August/ September goals

The first two weeks of August went by in a NyQuil induced haze. I’m ready to ease into some goals for the next six weeks.

But first, here’s what I did for July’s goals–

1. Morning walks. This one was completed with flying colors! I walked in the mornings, mostly in the park but a couple times in my living room with Leslie. Jason and I took lots of evening walks, and we even jogged.
2. Find a book club. I found one online, but due to library software malfunctions, I didn’t get to actually read July’s book.
3. Summer Stories. Nope. Was too bummed to look at many summer pictures.
4. Make 5 new things. This was pretty open-ended. I tried a couple new recipes and made a couple of pages, so I’m calling it good.
5. Eat at home for the rest of July. We did really well on this one. We had lunch and dessert out with LM, but those were planned for in advance. We only ate out one time out of laziness (Checker’s) and it was gross. I can’t believe we used to eat there once a week.
6. Hang our family tree photos. Finally did that last Thursday.
7. Plan a cheap date. I sort of forgot about this one. We tried geocaching, but the mosquitos chased us out of the woods before we could find the cache.

Now for July/August-

1. Work up to 10,000 steps a day.
2. Find a GP, and get appointments for physicals.
3. Read 5 NF books.
4. Finish documenting the summer. Unless it makes me too sad. Plan B is to stay caught up with PL.
5. Make something pretty for the house.
6. Plant 5 things from my garden board.
7. Declutter 100 things.
8. Make football food.
9. Experiment with a capsule wardrobe.
10. Go to the beach.
11. 30 Days of Lists.
12. Make 25 LO’s.
13. Flylady zones twice a week
14. Watch 10 things from our Netflix Queue
    
15. Get to the “30 pounds gone” mark.

These are pretty random. Most of them, except #2 and #15, are things that I enjoy but always talk myself out of actually doing them. I’ve always been wary of putting weight loss goals on these lists. But I’m So Close to a big goal and I’ve been stagnant for months. Maybe this will get me over the hump. I need challenging goals that will push me this month, plus a few fun things.

July goals

Here are a few things I want to accomplish by the end of the month. I need things to keep us active and doing things (other than sitting at home and watching Buffy marathons and eating cookies all month) This month will be about getting the budget back in check, working on summer photos, and adding a few finishing touches to our home.

1. Morning walks.
2. Find a book club.
3. Summer Stories.
4. Make 5 new things.
5. Eat at home for the rest of July.
6. Hang our family tree photos.
7. Plan a cheap date.

 

June goals (our Summer bucket list)

Last month’s goals went really well. Yay accountability!

1. Morning walks. This did not happen. We’re shooting for this in June or July.
2. Get library cards. Done.
3. Catch up with PL. I’m still four weeks behind, but I’m calling this one a partial success because I worked my booty off on PL last month, completing 29 pages!
4. Participate in NSD. Done, here and here.
5. Finish prepping for the summer. rent car, program GPS, Summer Daily template, gather craft supplies, Summer 2014 bucket list- All done, except getting crafty stuff
6. Daily writing. Done, which explains my freakishly regular posting schedule this month 🙂
7. Have a bookstore coffee date. We attempted this, but sadly our B&N isn’t very conducive to coffee dates. But we did go to the bookstore and had coffee on the same evening so I’m calling this one done.
8. Hang pictures. Done

Now on to our summer bucket list! I’ve been doing one of these every summer for a couple of years. (2012 and 2013) It’s fun to go back and look at the things we wanted to do each year. They reflect the pattern of our summers and the near frantic pace of our time with the Little Man. We always take a trip. We try to get outside as much as the blazing south Florida weather will allow. We always have a couple of parties. This year is no different.

Things to do this summer-

• North Dakota and Minnesota
• camping
• geocaching
• swimming
• explore lots of parks
• Tampa
• picnics
• build an epic sand castle
• work on a puzzle together
• play games
• teach LM how to change a tire and how to cook three meals
• make lemonade and pizza
• take 100 family photos
• daily documentation
• soccer and football
• comic book store
• beach
• Father’s Day
• LM’s birthday
• 4th of July
• eat on the balcony
• watch super hero movies

Lots of fun stuff to do. I can’t wait to get started!

May goals

I haven’t been doing monthly goals so far this year. With packing, moving, and unpacking, I figured I had enough on my plate. But now that’s mostly done so I’m ready to focus on other things.

Here are eight things I want to do this month-

1. Morning walks. With Jason or by myself.
2. Get library cards.
3. Catch up with PL.
4. Participate in NSD.
5. Finish prepping for the summer. rent car, program GPS, Summer Daily template, gather craft supplies, Summer 2014 bucket list.
6. Daily writing. For the blog, scrapbook pages, or personal journaling.
7. Have a bookstore coffee date.
8. Hang pictures.

