October 2019 Goals

Even though we’re already a week into October, it seems like the perfect time to talk about my September goals and set new ones for this month, right?

Here were my September goals :

1. Clean off our dining room table : Nope. It’s worse than it was before. Sigh…

2. Clean off our entryway dresser : Finished!! Look at the difference :

3. Get on track with daily routines : Not even close. I’m on fall break this week, so I’m taking some time to list out things that need to be done daily, times that I need to get up, be ready to leave, etc. I’m not a very organized person, so I need all of the help I can get with keeping myself on track!

4. Make consignment appointments : I’m taking Charlotte’s stuff tomorrow or Thursday. I haven’t made my own appointment, but I did make an appointment for a donation pickup, so I may just forget about consigning my stuff and donate everything!

5. Trade in old car seat : Done! I read that they were going to end the program early, so we traded in two old ones the day before they ended it. Phew!

Charlotte tells her old car seat goodbye!

6. Make an eye doctor appointment : Nope. Onto the October list you go…

7. Make a dentist appointment : See above…

8. Take Koopa to the vet : See item 6…sheesh…

9. Decorate for Fall : I’ve started doing this, so partial credit?

10. Start meal planning and prepping : No to this one too

11. Start walking again : Nope, but the joke was on me. Last month I said it was “starting to cool down,” then we had 90+ degree weather here all the way into the first week of October! Now it’s FINALLY fall around here, so let’s revisit this one for October!

12. Start posting at least once a week again : No for this one also.

So, I completely accomplished 2 and partially completed things out of my 12 for September. That’s not a ton, but I’m proud of myself for any progress!

October Goals :

1. Clean off our dining room table : Month 2 of trying to get this done!

2. Create/implement daily routines : Giving this one another go.

3. Make an eye doctor appointment : I NEED new glasses. Come on, Amber!

4. Make a dentist appointment : I think I’ve been procrastinating on this because I don’t know if I’m going to go back to my old one or pick a new one. Such tough decisions…

5. Take Koopa to the vet : We may not be able to get all of his shots and teeth cleaning this month, but we can at least take him to the new vet we’re going to try and let them do his pre teeth cleaning blood work.

6. Start meal planning and prepping : One of our PE teachers told me a little bit about what she does every Sunday, so I have some ideas to try!

7. Start walking again : Unless the weather goes back up to the 90s. Then I’m just going to hibernate. Haha!

8. Start posting at least once a week again : I’ve still got to post my dang fall bucket list and summer wrap up…if I can even find my summer list post!

9. Decorate for Halloween and/or Fall : I mean, it’s already October 8, so I don’t have much more time for Halloween, so I may just skip those decorations this year in favor of fall stuff until the day after Thanksgiving.

10. Work ahead on lesson planning and homework : This is kind of part of the routines thing, but I need to get into the habit of working ahead on these things instead of scrambling to do them at the last minute. Story of my life, right?

I’m going to stop my October goals at 10, especially since I had so many that I carried over from September. Do you have any goals for October? Let me know in the comments!

Share Your…Goals and Resolutions

I always enjoy finding new linkups, so I’m excited to join the “Share Your” linkup! This month’s theme is goals/resolutions/where you see yourself in 5 years.

Goals/Resolutions :

I try to stay away from making resolutions, so I’ll focus more on the goal side of things. I have a few goals for this year :

Take charge of my health and work on losing the weight I’ve gained in the last 3-4 years. I’ve got quite a bit to lose, and I know that it will take a while, but I at least want to make progress this year.
Work on our debt-free journey. We have a significant amount to pay off, so like the weight loss, I know it’ll take a while, but we want to make progress on this during 2019 also.
Start pursuing more writing opportunities. I have had a couple of writing jobs lately, and I really enjoyed the process and the finished product. It’s time to make this a priority!
Spend more non-screen time with my family. We’re all bad about spending too much time on devices, so we need to work on doing more fun things as a family that don’t involve screens!

Where I see myself in 5 years :

We’ll have a 7-year-old…that’s so hard to believe! We’ll also be getting ready to celebrate our 11th anniversary!
I want to be a full-time freelance writer. I enjoy the library world, but I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so I want this to be my job in 5 years.
I also see us being debt free since we are focusing on the process and finally paying attention to where our money is going.

I know these aren’t very many items for a 5 year plan. I haven’t thought about long-term goals for a while, so this linkup is a good opportunity for me to start working on those for myself and our family.

One Word for 2019 :

I haven’t chosen a word for a couple of years, but in the last few weeks, the word “complete” kept popping in my head. For me, complete has a double meaning. First, it means to complete my goals and to-do list items that I’ve been putting off. I’m a huge procrastinator, so I have to be conscious about prioritizing the right things and making sure I stay focused on what I’m supposed to be doing. The other meaning of complete is that I am complete. I struggle with not feeling like a good enough wife, mom, person, etc, so this is going to be my reminder that I am enough. I am the person I am, and I’m not supposed to constantly compare myself to others.

Do you have goals, resolutions, or one word for this year? How about a 5 year plan? Leave me a comment and share yours!

Linking up with Jen and Jenna!

Want to join in next month? Here are the prompts :

2019 Blog Goals

Hello and happy 2019! I hope you had a better New Years Eve than we did – ours involved a certain little girl who did not want to go to sleep, then did not want to stay asleep, plus the added bonus of neighbors shooting fireworks. Happy New Year, indeed.

Last year, I made some pretty audacious blog goals, and I ended up failing at all of them. I even failed at the mystery project that I can’t remember to save my life! I think I went in too high and then just stopped when I had some hiccups in life. That’s why this year, I’m going to simplify things a little bit and just have three goals : be consistent, be real, be involved.

