*I always have such high hopes for summer (especially because my summers consist of me not having to work and still getting paid. Score!). I always think, “I’m going to have SOOOO much time to accomplish SOOO much.” And in some ways, that’s true—I DO have quite a bit of leisure time. However, I think I often forget that although my amount of free time increases, my amount of self-discipline and motivation does not.
*For example, I had fully planned on spending an hour each day practicing the piano. While this goal has happened (on rare occasions), it has yet to become a daily practice. I try to blame it on the fact that our piano isn’t tuned, but I know that can’t really be it…
*Another goal I had? To study French or Spanish for an hour every day. The only French study I’ve done AT ALL is to ask Matt a question or two while I’ve been indexing some French censuses from Canada for LDS Family Search. Looks like this goal will never happen unless I have something major to motivate me (like a trip to Paris, *wink wink hubby*).
*So you might be wondering how I AM spending my days since I’ve just admitted to letting certain goals just drown by the wayside. Well, each Sunday, I’ve made a lengthy to-do list that involves nagging tasks I’ve been putting off for ages (like scheduling dental appointments), various bits of housework, reading goals, and running. I’ll have you all know that I haven’t missed a single running goal yet (of course, I’m in the no-fun stage still where it’s making me GAIN weight, but whatever). So even though I haven’t gotten to some of my summer goals, I have been accomplishing a lot (even if it is between blog-stalking sessions and movie/magazine marathons).
*In unrelated news, I have recently become a bit obsessed with food photography. This isn’t too surprising, considering my natural affinity for both food AND photography, but in case you’re wanting to salivate over some seriously drool-worthy images, check out my Pinterest board on it.
*The problem with that food board is that I’m recently trying (yet again) to cut back on my overall sugar intake (mostly because one of my “nagging tasks” is to see if I’ve gotten my high cholesterol back in check yet), and all those pictures of chocolate just make me want to open my mouth and die in a large tub of melted chocolate and salted caramel.
*I know, it’s a major problem.
*I’m planning on doing a post tomorrow on all the books I finished last month, and I’m super excited–I read five awesome novels, and I can’t wait to share!
*You wanna know something that amazes me? The fact that I can have just gone through and truly “purged” my closet in March for this whole organizational project, and that now in the beginning of July, I can go through and easily part with about 25 more items of clothing. I’ve decided it must be one of two things: one, I was on the fence about some items before and needed some time to think about whether I should keep those things or not, or two, after trying to clean out my spare bedroom, I just want to get rid of everything. Either way, it’s a win-win really. I have discovered that I positively LOVE having less stuff in my life.
*Can we talk house for a second? And can I be a little unreasonable? Honestly, Extreme Hoarders and houses with small children aside, sometimes I feel like we’re some of the only people our age and in our stage of life that have problems keeping our house clutter-free and clean. Maybe it’s just because the only people I seem to visit regularly happen to be those who are naturally tidy and/or don’t have much stuff, but still—I started this organization project with the hope of maybe feeling some support that we’re not alone in this, but sometimes I think we kind of are (or that everyone else is just in denial that it’s a problem, lol). I’m sure all of this thinking is irrational, but once in awhile, it’s nice to have some assurance that we’re not TOO abnormal, ya know?
*Of course, when you look at the fact that we’ve bought 22 books and 4 movies over the course of the past 5 days, I can dimly start to see where our problem lies…
*On a different house-related note, I’ve found that reading through Country Living and BH & G every month is making me want to paint, decorate, and change things like crazy. I’ve been wanting to paint this $20 entertainment center we got from DI for months now, but I’m terrified—what if I hate it? What if it looks terrible? What if it is so brilliant that I crazily think of changing my occupation to interior designer?! These are the things that keep me up at night, people.
*Yeah, I’m a designer wimp. I go with the safest of safe: getting hand-me-down furnishings from everyone and not caring how they look together. Welcome to newlywed ghetto style, where I brag that the most expensive thing we had to get as far as furnishings go was our dryer, for $50 (literally everything else was free or under $20—our BOOKS cost more than anything else in the house. True story). Perhaps this is why I’m still amazed when people come over and tell us that it “actually looks nice”–or maybe they’re just so grateful for our killer new swamp cooler that everything else seems beautiful in its icy embrace.
*Or something like that.
*How would you describe the style of your current place of residence?