july things.

another july goal? continue photographing these crepe myrtles.

Let's be honest with one another here: I have been watching Pretty Little Liars all day. After a Saturday night of practically no sleep, I guess I'm still recovering today. That's ok though, because tomorrow is a new day. And today, though this post is going up late, I am going to share some goals for the month of July. But before I do that, let's review the outcome of my goals from June.

JUNE RESOLUTIONS

1. Continue focusing on managing stress in healthy ways. I'm happy to say that this has gone really well. Multiple times, when I was feeling stressed or anxious, I was able to realize that my shoulders were tensed. I let go of the tension, & the stressed feeling was eased. I felt a lot better in the month of June, & I hope that I can continue maintaining my health, both mentally & physically.

2. Blog every single day. I did it! I am so proud of myself, & I'm happy with how the results inspired me.

3. Rise early - 6:15 to be exact - maybe not every single day, but most days. Now this, I did not do, unfortunately. It has been difficult getting onto a certain schedule, but as you will see in my July Resolutions, I plan to keep trying. Hopefully next month, I'll be able to give you some good news - that I'm consistently rising early.

4. Work out every single day. I didn't do this, either. And more & more, I am realizing that you don't have to work out every single day to be healthy. In fact, sometimes working out too much can cause stress & injury. 

5. Get back into my reading schedule, for both the Bible & library books. I am happy to report that I am caught back up with my Bible reading plan. Falling behind on that was really upsetting to me, & it was something important that I needed to fix. However, I still need to get back into a good reading rhythm with library/other books. I miss reading! And in fact, my hold notice recently came through for Winter's Tale. I watched this movie with Justin & his mom a couple of weeks ago, & it really touched me. I think I'll put my reading of Emma on hold for a little while & dive into this particular story.

JULY RESOLUTIONS

1. Wake up at 6:15 a.m. every day from July 8 - July 31. Since I'm penning this edition of my monthly goals on the seventh, & I haven't been waking up at 6:15 so far this month [in fact, today I rose at the early hour of... 11:30], I am going to have to make the goal for the rest of the month. In addition to rising early, I also plan to make a to-do list each day & accomplish each of the things on that list. I know - isn't that the goal every day, really? Well, I am really focusing on it this month, let's say.

2. Move to Greenville. This is happening toward the end of the month, & I am really excited! Well, I'm both really excited & really sad. Excited, because I love our new place & I'm excited to start school, & sad because of the closing of our Wilmington chapter. It's hard to appreciate a time in your life while it's going on. I wrote a little bit about this here. Maybe I'll write some more about it in the future.

3. Continue eating healthy foods, drinking water, & taking care of myself. As I've mentioned multiple times in this space, on June 1, I embarked on some healthy living changes. At the end of this month, I'll be sharing more about that here on my blog. For now I'll say that things are going well, & I couldn't be happier about taking better care of myself.

4. Read three books. As you saw in my fifth resolution from June, I've been working to get more on par with my reading schedule. Reading three books this month will more than make up for my reading laziness as of late. And I know I'll feel a lot better if I'm reading more.

5. Write Morning Pages - & even more than that - every day from July 8 - July 31. I'm excited to start building a new morning routine, & I think this will be a great component to work in. And when you haven't been ink-&-paper writing for a while [like I haven't], you start feeling like you're missing something. Or, at least I do. And I'm ready to have that part of my life back in order.

Here's to a brand new month, even though it's already the seventh. It's never too late to make goals for the month & strive to achieve them. I'm ready to make July the best month of 2014 yet. What are your goals for the rest of this month?

Want to see my other things? They're all here.

weekly wishes three.

Good morning! I am up bright & early this morning, with a to-do list nearly a mile long. Our first visitor [Justin's mom!] arrives tomorrow, so the apartment has a couple of finishing touches needed, like a good vacuum. Also, we have a moving company coming to give us an estimate later this morning, for our move to Greenville [which I'm soon going to share more about!]. Those things things will probably keep me pretty busy, but I also need to get a workout in there somewhere... Let's kick everything off with another installment of Weekly Wishes.

