-in, so I’m not sure how much progress that actually translates to…

80. Read and / or get rid of 25 books I already own.

I have gotten rid of 6 more books since the last check-in! See? Having a Little Free Library right outside my front door is super helpful for decluttering. I also made sure to mark all of my current books with post-it notes back in July of 2023, so I’m actually only counting the books I had before this list started. It feels good to make a dent in it; that means more room for other books.

82. Read the Animal Ark series.

I’m just about done with the next book in the series, which will be the first one I’ve finished since this 101 in 1001 list started. I’ve hit a bit of a slump with reading my Animal Ark books, but I can feel the motivation coming back.

88. Listen to all (previously unplayed) episodes of 99% Invisible.

I have been powering through these episodes. I love this show so much! I listened to almost 100 episodes in the last 100 days. I just got to the episodes in January 2023, so I’m definitely closing in on this goal. Stay tuned for a list of my favorites once I’ve caught up. It’s a good list.

91. Watch all of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

I’ve never seen Drag Race before, and I was missing out. I started at the very beginning with Season 1 (wowza VH1 in 2009 was another era), and I’m currently in Season 6! At some point I’ll watch All Stars, too (after all, I am related to Alaska), but for right now, I’m just focusing on the regular seasons.

It was a very productive 100 days—here’s to more productive days ahead!

It’s time for a new series on the blog! I’m calling it Work in Progress, where I share things I’m learning in the messy middle, before I’ve figured out what the hell I’m actually doing.

So much of blogging has become shiny before-and-afters, and it’s so important to show all the in-betweens, when we try things and they don’t work. Or even if they do work, but we’re not sure if we’re doing it right at all.

That’s the idea behind Work in Progress—showing the human side to the before and after. And first up is my incredibly unruly herb garden.

All of this started with my fourth 101 in 1001 list. I wanted to create an indoor herb garden to take my mixology hobby to the next level. I started with three basic herbs that I can use for a plethora of cocktails: basil, mint, and rosemary.

As you can see above, there are quite a few problems with my herb garden. The basil is dead and crispy, the mint is going a bit crazy with teeny-tiny leaves, and the pots have this white residue all over them.

This is my first herb garden, and while I wouldn’t say I’m actively bad with plants, I just haven’t really tried before, so I’m not exactly good with them either. So join me in real time as I figure out how the hell to take care of my herbs.

I’m going to tackle one thing at a time, for several reasons. One, that’s all my ADHD brain can really take at a time. And two, when there are problems, I want to try one thing at a time to see which change actually caused an improvement. Scientific method and all that.

So for today, I’m going to tackle my super leggy mint.

When I first got the mint, there were a few stems with some big leaves on them. I started pruning it to use the leaves in cocktails, either by pinching or cutting with kitchen shears (when I tried pinching and it didn’t work). Then, after basically ignoring it for several months…. it got overgrown with incredibly leggy stems with teeny-tiny leaves on them.

I did some research, and it sounds like there are several causes for this: lack of light, lack of pruning, not enough room for the roots, and too much fertilizer.

Let’s get two of those out of the way: the pot normally sits on my kitchen windowsill with lots of light, and I don’t think I ever fertilized it. So that leaves us with lack of pruning and not enough room for the roots.

Since I’m using the scientific method for this, I want to try one at a time and see how each one goes. First up: pruning.

First, I got rid of the clearly dead leaves and stems. Then it was time to go for the living stuff.

According to several articles I found, I want to prune the stems just above the node where two leaves are growing. While I probably cut more than is recommended, I made sure there were still plenty of leaves left. Plus, the thing was just out of control.

Stay tuned to see how well pruning alone helped! If that’s not enough to get this plant back under control, I’ll find a bigger pot and see if the roots are too cramped.

In the meantime, the trimmed mint leaves have been wrapped in a damp paper towel and stored in the fridge. Looks like Sean and I will be sipping some Hugo cocktails tonight and tomorrow! (Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to post a recipe for those soon.)

And please, chime in in the comments with any advice you have on my herb garden! If you know why my basil is so sad or what the heck the white stuff on my terracotta pots is, please let me know. My plants will thank you.