It’s August!!!
How, I do not know, since I literally still feel like I just got home from Costa Rica. But that was March 26, so apparently that was over 4 months ago now.
This is the first month in a while that I actually feel in the right head space to embrace the “new month freshness”.
April –-> I was all discombobulated getting home from long trip (Costa Rica 3/11-3/26) and then diving straight into soccer/swim/volleyball seasons
May –> all discombobulated leaving for Austin, TX trip right away beginning of May and then commencing “May-hem” season
June –> all discombobulated having recently survived May-hem season + Ethan’s graduation + starting summer + driving people faraway places (what’s up, Ethan’s summer strength class…) + getting ready for cruise (some shopping, packing, clothes organization, etc).
July –> Did July even happen? Got home from family cruise on 7/1, followed immediately by a TON of family time, 4th of July, multiple houseguests, work audit craziness, etc.
August –> Finally a little breathing room!! I have been just zooming past each 1st of the month, treating it always just as “another day”, because…. well, see above.
But for once I feel like I have some bandwidth to think about some things I want to do in August, aka “goals”. We have 2 weeks until Child #1 heads back to school (Ethan on 8/14), but I feel like the real school year won’t really start until they are both back (Asher goes back 8/31).
I’ve already talked about my desire to reclaim my fitness goals- that is underway. Go me. 😉
Some other August goals!
1) Feeling the desire again to do a little technology detox. Despite being crazy busy all summer, I somehow continue to rack up large #s of minutes on my phone every day. Probably because it’s just EASY and MINDLESS and can be done essentially anywhere, anytime.
Goal= Delete Facebook app from my phone (temporarily). I will re-install it (or use laptop) to check it briefly 2x/week.
I currently do not want to get rid of FB completely, and I still want access to check the school, sports, city pages, etc. I do also enjoy posting random updates sometimes, and seeing other friends’ random updates. There is a 100% chance that I’ll want to post pics of the boys’ first days of school. 😉
But I am really craving a break from the constant pull to “check my phone” all the time. Hoping that making FB largely unavailable, for a while, will help give me that break my mind wants.
2) Goal= Read for 15 minutes every morning.
I’ve been reading, but just so slowly/ inconsistently. I would like to ramp this up a bit in August. Reading in the morning is something I have often done over the years, but lately had gotten out of the habit.
I find that if I make my tea and then read for 15 minutes immediately, before I allow myself to even turn on my computer, it’s very easy. If I wait until later in the day, it doesn’t happen.
By doing this, I at least know that I’ll get at least 15 minutes of reading in, even if I’m not able to pick up a book the rest of the day.
3) Goal = Continue time tracking!
I haven’t talked about this lately, but I have been continuously using LVK’s time tracking spreadsheet since APRIL!! (Minus a couple weeks off in June/July when out of town & super busy.) I know, crazy, right?!
This has basically taken the place of my journaling habit. I update it 2-3x/ day usually, but often spend ~5 minutes in the morning filling in blanks from the previous evening.
I also fill this out for each day:
Filling these spreadsheets out has become a WONDERFUL and relaxing way to reflect on my life.
4) Goal = Resume my photo project!
This refers to sorting through old pics, deleting duplicates, and backing them up to my external hard drive.
I had been systematically working through previous years/months but fell off the wagon on this a few months ago. This doesn’t need to take a lot of time per week, but I just need to do it. A little at a time goes a long way. It works best when I schedule specific months/year to work through each week.
5) Goal= Sit down with Ivan and make a master list of “stuff to do” around our house and make a plan for attacking it.
We have a bunch of lingering, misc. tasks we really want/need to get to. Things like… finally getting glass installed in one of our kitchen cabinets (a leftover, incomplete task from our kitchen remodel which was in 2019 for the love of God!!!!!).
We both agree that we just need to sit down and spell these things out, sort by priority and START. Enough farting around already!
* I also want to make a master “Declutter” list. I’m inspired by SHU’s 15 minutes of decluttering per day… but not sure I want to fully commit to that right now, either. Thinking maybe instead: Make my own master list, and select 3-4 smaller areas at least to cross off before August ends.
Family Goals!
A few fun things, a few “need to do” things:
- go biking as a family
- play a board game with BOTH boys (maybe… Clue? We all enjoy that oldie but goodie.)
- make a real bonfire and s’mores in our bonfire pit (not the propane one we have on the patio… a real one in the wood burning pit out in the backyard)
- have Ethan clean out his closet before school starts
- have the boys help cook something 3 times. (low bar? high bar? not sure.)
- see the Barbie movie. (Ok, not sure the boys care about this one, but I want to see it, at least.)
I will report back! I have not had a stellar track record this year with accomplishing a lot of “written goals”, per se, but then again… I have done a LOT this year, regardless. So I’m still doing plenty, albeit maybe in a bit more of a whack-a-mole style versus pretty, planned out goals. 🙃
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for an accomplished feeling day yesterday. Work, workout, walk, playing kid-taxi driver for the boys a couple times AND school supply order placed for Asher and lunch money account set up for Ethan’s new school.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I do not have FB on my phone and it has really changed how I use FB, which is to say I just use it for informational gathering purposes like you talked about – news from the city, book club, etc. I do have messenger on my phone still because I have a couple of friends who use it basically like texting with me.
I also honestly don’t know what people are doing on their phones when they’re scrolling. I read a lot and I think it’s because I just don’t know what to DO with my phone. LOL. I think I’m okay with this because people seem really upset by how much time they spend on their phones! (My three most used apps on my phone are my podcast app, Duolingo, and my distance tracker app. Those all seem like good things to me, so I’m not mad about them.) Anyway! I just always have a book around – frequently more often than I have my phone with me!