LAST WEEK'S WISHES

1. Get caught up with Bible reading. Well, I have finally gotten caught back up, & I am vowing to never fall quite so far behind ever again. Reading the Bible has become such a peaceful, relaxing part of my day, & I look forward to having the entire thing read by next March.  

2. Sort & store all of our photos. This did not happen. I don't know why I have such a block against this particular project, but that doesn't change the fact that I need to get it done before my computer decides to crash again.

3. Take some time out to relax. Mission accomplished! Last week was pretty great: the perfect combination of relaxation & productivity. I'm hoping for another week just like it.

THIS WEEK'S WISHES

1. Keep the house neat & tidy. With a clean house under our belts, it's important to me to keep it that way. I've really been taking pride in our place, & simple joys like that should always be appreciated.

2. Work out every single day. I've been doing really well with this, & I want to keep it up.

3. Write & read a little bit every day. My novel, my journals, books, blogs, blog posts... there is a lot to be written & read this week.

What are your Weekly Wishes? Go share on 

The Nectar Collective, or simply leave me a comment below!

/////

<a href="siddathornton.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy248/siddathornton/Untitleddesign-3-1.png" alt="siddathornton.blogspot.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Want to join me in blogging every day in June? The more the merrier. I even made a button to celebrate the occasion. Feel free to use it in your blog sidebar or in the body of your posts. Let's encourage one another to get back to our blogging roots. Happy blogging!

weekly wishes two.

Good morning! Today I am excited, because Justin is finally coming home from his U.S. Open trip! He has been gone since Thursday, & that is far too long. I'm starting to go stir crazy in this empty apartment. I'm ready for some relaxation & One Tree Hill viewing today. I can't wait until he's here, as if that weren't evident by the amount of exclamation points I've already used in this short paragraph.

I have a lot to get accomplished this morning, but before I run off like a busy bee, I wanted to stop in & share my second edition of Weekly Wishes with you all. 

LAST WEEK'S WISHES

1. Get ahead with my blog posts. Nope. This didn't happen, at all. I had such high hopes, but it seems I over-committed myself pretty much all week. I need to give myself a full day at Starbucks [Or maybe Barnes & Noble? I haven't been there in a while.] in order to accomplish everything that's on my blog to-do list. That might happen this week, but I cannot be positive. Hopefully so!

2. Walk 10,000 steps or more each day. I got very close to this goal, & barely missed it. Something tells me it may pop up in next week's wishes.

3. Get up at 6:15 every single day. This didn't happen either. Oops.  However, I did learn how to program my coffee pot over the weekend. It's set to brew at 6:10 each morning, so there's some early-rising incentive for you.

THIS WEEK'S WISHES

1. Get caught up with Bible reading. I mentioned in yesterday's post that this is absolutely priority number one this week. And it is. It's driving me crazy that I'm not on point. When I see you here next week, this task will be accomplished. No excuses.

2. Sort & store all of our photos. This is a project that I've been sitting on for a long time. We have an external hard drive, & I plan to sort & store the photos there, as well as in an online medium [Dropbox? Photobucket? Any suggestions?].

3. Take some time out to relax. Next week begins summer visitor season at the C Residence. I am so thrilled to have company coming, but I'm going to take this week to relax a bit. I want to still get things accomplished, but I do not want to feel the anxious immediacy I sometimes feel when I'm trying to get things accomplished. Plus, I want to be a happy hostess, not a frazzled one.

Y'all. I've got to step up my game. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels with a LOT of the tasks I've set before myself. Here's to a brand new week of productivity. You know, real productivity. What are your Weekly Wishes? Go share on The Nectar Collective, or simply leave me a comment below!

/////

<a href="siddathornton.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy248/siddathornton/Untitleddesign-3-1.png" alt="siddathornton.blogspot.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Want to join me in blogging every day in June? The more the merrier. I even made a button to celebrate the occasion. Feel free to use it in your blog sidebar or in the body of your posts. Let's encourage one another to get back to our blogging roots. Happy blogging!

weekly wishes one.

I mentioned in my June Things post that I would be participating in the Weekly Wishes link-up each week, unless I had another post on the docket for that particular Monday. Well, this week is my first official Weekly Wishes post [note that the title of this post is "weekly wishes one"]! I am excited to set three goals each Monday, & to share my results & my three new goals on the following Monday. So, let's get on with the wishes for this week.

