Goal Getters / October

Hello, October! It's safe to say this month didn't exactly turn out how I planned it, but that's totally cool. It was a good month all things considered, but a loooooong one. It feels like forever ago that I moved in and started my semester--and that was just a week before September started! Let's review my goals from September...

+ Time management. I think I did about as well as I could have! I had a crazy busy few days last week. Friday morning, I had two exams and a speech and then had to leave straightaway to go to a wedding a few hours away, with only about a few hours to get there. It was definitely stressful, but we made it work. It was really nice to see my family and relax a little bit with them. 

+ Get a week ahead on posts. Yeah, no. This is where the goals kind of started to go downhill. Part of time management is realizing which tasks are not essential and cutting them out when necessary. And to be honest, blogging isn't essential, as much as I love it! So oftentimes, if I'm busy, it's the first thing to go. 

+ Plan a letter-writing challenge. This is coming! Stay tuned.

+Try out biphasic sleeping. Did it for a week. I don't think it's for me right now. Enough on that.

+ Practice calligraphy twice. Nooooope. 

+ Work 25 hours in the lab. I've been waiting on my supervisor to finish growing some samples to me so this didn't happen, but not my fault.

+ Get to know my sorority sisters. I did do this one though! Love my girls. 

Yeah....maybe that was a few too many goals for one month? Obviously I didn't do so hot on most of them. Let's look ahead to the month of October (even though we're already a few days in).

+ Set hourly goals, share them and HIT them every week. I'll share a little bit more about this soon, but basically every week, I set goals for how much time I want to spend on each area of my life, but I've been slacking on them a little bit lately. Look for a both on this soon!

+ Find a Bible study plan that works for me. I've been doing a Bible-in-a-year plan and I just plain don't like it. It makes me rush through the Bible much more than I want to and I just didn't feel like I was getting what I wanted out of it. I'll be looking around the internet and Bible study books that I already have and trying to pick out a new one to follow for a little while. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

+ Find a new place to tithe. Since I'm currently visiting around different churches, I've realized that I've majorly been slacking off on tithing and have a few months worth of income that needs to be tithed. I think it's okay to tithe to a parachurch organization since I don't have a home church, but I want to find one that fits my beliefs and helps achieve what I want done in the world! I'm particularly interested in education (especially for women) in developing countries as well as organizations that do business/job training and that kind of thing. Let me know if you have a favorite organization or charity!

+ Revisit goals once a week. The tricky thing about doing goals once a month is that....I kinda forget they exist sometimes. And that's oftentimes why I don't reach them. I'll be revisiting these goals probably every Sunday and I'm aiming to post midway through the month and update y'all on where I'm at. 

What are your goals for October? Any favorite Bible studies or charities to recommend?

Goal-Getters / September

Hi lovely readers! It has been a LONG month. August was just so jam-packed with activities and travel and new things that July feels like years ago. At the beginning of August, I was still in Michigan for the summer, working. I finished up my summer work, spent a few days at home in North Carolina with my boyfriend H and other friends before I moved back down to Florida for another year at school. 

I'm finally feeling like I'm starting to get settled in--I just unpacked my last bit of stuff into my apartment yesterday (even though I've lived here for three weeks now). I have to say, it's starting to feel like home! 

Of course, I've got another busy month coming up. My classes haven't been too demanding yet, but I know that'll pick up soon! I start my lab work this week and I'm also going through the pledging period at my sorority which will take up a lot of time, but be so worth it. I'll be a busy bee! Here are a few goals I want to keep in mind while I work through September.

+ In short, TIME MANAGEMENT! I have a lot of commitments going on this month. The first 40 days in my sorority are days when we have the most activities, plus I do still work two jobs, plus I have a full load of [tough!] classes! It'll be really crazy, but I know that everything I'm doing is worth my time. I just can't afford to get bogged down or waste [too much] time on Netflix.

+ Get a week ahead on posts. Because life will be so crazy, I want to have a little wiggle room around here to take a few days off blogging if I need to. Life gets busy, ya know?

+ Plan a letter-writing challenge. Yay! I'm really excited about this. I'm planning on putting together a challenge to write letters super regularly--to our friends, family, political leaders, strangers, etc! Let me know if you have any ideas or if you want to be a part of this!

