Welcome to October! I’m a bit late to the game this month with my goals…it seems like the further I get into this pregnancy, the less I’m able to do and the less I’m wanting to move around, ha ha. And I’ve still got 3 months to go!
Anyway, September was enjoyably busy all the same, and since I’m assuming the side effects of being pregnant are only going to get rougher as time goes on, I’m trying to frontload as much as I can now before I’m too close to my due date around the New Year (it helps that my mom is going to start coming up a couple times a month to help me, which means we’ll blow through my to-do list!).
Here’s how September shook out first though:
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September Goals
- Start hypnobirthing practice
- If you read my latest post on how my birth plans have now changed for our third baby, you’ll already know that I’d been having some worrisome preterm labor symptoms for a couple of weeks (that have since gone away, thank goodness!). Anyway, because of that, I have my reservations about starting up hypnobirthing at this point in the pregnancy. I’m sure it’s just me being overly paranoid, but from my experience, moms-to-be who faithfully practice hypnobirthing for months beforehand tend to start dilating sooner than most, and they also tend to dilate over a longer stretch of time (at least up until 3-4 cm). Since I need this baby to be definitely staying put and not getting any ideas, I think I’m going to wait to start this until November, when I’m a bit closer to my due date.
- Also, you might be wondering WHY I’m still going to do my hypnobirthing practice now that our birth plan has changed. Well, I basically wrote a post already that says it all: Why I Think EVERY Pregnant Woman Should Do Hypnobirthing Practice (Even If She Wants an Epidural!)
Buy bigger car- If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we actually got this one done! We are now the semi-proud(ish) owners of a Honday Odyssey minivan. It may still freak me out to see a minivan in our driveway, but I won’t lie—it’s been pretty stellar to have such an easy vehicle for getting kids in and out of carseats (not to mention all the extra room). Livin’ the dream life, people.
- List Mazda
- Thanks to that hot new minivan, our car situation has gotten a bit out of control, as we currently have four cars in our driveway (not even in our garage! We are still cleaning that out from when Matt was working on The Chicken Palace). We did get the Mazda totally cleaned out and ready to sell, but…we now can’t find the title. We’re really hoping it’s at my in-laws’ house (since Matt still lived at home when he bought it before we were married), but if not, we’ll just have to bite the bullet and order a new one.
- List van
- This one’s basically ready to list after Matt spent the last remaining daylight hours earlier this week to get it cleaned out and vacuumed. We might still do some more touch-up cleaning on it before people actually come and look at it, but it’s basically ready to go–now I just need to take the time to do it.
- Mail tripod to be repaired
- I plan to get this done this week FOR REALS, as I’m running out of time on this eterni-goal.
- Weed the front yard
- I was actually doing quite well on this one…and then–surprise, surprise–I hurt my back again. Well, actually I first had all the preterm labor stuff and didn’t dare stand up a second longer than necessary, but now it’s just my old back injury as usual. Sigh. Maybe someday I’ll have a normal back again. (However, what I DID manage to do has made a huge difference.) Now that Matt’s no longer working on any major projects, he should be able to step in and help with this one now, too.
- Prune all shrubs in the front yard
- Nope, for the same reasons outlined above. Once again, Matt will help me to tackle this one for sure in October.
Finish the coop- THE CHICKEN PALACE IS DONE!!! AAAAAGHHH!!! Again, if you follow me on Instagram, you will have already seen this, but it has been pretty amazing to have that completed (for sooooo many reasons). The chickens are in heaven out there, and it’s been great to be able to walk through our garage without needing to hold my breath from the stink of them being in there.
- Make $200 in extra income
- I made about half this, but I ended up not really trying too hard on this goal. Now that I’m no longer worried about my pregnancy so much (and can therefore move around a lot more), I’m hoping to start listing a lot more regularly again, as well as working on my various other side hustles.
- Finish EBA Unit 5
- I made a lot of progress on this! For starters, I finished my first-ever freebie (a little mini magazine that details 25 books that are on my bucket list—you can click HERE to sign up for my email list to get that if you haven’t already), and I just finished a second freebie for y’all today (see the P. S. below for details). It’s been a lot of fun for me to interact with everyone via the email list since it gives me a more personal way to connect with you all, and so if we’re not already connected through email, sign up for that list here!
Start meal planning again- I’ve written before about how meal planning is such a lifesaver when I’m on that train (you can click here to read my post all about how I do it, plus a month’s worth of meal plans), but during certain seasons, I just fall out of the habit. Well, I’m back in the game, and it’s been great! I feel like it saves us money, like we eat better, and like we waste a lot less food when I meal plan. Win-win-win.
- Make homemade salsa
- I picked/bought all the stuff for it…but still haven’t done this. And I reeeeally need to do it ASAP before all that lovely produce goes bad. Maybe today I’ll do this?
Make 5 recipes fromFood Nanny- I actually made 7. It’s like a feast or famine with this particular ongoing goal (which is part of my larger 101 in 1001 goal of cooking my way through a whole cookbook).
