Happy October, friends! September was a FULL month, but so so good. We celebrated our birthdays, took a day trip to the Shenandoah National Park, had a few visitors in town, and I went to Oklahoma for another work trip. I don’t think we could have packed much more into September. I’m definitely looking forward to slowing down a little with the shorter days and cooler weather this month. Now let’s chat about October goals and happenings.
Fun Things Happening in October
Meet with friends who will be in town
A visit to a local winery with friends
Lots of quiet evenings at home while Charles studies and writes papers 🙂
October Theme: Just do it
There are some things that I’ve been either dreading or putting off that I would love to tackle this month. One of the things that learning about my enneagram type has helped me with the most is that I’ve realized just how much I overthink things instead of taking action on things. There’s no point in planning out the best way to do something if you’re never going to do it. So I’m borrowing from Nike for my motto for this month (and this year really) to ‘just do it.’
Finishing two-thirds of my September goals felt great, especially since I prioritized my top 3!
Write a list of 100 Dreams in anticipation of my 30th birthday. This is a much harder exercise than I anticipated but so revealing! I would definitely recommend!
Plan reentry into social media. I’m trying out media-free mornings. My goal is to wait until after lunch to check social media or email.
Paint our dresser. This was a lot work but SO satisfying when complete!
Cull 2016 – 2017 iPhone photos – Didn’t get to this at all.
Create my Fall reading list. In progress but mostly done
Brainstorm meaningful birthday traditions Charles and I can implement – *womp womp* I didn’t do this one at all
A before and after of the dresser I painted. I *just* noticed that I put the middle drawers in on the wrong side! Overall, I’m pleased with how it turned out. I opted out of waxing but I may decide to do another coat of chalk paint and wax in the future.
October Goals
I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.
My 7 October Goals
Write for my blog every day. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, but I would love to get in the habit of writing a little bit every day.
Run 15x. It was hard for me to decide how to set a running goal, but I realized that the hardest part for me is just getting out there and doing it. Once I’m out there, I usually do a good job pushing myself to keep working.
Read my daily Bible reading plan without my phone. I find having my phone within arm’s reach in the morning is just way too big of a temptation/distraction. I’ll have to write down the next day’s reading the night before so I don’t have to check the app!
Buy and install new window screens. The ones we currently have our super old, screwed into the actual window sill, and have tons of holes in them. Now that the weather’s starting to cool down, I’d love to actually open our windows without worrying about cats getting out and bugs coming in. Not to mention the giant collection of spider webs outside our windows that I can’t get to thanks to non-removable screens.
Make Friendsgiving plans. Since all our family is a (very expensive) plane ride away, Charles and I are staying in DC for Thanksgiving this year. Any fun non-Turkey-dinner suggestions?
Get new passport pictures. While Charles and I don’t have any big international trips planned in the near future, it would be nice for us both to get our passports renewed just in case.Â
Open a new Roth IRA. After reading this book (affiliate link), I’ve looked into our current various investing accounts and have realized that there are some easy changes we can make to lower fees and save a whole lot more money in the long run. I’ll write a post on this soon!
What are your October goals? Any fun things happening in October?
Happy September, friends! August was one part whirlwind and one part slow + steady enjoyment of life. We made some new friends at church and from Charles’ program, went on a short hike and enjoyed some nature nearby, read a lot of books (me for fun, Charles for school), rearranged our living room, bought a couple of new plants, and watched our cats play for hours and hours. Ah, this is what dreams are made of. Now on to September goals.
A little slice of nature in Arlington, VA
Fun Things Happening in September
Charles starts his 3rd semester of grad school
I turn 30!
Charles also has a birthday
We’ll have visitors from Missouri and Texas
The 1st day of fall is September 23rd
September Theme: Hope
The word ‘hope’ has been standing out to me in my daily Bible reading lately and I feel like I’m supposed to spend some time thinking about it. To be honest, I don’t think of ‘hope’ as being that integral to a Christian’s daily life or walk with God. It seems like a fluffy, feel-good emotion that lacks weight and importance to me, similar to all those cheesy sayings you see on signs at Hobby Lobby. But I suspect I’m probably wrong on this. If God felt it worth mentioning repeatedly in the Bible, it’s probably pretty important. So this month I’m going to think on and keep my eyes open for hope.
