2026 Goals Check-In #4

Sorry that this post is a little later than I’d hoped it would be. Life continues to be incredibly busy. But I think I have a few more leisurely weekends coming up (including this one), so I wanted to take the time now to take a look at how things have been going.

Reading Books

After my last check-in, in which I had celebrated that I finished my reading goal for the year, I have, of course, continued reading because I love it so much. Over the last few months, I’ve read four novels and two non-fiction books in English, as well as two more French books. I’ve read up to, I think, 22 English novel-length books in total (as well as 6 French books, a few English graphic novels, and one graphic novel in French!) I’ve also started a new rereading adventure (but I’ll talk more about that in this month’s What Are You Reading post at the end of the month).

Spanish Learning

Spanish has not gone well at all. Here are my current breakdown of totals (up to the end of June):

• Total time for July and August: 151 minutes/approx 2.52 hours
  • July total time learning Spanish (all on AirLearn): 133 minutes/2.22 hours
  • August total time learning Spanish (all on AirLearn): 18 minutes/0.3 hours

My total time with Spanish to date (end of August) is 1908 minutes or 31.8 hours! As of August 30th, I have learned over 700 words in AirLearn.

I started off strong in July. But then at the mid-point, I stopped because I was incredibly stressed out by some forest fires that were threatening us locally. My city was okay (though my partner and I did purchase some food as part of an emergency kit, just in case things went badly). But my family’s camp was in danger – at one point I thought for sure we had lost it because the border of one of the fires had moved over it. I was constantly watching the fire fighting websites, Facebook pages, and the satellite maps, trying to get more information and confirm if it was gone or not; it was a stressful couple of weeks. The border was pulled back from the camp after a couple of days, but beyond that, we weren’t sure what had happened; I had resigned myself that it was probably gone.

When they dropped the evacuation order on the August long weekend, we drove out there; thankfully everything was okay! We think they made a mistake with the fire’s border on those couple of days because of the smoke; there’s no indication that the fire was even near the buildings. But after all of that, we still wanted to head out there to work on the things we wanted to get done in July.

So needless to say, it’s been both a stressful and busy summer, and my Spanish learning took a real hit.

So What Now?

In terms of Spanish, I think it’s off the table for now. There’s still a lot going on in my life and I don’t have the energy or interest to devote to a second language at the moment. But my French is still going strong. I’m still reading a bit of French on most work days, and I signed up for a yoga class via Zoom in French to try at the end of the month. I have a session with a French tutor every Wednesday; that was on hiatus for the summer, but we’re back at it now that it’s September (and she was happy that my French hasn’t really degraded, thanks to the reading I’ve done and the short French conversations I have with a colleague at work). I’d really like to improve my French listening skills, so I wouldn’t mind making a bit more time outside of those sessions to get in more practice (watching shows or listening to podcasts).

This weekend I decided to try to get my main email back down to a reasonable number of unread emails. I’m really bad for leaving things unread that I want to get back to. Last year I think I brought my email down to 10 unread emails, and since then it climbed back up to 700! I was clearing some out periodically, but wasn’t able to bring them much below 500. I’m currently down to about 330, which is great – I’m hoping it’ll be below 100 by late tomorrow.

This fall and winter, I’m also hoping to clean up my pictures. I have lots on my phone, many of which don’t need to be there. And the ones that are there aren’t really organized in any meaningful way. So I’d like to spend some time dealing with that.

I also need to decide what I’m doing with my Flickr profile. I’ve been paying for Flickr Pro for many years and have around 15,000 photos on the platform. But back when I started, Pro was only about $20. It’s since ballooned to six times that, and this year was another big jump in price, going up $50 from last year’s price with no warning. I’m not sure that I want to keep paying for it, especially with these big unexpected jumps in prices from the platform. Plus I honestly haven’t been using it like I used to; I do periodic photo dumps on the platform, but those have been fewer and fewer (and they’re a bit overwhelming when I do upload photos because it’s been so long and there’s so much to upload). I also feel that the internet has changed, and I don’t know that I want to keep everything up that’s currently on there. For these reasons, I’ve already been telling myself I need to think about what I want my Flickr to be, even before the big price jump in Pro this year.

So those are my current priorities. Cleaning up and maintaining my email, and dealing with photos. While I don’t really have any goals per se on the go now, I will do another check-in in a few months to see how things are going. 🙂

Well, that’s all from me. How are things going for you? Have you set any goals for the year or have any projects on the go? How are they going? 

August 2026 – What Are You Reading?

I was hoping to have a little more time to read this month, but unfortunately that didn’t pan out (I brought four books with me to camp, but only had time to finish one because we were so busy!)