+ Try out biphasic sleep. I know I said I'd do this last month but it just didn't work out with my schedule. I'll let y'all know more about this soon!

And then just a few little goals...

+ Practice calligraphy at least twice.

+ Work at least 25 hours in the lab. 

+ Be intentional about getting to know my sorority sisters!

What are your goals for September?

Goal Getters / August Check In

Hiiii friends. Wow, life is crazy these days! I'm writing this post on Sunday night (#justbeinhonest) because I know I have one of the busiest weeks EVER coming up. Tomorrow, I'll be packing up the car and driving down to Florida. And on Tuesday, I'll move into a new apartment AND start sorority recruitment. Craaaazyyy. 

I might die.  

I'm totally terrified of this week, but also really, really excited. I have really high hopes for this year. 

Anyways, let's talk about goals! I've finished up the first half of my month (in Michigan/NC) and I'm ready to start the next half (or at least as ready as I'll ever be!). Here's how my goals have been going...

+ Try to spend ten minutes every day in the Bible. I've been doing well with this! H and I have been doing a study in the She Reads Truth app about hymns, because we both love traditional hymns and all the history and good theology in them. I also started a Bible in 365 Days program that I do most days. So this one is a big beautiful check!

+ Keep my bloglovin' feed below 100 (check!) and comment on blogs (not so check...). But I'm definitely going to make an effort on commenting starting, like, right now.

+ Keep posting at least three times a week and get a few posts scheduled ahead of time. Well the fact that I'm writing this (Wednesday) post on Sunday makes me feel good! I hope to get a little further ahead to give me some wiggle room, but you know, I'm doing just fine.

And for the second half of the month, I'll be working on some recipes, being super outgoing, and the witchcraft that is biphasic sleep. Read more on the last edition of Goal Getters!

How are your goals for the month going??

Goal Getters / August

This month is going to have a lotttt of changes. In the next few weeks, I'll be finishing up my summer job here in Michigan, going home to North Carolina for a few days, and then moving into my new apartment in Florida and starting my next year of school! Because my month is so split in every way possible, I'm going to make goals for each half of the month.

Michigan goals (first half of the month):

+ Try to spend at least ten minutes every day in the Bible. I used to do this every day before I went to bed, but these days I'm so tired by the time I get to go to sleep that I honestly skip it pretty often. So it's just something I want to try to be a little more intentional about. 

+ Keep my bloglovin' feed below 100 and comment more often on blogs! I'm also looking to read new blogs--a couple new ones I've been reading are Ready or Not, Ever Emma, and From Roses. It's easy to feel like you've read all the interesting blogs out there, but there are really so many still out there. Comment below with your favorite blogs!

+ Keep posting at least three times a week, and work on getting ahead of schedule on my blog posts. I'm anticipating a crazy first couple weeks at school and I want to make sure my blog is on solid footing while I'm settling in!

Florida goals (second half of the month):

+ Put together a list/binder of healthy, easy recipes. I'll be cooking every meal for myself for the first time ever in my life and, well, I really don't want to get fat. I plan on taking some time to meal prep and collect recipes and make sure that I treat my body well in the way that I eat.

+ Be crazy outgoing. If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I'm an introvert and that being in big groups where I don't know a lot of people sometimes makes me nervous! But I'm convinced that this is just because I haven't had enough practice with that kind of situation. So I want to make it a goal not to shy away from scary situations and events and just have fun!

+ Focus on getting in a biphasic sleep routine. I'll talk about this more soon, but in short, I'll be trying different sleep schedules in order to get up early for my classes AND stay up late for fun events. I'll let y'all know how it goes!

What are your goals for the month? Any favorite blogs to share?

Goal-Getters / July Wrap-Up

IT'S AUGUST. I feel like most months I tend to say that time has flown by, but for once it seems like summer has been lasting forever. Between all the work and class, I can't say it's been all that relaxing! But that's okay, sometimes. :)

Just really quickly today, I want to review my goals I made for July. And I saw quickly because...well, I didn't do so hot on all of them. *cue that emoji gritting his teeth*

+ Read four books. I did complete this one, if you include a book that I got about 2/3 through and quit. I'm also halfway through a fifth so I definitely think that should count, right? For the record, the one that I hated was Tigers in Red Weather. I also read The Husband's Secret (terrible title, okay book) and Stiff (absolutely fabulously weird), and now that I'm trying to come up with it, I have no clue what the fourth one was. Oops!