Use my Write the Word journal every day – I only missed a handful of days so I’m counting this as a win. I enjoyed this exercise even more than I anticipated.
Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – Done!
Trade-in our old iPhones – this is technically halfway done as I haven’t gotten our phones in the mail yet, but I should get to that today so I’m going to count it as a win.
Order wedding pictures to hang in our home – They arrived a couple of days ago! Now just to hang them 😉
Schedule a dentist appointment for us both – Did not do
Plant some grass in a pot for our cats, because I’m that type of cat mom! – I did, and our cats love it! Technically Charles and I could eat the wheatgrass too, but I think we’ll get our greens in other forms.
Gather information to renew our passports – I know what steps I need to take, now I just need to take them! Honestly, renewing passports is much easier than getting a passport for the first time.
Finish my summer reading list – Out of 15, I’ve finished 5 and am currently reading 5 (I know! So many! But you never know what kind of mood you’ll be in)
September Goals
I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.
Plan reentry into social media – I decided to take a few weeks off of all social media and when I do get back on, would really like to be purposeful with how I use it
Paint our dresser – Already bought all the supplies and I’m so excited to see how it turns out!
Stretch every day – Lately my Achilles tendon and plantar fascia have been bothering me due to lots of walking + high heel wearing and not enough stretching
Cull 2016 – 2017 iPhone photos – Inching my way closer to the present! There are currently 3,424 recently deleted photos on my phone!
Create my Fall reading list – Hit me up if you have any suggestions
Brainstorm meaningful birthday traditions Charles and I can implement – Would also love suggestions on this one
I feel like every month I get better at setting realistic goals AND ones that actually have a positive influence on my life. This is why writing down goals each month has been so useful for me. If I didn’t write them down, I would never get better at setting good goals or would never set any goals at all! Having good goals brings so much purpose to my life and helps me avoid the trap of floating through life without any direction.
Do you write down your goals? I’d love to hear what you have planned this month!
Happy August, friends! July was a particularly fun month, involving celebrating our second anniversary and a spur-of-the-moment work trip to Oklahoma City. My trip to OKC was such an answer to prayer because I was feeling particularly sad last month as I realized that it was going to be a full year before I saw any of my family there. Going back for work allowed me to see my family and I had all of my expenses paid to do it. I did have to work while I was there, but no complaints here :). The opportunity made me feel particularly seen and loved by God. Now that I’m back home and resettled, I can’t wait to dive into my August goals.
Fun Things Happening in August
Charles finishes up the summer semester, starts the fall semester, AND most excitingly starts a very exciting internship. Meanwhile, I have a giant stack of library books with my name on them 😉
August Theme: One thing at a time
When I got back from my trip to OKC, I was really behind on all my goals and plans. I powered through for a little while and got a lot done, but then eventually burned out and spent the last week of July accomplishing very little. I’m very often overwhelmed with all of my plans and dreams and goals, which can feel very paralyzing. I also have a bad habit of multitasking and switching from task to task (or tab to tab, as it were). But really, I can only do the next right thing (LINK), so my mantra this month will be one thing at a time.
July Goals Recap – 3 out of 9 completed
Get connected to our new church – We haven’t visited a group yet but it’s on the calendar!
Journal every day – I did a terrible job at this, partially because of my trip but mostly because I know it will be a lot of mental and emotional work and I just don’t want to do it. Sometimes my barrier is that I’m not sure what to write about, so I compiled a list of prompts that I’m going to print out and slip into my journal. Blog post coming soon!
Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – *insert hiding monkey emoji* I just straight up didn’t do this
Trade-in our old iPhones – I took the first steps in researching what we need to do and even making sure I got all the photos off of my old phone but I still need to trade them in.
Take new pictures for my blog bio – this didn’t end up being the huge chore I anticipated and I got it done!Â
Take our foster cat to at least one adoption event – I didn’t do this either
Organize our closet – I cleaned it out and reorganized a bit and it feels a little less like the walls are falling on me every time I walk in.
