Chillhop Among Other Things

Ever heard of Chillhop or Jazzhop? Until about three days ago, I'd never even heard of it. Now it's currently the music of my dreams at work. Think of jazz piano and other relaxing music paired with a light hip hop beat. I love it because the mixes I've found don't just have songs in them. They're all faded into one another and it helps the time go by faster because I'm not marking my day by three to four minute songs for hours on end and I only have to load up a new mix every hour or so. I've even found Miyazaki and Cowboy Bebop tribute mixes. It's wonderful.

Outside of finding new music, though, things are shifting. I recently started a new self-improvement course online and it's really making me think about the way that I approach myself and a lot of the situations that I'm in--and I'm only four hours in out of fifty-two. I'm already becoming more mindful of myself and my actions after just a few hours which is really encouraging for me. Now I just need to figure out the rest of my life. Maybe this will spill over? (Finger's crossed.)

There are definitely things that I need to work on and get motivated to do right now, though. Exercise being the number one thing. My moods have been my sullen recently and I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm not out moving and enjoying any of San Diego's beautiful weather. I also have a gym membership that I never use. I could be using my time more wisely, wake up in the morning maybe twenty minutes earlier and do a quick full body workout before heading into work. We do have room in our office for me to do that, so it's all a matter of wanting to. For the last few weeks I've been staying up later than I should be, so I'm not waking up feeling rested, but if I stuck to my guns and actually got to bed on time, I bet that I could get into a routine of quickly working out in the morning and starting each day on the right foot.

 Another habit I feel I might need to work on is my thinking about money. Husband and I are very fortunate in that we're financially stable and able to build up some wealth, but I think about money a lot. I'm constantly asking myself if there's more we can do. Can we pay off the mortgage any faster? How can I put more away toward retirement? Am I putting all of our money into the right place? Even now as I'm writing this, I've got another tab open to calculate how much interest our savings account could be making over the next few years. Sometimes I feel like I'm obsessed with nickel-and-diming our way to wealth. Right now we're lower-middle class. I'm not sure that we'll ever get above middle-middle class, but it's one of those things were I just really want to succeed. I want to pay our mortgage off as fast as possible. It's a daily ritual to try and find a new and better way. I know how much we pay on our house each month by heart and since I'm getting a raise on this month's paycheck I've been strategizing on the best way to utilize this extra bit of new money for weeks. I'm to the point where I'm wondering is this is healthy, but the thing is that I get enjoyment out of playing with all the calculators and what ifs. And then there's the fact that Hubby could be up for a big promotion in the new few weeks which would significantly impact our bottom line.

Last week, Husband's mentor contacted him about a new position that is coming down the pipeline really, really soon. It hasn't officially been announced, but it would be a sixteen hour per week position that would decrease Hubby's at home workload and increase his pay effectively by $800-900 per month. We're really hoping that he gets it, because it would almost double one of his current paychecks. And let's face it. You can put $5500 into a Roth IRA each year per person. If you put $918 per month into that Roth IRA, you max it out each year. So we're talking about that much take home money per month--our entire retirement contribution. That would free up our current retirement contributions so that we could put it toward traveling or the house or just into regular savings. It's a huge deal, so we're really hoping that he gets the position. It would be a total life changer. (See what I mean about the money thing?) Anyway, we're keeping our fingers crossed, but trying to keep realistic expectations. Everything will happen as it should, but we're really hoping that this one comes through for us.

Tidying Up

Since 4/10s started for me this year at work, Hubby and I have been trying to make an effort to get the house back in order. Up until yesterday, we had wedding boxes in our dining room still. I think we managed to organize something like ten boxes worth of stuff since Thursday night and the house looks so much better as a result. The back wall of the dining room and the living room definitely need work, still, but the house looks so much better.

And the truth of the matter is that when the house looks better, Husband and I feel better, too. Even just getting some of the dining room cleaned out made a huge difference in how we feel at home. I'm less anxious than I was previously and I'm really enjoying the sense of accomplishment that is stemming from the fact that we're finally getting the house back together. When we first moved in almost a year ago (WOW!), we made a point of tidying up every single weekend and our house always looked really good, but then wedding prep ramped up and our entire routine got turned on its head.

Since we've gotten back from the Bahamas, though, I feel like we've reset and we're ready to go after our goals with gusto again. I'm back on the get-healthy-lose-weight band wagon, and since we got back from our vacation two weeks ago, I've managed to lose the five pounds that I gained while we were there. I've got about twenty-four more pounds to go, but at this rate, I should almost be to my goal weight by the end of the year.

Overall, everything the world is just so interesting to me right now. And it's exciting. Yes, I acknowledge that I am having massive doses of stress and anxiety that rock my world and I also acknowledge that most of those situations are arising at work, but in the grand scheme of things, life is good right now.

Husband and I are spending lots of quality time together and we're actually relaxing for the first time at home in a long time. It's fantastic. I've also begun to cook at home more and I've set a goal for myself to only eat our once a week from now on. According to Hubby the other day, I've only been cooking dinner at home" two to three times a week" for the last few months. That's not okay with me, mostly because of the cost, but also because of how unhealthy it is. And the fact is, I'm a decent cook. It isn't like we're living on Cheerios and Hamburger Helper, so we don't need to eat out. Last night I made 'salsa chicken' rice bowls and we feasted like (healthy) royalty*. I can't wait to explore some of the other new recipes I found this week and see how they turn out. Poor Husband is my guinea pig, but he's been nothing, but awesome about it.

* Recipe review coming soon.