+ Maintain good study habits with class. Pretty good! I didn't leave anything totally to the last minute and I'm almost finished!

+ Exercise three times a week. Not even close. We're just gonna leave it at that. I don't know what to do with myself without a gym. :(

+ Develop an hour's worth of kickboxing material for my group fitness class. Ehhhh I had forgotten just how much time it takes to choreograph new material. But I probably got five or six new songs done, so I'll take that. 

Enough on that. I'm still working on my goals for August but I'll write them up soon! In the meantime, how did you do on your goals this month?

Goal-Getters / July Check-in

Two weeks ago, at the beginning of July, I made a few goals for the month with the plan to check in midway through. So here we are!

Welp. This is why I thought this check-in would be a good idea. I haven't forgotten about my goals, per se, I've just not done a stellar job of achieving them. Sad face. Let's look at my goals a little more closely and I'll update you as to how they're all going!

+ Read four books. I did finish one book and it was a long one--The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair. I'm about eighty pages into the next one, so I've fallen a little bit behind, but it's all good. I'd rather enjoy the books I am reading instead of picking short, easy reads. Any recommendations for the next book?

+ Maintain good study habits with my class. Yeah, I'm doing okay with this one. I've been keeping up and getting good grades, but what I really would like is to be a little ahead of schedule so I can relax a little. That would be so much nicer! New goal: finish every assignment/quiz/whatever at least one day before it's due.

+ Exercise at least three times a week consistently. Nope. Didn't happen. Not consistently or even really at all. I have been doing better about just living a more active life; I've been biking to work and the grocery store and the bank and taking nice walks on the beach. New goal: exercise five times before the end of the month.

+ Develop an hour's worth of material for kickboxing. Not quite, but I'm on my way there! I've started choreographing a few new songs. I'm hoping to hold a just-for-fun class for friends soon and I'll get to try some new stuff out then!

What are your goals this month?

Goal-Getters / July

In the past on this blog, I've tried writing out my goals both weekly and monthly and neither of them worked out quite right for me. So new plan: I'd like to try setting goals at the beginning of the month like usual, but then instead of going a whole month on those goals (and--let's be honest--forgetting what most of them were by the end of the month), I'm planning on doing a check-in on my goals halfway through the month.

Sound like a good plan? If you'd like to join in with me, leave your links below and I can check out your goals and support you in them. :)

+ Read four books. WOW this one is crazy ambitious for me. Four books! One month! I'm part of the reading program for adults at my local public library and if I can read six books (I've already read two) by the end of July, I can be entered in a drawing for a Kindle. And really…I kind of doubt that there will be that many entries so I feel like I definitely have a decent chance of winning if I can enter.

+ Maintain good study habits with my class! I'm taking an online Agricultural Economics course over the next month and a half, just to get it out of the way. It's a little bit tricky to stay on task when it's online because there are no lectures to attend or office hours or whatnot. It's all up to me to stay on track!

+ Exercise at least three times a week consistently. I've still got maybe seven pounds left of my Freshman Fifteen (it's totally a real thing) that I'm working on, but it's tricky to get in exercise when I'm not part of a gym here in Michigan since I'm only here for the summer. That means my options are pretty much bodyweight exercise or running, neither of which I'm too fond of.

+ Develop at least another hour's worth of material for kickboxing class. Starting in August, I'll be teaching a class every single week! I really want to keep things fresh for my participants so we're not doing the same routines every week but I'm not the best at writing new routines quickly. That's why I want to plan ahead and get plenty prepared this summer!

I think that's plenty for now! So in two weeks or so, we'll check back in and see how I'm doing on all of these!

What are your goals for the summer?

Curated Weekly / 15

Oops! I just realized I missed the curated post last week because I was too busy packing up to come home to NC for spring break. Well I'm here and my spring break is just about over (cue sad face). I've spent the week with my brother, but mostly by myself since he's been in school. I am definitely an introvert but it's been really weird to have this much time to myself! Right now, I'm visiting H at his school. Yay!

ALSO. I chopped off my hair. Check it.