Get into an exercise routine again – I hardly exercised at all (besides all the walking that DC requires), but I have a plan for August!
Order prints of our wedding photos – Didn’t do this either 🙂
We celebrated our 2nd anniversary by going to a vineyard in Maryland we stumbled across while traveling last year. It was so pretty! We enjoyed sitting on the patio and listening to the live jazz band so much.
August Goals
I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.
Top 3
Use my Write the Word journal every day – Cultivate what Matters is doing a fresh faith challenge this month so it feels like the perfect time to pull out the Write the Word journal I’ve been meaning to use for so long
Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – This will be the month I get to this, I can feel it!
Trade-in our old iPhones
Bonus August Goals
Order wedding pictures to hang in our home
Schedule a dentist appointment for us both
Plant some grass in a pot for our cats, because I’m that type of cat mom!
Not as many bonus goals this month, but it feels like the right amount. Part of goal setting involves learning the perfect amount to reach for, and I get a little better every month!
Hi, friends! Can you believe we made it halfway through the year already? This year has been such a wonderful adventure and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds. My June goals went surprisingly well and it has me itching to set July goals.
June Goals Recap – 7 of 11 Complete
document more on my blog and clean up my Pinterest boards
hang picture ledge – I ended up rearranging our bedroom on a whim, and now the place where I planned on hanging this needs rethought.
Complete Whole30 – Done! We ate only healthy whole foods for 30 days. It was hard, as expected, but certainly worth it!
Write out my top 3 tasks every morning — Done! I attribute the amount I accomplished this month to this one easy task. It helped me so much with prioritization.
Friday adventures — Done! We went on a small hike (walk? Not sure what the difference is sometimes, to be honest) at Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, which felt like a wonderful little burst of nature.
Ask for prayer requests — Done! This was a super easy but meaningful action to start the month out.
find a local primary care physician — not only did I schedule the appointment, but I’ve already had it AND taken care of all the routine bloodwork.
pull out my camera for some fun non-iPhone pictures — Done! Getting them to my computer for editing will be a whole other task
Make an IKEA trip for wall storage for our kitchen, jars for making kombucha, and baskets to organize our cat supplies better — Marking this as complete even though it didn’t go as planned. I reorganized a few things and now we don’t need the extra storage. I bought kombucha jars from Amazon for the same price and now have my first batch brewing, and I found a $2 basket at Goodwill to collect all our cat toys. Wins all around!
Go through 2+ years of phone photos — this is partially complete. I purged my 2013 photos, which had about 800 pictures. I took even more pictures each subsequent year, so I still have a lot more work ahead of me!
Call or text a loved one every day — I totally forgot about this goal. This is why it pays to keep your goals somewhere visible.
Celebrating the end of Whole30 with patio drinks
Fun Things Happening in July
On July 1st we celebrated our 2nd anniversary <3
Our 1st 4th of July in Washington, D.C.
This month also marks six months since we moved here.
July Theme: Little by little
For most of June I felt like I wasn’t making much progress or doing enough. But looking back? I made so much progress in a lot of areas. When I would write out my top 3 tasks each morning, I always wanted to add 5 or 6 things (and usually did) but focusing on the most important 3 first made it much easier for me to do the meaningful and important things. I’m definitely going to keep doing this!
July Goals
I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.
Top 3
Get connected to our new church – We’re hoping to visit a community group or two
Journal every day – I had been so good about this for a while and fell out of the habit again. As an Enneagram 5, this does wonders for keeping me in touch with my feelings and helping me express myself better.
Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – This is a task that doesn’t feel at all urgent but that I’ve been wanting to get done for years.
Bonus July Goals
Trade in our old iPhones – We got new phones at the end of last year and I’ve been meaning to do something with them ever since
Take new pictures for my blog bio – the one I have currently already feels outdated, plus I never really loved it to begin with. Taking pictures of myself feels icky to me so this seems like quite the chore
Take our foster cat to at least one adoption event, preferably two!
Organize our closet – I don’t have a good system right now and I know I’ll feel much better about it once it’s organized a little better
Get into an exercise routine again – I switched the time of day I work out and now it’s become a lot easier to skip my workouts. I need more clarity about what I’ll do when!