Nonfiction

Fiction

• The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
• Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

French

While it took a little to get into Three Bags Full (the book the movie Sheep Detectives is based off of), I really enjoyed it. I liked how the sheep looked at the world, and how they arrived at their conclusions. There are a lot of characters though, so it took a bit to figure out who was who (and which sheep you had to really remember – though the dramatis personae helped with that a lot, but it didn’t help with the human characters). It was a fun mystery and I didn’t see the end coming, so that’s always a plus. 🙂

So how about you? Have you read anything fun this month? 🙂

July 2026 – What Are You Reading?

How’s everyone’s summer going so far? This summer is unfortunately turning into a really stressful time due to nearby wildfires. At the moment, my city is fine. But there are a lot of places nearby that are not. 😦

With all of that going on, I tried to spend a little more time reading to help distract myself:

Nonfiction

• Drained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More by Leah Ruppanner, PhD
• The Urban Monk: Eastern Wisdom and Modern Hacks to Stop Time and Find Success, Happiness, and Peace by Pedram Shojai.

Fiction

• Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.
• Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe.

French

• Le petit monde de Charlotte by E.B. White ; translated by Catherine Chaine.
• Le Roman de Renart (Lectures CLE)

I loved Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe! It was ridiculous fun: a princess gets cursed and cannot leave a bookshop. So her parents send the 7 princes of the realms to go kiss her in an attempt to break the curse. While it is a little predictable, I had such a great time reading it; it was easily the best thing I read all month! 😀

For the non-fiction, I quite liked The Urban Monk by Pedram Shojai. I felt like the book gave me a lot to think about, as well as some actionable steps I can take to try to reclaim my energy and lessen my stress (both of which I’ve been struggling with in recent years). I borrowed it from the library, but ended up ordering myself a copy to work through the various chapters and exercises that appeal to me at my own pace.

I’d also like to make note of Le Roman de Renart. The story is very similar to Fox Mykyta. I’m thinking they must be from the same European tradition (Wikipedia says Fox Mykyta is based on a popular European plot, so I’m guessing you can find similar tales in many different languages). It was a lot of fun to encounter this tale my dad loved in my French reading. 🙂

So how about you? Have you read anything fun this month? 🙂

2026 Goals Check-In #3

Oh my gosh, this year is totally flying by – it’s already July! That means it’s time for another check-in on how things have been going over the last few months.

Reading Books

Over the last few months, I’ve read two novels in English, as well as two more French books and a few graphic novels. I’ve now finished 16 English novel-length books in total (as well as 4 French books, a few English graphic novels, and one graphic novel in French!) So that means I’ve completed this goal, and any more reading I do is a bonus. 🎉

Spanish Learning

Here are my current breakdown of totals (up to the end of June):

• Total time for May and June: 598 minutes/approx 10 hours
  • May total time learning Spanish: 297 minutes/4.95 hours
    • AirLearn: 282 minutes/4.7 hours
  • June total time learning Spanish: 301 minutes/5 hours
    • AirLearn – 276 minutes/4.6 hours
  • Non app learning for May and June: 40.39 minutes/0.67 hours

This was pretty good, especially since I had a week in June where I disconnected and didn’t spend any time learning Spanish. 🙂

Now for the bad news: AirLearn does not appear to be accurate when keeping track of the time I’m learning. I put it to the test the other day, where the app gave me time totals when I finished a lesson. Then at the end, I looked at my total for the day, and it showed about half the time I should have been credited. 😦 There was also a point at the end of June where my total time suddenly was drastically different from what it should have been (on June 29th, the app said I had spent over 900 minutes learning Spanish. On June 20th that number dropped to a little under 800, then the total went back up to over 1000 on July 3rd). So basically all of that says that these times are not at all accurate. But without timing how much time I spend on the app, which I don’t want to do myself, this remains my best way to at least get an idea of how much time I’ve spent with the language.

I should note, I’ve tried to track any reading I do. The podcasts I’ve listened to have also been easy to track. So all of my other learning is fairly accurate. 🙂

My total time with Spanish to date (end of June) is 1706 minutes or 28.4 hours! And as of June 30th, I have learned over 600 words in AirLearn. I feel pretty confident that I’ve encountered most of the words I learned in Duolingo by this point, too, so I feel like that’s a fairly accurate picture of my learning now. 🙂

I’d also like to add: a friend of mine on Duolingo gave me a few days of SuperDuolingo for free, so I reinstalled the app to give it a go. I honestly didn’t like going back to their Spanish path. It felt really repetitive and boring. 😦 So I ended up spending most of the trial doing some Ukrainian. It felt really good to go back and refresh that language a bit (lol my pronunciation was terrible!!!!)

