October!

September Goals - Recap
1.  Get to at least 4 yoga classes  (health/fitness)
2.  Write at least 5 blog posts (this one counts!) (adultiness)

Close but no cigar on #1; I went three times this month.  This post gets me to my blogging goal!

Health:
Pros: Half marathon training is chugging along - got in my 10+ miler this past weekend and tapering a bit from here.  The  race is October 19th.  After that it's the Wilderness Run in November!  

Con:  Training for a half marathon does not mean I can eat a carton of Ben & Jerry's whenever I feel like it.

Financial:
Josh and I were both looking at our spending in Mint yesterday.  We spend a stupid amount of money on food - both on groceries and on restaurants.  September seemed to be an especially awful month for both of us.  

My Stitchfix this month was really good so I kept everything.  The good thing about this is I got some fun new clothes, but as a result I ended up way over my usual spending in this area. 

Work:
I've really been struggling here lately.  My disengagement leads me to go out to lunch more often and take breaks to get coffee, etc.  It's a bad cycle because then I spend more, too.  Every little thing has been getting on my nerves - annoying co-workers, nitpicking from the boss.  Things that shouldn't really bother me.  I need to be more positive at work.  In the meantime, I just found out today that a job I applied for is now moving forward and I am interviewing for it on Thursday. 

October Goals
1.  Health/fitness:  No Ben & Jerry's purchases in October.  Successfully finish the KC Half Marathon - ideally as fast as (or faster than) my spring marathon.
2.  Financial:  No clothing/accessories/shoes purchases in October.  Stay within Mint budget for food & dining.
3.  Work:  Positive attitude! Positive attitude! Positive attitude!  Prepare for interviews but also stay engaged in my current role.

October! by Julie

Incredibly, a month has passed since my last goals blog.

Here are my goals and progress:

Fitness:  I ran! Not all 37 miles, but I'm back at in and kind of in the swing of things. I ran 28.5 miles in September. My back/hip haven't bothered me much except for one bout where it kept me from running. I didn't do my exercises as faithfully as I could have, so I need to double-down on that for October. I even did ok with running while out of town--not super but ok. Goals for October: 1. Run 78 (!) miles. 2. Strength train 10 times.

Career:  September was fairly successful as far as my work goals as well. Our workplan was approved and the process for its creation was praised by some higher-ups. I went to the Listening Session training and started to formulate a plan for implementing what I learned. October Goals: 1. Establish a process to track work against the workplan. 2. Stay at work an extra half-hour or hour every Friday to implement the tracking process.

Finance: Oof. The good: Tim did get some stuff on eBay, although not a lot of money came from that. I got a side-hustle doing some work for my awesome friend Liz. The bad: I have no idea how I did on my grocery and spending budgets and we didn't set a date for a garage sale (although we did discuss it). The ugly has been covered here. Goals for October: 1. Set a definite schedule for working on Liz's project. 2. Stay under-budget on everything. 3. Have a garage sale.

Adultiness: I forgot I had so much on this list. I brought a box of stuff home from Mom and Dad's and sidetracked myself with some old projects. I did a lot of work on Tim's Dr. Who scarf. I have less than 200 rows left. I finished reading at least two magazines and got them out of the house. And that's about it. Goals for October: 1. Finish Tim's scarf. 2. Make my brother's birthday present. 3. Fix khaki pants. 4. Clear off my desk. 5. Make dermatologist appointment for my annual skin cancer check. 6. Sort CDs. 7. Finish 2 pages of vacation photo album. 8. Make list of house projects.

September Week 1 Progress Report

Fitness: I've run six miles of my 37 for September. Here's the boring deets, if you're into that kind of thing. It will be a busy week at work so I'll have to make sure I get my runs done in the AM. I won't feel like doing it at home. Also, I'm adding another run in during the week. I'm basically pre-training to get myself in shape to jump into a training plan. (Hal Higdon is usually my go-to for race training.) I didn't get all my strength training last week so I need to make sure I do that this week.

Career: I worked so hard on a draft of the workplan this week. At one point I had to escape for a latte and a cookie (I almost never do that.) and at another point I texted "Ack, ack, ack" to Tim. It drove me crazy but I'm really happy with where it is at. I emailed it off to my Advisory Committee yesterday. We'll have a conference call next week to set priorities and then I'll have less than a day to finalize some of the budget numbers and take it to the Board for their approval. Then I'll FINALLY have a workplan done before the end of the federal fiscal year!! Also just one more week until conference!

Finance: I got a part-time job. Technically, I'm an intern and Liz is my boss. I'm pretty stoked about being able to help her with some museum education projects and to have a real good reason to try to understand Common Core. I'm also stoked that it is a paid gig! Thanks, Liz! The number two thing that is happening is that we're contemplating having some comics graded. Tim got the comics free and went through them to see if they were worth anything. Some of them are, if they're graded, but it's tricky to try to figure out if the cost of grading will be worth it. It might be a big upfront investment for an uncertain return. If people aren't buying comics, we could be sitting on some pieces of paper that we paid to find out are "worth" a lot of money. 

Adultiness:

• I took some magazine clutter to the Lake with me and I actually read them! I put those magazines down in our garage sale stash and pulled out two more to take to Mom & Dad's with me this weekend.
• I knitted some on my scarf this week but not enough to hit the goal. I'm taking it to Mom & Dad's this weekend as well so I can get some more of it done. 
• And that's about it. I actually kind of forgot that I had more adultiness goals for the month. I'm going to put them in my phone to remind myself to do them.

