Final post for 2024

 December 30:

 So, I did a thing today.


It was a pretty chill day with some walking along Route 66, driving by the Walter White house (where a crazy lady now owns the property, from most of what I’ve read), attempting to enter the Albuquerque Convention Center to see the Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, and visiting Old Town again. I am sad that we didn’t get to see the statue, as it was kind of a ‘bucket list’ type of thing for my oldest son and me. We’re fans of Breaking Bad and we were really looking forward to seeing some things related to the show. It was really interesting to see places in real life that we had only seen on the show. Walking down the historic Route 66 was also really nice. Knowing that the road has been integral in the expansion of human travel through the United States is kind of awe inspiring, if I’m honest. This country is not great at preserving history, because those who have the money want their ideas to be prominent so it’s nice to see something from a past era being used and maintained in a way that honors its roots. There are a lot of businesses in the area that have repurposed the original gas stations and garages into establishments that people can use these days and I love that about the area.



December 31:

 Today, I climbed a volcano. Well, it was a small volcano, but a volcano nonetheless.  I mean, that wasn’t all I did, but it was how I started the adventures of the day.


 We left New Mexico today after conquering a volcano at a National Monument, then riding about an hour and a half, then visiting a National Park in Pecos where there is an old Mission Church. After the two stops, we began the long trek home to Missouri. There’s not much to report on the drive, as it was long and on New Year’s Eve, so we did our best to honor all speed limits to avoid local officers pulling us over. Ironically enough, both boys were pulled over and given warnings for two different things in two different states. Thankfully those were the only two instances of things going awry on the trip. I was paranoid during the entire trip that a deer, coyote, or other random animal would jump out in front of the car and decide that the Subaru barreling down the highway at 65-75 mph looked like a good way to end things. Heck, we saw a couple of birds flying at various points and I think I saw a fox running away from the highway, but that seemed to be it.

 We made it home safely around 6:45 am on January 1st and both my oldest son and I fell into our respective beds and passed out!




Now, on to the goals and ideas for 2025.

 I found that dedicating a month to certain goals was a double edged sword. Some months went great and other months are missing blog entries because I avoided the task. So, I’m going to break the year into quarters, creating more midterm goals. There are some goals that stretch throughout the entire year, like my fitness and health journey, but others are pigeonholed into specific months due to climate and job restraints. I plan to continue a blog for 2025, even though I have limited readers. I’m doing it more for accountability and sharing successes and failures along the way. I think I’ll be sticking to the weekly update, as posting a monthly or quarterly post would be forgotten and also be extremely long. I’d like to share with more people, not less. Below you will see my outline for the year. 


Quarterly goals:

Quarter 1: January 1 - March 31

  • Complete 2 puzzles per month (6 puzzles total)

  • Complete 30 Christmas cards for December

  • Sort out and package up 3 Lego sets

  • Continue on fitness and eating journey (lose 10 lbs)

Quarter 2: April 1 - June 30

  • Deep clean living room and kitchen

  • Decluttering basement from the area between the laundry and freezer, wall and stairs

  • Painting kitchen walls

  • Continue on fitness and eating journey (maintain loss)

Quarter 3: July 1 - September 30

  • Deep clean dining room and bathroom

  • Decluttering basement from stairs to wall, water heater to basement door

  • Read through 12 magazines that are stored in my room and recycle them

  • Continue on fitness and eating journey (lose 10 lbs)

Quarter 4: October 1 - December 31 

  • Deep clean my room and the finished area of the basement (in terms of decluttering)

  • Declutter basement from water heater to shelves and wall to floor supports

  • Sort out and package up 3 Lego sets

  • Continue on fitness and eating journey (maintain loss)


Continue my weekly blog posts, with updates on the tasks for the month. Take more photos to show progress.



Thank you to everyone who has followed along on my journey for 2024 and I look forward to more successes in 2025!


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