Bucket List Updates… Almost there!

Annie’s Bucket List Updates…

1. Get healthy and stay healthy. We are probably about 85% Paleo. I know that’s not great and we are trying for 100% but we just started AND we have been really awesome at only buying paleo at the grocery store. The other 15% is usually at other people’s houses or out at happy hour. Fitness however is lacking… seriously lacking. If you read my post on Tuesday, you know I’m thinking about this. Yoga has to happen soon!

2. Become financially stable or something quite close. Next week we will be paying off our Discover card only to transfer 4 low balance, high interest cards and partial of another! Our transfer is 0% for over a year so we are saving a ton of money and time consolidating. One of my 3 student loans is almost paid off and Jason’s one student loan is pretty close too. We are closer to the halfway point of being “bad debt free” (we will still have car and house payments to make) and it’s almost nerve-racking. We’ve been working this past year to pay down our debt so much that it never felt like we were never going to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s starting to get brighter!

Bucket List Updates, 6 Months In … 6 Months to Go

Okay ladies and gents, 6 months have passed since we all began thinking about how we could optimize our selves and our time with resolutions and bucket lists galore for 2013. When was the last time you thought about that? 6 months ago?

Well, you’ve only got 6 months to go (crazy). Get back to it, don’t give up … let our imperfections, failures, and successes inspire you. To see our original buckets lists you can read Crystal’s here and Annie’s here. The last review we did was 3 months ago, read Crystal’s update and Annie’s update. Without further ado …

April Book Review: The Year of Pleasures

For this month’s book review I’d searched for a quick read that was uplifting, and for a lack of better words, simple. The last couple of books I’d read for book club required 100% of my attention, incredibly involved, and long (The Night Circus by Erin Moregenstern, which I highly recommend, and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger). I asked A for recommendations and she pointed me to Elizabeth Berg’s The Year of Pleasures. After reading the synopsis via Goodreads I was sold.

The Year of Pleasures follows Betta Nolan over the 4 months after her husband of 20+ years has passed away. Betta immediately picks up from Boston and settles into a tiny town in Illinois on a whim. She grieves by finding joy in the little things, rekindling friendships that she gave up when she got married, opening herself up to new friendships, all while experiencing random fits of grief upon remembering her beloved husband.