Order prints of our wedding photos – now that we’ve been married for a couple of years, I should really get around to this 😉
At the beginning of this year, I started reading through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. This book simultaneously intrigued me and repelled me. Ann is an esteemed writer and people rave about this book. But also, the thought of thanksgiving felt both juvenile and like a chore to me, even though I’ve heard over and over again how important it is. I finally gave it a try just so I could knock it off my TBR pile and was surprised and delighted by the raw depth on the very first pages. The biggest actionable takeaway is to start counting the gifts God gives you. And since the new prayer journal that was gifted to me also had an entire section for gratitude, I started writing down things that make me happy.
You guys. This has been so unexpectedly life-changing. It’s so easy to focus on the things we don’t like, but just taking two minutes each morning to write down things I’m happy about has me looking for happy things all day long. It makes me more aware of how many happy things are in my life and helps me have a more positive outlook in general. There’s lots to be happy about, and seeing that puts me in a better mood. Writing down happy things is the difference between trudging through your day and stopping to smell the flowers, sometimes literally. Counting the gifts that God gives to me helps me get so much more enjoyment out of life.
Some Things I’ve Learned About Gratitude
It’s hard
Counting the gifts is unexpectedly difficult. I try not to repeat anything on my list, and since I used coffee on my first day, that one’s out for the rest of the year. Some mornings, when it’s 6:30 am at the tail end of a long week, I can’t think of anything that was making me happy except coffee. On those days, I might not actually write anything down. Some days feel like gifts are overflowing and I write ten things down. Gratitude comes easier with time.
Remember the Giver
Instead of just enjoying the gift, I need to keep bringing to mind the Giver of said gift. One of my goals when I started keeping track of all these little things that make me happy was not to just feel better about my life. I wanted to see the happy things and recognize them as gifts from a good God who gives me good, good things. But that’s hard to do if I don’t recognize the gift and point my soul in the direction of the Giver, and oftentimes I don’t.
Count the unhappy gifts too
Another thing I’m learning about counting gifts is that it would be a lot better for my soul if I started recognizing the gifts that I don’t want but are still good gifts meant for my good. God doesn’t tell us to be grateful for only the things that make us happy but says to give thanks in all things (LINK?). I realize that I’m saying this in the same post where I’m about to list a bunch of things that make me happy. That doesn’t invalidate those things. It just means that I’m beginning to recognize what the next step of growth is for me: give thanks for things that don’t make me happy. I’m not sure how I’ll do this yet, but if it were impossible, our loving Father wouldn’t have asked us to do it.
7 Things That Make Me Happy Right Now
Our cats
Bringing two cats into our home has been such a joy. I knew we would love it, but I didn’t quite foresee just how life-giving it would be. I think we were really, really blessed with these two
These two are so cuddly.
French press coffee
I bought an electric kettle that heats your water to the exact temperature you need for french press coffee and I swear it actually tastes better. My one or two cups of coffee a day have been such a treat lately.
Farm-fresh fruit
It could be because we’re on Whole30 (one of my June goals!), but Charles and I have really been enjoying all the fresh fruit this summer. Watermelon. Strawberries. Apples. Cherries.
Weeknight baths
It feels extra luxurious to put the to-do list aside and spend some time on self-care before I go to bed, especially on the weekends.Â
Enid A. Haupt Garden
This little slice of paradise is a treasure hidden behind the Smithsonian Castle and very close to my office. It’s my favorite lunchtime walking spot by far. I try to go several times a week and it always makes me happy when I do.
Library books
When I created my summer reading list a couple weeks ago, I put almost all of the books on there on hold at my local library. Four have already been available for pickup and I’ve finished reading one! I often read ebooks just so that I don’t have to go anywhere, but it sure does feel nice to hold an actual book in my hand.
Clean floors
I have to admit, this is not something I was hugely grateful for before we got cats. Now that we have two playful little guys tracking litter on the reg, I enjoy the moments of clear floors even more.
Hi, I’m Kelsey! I live in the DC area with my husband and two cats. I currently spend my days working from home, reading all the books, and enjoying home life in our new-to-us 1940s condo. Read more about me here.