Hi, September!

August Goals - Recap

Pretty satisfied with how I did against these:

1.  At least 10 min of exercise/meditation per day  (health/fitness)  > I achieved this 25 out of 31 days.
2.  Post a photo a day as a part of The August Break on my Tumblr  > I posted pictures 28 of 31 days in August.
3.  Read at least 3 of the old Harvard Business Review magazines that are sitting around my cubicle (adultiness) > Done!  Felt like a weight off my back.

Health:
Pros: I signed up for the Kansas City Half Marathon and training is going well so far.  Looks like the COA girls are planning to do the Wilderness Run in November, too.  It will be fun!   Con:  All the running leaves less time for yoga, which I also enjoy a lot.

Financial:
I've been pondering the idea of getting a new (or new to me) car.  It's not urgent; my car is still a rock star.  But I'd like to get something a little more convenient.  When my mom visits we have to drive her car everywhere because both Josh and I have small two door cars.  However, I hate the idea of having a monthly car payment again.  I'd like to save up a bit so I have some down payment (my car won't be much of a trade-in) in hopes of maybe getting something next year.

Work:
I've been cranky at work again.  Yesterday I had my annual review which reaffirmed that my manager is happy with my performance and that I'm doing things that she thinks add value.  I need to focus on the positives (I basically can make my job my own) and spend less time worrying about things that aren't important.  I was honest with my manager yesterday and said that there are many pluses to this job and I'm not actively looking for something else, but that if the right opportunity came along I would certainly consider it.  She seemed to find that to be a perfectly acceptable response - so I feel more comfortable knowing the door is open for other possibilities.

September Goals
1.  Get to at least 4 yoga classes  (health/fitness)
2.  Write at least 5 blog posts (this one counts!) (adultiness)

Like a new school year...

I'm going into September like I would a new school year. Not like college or anything, but elementary school and middle school-- when each year was going to be completely different- and my mind was always really excited for everything I would learn-- I had relaxed all summer and felt refreshed walking into the new year. I'm going into the COA this month the same way. It's not any kind of "new year" for me, but I'm going to make it that. The late August COA meeting REALLY helped me. Good food, good friends, and good honest conversations. I sometimes feel like I can talk in circles and never get to a place of "resolution" about anything. But- these several months we've been meeting I feel like I have reached different places with my goals, and I do feel like there are people who are holding me accountable!

Goal: De-Clutter
I've been posting things on Craigslist non-stop on the Saturdays that Jeff has been working at weddings. It makes me feel better about watching hours of bad television, annnnd I get something done. I finally sold a violin I had, but I think ebay might be my best bet. I went through my whole GWTW collection and found all the duplicates, and now I am cataloging. I feel pretty good about my de-cluttering. We haven't added to the clutter, and Julie will make sure I don't buy any un-necessary books at the conference, or postcards for that matter (I just found a bunch of postcards I bought at the last conference in my laptop bag, certainly made good use of them!)
Goal for September:Don't buy books at the conference, post duplicates on ebay


Goal: Lose Weight
 Eh, I am putting this goal on hold. I have reached a good place with my mental health- and I would like to maintain that and focus more on making me "healthy" in all aspects. Yes, this includes physical- but I seem to bring myself down more when I focus on my weight. Jeff and I cook together and enjoy restaurants together, and being still in the newly married stage, I am not wanting to give that up (right now). There will certainly be  a time where weight is my biggest focus- but not right now. But, in this "healthy me" focus- I am going to run and be physical. Jennifer said she is going to make me a plan. Now that I just read that Julie may be bringing her running shoes to the conference we are both attending, uh-oh! I don't know how I will feel if Julie goes running and I sit in the hotel room watching the Today show. Maybe I'll have to go for a walk or something.
Goal for September: Start the training program Jennifer sent me on Monday the 9th. Stay away from crap food that I binged on all weekend on vacation! Go to yoga!

Goal: Debt
We have been doing very good with our budget. We have about one more month of large medical bills, then we are back to  putting money away in savings, etc. Of course, I think life will always throw unexpected costs our way. But- between these unexpected costs we will continue to try and save. Our vacation really didn't cost much, which is good. But- October is packed with lots of fun things we have planned- so we better start saving!!! I successfully sold something on craigslist, so I let myself buy some shoes that I needed.
Goal for September: Keep the spending minimal- and keep trying to sell things on ebay to have some spending money!

Goal: Career
I've been on a roller coaster with my job. I went weeks with feeling stagnant and wanting more, and then it changes.  There have been a lot of changes at my job in the last few weeks-- lots of changes that I think are going to be very good. I'm actually very excited right now about a lot- and want to keep this mindset. After talking soo many times with the COA- I feel like I finally got to a good place with me thinking about my career. I'm ready to be productive and successful! I'm going to be happy where I am at - make the absolute best of it so when my next step in life makes itself present, I'm ready!
Goal for September: Write a list of what I'd like to accomplish. Pick one project to accomplish each month. Remember this feeling next time I get frustrated. 

New Goal?
I want to spend time figuring out what I want to do with my time, less focusing on what I don't want.
Goal for September: Start a "bucket list" of things I would like to do sometime.