Resolution Check in - 2022

Every year I do 10 resolutions for myself and 5 for my kids, and then don't look at them until the next year when I see if I actually did any of these things. Here's what I wanted to do in 2022. And what I actually did.

 

 

10) Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. 1 point

I did this, mostly. It's dropped a tiny bit lately, but I'm taking the point.

9) Exercise consistently 5 times a week. .5 point

I did this for the majority of the year, but from November on, I've been going just 3 times when I can because things got really busy.

8) Keep my nails nice. 1

Amazingly, I'm still not back to biting my nails. They aren't long, but they aren't stubs and I try to paint them every couple weeks or so.

7) Get good at this job. 1

Killing it. So much so that they gave me another, harder, job to do at the same time.

6) Fix three things about the house 0

I fixed not one big thing. I did get Carlos to re-put-up a shelf that had fallen. LOL


5) Make $100,000. 1

$116,503.17 - I did this by working 2 full-time jobs, 2 part-time jobs, and 2 regular freelance jobs

4) Work on my freelancing book 0

I did no work on this at all. Why isn't there more time in the day?

3) Read 10 books 0

I read 2.5 books, lol

2) Get this house clean 0

This is actually a disaster. I am working hard on deep cleaning right now so I can maybe hire someone to help keep it clean. Right now, my house is a hellscape.

1) Fix all landscaping and back deck. 0

Complete fail. I really want to do this, but I just didn't have time to even touch it since last year. It's even worse.

4.5 points. Not great, but working all those jobs leaves me very little time.

 

 

 

For my kids and I, I resolve the following:

5) Help them navigate tween-teen years, be someone they can trust and love. 1

We're going through it, but things are slowly improving for the long game.

4) Get their rooms cleaned and organized so they can decorate the way they like .5

Nat's is cleaned, Dulce's is getting there. Keeping up with it is another matter.

3) Save $10,000 more each for them. 1

Done.

2) Have one conversation with that that lasts 10 minutes or more a day. (Dinner doesn't count.) 1

I mean, almost.

1) Teach them to cook 0

I did not do this. But my kid did learn how to use the toaster this year, so there's that.

 

3.5 points. Still have to get on that cooking thing.

How to Introduce Your Child to Technology the Right Way

Many parents have a fear of introducing their children to laptops and tablets because they’re afraid they’re going to misuse them. And these fears are not unfounded. If you don't put barriers around the usage of these machines, you can expect your child to start spending more time than you’d like on them, and this can quickly turn into an addiction.

You also have to know which types of devices are appropriate for a child and make sure that they start developing safe practices when using these devices. Let's take a look at how you can introduce technology to a child the right way.

Start Small

If your child is under five, then we wouldn’t recommend that you get them a full setup yet. The most you should give them is a small tablet for children only. The tablet needs to be robust and have the strict minimum needed to run a few educational apps. You have to be very careful how you introduce the tablet too. It should stay in your possession most of the time. Make it seem as if it is your tablet and not theirs.

Only allow them to use the tablet after they have completed a task and use it as a reward. Also, restrict the use of the tablet to certain times of the day. This way they will see the tablet as a treat and will be less likely to form a habit. And if they throw a tantrum, take away the tablet for a week. You'll see how well-behaved they'll be next time around.

Upgrade Them to a PC

You should start thinking about buying your child their first PC or laptop around the age of five. You can go either for a laptop or a desktop here. A laptop will be better if they need to use their laptop at school and a desktop will be better if they do most of their work from home. A desktop will make watching what they're doing easier too. Here, go for a computer with processors around the 1.5ghz mark with four cores at the very least, 8GB of RAM, and anywhere from 100MB to 500MB of storage.

Get a Few Accessories

Accessories will allow your child to unleash their computer's potential and help them fall in love with it. We suggest that you get a nice headset and a wireless mouse/keyboard combination if they have a desktop. You should also look into webcams if they show interest in creating content. If you're looking for great accessories for children, you can check out these kids PC accessories.

Use Parental Control Apps

You need to have control over what your children are doing online and off. So, you will need to invest in some sort of parental control app. These are not perfect, mind you, but they will do the trick if your child is still young.

Some of the apps we suggest you check out include Net Nanny, Kaspersky Safe Kids, and Norton Family. Not only will these apps help control the amount of access they have to different sites, but they even have features like geolocation that will allow you to know where your child and their devices are at all times.

