my october goals + september goal check-in

Honestly, I cannot even remember sitting down to set these goals for September, and here I am looking at how I did and talking about what I want to get done in October. I mean, goodness gracious. I know September is technically a short month, but it felt so short. It didn't help that we were only home for one single weekend in all of September (this past weekend) and that I started my new role at work in the first week of the month. Things have been a whirlwind since then.

LAST MONTH'S GOALS...

• Read 3 books. I cannot believe it, but yes, I actually read three books in September! And not a single book more. I started at least five books, but that is my M.O. – I get distracted so easily! But anyway, this month, I read The Assistants by Camille Perri, Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index by Julie Israel and Once and For All by Sarah Dessen. All three were solid reads, but no new favorites here. I also started

• Blog 20 times in September. Shortly after I set this goal for myself, I decided I would only post MWF instead of 5 days a week, so I posted 12 times in September instead of 20. I think this is way more reasonable for me right now so I am happy with it!

• Start my outline for National Novel Writing Month. I did this and had a blast! I almost wish it was November already – I am SO ready to start writing my novel! If you've never done NaNoWriMo, it is such a blast and so worth doing.

• Cook dinner 3 nights a week at home (when schedule permits). As far as I can tell, we did accomplish this! Minus weeks when I was traveling/Pat was at games/we were traveling together, we ate at home, and we only ate out a few times all month – so, this was a big month for us! Weekends are the toughest for us but since it's just us right now and we don't eat out at really extravagant places, I'm going to be OK with eating out on weekends.

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THIS MONTH'S GOALS...

• Read 5 books. I am back up to really aspirational thinking! As soon as it starts to get chilly, I am more likely to plant my butt on the couch and read (even though it's not like I wasn't planting my butt on the couch before, because I totally was.)

• Drink a glass of water every morning as soon as I wake up. I need to start drinking more water, for my health, for my skin, for my wallet (because I buy so much soda). I bought a Brita pitcher because I love the taste of filtered water over bottled, which is Pat's preference, and I am going to start by pushing myself to start my day by drinking 8 oz. of water as soon as my feet touch the floor.

• Blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. This means I need to post 13 times in October. This is a far more doable schedule for me although I really did want to blog five times a week – maybe in the future I will be able to make it to five posts a week.

• Map out my chapter outline for NaNoWriMo. I want to start planning out the first few chapters and then a few key chapters in the plot for my NaNoWriMo novel. If you're totally unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it's a fun November challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, all within the month of November. I totally recommend signing up and trying it out, just to actually sit down and write 50,000 words. I have participated almost every November since I was in high school.

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What are your goals for October? Can you believe it's October already?

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