Hello readers… even though part of me wishes we could just skip to 2021, I am grateful that we are about to enter one of my favorite months and favorite seasons. Last month it really helped to slow down and focus on de-stressing and trying to turn my critically low sleep levels around. I found that my availability and space gave me the grace to battle stress and other mental health issues and opened me up to some new ideas and opportunities. Here’s a quick recap and a look at my tending list for October…
SEPTEMBER MONTHLY GOALS:
*Celebrate Hubby’s Birthday: Yes! We had a really lovely date night in with wine and cheese and other yummy goodies, the kids made fun cards, and I felt I did a much better job this year than last year to let him know how loved and special he is!
*Bulk Meals: We did not finish as many of these as I’d hoped but… life is weird right now and virtual schooling meant that on weekends we didn’t have it in us to bulk cook. We just had to focus on re-setting the house for another week of chaos.
*Create Fall Cleaning List/Continue to Declutter: Yes. I feel focused for what we need to do for our fall re-set.

SEPTEMBER WEEKLY GOALS:
*1 on 1 time: Most weeks this happened and it really continues to amaze me what a difference it makes in our family, especially with the kids.
*Budget Check In and Meal Prep: Yes. The one constant in the chaos. 
*Time ALONE to recharge: This mostly happened in the form of walks whenever the weather permitted. Sometimes it was still too hot and 2-3 days were nice enough to have hikes instead of walks which were so lovely and a promise of nicer days to come. I could still use more, but it was a good start!

SEPTEMBER DAILY GOALS:
*Stay Hydrated/Coffee Curfew: Hit and miss here. I’m just so tired it is hard to say no to the coffee during the afternoon slump, but I’ve mostly transitioned to green tea and hopefully will totally wean off the afternoon caffeine soon…
*Sleep Hygiene/Phone limits: Progress here! I got much better about my screen time at night and did increase my average sleep time by about 45 minutes. It is still woefully inadequate and unhealthy but steps in the right direction. Hoping our baby starts sleeping better so this can improve even more, and I’m going to keep doing my part!
*Read Aloud to Kids: The happened most days but certainly not all days. I am loving cultivating this habit in our family and it really is a blast

I’m adding in a few more things for October, but I feel good about how manageable they are and about letting things go if I need to…

OCTOBER MONTHLY GOALS:
*ENJOY Family Time over Fall Break: I have been counting down the days to fall break and now that it is finally here I am SO looking forward to some time away from the stresses of virtual learning before we jump back in through December. 
*Complete the Locomotor 8k: I signed up for this virtual race MONTHS ago and I am ready to rock out my distance for it and maybe even start on a challenge medal after that, depending on how things go once the weather cools!
*Implement “Your Special Day”: I heard about this on one of the podcasts I regularly listen to- each month during a kid’s “birthday number” you make the day extra special for them in some way- so if you were born on the 3rd then the 3rd of every month is “your special day” that month and maybe you get to stay up extra late or have a special meal or random surprise, etc. I love this idea and want my kids to start looking forward to it!
*VOTE: I know Election Day is technically next month, but since I’m voting by mail that will need to happen this month. 
*Begin Fall Cleaning: Some people do spring cleaning, we do fall cleaning… I think I’m not the only Arizonan who does it this way…

OCTOBER WEEKLY GOALS:
*Hit my mileage goal: I’m hoping for 8-10 miles a week walking, hiking, or running or a combo of all three.
*Legacy Journals & Project Life pages: This includes the My Modern Story pages I am loving but have fallen behind on. I’m hoping to batch all the memory keeping activities together so I can really focus on them.
*Yoga x2: After having some back issues I am still keeping my practice slow and chill, but every minute on my mat counts!
*Savor Fall Flavors: My FAVORITE part this season are the amazing flavors and smells. For some reason I’m not as into the pumpkin spirit this year… but oh my do I love some apple and caramel and butternut squash goodness.

OCTOBER DAILY GOALS:
*Move my body: I don’t have a set way I’m committed to… in fact I want to embrace some variety… but I have found that days where I am more sedentary lead to me feeling off for several days after.
*Readaloud Time: My new favorite habit. Let’s keep it going!
*Sleep Hygiene: More on this later in the month but this is honestly the number one priority right now. I am so exhausted and it is impacting EVERYTHING.
*Evening Routine: I feel like after over a year of fiddling with a morning routine I finally have one! So now it is time to take the next step and focus on the evening/setting our family up for success the next day.
*Gratitude Leaves:  For the past few months we have used these beautiful colored paper hearts sent by one of our dear friends to decorate our front window and make things a bit more cheerful for the mail and delivery people, anyone who comes to drop stuff off, etc. My plan is to do a gratitude leaves project with the kids and paint some fall colors and then cut out leaves from those painted papers to make a little gratitude display in the window for fall. The paper and colors won’t be quite the same quality as the hearts, but it should be encouraging and just as cheerful and a fun family project. So if we just do a little work on them each day, we should have enough to make a pretty full window display by November!

Anyone else excited for fall?! Here in Phoenix instead of changing leaves it just means finally feeling good about going outside later in the day and feeling comfortable hiking in the morning… which is good enough for me right now!