Follow these few tips if you want your children to get familiar with technology without becoming addicted. Start with baby steps, no pun intended, and start building their setup as they gain experience and show responsibility.

Day in the Life - 2022

Every year I do a DITL (I skipped 2018 and 2019 but I've been back on track for a couple years now). Through the years, I photograph an entire day, usually around Valentine's Day, simply because that happened to be the day that I started it all in 2011 or so. So, there is like a decade of a typical day in February to look back on. Here's this year's.

I wake up at 6:45 a.m. to get the kids ready for school and myself ready for work.

It's colder than usual this week.

I keep a log of how much water I drink a day to try to get it up to 8 glasses, though I've since learned I don't actually have to drink 8 glasses a day. That said, I continue to be chronically dehydrated no matter how much I drink, so I keep going.

Kids' breakfast.

         

And lunch.

Then I take the dog for a walk.

We see Ibis in our yard

And bark at neighbors.

Then I get dressed for work as the girls finish eating and getting ready.

I drive to work while already in a meeting. I'm supposed to be there at 8:30, but we have a deal while the girls are in middle school that I will be a little late because we never know if the bus is going to pick them up these days.

Welcome to my office.

Impromptu meeting with sales.

Then my production team and I make and edit a commercial for a local shoe store. That's Gator and Jon.

Jon teaches, Gator takes notes, I oversee.

My work to-do list for the day.

This is a sponsorship promo spot I'm working on called Scholar Athlete of the Year. We partnered with an attorney's office to present one high school athlete with a $5,000 scholarship to college. That's my writing on the check, lol. We did the presentation, then I produced a :30-promo about it. It airs starting Monday.

I tweak the script before final edits.

I take the first half of my lunch break to work on a story for a freelance client about the Watchman procedure, in which doctors place a device into the heart through a vein in the groin.

Then I go home for the second half of my lunch break. I love these satellites. We still use them. They're a lot more reliable than the internet, tbh.

Once home, I grab some Advil because I have a raging headache.

I set the night's menu so everyone knows what we are having for dinner.

Say hello to the dog.

Carlos is also having lunch. I start running the vacuum in a vain attempt to clean this house a little.

He works from home, so back to the office for him.

I water our dying houseplants.

Then I have to run back to work because I have a meeting, so I grab a quick bagel and take it with me.

Conference call time.

This is pretty interesting. It's one of the steps of how TV programming actually gets on your television. We program the shows and the ads through a localized system, then I go through and put in the promos for the stations: stuff like clips of shows you'll see later, local news topicals, weather, sports teasers, etc. I fill the rest of the time on the logs. I send it in, and master control goes and finds the clips, puts them together, and plays it all on air.

Then I have a corporate Teams meeting on marketing and promotion.

I use those computer glasses sometimes lol

I eat a snack. (This was also breakfast. Dry Life for life)

Then I fill out the sponsored content log. This is where our news programming gets segments sponsored for money by clients. Like when you see "tonight's sports brought to you by Subaru" or whatever. We have to mark that down meticulously so that news and commercial does not get mixed up.

That's it for my day. Got some of the stuff done. Time to go home.

I find my children already there. Natalina bought an anime poster at the book fair and she is stoked.

Dulce hangs with the dog.

Off to the gym for a Body Combat workout. Fellow instructors Jen and Kate say hi!

I teach the standing option when we do pushups and burpees because I'm lucky.

By the time it's over, it is dark out.

I say hi to my lovelies. And tell them to do their homework.

Then I get ready to make dinner.

A quick change of clothes but no time for a shower...yet.

I listen to my podcast while making the food.

Carlos reads.

Hit my move goals while chopping peppers.

I mix up the ingredients, then throw them in a casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes.

While dinner cooks, I sort some laundry.

Dinner is served!

And eaten!

After dinner, we are regaled with stories from the school day.

Then I walk the dog again.

I call my brother just to check in, while we're on the walk.

Come home, shower, fall into bed.

But just because I'm ready, doesn't mean the girls are. One last selfie for the day.

If you want to check out our DITLs through the years, they can all be found here. It's interesting to see the changes. This is the first year since I've been doing this that I have been working outside the home, for instance.

2021

2020

2017 

2016 

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011