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I think what people do on their phones depends on the person. For me, I have an annoying “loop” that I tend to check when I pick up my phone. It usually goes: regular email, blog email, facebook. Then if there’s nothing good to see there, I will check something like Feedly for new blog posts to read, or I will read some article etc from a newsletter in email or a link in FB or that sort of thing. If I’m in the midst of trip planning, I may spend some time on the tripadvisor forums perusing info about our next destination. None of it is overly bad or necessarily mind numbing- I don’t sit and watch endless reels or youtube videos about totally useless things, for example- but I am not happy with the frequency of my “checks”. I complete that little email-email-FB loop WAYYYY too many times per day.
I also use my podcast app, maps, etc. but I don’t count those since I don’t just sit and look at those; they have a specific purpose and that’s it. That type of stuff is fine, in my opinion.
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I am glad you’ll have a month of normalcy! It’s kind of been “Berenstein Bears and Too Much Fun” at your house. 😉 There are so many Berenstein Bears and Too Much “X” books so we use that title when talking about having too much of something. I mean you’ve done some fun things but it’s also nice to get back to normalcy, or at least that is how I feel. My last vacation wasn’t really a true vacation since I was at the lake and we didn’t have much going on and there was zero planning involved since the goal is to spend time with family/play on the beach/in the water. My trip next week is a bit different since I’m traveling internationally and we will be doing a bunch of hiking but I finally did a little planning and set up a shared note with my friend with notes on potential hikes we will do. But then I realized I need to buy some trail shoes because I threw out the pair I had since they were sooo old. So I need to find time to go to REI this week or weekend… Will maybe have to happen on Saturday since I’m flying out Sunday. Maybe I will take the boys with as a sort of adventure. They’ll probably get a kick out of all the boats/kayaks/climbing walls/etc.
But I don’t really have goals for August besides enjoying that vacation. I haven’t seen my friend for 6 years so I can’t wait to have 3.5 days with her. We’ve both had 2 kids since we last saw each other and while we keep in touch over whatsapp, it’s not the same as seeing each other! Besides that I need to prepare for my new hire’s start date! He starts 9/5 and I have never had an employee before so the whole onboarding process is kind of a mystery to me and he’ll be in a different city so I feel a bit like a fish out of water but am very excited to have some help!!
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Hahaha…. I already texted you about this but your Berenstein bear comment made me LAUGH OUT LOUD! YESSSSSSSS….. “too much fun”! lol! I mean, there really isn’t anything I would change about the summer; it has all been wonderful. I wouldn’t wish any of it away. But I think I’m done having so much fun for a little while now. 😉 I think I’ll write a post about this maybe, but we were actually considering trying to squeeze in our traditional beach trip to Florida now in August but ultimately decided to scratch it. Yes, it’s wonderful, and relaxing, and would have been amazing. But it would be MORE time away, more packing, more “doing”… and for some other reasons too we just decided to forget about it. (getting low on vacation days being one reason also, lol!) But now that this week is here (we would have been leaving probably either today or tomorrow), I feel like it was the right choice to not go. The last few weekends ended up even busier than I was expecting, with Ivan’s cousin coming to town plus another full weekend with my sister, so I am really glad that I’m now not prepping to head out again for another week or 10 days away from home. I just need a minute to BE!
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I feel like my whole year has flown by, with all the stress about moving, and now my older son going to university LATER THIS MONTH. So I’m all discombobulated constantly, it feels like. Well, it’s just a new chapter and I’ll get used to things.
I think a digital detox is always a good thing once in a while. I like FB but I try to stay off it and IG when bored because I can waste so much time just scrolling! A few years ago I deleted twitter off my phone, and then I deleted my whole account and it was WONDERFUL. I wouldn’t do that for IG or FB though, because I do enjoy them. But having them off the phone is a good idea, it makes checking in much more intentional.
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Oh gosh, with your move I can’t even imagine!!! Discombobulated doesn’t even begin to describe what state you must be in!! Hopefully you’ll start feeling settled in sooner than later and I bet you’ll have an amazing fall at your new place!!
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I can feel the enthusiasm of your new month! I’m kind of wanting to continue the relaxing/spontaneous mood of the summer for few more weeks/months! 🙂 the year is passing so fast, we are almost at the last quarter and I feel like it’s just getting started.
I haven’t even kept us with the journaling, can’t imagine doing time tracking. I admire you have kept up with it and find joy doing so. maybe one day I’ll try to track for one week.
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Thank you for the detailed update! I have stopped my Golden Hour for the time being but feel the “call” to start up again. Your post gave me a dose of fresh energy. Once I am back from Poland on August 10th I would like to reflect back on Q3 and set myself for Q4.
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HOW is it August? I feel like you’re legitimately allowed to ask because you had SO MUCH going on… well, I guess I had some things going on to at the beginning of the year (two work trips, one overseas trip to see family) but I feel like we just left the holidays behind us in a way.
I think you have some great goals for August. I should think about some digital detox… I sometimes get “caught up” in this checking the phone loop as well (some of it feels necessary, but sometimes I just pick up the phone again although I just checked it and that’s just “mindless” behavior).
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Ha ha… I feel like if I had the busy summer you’ve just had, I would collapse in a heap- instead, you’re enthusiastically making all sorts of goals and plans! About the reading one… when my son was home for the summer, he made it
a point to read for ten minutes every single day right after he got up. In that way, he went from not reading at all to reading a bunch of books this summer. So- it definitely works.
You’re scaring me a little with the kitchen cabinet story- I can totally picture my husband and me, four years from now, still dithering over the tiles for the backsplash. We HAVE TO finish it!
Good luck with your August goals- I’ll be interested to read the update.
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