A Strong Head Start for 2023?
Just my January 2023 recap and Currently List!
While I was scrolling through Facebook about a week before January ended, I saw some memes/posts about January being so long (i.e. “Good morning sa lahat, January 47 na today.”, “January pa rin?!?”, “Ilang araw ba meron sa January?”, etc.) I feel like in the past years, this has been the sentiment of a lot of people - I guess mine was different this year. January was filled with learnings and a journey back to being productive in terms of work again.
January 2023 Recap
Reset, David Murray - My first book of the year. I talked a bit about this already in my earlier entry - so I’m not going to repeat it.
Going through a chronological bible reading plan this year - I got this from The Daily Grace Co and I’m really loving going through it. January was more focused on Genesis and Job - this is also the first time I’m going through the Bible by studying each book and not just by merely reading it. This is also the first time I have not failed in completing the first month.
Micromonumental Mapping: The Essence of Creation - A picture of an installation in Wonderspaces from our Philly trip on the second week of January.
Submergence - Another installation from Wonderspaces Philly. This is easily part of my top 5 favorites of all the installations in that interactive museum.
A side note totally unrelated to 3 and 4 - the next time I/we come back to Philly, I’d like to visit more museums! We tried to fit in everything in a day for the “must visit” locations so I didn’t get to see all the other places I wanted to see.
Back to work - From my previous entry before this one, I already shared with you guys I’m working again. This is my current simple set-up until we move once the house renovation is done. I bought a monitor the week after because I couldn’t do my tasks effectively without an extended view. I went for a bigger monitor than what I had before and it’s so life-changing for the kind of work that I do!
Second half - L-R (6-10) Stop Calling Me Beautiful - I first found out about Phylicia Masonheimer back in 2021 through The Daily Grace Podcast. I also just started listening to her Verity podcast lat month. The first few episodes were about her book of the same title mentioned and it really got me interested so I bought it and started reading it last month. As someone who grew up with an initial very legalistic view because of the small church I went to before, I feel God’s grace being extended to me with every page I read from this book. I haven’t finished it yet because I want to savor what I read after finishing each chapter but my goal is to finish it this month.
Game shopping - I may or may not have gone crazy with game shopping… again. I keep buying games because they’re on sale but haven’t really tackled all my backlogs yet. I want to have control over this side of me and only buy games if I meet certain conditions I’ve been planning to set for myself or if there’s a new game I don’t really want to miss. So this is my first and last splurge for games this year… (please call me out if I talk about a shopping spree again lol)
Published three entries for acupofrae - One of my personal goals this year is to keep writing. Honestly, I haven’t been that consistent with my journaling but I was able to push out three entries consistently last month with a semi-regular schedule. I paused the last one for Friday last week because of this recap thing but hey, let’s see what happens this month!
January reading and watchlist - I finished listening to two audiobooks and read four e-books last month! I’m looking forward to finish reading four more books this month so I can continue to be on track with my goal of reading/listening to 52 books this year.
A nice reminder from the story of Job - If you’re familiar with Job’s story in the Bible, then you’ll remember he suffered quite a lot during his whole life. One of my key takeaways was this nice page in the Eden to Eternity study guide/book. It was just a nice reminder for me to trust God and His sovereignty should I ever go through another episode of immense suffering in my life, as I had before.
Rae’s Currently List
Watching: Criminal Minds S12, How I Met Your Father S2, Home Economics S3
Reading: Kindle: Stop Calling Me Beautiful, Phylicia Masonheimer; Audiobook: Spare, Prince Harry
Playing: A Normal Lost Phone, A Musical Story, Timelie, To Leave
Thinking about: what I’m going to buy in Target later
Listening to: A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace; The Daily Grace Co Podcast; Wake Up With Jim and Saab
Hyperfocusing on: finance books - I want to be more responsible with my money
Overall, I think January gave me a strong head start for this year so I’m really grateful with what has transpired over the last month. The photos in my dump may seem a bit boring for some, but what I learned, what I have accomplished, and what I have listed down as next steps for what I still want to happen has been surprisingly a lot.
How about you? How did January go for you? I hope you had a good one too!
I finally finished typing this while pausing every 15 minutes or so to rub my hands for warmth,
Rae