- Go on a hike
- Hmmm…we’d had every intention of doing this on Labor Day but then…we didn’t get the hiking backpack we needed in time to tote Mathias around. And we weren’t sure if my back could handle it, anyway. So we ended up doing a fun family walk along one of our favorite scenic routes, which is where the majority of the pics in this post are from.
Go on a birthday date- And lemme tell you, it was hot, as we BOUGHT A MINIVAN. Ha ha. But we also went out to eat at our favorite place (Leatherby’s), who also catered our wedding, so…all in all a great time.
- Finish 8 books
- So close! I finished 7, and then ended up finishing the 8th on the first of this month. Ah, well. Here are the titles I read:
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
- The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison
- The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson
- The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker
- Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr
- More Than Enough by Miranda Anderson
- Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (technically finished 10/1)
- If you want to stay up-to-date on everything I’m reading (I post a review of every book I finish), make sure to add me as a friend on Goodreads!
- So close! I finished 7, and then ended up finishing the 8th on the first of this month. Ah, well. Here are the titles I read:
October Goals
- Get haircuts (both Matt and me)
- Both of us are looking a bit unkempt at the moment–time to fix that!
- Mail tripod to be repaired
- Since the warranty on this expires early next month, I’m basically almost out of time on this one. No more procrastinating!
- List Mazda
- Rollover goal (and one that we really need to jump on, as the insurance company gave us a grace period of 30 days to sell it before they start charging us car insurance for all 4 vehicles).
- List van
- Rollover goal.
- Prune all shrubs
- Another rollover goal. Winter seems to be hitting us scary early this year, so I’m hoping to get this one done ASAP.
- Finish weeding front yard
- Ditto as above.
- Wash comforter
- Our comforter (which won’t fit in our washer/dryer and therefore needs to be taken to a laundromat) was already in dire need of a cleaning…and then Raven thought it would be a good idea to practice writing her letters on it. So now it’s definitely getting done soon.
- Pick up more crafting/art supplies for Raven
- I am SO not a crafty person, but my daughter is. A couple years ago, we bought a bunch of stuff to make valentines, which we’ve ended up pulling out many times a year to make cards and other crafts. As the colors are distinctly limited (think reds and pinks) and all the stickers are valentine-themed, I figured we’d hit up the craft store and see what we can score on clearance to round out our collection a bit.
- Go on day adventure
- Every month, we try to go out and do something fun and out-of-the-usual as a family. This month, our adventure will likely be a trip to the u-pick pumpkin patch (as all our pumpkins mysteriously died about a month and a half ago), followed up by hot chocolate.
- Get family pics taken
- We’re doing a trade-out once again with our friends, like we did right before Mathias was born. It will be nice having family pics that didn’t have to be taken using the remote and timer and our tripod!
- Finish studying April General Conference talks
- Twice a month we hear from our church leaders in a worldwide conference (in April and October). I wanted to have April’s talks all read and studied again before this next conference, but that hasn’t happened (and the conference is in two days). I still plan to finish studying all of the previous talks by the end of the month, though.
- Make 5 Food Nanny recipes
- Let’s keep the ball rolling on this 101 in 1001 goal, shall we?
- Read one book to go towards 101 in 1001 list
- My reading has been entirely dominated by all the holds coming in at the library (which were intended to be for my summer reading, but which all came in rather later than I thought). In mid-October, all those holds should basically be back at the library, which will free up some time to focus on other reading, namely some of the backlist titles I’m working on for my 101 in 1001 goals.
- Sign Raven up for swimming lessons
- Raven’s REALLY excited for this, and I’m excited that I was able to find indoor swim lessons at a reasonable price at a time that worked for us. Fingers crossed her first experience with swim lessons is a positive one.
- Visit with my new ministering sisters
- In my faith, each adult woman is assigned a partner (another woman in the congregation), and they both are assigned two other women to visit and look after in the congregation. My previous two sisters moved and I now have two new ones (and a new partner), so I want to get a solid start on building these relationships soon.
And that’s October! What are your goals looking like this month?
P. S. Do you want some extra motivation in going for some of YOUR dreams and goals? Click HERE to join my email list, and you’ll get an exclusive free printable you can download with 4 steps you can take TODAY to start going for your dreams. (Current email subscribers, you’ll be receiving yours soon!)
P. P. S. Is one of your goals to start/grow a blog? If so, don’t miss your chance to order The Genius Blogger’s Toolkit Bundle, which has over $7,000 worth of resources (for real)…for just $97. I’ve loved every bundle I’ve ever bought, and I can personally credit my purchase of The Genius Blogger’s Toolkit for much of the growth I’ve experienced with my own blog. Plus, if you act fast, you can get in on their early-bird special which is only available until midnight TONIGHT (Thursday 10/3), which is $50 worth of free blogging cheat sheets (if you buy the bundle AFTER Thursday, you’ll have to pay the $50 if you want access to those!). Happy blogging!