 

 

MOC pages 10-15

I’m participating in The Lilypad’s Month of Challenges this month. I’m excited to stretch creatively, and really want to knock out a bunch of summer pages.

Our 10th challenge was to do a page about our One Word. I must admit, I haven’t done much with my word yet, not even introducing it on here. So there you go, my word is Health. It is very needed this year, especially after December, which I “took off”. Biggest mistake of 2013! It took me all year to lose 25 pounds, but only a month to undo a lot of my hard work. We’ll chalk that up to learning experience and move on.

Journaling reads- This year we are striving for Health. Physical health, financial health, and keeping our relationship healthy. We celebrated our anniversary in December by doing a 5k together. I can’t wait to do more healthy things together in 2014!

We were given a template to use on the next challenge. I love blocky LO’s so this one was a breeze.

Journaling reads- Awkward Family Photo. The mirror in this elevator did quite strange things to my face. Hotel Morgan. Morgantown, West Virginia. 6.9.13.

The next challenge was a template one also. But this time we were given two templates that we were supposed to join and make into one page. Very cool technique that I’ve never done before.

Journaling reads- Maryland Rest Stop. Driving between D.C. and West Virginia, we stopped at a rest stop with absolutely spectacular views. June 8, 2013

All of the above pages, plus every other page I’ve made for these challenges, have been made with the January 2014 Storyteller kit by Just Jaimee. I wanted to see how many pages I could make with one collection.

I love the idea of “killing a kit” that some paper scrappers do. They try to use every paper and embellishment in a kit so that there’s nothing left. That idea fascinates me. I have never ever “killed” a full sized digi kit. In digi, things move so quickly. You use a kit once, then it’s on to the next kit. I’m trying to adjust that way of thinking and make multiple pages with my new kits. I’m not sure if I’ll manage to kill the January kit (that collection is HUGE). But to date, I’ve used a piece of that kit on 17 different pages! That is completely unheard of for me. I’ve definitely got my money’s worth with that one. And I love that woodgrain alpha so much, I’m sure I won’t be finished with it anytime soon.

TLP had a sale this past weekend, so I was able to pick up a few other things, including Just Jaimee’s September kit from last year. I combined that with January’s kit for my next two pages.

The next challenge was to use a fancy shadowing technique to give your layers a more realistic look. It’s a pain in the butt to do in PSE. (I miss full photoshop sometimes!) It’s probably not something I’ll do often unless PSE ever starts letting you separate styles from their layers without a workaround.

Journaling reads- I caught him doing this pose in the car one afternoon..

Not the most deep, thought provoking journaling going on this month…

The next challenge was to do a page with fourteen goals or resolutions for this year. I took mine from this post.

Journaling reads- 2014 Memory Keeping Goals. Get a photo of me and Jason each week | Project Life | Three Times Twelve (a photo of our family once a month) | Summer Daily | Get (and stay) current with printing | Scan photos | Tag photos | 100 family photos this summer | One Little Word | I Choose class | Inspired Scrapbooking class | self portrait challenge | Organize digi supplies | Print a book

The last challenge I have to share today was to lift a paper scrapbook page. I was All Over that one! I lifted this lovely page from Adrienne Alvis. I loved the quote bubbles, perfect for a story I wanted to tell about me and Jamie! I used the FWP collab Blessed + Lucky, along with my favorite alpha from the January Storyteller kit.

Journaling reads- Wodehouse Fangirls. Our family has been huge P.G. Wodehouse fans for generations. My sister and I have read some of the books so many times that we have whole chunks memorized. We will often randomly quote passages to each other, which is probably strange to a lot of people. I’m sure not very many people get Super Excited over cow creamers like we do.

Holy balls this is a long post!

Thanks for looking 🙂

I Choose class

And by that, I mean a class called “I Choose”. Because we all know I never choose class if I can help it…

The I Choose class at BPC is taught by Elise Blaha Cripe. It explains her process of setting goals, and the fun projects she’s made along the way. It’s a short class that you can knock out in under an hour. A lot of the things she talked about were familiar to me, since I’ve followed her blog for a couple of years.

I was surprised at how similar her process for deciding on goals is to my own. We both do monthly goals based on categories of things that aim for a well rounded life. (We have different categories, but they’re close in intention. I’m thinking of writing out my categories in a post later maybe)

My very favorite part of the class was the pictures she showed of how she documents reaching her goals. I think that’s an area I can definitely work on. I take a ton of pictures but I rarely ever do it with an end result in mind. I really liked looking at the Project Life inserts she made with her process pictures. I would like to implement more of that kind of thing in my own goal setting.

