diy mama

lifestyle blog sharing diy, family, travel, organization & disney tips

Blog Life

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November Goals

november goalsHappy November! I know, it’s been November for a couple days, we’ve even changed the clocks already to fall back, but I’m just getting around to my November goals. This weekend was a whirlwind, literally, with the crazy weather we had here in IL.
We were able to Trick or Treat at a few houses, then came back to share chili with some friends. We also got the house childproofed (more on that later)! We took it easy though, knowing the next few months ahead are pretty crazy with travel, by playing a few board games and watching some new movies.
IMG_6960Let’s see how I did for my October goals. I did fairly well with accomplishing my October goals, in my opinion! This was a huge month for our family. Sophie had her first Birthday, complete with awesome Sprinkle & Confetti party, she started walking, we had a vacation where we went to Medieval Times and watched our 90 year old Grandma fly a plane! I really focused on being present and putting my family first in regards to managing my time. If there was a choice between cleaning up the kitchen, writing a post or just playing chase with Soph and Jeffrey, I chose my family every time. I’m pretty sure the kitchen was never fully clean the entire month of October, but I’m ok with that.

I took Soph to every Babies Love Books but one, because she was still snoozing (you never wake a sleeping baby!) I found a couple people that volunteered to watch Sophie but I’d still like to have an emergency sitter on hand. We also did TERRIBLE at family walks. We took once/week which was 90% due to the cold weather, rain or it being dark by the time Jeffrey got home. I swam 2-3 times/week, read Eleanor & Park (not as good as Fangirl in my opinion) and did not do laundry on the weekends! My biggest disappointment of goal achieving this month was finishing Blog Life, but I worked on it a lot and it’s freaking huge (which is a good thing!) I did, however, make three new pinnable images and revamped 20 Date Ideas and Nail Polish Organization!
pinnable-imagesNow for the good stuff! My November goals are going to be more manageable since there are a lot of things already planned for this month.

Family

  • Continue Babies Love Books (even if it’s raining or snowing)
  • Teach Sophie 2 sign language signs
  • 1 night/week ‘couch dates’

Life

  •  1 Project Life spread
  • Swim 2 times/week & swim lesson
  • Meal plan every week & 1 freezer meal/week

Blog

  • Photos for TOP SECRET project coming in January
  • Blog Life
  • 2 pinnable images and revamp 1 post
  • Reach 1,000 followers on Pinterest

What are your goals for this month? Will you be taking it a bit easy on yourself knowing the madness that is to come, paired with cold/rainy weather and possible sickness? I encourage you to make at least 3 goals for this month that can be measured. It really does help me to stay focused on what I want to accomplish, helping my mind stay on track. I’ll leave you with the best photo taken this month:

leaves

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September Goals

SeptemberHappy September! I know, it’s been September for a few days but I’m writing this on the 1st so we’ll just pretend we’re on the same page. I saw a post from my bloggy friend, NJ, today about having S.M.A.R.T goals every month and posting them for added accountability. I haven’t made monthly goals for myself in a while and I’ve noticed myself not getting things accomplished that I’d planned. By having my S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals written out on my blog every month, I’ll have a much better chance of accomplishing my goals.

smart-goalsSince school is starting up for the rest of the world and people are getting more organized on schedules, I thought it would be a great time to start up with my goals. I’ll be splitting my goals up into three categories: Family, Life and Blog (necessarily in that order). The next month I’ll go over what I learned from the previous month and how I measured up on completing my goals.

Family

  • Take Soph to ‘Babies Love Books’ every Monday
  • Go out on a date one night with Jeffrey
  • Get Soph on a 8:30 bedtime routine

jeffrey-sophieLife

SC-POETSOCIETYBlog

blog-notes

I’m pumped about having a written set of goals to help keep me focused for this month. I’m sure I’ll get other things done but I’m confident that these are all S.M.A.R.T goals that will work out for me this month. Do you set monthly goals for yourself? Want to join in and be accountability pals for our monthly goals? I’d love to be Goal Buddies!

*Affiliate link for Melissa Culbertson’s Blog Clarity Courses. I highly recommend all of Melissa’s courses (I’ve taken them all) and especially loved Pinning Perfect.

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What’s Going On?

Currently, I’m in the middle of 4 projects, so I don’t have a weekly DiY post for you all this week. I’ve also been really focusing on enjoying nature, my baby and myself this week. I’ve unplugged and it’s going way better than expected! I’ve really taken advantage of this nice weather to show Sophie the birds, bugs and flowers and watch all the kids skateboarding, playing tennis and basketball at the park. My brain is still going 100 miles/minute at the end of the night though. It helps me to just write a ton of it down (even if it’s silly stuff that I already know like ‘clean kitchen tomorrow, throw in load of laundry’).

Last night’s ramblings encouraged me to post about ‘what’s going on’ in my life right now. I am excited about doing these kinda posts every few months to let you guys in on the cool happenings I find on the internets, let my family know what I’m doing while the lil bean naps and also for myself. I know I’ll be a big blog some day in the (hopefully not so) far future and I am making a promise to always share these kind of posts. I feel it helps us relate to one another and hopefully makes communication easier for us!

what's going on

First up, A Beautiful Mess launched their Blog Life e-course, of which, I just bought last night as my Mother’s Day Gift and will be starting on as soon as I post this! I also took their Use Your Stash $8 quick course on using scrap booking supplies. I have SO many and it’s my lease favorite thing to organize so I’ve decided to use at least half of it and keep my stash at that amount from now on. Some of the items that she discussed made me actually want to go out and buy them though b/c I’d never heard of them (3×4 cards and small embellishments like wood veneer shapes and buttons!) I’d say it was a great $8 spent because it motivated me to get 5 more pages done in Soph’s smash book!

smash

I’ve also been attempting to get through a 5k program at the Y. Thankfully, I have some neighbor girlies that help motivate me to go at 5a, otherwise, no lbs would be lost. I just want to get to a point where I don’t feel achy from everyday movement. I also don’t want to feel bad about my body when I’m pushing Soph in public saying ‘here’s why I’m big…this isn’t the real me.’ That’s just an excuse and I know she’s not the reason I’m not in the body I’m comfortable with. ‘People’ (who are these ‘people’?) say that it takes 9mo to make a baby so it will take 9mo to get back to your normal body. For some, it takes less, I feel for most, it takes more and I’m learning to be ok with that.

girls on walk

I’m also very excited for this weekend because it will be my first Mother’s Day! I’m not sure what my daughter (husband) has planned for me but we have the entire weekend to ourselves to do (or not do) as we please! Fingers crossed for breakfast in bed! We’re supposed to get nice weather, so I’m thinking some good park & deck time will be logged. Hopefully at least nicer than last weekend when we had a tree planted in our park for Soph. She was not happy.

tree planting

Yes, I’m the dork that gets this excited about planting trees (especially when they’re free!) Our park district lets you choose where and what type of tree will be planted and watch it grow along with your little ones. We chose a Fiesta Red Maple tree and had it planted in the neighborhood park in hopes it’ll provide a ton of shade for future picnics.

So that’s about all I’m up to in my little area of the universe! Oh, I also helped my sister move into their new house and I’m super excited for their new life there! Who else got the Blog Life course?! What’s your favorite thing to do for Mother’s Day? I’m pretty excited about keeping it chill and enjoying time with my family. I hope that never changes.

Shelly

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