Dear Adventure Avenue,

This year I made five goals that I hope to accomplish by 2022. Some of these goals are curiosity based, while others are geared towards self growth or preservation. You can read more about them in this post.

Goals

Track how much I actually make per month/per year using money making apps. Checkout this post to get the referral codes and links so you can follow along on this adventure.  

Checkout 51: starting $14.04 Current earnings $22.37+$21.94+$20.43= $64.74. I was able to get a check (thrice!!) once I reached (and then surpassed) $20. I recommend cashing out as soon as you reach the $20 benchmark on this app because the check can take a couple of weeks to get to you.

Shopkick: starting 11 kicks ($1 = 250 kicks) Current earnings 5,260 kicks. I’m so close to a $25 gift card!

Swagbucks: starting 45 swagbucks ($1 = 100 swagbucks) Current earnings 500+79= 579 swagbucks. I reached 500 swagbucks, and received a message saying if I redeemed for a giftcard in the next 14 days, I would get a bonus 75 points! So I am now waiting on a $5 Starbucks giftcard.

Ibotta: starting $4.30 Current earnings $89.12. 

Fetch Rewards: starting 3,215 points ($1 = 1,000 points) Current earnings 23,940 points.

2. Read 12 books throughout the year. That’s a book a month.

So far this year I have read or listened to 20 books:

• Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
• Welcome to the Farm: How-to Wisdom from the The Elliott Homestead by Shaye Elliott
• Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances by Timothy Zahn
• Star Wars: Thrawn Treason by Timothy Zahn
• America’s Women: 400 years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins
•  Seasons at the Farm by Shaye Elliott
• When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins
• Long Live the Queen: 23 Rules for Living from Britain’s Longest Reigning Monarch by Bryan Kozlowski
• Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
• Lessons from Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott
• The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
• Star Wars: Lord of the Sith 
• The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams
• The Stylist by Rosie Nixon
• The Deceivers by Haddix
• Star Wars The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss
• Declutter like a Mother by Allie Casazza
• The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
• I loved (and highly recommend) all these books!

I’m currently working on

• Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser

I also started listening to audiobooks using my library card. So far I’ve read #Girlboss (because I watched the show on Netflix), Jenna Fisher’s book, The Actor’s Life,  The Undomestic Goddess, and Essentialism by Greg McKeown

This month I finished listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I created a “What I’m Reading” page if you want to see some books that I have read or am planning to read.

3. Create a Star Wars inspired quilt square once a month to create a Star Wars quilt in December or January of next year. 

So far I’ve made 9/12: 

• A Sequel Trilogy square with Rey and BB-8
• A Mandalorian square with Grogu!
• An Anakin and Padme square
• A Darth Vader Imperial square
• A Rogue One square
• A Princess Leia and Rebel Alliance square
• A droids square featuring R2-D2 and C-3PO
• A Jedi Order square
• A Ships square featuring a TIE fighter and the Millennium Falcon

I started doing some embroidery on new squares! I’m going to have to step up my game in December in order to finish this goal!

4. Make 12 new recipes. 

So far I’ve made:

• Leeks with butter and breadcrumbs (First time I ever had leeks and they were delicious!)
• Poulet au Tomates – click here for the recipe.
• Fried Endorian Tip Yip from my Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Cookbook.
• Cornbread from a recipe from The Elliott Homestead
• Madeleines from my Downton Abbey Cookbook (Though they turned out to be more like mini lemon cakes)
• Lemon Mint Sorbet (Recipe coming soon)
• Blondies with M&Ms
• Blueberry Muffins
• Chocolate Chip Banana Bread from Sweet & Savory – Her trick is to use frozen bananas! I made a half batch (one loaf) and substituted the nuts for chocolate chips and mine only took 40 minutes to make. Check it out here.

If you need some French food inspiration, I made a batch of my crepe recipe this month! (Bonus: It doesn’t use up all your eggs)

5. Take one Mental Health Monday a week. 

My family and I went to Washington DC – Stay tuned for my day-by-day adventures!

Sincerely,

A

PS

Please note that this post contains affiliate links. This means that if you use the link, I get a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. These links help support my blog. You can check out my privacy policy to find out more. Thanks!