So What Now?

Now that the reading goal is over, though I will continue to read through the year, I’m left with a kind of “what now?” feeling. This is the first time I think I’ve accomplished one of my goals so early in the year. My initial thought was to try to add in some time for creative pursuits, like I first wanted to this year (I still have a Carta game I would like to finish at some point…) But my summer is looking incredibly busy (we’ve got something on the go every weekend!) So it might be a good idea to just get through these next few months without putting more pressure on myself, and maybe reassess how things are going in September. At that time I’ll also do a break down of whatever Spanish learning I’ve done for the full months of July and August. 🙂

So that’s how things have been going for me lately. How are things going for you? Have you set any goals for the year? How are they going? 

June 2026 – What Are You Reading?

Wow, I can’t believe we’re already halfway through the year!

I was hoping to get a little more reading done this month, but only finished one novel in English:

Nonfiction

Fiction

• The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
• Absolute Wonder Woman Volume 1: the Last Amazon by Kerry Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Mattia de Iulis, Jordie Bellaire and Becca Carey (graphic novel)
• Absolute Wonder Woman Volume 2: As My Mothers Made Me by Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Matias Bergara, Jordie Bellaire and Becca Carey (graphic novel)

French

• Learn French with Stories: Le Pendentif (The Pendant) by Sylvie Lainé

I actually finished Learn French with Stories just after I posted my May reading post. I was hoping to be able to list it there, but I wasn’t quite fast enough!

Those Wonder Woman graphic novels were pretty fun – she has a different origin (she was raised in Hell) and so different weapons and powers. If you enjoy Wonder Woman, and like alternative versions of superheroes, definitely check those ones out!

So how about you? Have you read anything fun this month? 🙂

May 2026 – What Are You Reading?

I was hoping to get a little more reading done this month than I did, but we ended up going on a whirlwind weekend trip for a family wedding, which meant I had very little time for reading at the end of the month. But I fit a few things in earlier in the month. 🙂

Nonfiction

Fiction

• Forgive-Me-Not by Mari Costa (graphic novel)
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

French

• Où on va, papa? by Jean-Louis Fournier

Forgive-Me-Not was incredibly cute! It was a fairytale-like story about changelings that I really enjoyed. I’m definitely hoping Mari Costa releases more with a similar vibe in the future. 🙂

I also quite liked The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. I had a hard time at the beginning because it was falling into some weird tropes. But then it suddenly changed and got really good (the characters started actually listening to each other, which made me really like them all). I did find it a tad predictable, but overall it’s a great story.

The only book this month I didn’t really like was the French one I read, Ou On Va, Papa? I think this was in part because I didn’t completely understand it. But it also isn’t something I would normally read – I think I chose it because it was on a list of books that are easier for people learning French, and not because I actually paid attention to the subject matter. I’ve made that mistake a few times since I started learning French, and I need to stop doing it; I really need to look for books that are both something I can understand AND something that I will enjoy.

So that’s been my reading this month. How about you? Have you read anything interesting lately?

2026 Goals Check-In #2

Well, here we are in May already! This year seems to be flying by! I wanted to do another check-in on how things have been going over the last few months. I ended up changing my second goal a few weeks ago, so this time we’re looking at how my reading is going, and how my Spanish learning is going. 🙂

Reading Books

Reading this year continues to go well! 🙂 Since my last check-in, I have read 7 novel-length books (two were non-fiction), as well as finished two more French books (this total is up to yesterday)! I’ve actually finished 17 books total (not including any English graphic novels; I’m including the French one though because it was harder). I’m quite proud of the number of books I’ve read lately because I got bogged down with a nonfiction book I am slowly making my way through (it’s interesting, but gets quite repetitive). I decided to put it aside for a little to read some other stuff, which I’m really glad I did – I’ve been able to make some progress on it between other books.

Spanish Learning

With the other languages I have learned, I never really kept track in any meaningful way how my progress was going. I’ve heard from people online that a good way to track progress is either through time spent with the language or through words learned. Since I’m still relatively at the beginning of my Spanish learning, I was able to get a rough estimate for time spent learning in Duolingo (thanks to their weekly newsletters that they send to your email); AirLearn actually tracks in the app time spent in lessons. I’m not convinced that it’s completely accurate, as there have been days where it tells me I only spent like 4 minutes learning Spanish when I know it was a bit longer than that. But I’m going to use those numbers anyway so I don’t have to keep tabs on things myself.