THIS WEEK'S WISHES

1. Get ahead with my blog posts. I've been meaning to do this since June Blogs started, but I have found myself busy with projects & other engagements in the past week. Luckily, I think I will be able to carve out some time to get - hopefully - two weeks ahead of my posting game this week. The plan is to have two weeks' worth of posts drafted in blogger, & then each day, I will polish the next day's post before scheduling it. Also, I will obviously have the capability to pull a post & place it on postponed status if another more appropriate post needs to fill its spot. I'm really excited to get organized & to get ahead, & I hope this is an extra step in turning over a new blogging leaf.

2. Walk 10,000 steps or more each day. After reading Alison's post this past week, I decided to set my own goal. Granted, it is a much shorter time frame than her 100 days, but I still feel like it's a good starting point. Maybe in a couple of months, I'll be able to commit to 10,000 steps for 100 days. Thanks for the inspiration to put my Fitbit to even better use, Alison!

3. Get up at 6:15 a.m. every single day this week. I mentioned this in my June Things, but I haven't exactly fulfilled this goal yet. I'm really ready to commit myself to the rhythm of waking at 6:15 each day. When I did it last summer, it made me very happy. This is yet another way I'm putting my Fitbit to work - by using its silent alarm, I hope I'll be unable to stay in bed past this time.

So, there you have it! What are your goals this week? Perhaps you'd like to pop over to The Nectar Collective & link up for Weekly Wishes this week. Whether you do or not, I'd love to know what you've got on the agenda for the next seven days.

/////

<a href="siddathornton.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy248/siddathornton/Untitleddesign-3-1.png" alt="siddathornton.blogspot.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Want to join me in blogging every day in June? The more the merrier. I even made a button to celebrate the occasion. Feel free to use it in your blog sidebar or in the body of your posts. Let's encourage one another to get back to our blogging roots. Happy blogging!

june things.

If you've been reading siddathornton for a few months or longer, you'll be familiar with my things posts, which is my way of sharing with y'all my resolutions for each month. I'm excited to continue these posts as I blog every day in June, & I have also run across a link-up - Weekly Wishes, via The Nectar Collective - to link my monthly resolutions up with, when the beginning of a new month falls at the beginning of the week, which is when the link-up is posted.

I will also be taking part in the link-up by sharing my goals for each week & the results of the prior week, on Mondays that I don't have another post on the docket. 

So, let's get on with it, then. In May, I resolved to do five things: drink between 60 & 80 ounces of water each day, keep up my workouts & eating healthy, keep reading, keep the house clean, & get back on track with blogging. Now, I will say that I did pretty ok with my water consumption. Though it was nowhere near happening daily, I was much more conscientious about choosing water & drinking it as often as possible. So I'd consider that a win.  I definitely kept up with my workouts - I've been walking five miles per day, for an average of four days per week. I definitely plan to keep that up in the month of June. Eating, however, did not go as well. If you read my post from yesterday, you'll know that I embarked on a healthy living journey on June 1. This obviously includes a major clean-up of my diet. As far as reading, May did not deliver. Nor did it deliver in the way of keeping house. Even though I didn't post very much during the month of May, I got my thoughts together & rallied mentally to blog every day in June [Tired of hearing about that yet? Haha, we're only two days in!], so I'll consider that one a success. Overall, not too bad of a month for my goals. 

JUNE RESOLUTIONS

1. Continue focusing on managing stress in healthy ways.

2. Blog every single day.

3. Rise early - 6:15 to be exact, maybe not every single day, but most days.

4. Work out every single day.

5. Get back into my reading schedule, for both the Bible & library books.

So, there you have it! Let's make June the best month yet. What are you planning on doing in June? I'd love to hear your resolutions!

Want to see my other things? They're all here.

link-up: Weekly Wishes on The Nectar Collective

/////

<a href="siddathornton.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy248/siddathornton/Untitleddesign-3-1.png" alt="siddathornton.blogspot.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Want to join me in blogging every day in June? The more the merrier. I even made a button to celebrate the occasion. Feel free to use it in your blog sidebar or in the body of your posts. Let's encourage one another to get back to our blogging roots. Happy blogging!