Well, we’re officially well into the second half of the year. In fact, there are only 20 weeks left in the year, and of my 52-in-52 list (52 things to do in 52 weeks), I’m still sitting at 26 items left to go.
I refuse to tick them off until I’ve blogged them, so it’s time to get that number down!
Completed
Create a realistic, achievable blog schedule
When I wrote this one, I intended to come up with a specific frequency and deadline that I had to follow.
What I didn’t expect was that this would turn into a deep-dive on where I was finding friction in the blogging process. What was causing me to drag my heels with blogging was the process of reviewing and editing my posts, creating the image headers, etc.
I mentioned it in my Five Things for Friday (vol. 5) post that I’ve started to use AI tools to help with the non-sexy side of blogging. I’ve found that’s reduced the friction so much that I’m back to really enjoying the blogging process again. And you can see the improvement. I’ve consistently blogged at least once a week since April!
Ongoing, the goal is to keep up with at least one post each week. But for now, I’m fairly confident in checking this one off.
Send a handwritten letter
I mentioned this 52 to a friend of mine, and we decided that we would become “sticker pals”, sending a handwritten letter to each other each month, along with some stickers. She’s the entire reason I’ve become obsessed with stickers in my planner anyway.
That idea spiralled a little further, and now we’ve set up our kids to become pen pals. It means they get to experience the fun of sending snail mail, make a friend in another country, and practice their writing skills (super important for my son right now, since he’s not a fan of writing things down).
So far, we’ve sent one letter, and we’ve received one from them. We’re hoping that our letters arrive sometime this week.
We sent them on the 26th of July, so surely they can’t be far. Australia Post can’t be that slow, can they?
I’m trying to get L to write his second letter, but he’s been a little distracted with other things. Hopefully, we get their second letter in the mail this week, especially since we know it takes at least two weeks to reach their country.
He was so excited to get the first one, and laughed so hard when he realised that B had sent him stickers of toilet paper and poop emojis.
Oh my gosh. I just realised maybe that was the inspiration behind the stinky fart stickers I talked about yesterday!?
Hide the social media apps on my phone
A long time ago, I turned notifications off most social media apps, the only exception being Facebook Messenger (I wanted my friends to be able to contact me).
But even with notifications turned off, I found I was still spending too much mindless scroll time on the apps.
So, I ripped the band-aid off.
I deleted the apps from my home screen on my phone, which means that I now have to go out of my way to find them to use them.
The difference is noticeable. I’ve found that I’m intentionally opening the apps now. The risk of distraction and mindless opening is so much lower. And when I open the apps, I have this feeling like I’m being “naughty” kinda, so I’m definitely more conscious of how long I’m on there.
But my usage is still too high. I’m averaging 2 hours a day. To be fair, that’s combined with other things, for example, scrolling Reddit or Instagram while folding clothes. But I still want to get that usage down.
I just went and grabbed my phone and added a screen time limit of 1 hour a day for all social apps. I’ll be interested to see how fast I hit that limit! I might get a rude shock.
Anyways, tick for this one, and the social media struggles continue on.
Start a new ritual with my husband + Have a no-agenda cuddle night with my husband
The aim for these two was to try to get some connection time back with my husband. For a while, it’s felt like life has gotten in the way, or we were only discussing life admin. I wanted to try to make some time for us, and make it a habit. I wanted to start having fun together, no pressure, no intentions. Just hanging out.
So, Monday nights have become “our” nights.
The only rule is that we do something together.
That’s it.
It could be watching something on TV; we started watching a few different TV series together (Alone, Rogue Heroes, etc). We’ve sat by the fire pit outside. Last night we had a glass of wine and a cheese platter for dinner, and we started putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
I’ve become quite protective of this night, actually. I structure my day differently for it, making sure that I’ve crossed everything off my to-do list so that when L goes to bed, the rest of the night is free for my husband and me.
I don’t have any rules about being able to cross off multiple items in the list together, so by making Monday nights our nights, I’ve killed two birds with one stone.
Still In Progress
These are a few that I’m still working on right now:
- USA Holiday Video
- Growing out the damage in my nails
- Earn an iFit badge every month
- Using my Pilates board more
- Use a timer to take stretch breaks at work
- Do something badly/embrace imperfection
So with those ones off the list, that leaves me with 21 still on the list to go, 6 in progress. That’s looking a bit healthier!
Daily Gratitude
And before I wrap things up, today’s daily gratitude prompt from The Optimistic Muse is:
I’m grateful for this part of my personality.
I’m grateful for my love of lists, for my love of trying new things, and my inability to sit still. I love how much joy that my 52-in-52 list brings me every year, and I love that I enjoy keeping busy.
Life is for living! And I’m having a great time with my 2026 list!
Did you have a pen pal growing up? Do you have a ritual you’re protective of?
My aunt and I have been pen pals since I was in college! It’s been so fun! I love that you guys are doing that – what a cool thing.
Wow – that’s the best! What a great relationship, and how much fun! Just letters? Or postcards etc?
I also only have messenger notifications. Mostly I feel like it’s easy to just check in to social media and then pop off, because there is just so much advertising that it doesn’t feel fun to me. I like to zip in to see if anyone is going anywhere or doing anything, and then I zip off.
I had pen pals growing up, and I still have all the letters!
My husband and I have “cocktail hour,” usually on Friday afternoons. The rule is no screens and no books, just talk. It’s fun, and also we have some yummy cocktails!
You’re so right, there is so much advertising now, it’s ridiculous. Finding the Facebook “feeds” option and selecting friends was so helpful, but even then it’s still hard to keep up.
I love that you still have all the letters – do you ever look back and read through them?
Love the cocktail hour, and as I reply to this, it’s Friday. Soooo… might go have a look at what’s in the cabinet this afternoon and see what I can make up. Rumour has it that cocktails help get rid of the lurgy (just made that up then but I’m sticking with it).
I love that you’ve made Monday’s a night for you and Hubby. Good on you for making that a priority. Geoff and I spend a lot of time together, with a reasonable portion of that chatting. We also like to watch TV together.
I deleted my Instagram and deactivated my Facebook account last year. I didn’t delete Facebook because I still wanted to be able to use messenger. I’m out of the loop sometimes, but overall I’m happy with my setup.
It makes me excited for when L grows up and D and I have a lot more time together. I’d like to know that we still have a lot of fun together. Do you have any particular shows that you watch?
I’ve thought about deactivating things, but then people I haven’t spoken to in so long message me on the random occasion, so I like to know it’s still there as a communication tool. But as for Facebook, I rarely post things anymore (excluding my blog page, which links back here). Insta is a little different – I tend to post more bloggy stuff on there now too though.