I’ve been tracking words learned as well. I didn’t think this was particularly helpful originally, as I had already learned a bunch of words in Duolingo (so I wasn’t sure what was overlap). But it still gives me a rough idea of how I’m progressing. I was also excited – on May 2nd, in AirLearn I surpassed the total number of words I learned in Duolingo, so now I should be learning more and more new words.

So here’s my current breakdown of totals (up to the end of April):

• Duolingo: 720 minutes/12 hours – 320 words
• AirLearn – prior to Apr 12: 183 minutes/3.05 hours
• AirLearn – Apr 12 to Apr 30: 240 minutes/4 hours – 301 words
• Non app learning: 16 minutes 0.27 hours

In this case, my non app learning was the time I spent listening to a Spanish podcast (Coffee Break Spanish).

My total up to the end of April is 1291 minutes/21.52 hours learning Spanish.

In my next goal update, I’ll do a break down of Spanish learning for the full months of May and June. 🙂

So that’s how things have been going for me lately. How are things going for you? Have you set any goals for the year? How are they going? 

April 2026 – What Are You Reading?

I originally thought I only read one book this month, and was pleasantly surprised to look back and see that I read some others. 🙂

Nonfiction

• How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis

Fiction

• The Secret Garden by
• Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman

French

• Climate Change in Simple French by Olly Richards

I really enjoyed reading How to Keep House While Drowning. It is a short read that is written to be accessible (the author says that she used a neurodivergent-friendly font, which I thought was a really neat touch – why wouldn’t all books use one to make them more accessible to everyone???) While I didn’t feel like it all applied to me, I got some good tips and tricks; I’d definitely like to pick it up one day to read again from time to time.

And while I had some difficulties with the subject matter (in that it felt too realistic to me), I did enjoy Operation Bounce House. It’s a really well-written, fast-paced book. I loved the characters, and could totally see this being a movie or tv show one day.

Goal Change

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this for a while now…but I am not going to continue with my One Hour of Creative Time per Week goal. 😦

While part of me is really disappointed in this, as there are some creative things I would really like to do, it’s really not working out right now. Part of the problem is that my life has become so busy that it’s hard to fit everything in. I’m feeling bad when I’m not able to squeeze some time for creative projects into my week, but I also just can’t realistically fit everything in right now, and something has to give. The other problem is that right now I am just really, really into language learning. Last summer and fall I spent some time dabbling with Spanish on Duolingo for fun (I spent something like 12 hours on the app), then at the end of March I discovered the Airlearn app, which I am currently loving: it’s structured in a way that it prioritized more useful vocabulary for people who want to travel to a Spanish-speaking country. My partner and I are hoping to maybe plan a trip somewhere next year, so I’m hoping to be conversant before that. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with Spanish so much, but it’s really fun! Plus, as a bonus for me, the grammar hasn’t been challenging (at least not yet, lol) because it’s similar to French grammar.

I also hope to get back to Ukrainian at some point. My goal with that language has changed: I want to be able to read and write well in Ukrainian, but I don’t feel the need to be speaking it (at least not right now). But that’s also a more long-term goal, as Spanish is a more immediate need with our plans for next year.

I also didn’t intend to care about reading in Spanish, but I really like books, and bought myself one yesterday for Spanish-learners. I’ve been doing a bit of learning on Airlearn most nights, so I’m going to start supplementing the app with the book when I feel ready (hopefully soon!)

Plus I’m still taking French lessons every week. I’ve been continuing to read in French, and find that it’s coming easier and easier now (it’s amazing: I can actually think in another language!)

So I’m going to simply say that for now, my new goal is to continue learning in Spanish a little bit every day. There’s currently 253 days left in the year, and even just putting in 10 minutes a day for most of those days means I should hopefully be feeling more comfortable with the language (and maybe even ready to put in some speaking practice by January…?)

And even though I’ve taken the “creative time” goal off the table, it doesn’t mean I can’t work on any creative projects when time permits. I just don’t have to feel guilty if I don’t have time or want to be doing other things right now. 🙂

March 2026 – What Are You Reading?

Well, here we are, one third of the way through 2026 already! This March ended up a really good reading month for me:

Nonfiction

• Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen.

Fiction

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
• How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Persico (graphic novel)
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
• Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher.

French

• Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques by R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo (graphic novel)

Hands down, the best thing I read this month was Project Hail Mary. I’m so glad I finished it before the movie came out. I loved the book, and thought the movie was a really good adaptation of it. Yes, there are some differences (mostly things that were left out), but they stayed really faithful to the story. That being said though, if you are a reader, I definitely recommend checking out the book; it’s great. 😀

I finished a French Asterix graphic novel this month as well. It was so much fun to read; I want to look for more! 😀

So how about you? Have you read anything good this month? 🙂