Have you taken this class? I’d love to hear about it 🙂

*I just looked at BPC to link up to the class and it appears to be no longer available. I’m glad I bought it when I did…

Goals, Plans, etc. for 2014

Here is a semi-random list of things I’m working on/ thinking about for the coming year. I am a list maker (obviously) so this keeps things in control for me. Most are blog/ project related that I’ll be sharing. A few are personal that I’ll be keeping to myself.

Daily
Socialize/ Reach out.
Go outside.
Gratitude.

Weekly
Currently/ Right Now/ Around Here/ High Five for Friday.
Healthy For Life.
He and She. (photos)
Get out the big camera.

Bi-weekly-ish
Good Eats.
Good reads.
Memory Monday.

Monthly
Three times Twelve.
Project Life.
Twelve.
Monthly goals (physical, mental, procrastinate/ project, for me, for others, spiritual/ gratitude, for us, home).
1 Jason page.
1 Jamie page.
Something physical with Jason (an outing involving walks/ bikes/ boats etc.).
Read 2 non-fiction books (except in June).

Other Projects/ Classes/ random things
30 Days of Lists
Self-Portrait challenge (maybe February?)
Layout A Day (January and maybe once more)
Mile A Day (November/ December)
Couch to 5k (either running or on the elliptical) 
Summer Daily (June/ July)
Learn about our money (bills, life insurance, my credit)
Make a will
Get checkups (physicals and dentist for both, mammogram and lady stuff for me)
100 family photos (June/ July)
Week in the Life
Get photos scanned
Get memorabilia corralled
Get current with printing
Organize photos
Organize digi supplies
Print some books.
Structure my weekends so that I eat better and move more.
One Little Word
Inspired Scrapbooking class
Another scrapping class (to be determined
I Choose class
2 classes through iTunes U (to be determined)
Blog things as they happen. Be present. Avoid perfectionism.
Continue chugging through my 2013 Summer Memories list.
Find a digiscrapping community I can call home.
Continue with my awesome designers.
Donate hair.
Donate blood.
Move.
Set up a new office space where we can both work/ create.
Go to North Dakota.
Explore the Keys and Naples.
Make fifty travel LO’s (okay maybe that’s ambitious, so I’ll say “Scrap lots of travel LO’s”
Go to Nashville.
Open our home to family.
Find ways to volunteer/ give back.
Read a couple of books with Jason.
Savor our last few months in West Palm. Write about some of our favorite places.
Fill in some of the gaps in my scrapbooks. (Specifically Jason, Jamie, extended family, and travel)

That’s all I can think of right now. I will probably change things as the year progresses. Ready for another awesome year!

October Goals

Here is a reminder of last month’s goals–

1. Walk or run 40 miles.
2. Listen to 10 How Stuff Works podcasts.
3. Participate in Week In The Life, 30 Days of Lists, and Project Life Lessons.
4. Blog or scrap 10 more summer adventures.
5. Donate blood OR donate to Goodwill.
6. Finish that gallery wall in our bedroom that I’ve been working on since April.
7. Swim or take walks with Jason three times a week.
8. Plant some more seeds.

Last month was a pretty decent exercise month. I’m not very great at documenting each walk or workout I do, but I estimate that I got in around 30-ish miles. But I also added in strength training to the routine towards the end, in place of my usual Pilates workout. I’m happy to say that I’ve finally found a strength training workout that doesn’t bore me to tears, so yay!

I listened to a bunch of random How Stuff Works podcasts this month-
Did a cow start the Great Chicago fire? (spoiler alert, probably not).
How the Musketeers Worked.
How Ramadan Works.
Can we build an elevator to space? (Which I still don’t understand, despite listening to it twice. A bit over my head)
How Shark Attacks Work.
The Shark Diaries.
Did Reagan’s Star Wars campaign win the Cold War?
How Crack Works (in keeping with the Reagan theme, now let’s bash on Nancy! I thought this one was a little mean spirited, but very informative on certain racial aspects of America’s “war on drugs”).
How the Rosetta Stone works (probably my favorite).
How Dying works (a bummer, but really went into a lot of important things and reaffirmed a lot of things I learned in my CNA training).
And also, Does owning a gun change your behavior?

Lots of good stuff. I also relistened to every single episode of the Digi Show, including the first fifty or so that were under the Paperclipping umbrella. Learned a ton! That’s what I love about PRT and TDS, you can listen to them over and over and still learn things.

Number three was hit or miss. I participated wholeheartedly in WITL, but I haven’t blogged it yet. I’m not sure if I want to. Still thinking on that. My 30 Days of Lists got sorely neglected. You can see my first few here. I was able to get to all three chats for my Project Life Lessons class, but I’m still working through the assignments. My first two are here.

This was not a huge month for blogging or scrapping summer memories. I only did three actually, so that wasn’t great. I think maybe I’ll start numbering them to motivate myself.

