I can't believe we're in the next-to-last month of this year. This year has really flown by! I love October and I love November almost as much. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, family time, and lots of fun. With all of that also comes a few things I want to accomplish.
1. Order Christmas Cards. I've decided to use some photos we took at the beach this summer for our Christmas card photos. I think my boys are all happy they don't have to take Christmas card photos this year.
2. Finish our photo books. I was able to get a good bit done on our books in October and I want to finish them by the end of the month, mostly so I can take advantage of the great deals offered around this time of year. My preference for photo books is Blurb.
3. Get most of our Christmas shopping completed. As of today, everyone in my immediate family has at least one gift! I have a really good list going for everyone, too, so I feel good about that.
4. Make a Thankful Tree with our family. I love this little tradition of ours. Even though we're thankful every day, this time of year really makes me think more about thankfulness.
5. Read at least one book. I bought the book Wild a few weeks ago, but I haven't started it. I can't wait to get started.
Now, for a look back at October. October was much more productive than I thought it was which makes me really happy. I still have a few things to finish, but I made progress on everything.
1. Finish the office/playroom/workout room. It's totally reorganized and all that's left is to hang some art on the walls. I'm going to leave this one gray. I've rearranged and organized, but I still need to hang up some pictures.
2. Organize the playroom. Kevin and I have been hard at work on this one this week. We have totes full of things to donate and trash bags full of things that are broken. I am happy to say this one is done! It may have taken about a month, but it's finally done. We have to use the times the boys aren't home to do this, so that's why it took so long. Last weekend, we finally finished. We donated five or six bags of toys to the House of Hope, threw away another bag or two full of things that were broken or not in good enough shape to donate, and packed a few totes in the attic of toys we think we may want to use again or we couldn't bear to send away.
3. Finally get our mirrors framed. I'm ready to go on this project. I hope to get the molding painted tomorrow and Friday and get the mirrors framed on Saturday. It's going to look good! This is done and it looks great! (I'll share this project next week. I just need to put the finishing touches on my blog.) It was a lot easier than I anticipated it being and adds so much to our bathrooms.
4. Make progress on photo books. There's no way I'll finish in October, but I'd like to have more done than I have done now. I am really happy about this one! I was able to nearly finish K.C.'s six-year book and have about half of Kaden's four-year book complete.
5. Start Christmas shopping. Every year, I say I'm going to shop around the year and that doesn't ever happen. I want to start this month so we have time to just relax and enjoy the holidays. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this happened! I bought two small gifts in October, but they are for Christmas, so I'm giving myself green on this one.
6. Make a list of everything we want to do this fall. The boys like to make lists (guess who they get that from) and Kaden asked me last week if we could make a list of all the things we want to do this fall. This didn't happen. I have a list of things in my head and we're doing them, but we didn't make an official list.
7. Get my speed back. My speed has disappeared this summer. I mean, it's still there, somewhere, but this heat and not running or working out as much has not helped. I'm still (for the most part) running substantially faster than I was this time last year, but I haven't broken 20 minutes in a race in a few months. I want to get that back in October. I think it's safe to say this happened. I actually didn't race in October, but I upped my mileage and that seems to have paid off.
Labels: goals, monthly round-up