Be consistent – I’m going to aim to post more than once or twice a month. Writing is such an outlet for me, plus it’s more productive and enjoyable than sitting hunched over my phone, scrolling through social media all night.

Be real – I’m pretty straightforward on here and never really try to sugarcoat things, but there are some things that I have been wanting to write about but have been scared because they’re not necessarily pretty. However, I think they could help some people, plus getting them out of my brain would help me. Also, I have plans to do a decluttering series on here, so I’ll be real with my messy house too!

Here’s a real mess for you. This is what it looks like when Christmas storage, laundry to hang up, and stuff to get rid of all collide and make a super mess.

Be involved – There are so many great bloggers who stop by here and leave comments and words of encouragement. Sometimes I remember to respond, but I usually don’t. It’s time to be more involved with this online community and show gratitude to all of you who take the time to read my posts!

That’s it for my goals this year! I’m working on not over-complicating things in many areas of my life, so this is a good start for me. Also, I still want to pretty things up around here, but that will happen…eventually…

What are your 2019 goals – for your blog or otherwise? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Wellness Wednesday : June 2018

Wellness Wednesday…on a Thursday!

Let’s review my January goals and my progress on those!

Goal #1 – Sleep at least 7 hours a night : I’ve been really bad about this one lately. I’ve been staying up way too late working on things that I don’t get done during the day, and then I’ve had trouble falling asleep. I have my Fitbit set to remind me to go to bed, but I still ignore it and stay up too late. I can tell too because I’m dragging during the day!

Goal #2 – Get at least 5,000 steps per day : I’m doing better with this one! I don’t hit it consistently, but I’m hitting it more often than I used to!

Goal #3 – Work on stress management techniques : I’m kind of working on this one. I haven’t started meditating yet, but I have started trying to remain calmer, especially in my parenting. I still have some things that I want to try, but this has definitely been better than it used to be!

Goal #4 – Drink 64+ ounces of water daily : Nailing this one! I have to keep my plants (in the app Plant Nanny) alive and grow my garden! #nerdalert

Goal #5 – Decrease screen time : I’ve been doing really poorly with this one also. I feel like I’ve been on my phone a lot more lately, so this is something I really need to focus on during this upcoming month. I may have to load some kind of time tracker app or something to block myself from using it at certain times!

This month’s prompt is about mental health tips. This is so timely with the death of Kate Spade just a couple of days ago. Mental health is something that we don’t talk about nearly enough, and honestly, it can be embarrassing to talk about. I think we need to discuss these things as frequently and easily as we do physical health because it’s definitely as important.

One thing that helps me balance my mental health is to make sure that I’m getting enough sleep. As you read above, I haven’t been lately, and I can tell that it’s affecting my outlook on things. Sleep is so beneficial in resetting all of our body’s systems and can help quiet our overstimulated brains. Okay, Amber, point taken lol.

Another thing that I do to help my mental health is to take time for myself. I’m so fortunate to have a helpful husband, parents less than a mile away, and in-laws in the same town who pitch in with Charlotte. I like to just go sit at a restaurant or coffee shop sometimes and write, read, play with my planner, and just be quiet! I try to do it monthly, but that doesn’t always happen!

My final tip for mental health is to exercise. I haven’t been good about this lately, but I like to take a walk during my lunch break, usually without music or podcasts or anything else, and just remove myself from the building for a little bit. A change of scenery helps refocus me, and being outdoors and alone helps me relax my mind. It doesn’t have to be a long walk either; I usually only go for about 15-20 minutes!

Have any tips to add? Be sure to comment below and click the blue button below to read more tips from the other bloggers in this linkup! Next month, I’ll be looking at emotional health. If you’d like to join in next month or anytime, the prompts and dates are listed below!

June 2018 Goals

Maybe one of my monthly goals should be to update my goals monthly. That sounds like a tongue twister!

I haven’t posted goals since January. Honestly, we were kind of in survival mode for a while, so I didn’t make any goals. Now that things are semi-settling down, I want to get back in the habit of posting monthly goals!

In the interest of not repeating things yet again, let’s just say that I still haven’t finished unpacking, and we’ve been in our house for close to a year. I know that neat and organized people would say that if we haven’t needed it in a year, we should just get rid of the boxes. The bad part is that there are things we’ve needed and wanted, but we’ve done without them. This is also me trying to justify my semi-hoarding tendencies…

I’m also still not doing great with the going to bed at 10:30-11 thing. I think there has just been a lot going on in our lives, and sometimes late at night is the only time I really have to sit and be quiet and do things for myself. I’ve tried getting up earlier, but Charlotte has some kind of super hearing and senses when I’m awake. We’ll keep working on this one, shall we?

Let’s set some new goals!

Pay at least $1,200 in debt – I talked about this a little more on my other blog.
Send out 30(!) writing job pitches – This is part of me conquering fear and becoming braver. The more I pitch, the less scared I will be to do it!
Stay on track with my 100 Days to Brave devotional – It’s been so helpful for me lately!
Publish posts here Monday-Friday and every Monday on the other blog – I really enjoy writing, and I have a schedule for the month already. I just have to work on making posting a priority!
Do a time tracking week – I haven’t done one of these since I was engaged, so my life is completely different than it was back then! I would love to know how I spend my time and how I can become more efficient and work on goals more often.
Lose 10 pounds – I lost 10 in May, so let’s keep that positive momentum going!

Six goals for the sixth month. I like how that looks!

If you set monthly goals, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!