• Bright and bold color combinations [Rekita Nicole]
• 18 ways to strengthen your intuition [MindBodyGreen]
• I love these icons from Creative Market
• 20 make ahead lunches for work [The Sunshine Blog]
• It's okay to be bad at your hobbies [The Dainty Squid]
• Sarah's favorite condensed fonts [A Fine Line]
• How to make your graphics work for you [Kory Woodard]
• 6 steps to a meal plan that will save you money [poverty luxe.]

In case you missed them...

• My favorite blogs and websites
• How to spend more time reading
• Handcrafted gift ideas for ladies you love

I love this super fancy 'ooh la la' print from The And So Collection.

Next week is H's and my anniversary and so I thought I'd get a little mushy and share some songs that make me think of our love. Listen here.

• First Day of My Life / Bright Eyes
• You Belong to Me / Carla Bruni
• World Spins Madly On / The Weepies
• You Remind Me Of Home / Ben Gibbard
• I Won't Give Up / Jason Mraz
• These Arms of Mine / Otis Redding
• Just You and Me / Zee Avi
• Free Bird / Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Wanted / Hunter Hayes
• You Are The Best Thing / Ray LaMontagne
• Anyone Else But You / The Moldy Peaches
• Do You Remember / Jack Johnson
• At Last / Leftover Cuties
• Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly) / Phosphorescent

This week, I'm heading back to school, back to work, back to life (ewwwww). I have a big chemistry exam on Tuesday and my big goal is to study hard and ace it. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to take a little break while I'm with H this weekend to study + then study again Sunday afternoon and pretty much all afternoon Monday. This is seriously my top priority because I'm not the best at chemistry. 

Other than that, in the next few weeks, I want to make a point to have lunch with someone I don't know well/haven't ever hung out with. 

What's going on in your world this weekend?

March Goals

Hello lovelies! I've missed you! I know it's only been a couple of days, but it's weird for me not to sit down and interact with y'all in the comments or on Twitter for more than a day or two. I was finishing up life at school and coming home for my spring break (YES). I don't have much planned for this week, so I hope to talk with y'all some! (Tweet at me or leave a comment!)

Semi-related, before we get onto the whole goal part of this post: I'm looking to get a bit more involved in the blog community and part of that is I'd love to switch blogs with one of you for a day. If you blog about positivity, productivity, wellness, design or anything like that, talk to me and we can maybe swap guest posts. Sound good?

Last Month's Goals:

1. Take a 3-day TV fast. Done. I'm not sure I really learned much from this, as much as I wish I could say it transformed my life or something equally inspiring. I just enjoy TV and I think in balance, it's totally fine! That said--I am focusing on balance! There's no need to watch more TV if I haven't done my schoolwork or exercised enough.

2. Go to office hours. Maybe I should just admit that this is never going to happen? 

3. Form a workout routine. Somewhat done! I did sort of get into a routine outside of my regular fitness classes but now I'm home so it's not quite the same. Still a success.

This Month's Goals:

1. Explore Secret Project #1. I'm so sorry to be that annoying blogger who talks about a secret project without saying what it is. Honestly, it doesn't even have much to do with this blog, but I'm keeping it a little bit private because I have no idea if it's an idea that's really going to stick. 

2. Find my methods and motivations for healthy eating. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's motivating myself to exercise regularly. But I'm not so great at eating well. Part of this just naturally comes with being on a meal plan--sometimes I walk into the dining hall and the only veggies are the same ones on the salad bar that I've eaten for the last five lunches. Sooo I eat pizza. Help a girl out--how do you make sure to eat healthy (especially if you don't naturally enjoy healthy food)?

3. Continue reading (at least 1-2 books a month). I'm currently on Book #3 of 2015 (The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule) and I think that The Good Nurse is next. If you're interested, you can keep up with my booklist on Goodreads or give me recommendations!

What are your goals for the month of March?

Curated Weekly / 14

It's been a really nice (though holy cow, it has been busy) week in my world. I'm trying to think of what I did last weekend and the beginning of this week and I can't quite remember! It feels like forever ago. I was in the lab quite a bit this week and have officially started volunteering at the natural history museum. That's fun!

