Well… another month down and only 2 to go in this insane year. Let’s all start praying now that 2021 will not try to give 2020 a run for its money… In the meantime, let’s recap my October Powersheets and look at my November tending list! 

During our family trip, we saw a wild horse on one of our hikes and my daughter thought it was a unicorn. It was such a wonderful moment and she still thought a regular horse was pretty cool…

OCTOBER MONTHLY GOALS:
*ENJOY Family Time over Fall Break: This was the best. It was such a needed getaway and the perfect belated birthday gift for my sweet husband. We cooked cozy food, mades mores, and went on so many hikes. It was even cold in the mornings which was so amazing considering we came back to triple digit weather. 
*Complete the Locomotor 8k: I forgot that I also had a 7k to complete with the same virtual running company so I did the Ironbelly 7k too and got this sweet “bell medal” first. The 8k was pretty exciting because it was the furthest I had run since before getting pregnant last year. It also made me wonder how the heck I ever did a half marathon in 2019 because 13.1 miles seems like a total impossibility at the moment.
*Implement “Your Special Day”: I heard about the idea of “your special day” on a podcast I love. The idea is that on each day of the month that is your child’s birthday number (IE mine would be the first of every month since my birthday is May 1) you have special time with that kid. We tried it for the first time this month and I think if we keep this small and manageable it will be a great tradition. I DID have to explain to the kids that “your special day” didn’t mean it was their birthday 12 time a year or that they got the WHOLE day- just a small, special time with mom or dad or both.
*VOTE: Done. Mailed my ballot back. Status says received and signature verified.
*Begin Fall Cleaning: We started on our kitchen- there is something so satisfying about purging expired spices. We even cleaned behind the stove which does NOT happen enough. Our biggest accomplishment was reorganizing the garage, sending a ton of stuff to the bulk trash and to goodwill or hand me downs, and starting on the laundry room. Pretty happy with the progress.

OCTOBER WEEKLY GOALS:
*Hit my mileage goal: YES. Mileage goals were hit, and I even finished my Pat Tillman #42in40 challenge before the deadline of Veteran’s Day! It feels nice to get back into the swing of moving my body more.
*Legacy Journals & Project Life pages: Caught WAY up on these over Fall break at the beginning of the month and that really gave me the momentum to keep going. Hoping I can just keep these integrated into the weekly routine now.
*Yoga x2: I got much more into the swing of things the second half of the month. My back is even feeling well enough to do some vinyasa classes again which is so exciting. It took a while to remember that slower yoga still “counts”
*Savor Fall Flavors: This was so great. We enjoyed s’mores on our trip up north as well as pumpkin waffles, apple crisp, butternut squash salad, pumpkin silk pie, and more. I think our family favorite was the pumpkin scones with cinnamon and nutmeg glaze. I seriously love this time of year. Even during a really hard year.

OCTOBER DAILY GOALS:
*Move my body: This showed up as walks, hikes, and even a few runs. I love leaving myself options so I can adjust based on how much or how little sleep I got the day before and how my body is feeling. I’m finally back to regularly getting my 10k steps more often than not!
*Readaloud Time: One more Narnia book done and one more Ramona book started.  Plus, a ton of extra special library books. The kids are really loving this.
*Sleep Hygiene: Hit and miss. But getting better. And especially getting better about realizing which factors I can control and which factors will eventually get better with time (looking at you my adorable eight month old…) I am especially happy with my caffeine and phone limits.
*Evening Routine: Not great this month, I’ll try again next month!
*Gratitude Leaves: This became more of a weekly activity- we painted one week, cut one week, and brainstormed a whole bunch of gratitude one week before hanging them up. This was one of my FAVORITE things we did in October. (aside from our Family Halloween Costumes!)

November is interesting because it is the start of that holiday marathon time… and who even knows what the holidays will be like this year?! A lot of my tending list this month is focused on fewer but more in depth goals and continuing the important stuff that is working well for my mental health…

NOVEMBER MONTHLY GOALS:
*Plan for the Holidays: This is the biggest one-aside from the plans of what to do on the actual holidays (and plans B and C given the state of the world) but we also plan out stuff like favorite movies we want to watch or crafts or other traditions. 
*Prep for end of year finance decisions: It’s that time of year where we spend hours number crunching insurance options and how much we should adjust on various benefits provided by my husband’s job. If we don’t intentionally set aside time for it this month then it becomes suuuuper stressful next month.
*Continue Your Special Day: Excited to keep doing this.
*Continue Fall Cleaning: We made a great start last month and with the nicer weather I just want to throw open the windows and clean all the things.
*Decide on Advent activities: This sort of goes with the holiday stuff but is more personal so I set it as a separate item.

Sometimes I combine the yoga and the weekly miles and it feels oh. so. good.

NOVEMBER WEEKLY GOALS:
*Weekly Miles: I’m pretty jazzed that if I stick to this then I’ll hit my modified yearly mileage goal a month early!
*Yoga/meditation x2: Hoping to have more vinyasa yoga this month. 
*Project Life Pages/photo routine: This is the only thing that really helps me realize that time is moving forward. It has also become a great part of savoring and practicing gratitude
*Make Memories in the Kitchen: Since I can finally stand to have the oven on again, I’m looking forward to once again having the kids help me with baking and cooking a bit. We even bought them some kid safety knives to help us chop a few things which they are SUPER excited about.
*Family Meeting/ Budget Check in: Extra important in this time of year with so many random extra expenses

NOVEMBER DAILY GOALS:
*Daily step count/hydrate: Hoping to keep u the momentu of last month. Also trying very hard not to go on a coffee binge which I have been known to do this time of year…
*Sleep Hygiene: I KNOW this is the number one very best thing I can do for my physical and mental health… yet it remains SO challenging.
*10 minute tidy: We are going to try and include this as part of our “after school routine” since virtual learning is so chaotic sometimes the house looks like a tornado hit it, and the immense mess really adds to my anxiety.
*Evening Routine: Still working to get somewhat consistent here but getting better each month. Might need to do some maintenance on the morning routine again soon too…
*Readaloud Time: I think this has become a solid part of our routine at this point and will probably remain that way, even if I don’t keep it on the list.