We gathered up a big bag of clothes to donate. It’s kind of crazy that I actually found clothes that were too big for me! They’re riding around in the trunk of the car waiting to be dropped off.

I did nothing on the gallery wall front.

Jason and I took a lot of walks this month! Even when it was hot and gross, and we were in danger of random spiders dropping from the massive webs that hang from every tree in our complex, we walked anyway. And it felt great. We didn’t get any swimming in, partly because it’s rained almost every day this month, partly just laziness.

I planted more tomato and pepper seeds this month to replace the ones that were stolen. They’re doing quite well so far.

Geez that was long….

Okay on to October Goals!

1. Do 10 (non-Pilates) strength training workouts.
2. Make a dent in my stack of non-fiction books. (There are nineteen in two stacks!)
3. FINISH one of my September projects.
4. Donate to Bald for Breasts. (I am a terrible procrastinator!)
5. Document 10 more summer memories.
6. Decorate for fall and Halloween.
7. Do a Photo Walk with Jason.
8. The Un-Challenge Challenge.

September Goals

These were my goals for August–

1. Walk 40 miles. Maybe run a couple too.
2. Read 5 nonfiction books.
3. Participate in the 30 Day self portrait challenge from A Beautiful Mess.
4. Blog or scrap at least ten of our summer adventures.
5. Donate blood.
6. Continue looking for a part time job.
7. Try yoga with Jason.
8. Start planning a fall garden.

I walked maybe 20 miles this month. I’m not sure why, but I just don’t have any exercise mojo lately.

I’ve read 5 NF books this month! Woohoo! My reviews for the first 4 can be found here and here. I’ll blog the 5th one this week.

I did take a photo of myself every day for thirty days. I’ll blog about the awkwardness that entailed, plus a few things I learned next week.

Looking back through my archives, I was surprised to find that I’ve scrapped or blogged 9 summer memories. I didn’t think I’d done that many at all! It was a lot more LO’s than the long blog posts that I wanted, but I’m pretty proud of myself for doing that many.

I did not make it to donate blood this month. There were a lot of scheduling conflicts with Jason having to work on the weekends this month. And truthfully, I think he doesn’t want me to donate blood. I’ve had some bad reactions in the past, so I think he thinks he’s protecting me from the mean people at the blood bank 😛

No news on the job front. Still.

Oh I forgot all about yoga! Jeez… I need to review these goals more often.

My fall garden is off to a fantastic start! I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this. I’ll do a post on this very soon!

So, on to September goals…

1. Walk or run 40 miles.
2. Listen to 10 How Stuff Works podcasts.
3. Participate in Week In The Life, 30 Days of Lists, and Project Life Lessons.
4. Blog or scrap 10 more summer adventures.
5. Donate blood OR donate to Goodwill.
6. Finish that gallery wall in our bedroom that I’ve been working on since April.
7. Swim or take walks with Jason three times a week.
8. Plant some more seeds.

It is going to be a jam packed month. I’ll have a lot of time to myself at home this month, so I want to make the most of it!

My first guest post, August goals, and other random Friday stuff

I was super excited to do my first guest blog post over at the Nerd Nest on Sunday! It was all about food (some good, some very very bad). Go check it out 🙂

I saw that Elise has started blogging regularly again after going on maternity leave. Yay! That reminded me that I haven’t done a goals post in a while, so here goes…

1. Walk 40 miles. Maybe run a couple too.
2. Read 5 nonfiction books.
3. Participate in the 30 Day self portrait challenge from A Beautiful Mess.
4. Blog or scrap at least ten of our summer adventures.
5. Donate blood.
6. Continue looking for a part time job.
7. Try yoga with Jason.
8. Start planning a fall garden.

The past two months have been sort of “survival mode” around here. I’m ready to find a little balance and normalcy. It’s been an extremely busy time at work for Jason lately, and it’s taking its toll. I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to help him. I can’t change his work situation, but I can make home as nice as possible. It’s important for both of us that we find things to do together that don’t involve How I Met Your Mother marathons. (Although we need that too).

For me, I’ve found that having structure in my days is absolutely essential. We always have more of a schedule when the Little Man is here. I’m bringing aspects of that into my days by myself and I’m feeling much more productive.

I told you this post was going to be random…

Anyway, I’ll end with some Currents-

Watching HIMYM, Sharknado, and Glitter Girl.
Reading You Can Buy Happiness (and it’s cheap). Taking a little break from Phryne. She kind of went off the rails in that last book.
Listening to Garbage, Frame Rate, PRT, and Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Making LO’s for challenges.
Feeling very anxious all week.
Planning ways to fill up the weekend that don’t involve spending a lot of money.
Loving that my dad emails me about stuff he reads here.

Annd I think that’s about it. As LM says, I’m “out of information”. 🙂