For Valentine's Day, H and I tried to FaceTime and watch Netflix at the same time and we finally figured it out but it took some creativity. Even though it was a lot of effort figuring out headphones and what's on the phone and the computer, it was nice to have a "date" together, or as close as we can get. I'll visit him in North Carolina in two weeks and that's going to be wonderful!

• Ocean conservation + why you should care. [Sea, Field and Tribe]
• 5 pro tips to organize your pantry. [life. by bri.]
• Daily blogging essentials. [The Alisha Nicole]
• 17 ways to make yourself happier right now. [Hannah Gale]
• My journey to a hassle-free fitness routine. [Frugal Beautiful]
• How to sleep better at night. [Kris Carr]
• 8 essentials for a rejuvenating weekend. [All Things E]
• Be more intentional with what you consume. [Jennypurr]
• You're doing better than you think you are. [Thought Catalog]
• 10 tips to stick to your grocery budget. [Little City Adventures]

And in case you missed them...

• Free font: caviar dreams
• Easy photoshop: make a pinterest-style collage
• Handcrafted gifts for ladies you love

Shut Up and Dance / Walk the Moon

Geronimo / Sheppard

Free / Rudimental ft. Emili Sande

Jubel / Klingande

Fire Meet Gasoline / Sia

Ghost / Ella Henderson

I'm ridiculously inspired by all the fun graphic prints on these socks from Woven Pear.

Aren't they just the cutest things in the world?

Last week, my goals were to get lots of sleep and get ahead on things in preparation for my church trip this weekend. I'd say I did pretty well! I went to bed maybe 30 minutes early every night, but even that makes a big difference! It feels so good to wake up before your alarm naturally. I'd didn't get quite as on top of things as I would have liked but I'm feeling pretty fine about things.

This coming week, my goals are really concrete--I need to get all caught up on my chemistry notes/work and review all my genetics notes for the year. I'm trying to be better about reviewing frequently so that I'm not just stuck with all the work right before exams. 

Otherwise, not much! I just need to get life in order before I head home for spring break next week! :)

What do you have on tap this week? Also! If any of you are bloggers/artists/creatives/bizwomen and interested in interviewing with me for an upcoming edition of How They Do It, just let me know!

Curated Weekly / 13

Let's just say this week has been SO needed after the mess of a few weeks that I've been having. For awhile, I was in a mental spot where anytime anything went wrong, big or small, I'd start crying and be totally incapacitated for the rest of the day. 

Thankfully, life has eased up on me a bit and I've stabilized a bit from that weird phase and everything feels so much better! It was so lovely to see H and his mom when they visited me last weekend. We spent the weekend lounging around and eating so much good food and visiting my favorite spots around town. It didn't last nearly long enough but it made me so happy to see some familiar faces.

This week has also been much more low-key than the last few! I haven't had any exams or big papers so it's been pretty routine around here, which is the way I like things. I've been working in the lab a lot and working out a lot, but that's about it other than normal classes. One fun thing this week is that I started going to the Boxing Club practices! You may know that I am training to teach fitness classes at our gym and one of those is kickboxing, but actual kickboxing is ridiculously different from the dancey sort of cardio kickboxing we do in group fitness. It was really fun to do one-on-one combat and work on my form, but I am embarrassingly sore.

How has your week been?

• A simpler way to whiter teeth. [The Sorority Secrets]
• 5 things to try when you hit a blogging slump. [Jennypurr]
• How to keep track of freelance clients. [Zie Darling]
• How creating a daily schedule helps me get more done. [Allyssa Barnes]
• 8 ways to live a healthier and simpler life [MindBodyGreen]
• Declutter your mind, body and space. [Ember & March]
• 4 ways to be a positive influence in a negative environment. [Sweet Catastrophe]

In case you missed it...

• Getting back into life after being sick
• Finding inspiration for your blog posts
• Recent design: Sprout Blog
• A better way to respond to stress

I've been listening to a whole lot of hymns lately, especially just the general hymns station on Pandora. I especially like to listen to hymns at the end of a long day during a long, hot shower. It usually helps me transition right to bed! If you're also a hymn lover, here's my hymn playlist. Other than that, I've been listening to songs like...

Spirit in the Sky / Norman Greenbaum

Mr. Tambourine Man / The Byrds

Sara / Bob Dylan

This happy Valentine's themed image from Real Simple Magazine's Instagram.

