As one of my favorite authors, Gretchen Ruben, says, “September is the other January.”

While it still feels like summer here in Texas, something about seeing school buses on the roads and pumpkin recipes popping up online makes it feel like a good time for new goals.

This month I’m hoping to:

1. Set an alarm clock – For many, many months, I was up by five or so, no alarm clock needed.  James would wake up to eat between 4-5 and go back to sleep and I would get up for the day.  This was pretty exhausting, but I also really enjoyed the time to myself at the start of the day.  Now that he’s sleeping later, I’ve been sleeping later too.  It felt so great to catch up on sleep, but I feel like I’m falling behind on everything else (including blogging!)  I plan to set an alarm for 5:30 Monday through Thursday.  I’m a total morning person and super unproductive in the evenings, so I will get more done this way than by trying to get things done at night.
2. Run twice a week – I think I mentioned I signed up to run a half marathon with my little brother.  It’s not until February, so I don’t need to start an actual training plan for a while, but I would like to gradually build up to running slightly longer distances.  Because of my foot injury, I don’t want to push it and risk injury, but hope to run twice a week.  I’ll likely do one stroller run with James and one longer run by myself on the weekend.
3. Finish Jame’s Baby Book I’ve been making James’s baby book on Shutterfly throughout the year.  I’m super uncrafty so this has been a much better option for me than an actual scrapbook.  I update it every month, but I want to go through and edit it so that it’s ready to order.  I’ve included about a million pictures so it’s going to be pretty expensive, but Shutterfly often has crazy sales.  I want to have it ready so that I can purchase it when there’s a 50-60% off sale.
4. Plan Backyard Updates I’ve been enjoying playing in the backyard with James SO much lately.  Most of our birthday presents for him are backyard-focused.  However, I would like to make some changes to make our outside time even more enjoyable.  Both houses we rented in Maine had beautiful yards with nice, soft grass.  I don’t know what is up with our grass, but our yard feels very scratchy.  I have no clue about anything yard related, so I want to take some time to research what would be involved with improving our yard / getting a different type of grass planted.

And that is all!  I know it’s going to be a busy month with James’s birthday and visits from family so I want to keep it simple.

What are your goals for the month?

Does it feel like Fall yet where you live?

Inspired by this post and this post, I want to formally document some goals for April.  I have about a million things in my head that I want to get done, but the weeks go by so quickly and I know organizing and sharing my thoughts will help me accomplish more.

Home: Conceptualize Playroom

I’ve decided that I want to turn our “office” (aka useless room full of junk that we never use) into a playroom for James.  I want to do this for two reasons: 1) He is getting more interested in toys and I know his toys will get larger with time; I’d like to prevent them from taking over the house.  2) Since he sleeps on a floor bed, I plan to remove most toys when he starts to crawl to support him in sleeping at night.  I’ll leave some books and calming toys, like a stuffed animal, but don’t want anything too stimulating in there as he adjusts to his new freedom to move around the room.

I plan to keep it very simple with a couple of toy shelves and a reading nook.  All I want to do this month is start cleaning out the office and identify / select what I want to purchase for the room…keeping it manageable over here 🙂

I’ll share pictures when it’s through but in the meantime, if you’re looking for inspiration, check out this post – I love her ideas!

Home: Prepare Garden Beds

I’ve mentioned before that I am terrible with plants.  However, I think gardening is such a great activity for children and have grand visions of working with James in the garden when he’s older.  I feel like I should have some clue as to what I’m doing before I involve him, so the time is now.  Thankfully, my mom has agreed to come help me start a garden (woohoo!).  Outsourcing, my friends.

She’s really busy and traveling a lot in April, so we’re going to try for the beginning of May.  This month, I want to prepare the garden beds so that everything is ready to go.  I want to plant two small flower beds around trees in our backyard, and one medium herb / vegetable garden.  I have no idea whether I should do raised beds, or what to plant, so I have some research to do!

Family: (Re)Start Family Dinners

In my former life, I really liked to cook.  I enjoyed the whole process from browsing recipes, to grocery shopping, to the actual preparation of meals (and obviously, the eating).  These days, it honestly seems more like a chore and we have lots of nights with no set plan where I eat eggs and my husband concocts some sort of taco creation.

We’re both fine with this, but I’m hoping to get back into cooking real meals at least 4-5 nights a week so that we can model family dinners for James now that he is beginning to eat solid food.  I’d like to get back into the habit of this now, rather than waiting until he’s ready to eat what we’re eating.

Leisure: Watch less TV

I have three episodes left in my current Netflix obsession (The West Wing).  I’m committing to not starting a new series at least for the month of April.  It’s so easy at night when I’m tired to just zone out and watch tv, but I know I would be happier if I spent more time reading or just hanging out and chatting with my husband.

Reading over this list, I kind of feel like I should strive for something loftier, but I’m going to resist that temptation.  For now, I’m going for manageable.  If I check these off the list this month, maybe the momentum will help me accomplish more the next month.  Or maybe not.  For now though, this is enough.

Do you have any goals you’re working on?

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