1. Get ahead on everything. This weekend, my church's college ministry is going on a volunteer retreat to fix up a summer camp. The weekends are really when I recuperate from the week and get everything in order so I'll need to make sure I get everything in order before I leave.

2. Get plenty of sleep! I'm not sure how, but for some reason this week, I've been going to bed later and waking up sleepy and that's not a good feeling when you have early classes. I'm not sure if the answer is to get to sleep earlier or to start taking more naps, but I'm going to start playing around with it. I refuse to drink coffee so I have to pay attention to my sleep schedule to make sure I'm rested enough for my morning classes.

How was your week? What are your goals this week?

Curated Weekly / 12

The last couple weeks have really knocked me off my feet. I've been getting a lot of headaches. I'm totally insecure in my choice of major and with my living situation for next year. My computer broke earlier this week. I spent the majority of yesterday searching campus for my keys/wallet/ID/license/debit card. Probably because of all of these things, I've literally been in the lowest mood ever all week. Major props to H for loving on me and not drop-kicking me for all my whining. 

On the bright side, I got my computer fixed and keys and all back and H and his mom are coming to Florida to visit me for the weekend! I am so excited to see them. I just saw him a month ago, but it has felt like forever. It's tough to deal with rough weeks like this when all your friends are super far away.

I think that's enough about my week haha! How was your week?

• How to actually achieve your 2015 goals (from Kory Woodard)
• More amazing podcasts (from Thyme is Honey)
• 8 tips to establish a morning mindfulness practice (from MindyBodyGreen)
• 10 stupid simple ways to save money on groceries (from poverty luxe.)
• Little ways to (sort of!) sneak exercise in (from A Cup of Jo)
• True story: My husband cheated and we worked through it (from Yes and Yes)
• 10 podcast episodes you should listen to this weekend (from Jennypurr)
• Homemade brown sugar cinnamon poptarts (from Sally's Baking Addiction)

In case you missed it...

• 5 design resources for bloggers
• Tips for long distance relationships (guest post from my boyfriend H!)
• Easy ways to improve your blog design in 10 minutes or less
• My favorite productivity apps

1. Ocean / Alice Smith
2. Bend in the Road / Donavon Frankenreiter
3. Food Chain / Eric Hutchinson
4. Only Rain / Brett Dennen
5. Old Number Seven / The Devil Makes Three
6. Song for Allie / Danny Carvalho
7. Steal My Girl / One Direction (I'm sorryyyyy but it's so catchy!)

This lovely snap from Kenzie of Hello Neverland is seriously making me miss snowy weather. It was in the 70s today here! Click the image to visit her instagram.

Last weeks' goals were to get ahead of blogging and work on better coping techniques for dealing with bad days. With my crazy week and my weekend without a computer, I didn't do either of these at all. 

I'm definitely keeping that second goal on for this coming week and the next few. Lately, if anything doesn't go to plan, I absolutely fall apart. I've never been like that and I'm not quite sure why it is, but anything from an exam grade to the weather can totally ruin my day. I don't like that. This week, I'm going to work on being aware of my mood and how I can kind of stabilize it. 

That's all for this week! What are your goals this week? Any interesting blog posts to share?!

February Goals

Hi friends! So you may (or may not) have noticed a little bit of radio silence here on the blog last week without the Curated Weekly post on Friday. The story is that on Thursday night, my computer decided to stop charging, meaning that it died and I didn't get a chance to write the post before Friday morning. Even more unfortunately, it'll be at least another few days before the part to fix my laptop gets to me, so until then, I'm writing from my tablet, which is no easy task. This also means there won't be post images or very good formatting for a little while. Sad face.

But before we get too far into February (omg! February!), I wanted to look over last month's goals and set a few for this upcoming month! Yay, goals! We all know how much I enjoy goalsetting.

LAST MONTH'S GOALS:

1. Begin a hand-lettering course. Nope, not at all. But midway through the month, I decided that this just wasn't a priority for me. That's okay! I think I'll look into it again this summer.

2. Read one book start-to-finish. Success! I finished The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie and I've just started a fascinating book called Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman.

3. Visit the Museum of Natural History on campus. Yes! Not only did I visit, but I enjoyed it so much that I signed up to volunteer as an exhibit docent.

4. Write a guest post. I promise I really was going to do this one...but then my computer broke. So that goal is on hold for now.

5. Get a routine down for the week. I've done this about as much as I possible could in a month! I have my classes finalized and most weeks are about the same.

NEXT MONTH'S GOALS:

1. Take a 3-day TV fast. I'm not a big movie-watcher, but I love Netflix and television shows. While I generally consider this a fairly harmless vice, it's a little much these days. I want to take at least three days to reset the way I watch TV out of habit.

2. Go to office hours. This was one of my goals for the semester and I haven't gone to a single professor's office hours. I have this weird phobia of office hours and it's ridiculous. At the very least, I need to pay my chemistry professor a visit because I am not chemistry minded and I could use all the help I can get.

3. Form a workout routine. This sounds so silly. I'm working on my certification to teach group fitness classes. Because of that, most of my exercise is in a group format. Oddly enough, I've found that all of a sudden, I'm sort of at a loss when I'm at the gym by myself and I don't quite know what to do with myself. What's up with that?!

That's it for this month! What are your goals for February?

Curated Weekly / 11

This week has definitely been one of those that flew by but yet last Friday feels like forever ago! I made an impromptu decision to visit my grandmother (who lives about two hours away) for the weekend. Let me tell you, it was just wonderful. I don't even know how to put my love and respect for that woman into words. I talked a little bit about her here!

We had such a slow weekend together (I can't think of the last time I went a weekend without internet!) that it was a little tough getting back into the groove of school. Funny how just a few relaxing days can make you forget about work! 

I've been working a lot lately on my fitness certification to hopefully teach strength and kickboxing classes. At our gym, I'm being mentored by a current teacher and I'll slowly start taking over her class. This weekend, I'll be leading the warm-up and teaching the basic punches and kicks. I'm so excited that I'm really getting started on it! I can't wait to have my own class. (Side note! PLEASE leave me comments with your favorite workout music! I'm seriously on the hunt for good songs to use.)

• Today is not over yet. [Alex Franzen]
• 12 practices to feel more peaceful and present in the mornings [MindBodyGreen]
• 7 tips for honoring resolutions [Clementine Daily]
• Creating community, the simple way [Savouring Simplicity]
• 24 hours without complaining and 5 lessons learned [positively present]
• Terrariums for your home or office [Gina Alyse]
• 4 favorite brush fonts [Forth & Wild]
• Getting over a funk [The Rachael Way]

And in case you missed them...

• A better way to respond to stress
• 3 apps for beginner meditation
• Entertaining podcasts you should be listening to
• Make a seamless ikat pattern in photoshop
• I'm offering design services

I've been listening to a ton of hip-hop/top 20s type music to use in my fitness classes and so when I get a chance, I hide myself in some folk music to balance it out. Arlo Guthrie recently came to campus for a concert and I couldn't make it, but I've been listening to a lot of his music and similar artists to make up for it. Specifically, I'm loving my Pandora stations for Peter, Paul and Mary and The Mamas & the Papas.

But seriously--leave me fitness music recommendations! Anything from currently popular music to 80s is fair game!!

Recently, I saw that an old blogging friend of mine (Lisa Nagel) has been churning out some beautiful, beautiful art. Lisa has inspired me for a very long time--she's the one who first got me using beads to deal with my anxiety. She really is a beautiful soul and her art so reflects that. And of course, I'm a sucker for all things plant and especially cactus related so of course I love these. If only I could decide on one! I also follow Lisa on Instagram and I love seeing little process shots and her mantra "Trust the process."

Visit her store.

Last week, my main goal was to get to bed on time so that I could be awake for my early morning classes. I didn't do so hot with this one, but it's all good. I didn't fall asleep in class! :) Here are my goals this week:

1. Get ahead of blogging again. I used to be so on top of blogging and had every post planned and written at least a week ahead of time. And here I am writing this last Thursday night for Friday morning. 

2. Come up with tools and plans to deal with funky days. Whenever I hit some sort of anxiety or stress lately, I just been sort of shutting down for the rest of the day. Yesterday, I started worrying about a decision and after that, it was so hard to get anything done because I was in such a bum mood. 

What are your goals for the week? How do you deal with funky days? What music do you listen to when you work out? (We went all over the place today, topic-wise!)