I had three goals for July: to do at least one Rosetta Stone lesson per day, to read scriptures daily, and to workout at least 5 days per week. The month started out very well, but I have to admit that our mid-month mini-vacation threw me off my stride a bit and my end results were far from perfect. Despite that, I want to look at the positive and talk a little bit about what attempting to reach these goals has gotten me.

The Rosetta Stone lessons are the goal I came closest to meeting, which makes the results even more frustrating. I’m not getting through these lessons fast enough, and even though my Spanish is improving, it hasn’t been enough for me to test out of my next two classes yet. The semester starts on August 20th, so I’m going to really push the next two weeks and try to get in an hour of Spanish a day. That’s not going to happen every day, but hopefully I can do it enough days to test into Spanish 301 in a week and a half. Not my most realistic goal yet, but if missionaries can become fluent in a new language in 2 weeks, I can (hopefully) manage intermediate proficiency in the same time period.

Having scripture study every night was a little bit more difficult because the last thing I want to do after putting the kids to bed is read — I want to sleep! Even with Micah’s sleep disturbances I still managed it more than half the month, and I really feel like I benefited from the change. I’m notoriously terrible at remembering to read my scriptures, so even a 50% success rate at this is an unbelievable improvement. The little things seem easier when I’m being consistent with this, and I notice my stress levels improve, I’m less irritable, and I’m more active and productive. I’ve also started singing the kids Primary songs before bed (songs from children’s Sunday school) and they seem to fall asleep easier. Micah still wakes up in the middle of the night, but those songs also get him back to sleep easier than just rocking him. I’ll call this one a success, but I want to continue it and make this a permanent habit.

I didn’t do nearly as well on the third goal unfortunately. I’ve been more active in general, and I did a ton of squats, push-ups, and crunches in July, but I really fell down on cardio. We’re moving our treadmill from the garage (where it’s boiling hot) to the loft today, so I should be able to walk/run way more often. My left knee has really been bothering me lately, so I know I need to shed the rest of this extra weight ASAP before I really cause some permanent issues in my joints.

August Goals

My goals for August (our third 30 day challenge!) are actually very similar to my goals for July, but I have a better idea of what I need to do to get them done. As I said before, the goal of Rosetta Stone every day and reading scriptures every day are carrying over into this month. As a third part to the challenge, I joined a challenge to run 50 miles by the end of August so I will aim to run at least 5-6 days per week. This will help me continue to lose weight, and it will also help me to prepare for my first post-baby race in October. I’m excited to see where I am this time next month! 🙂

• Write 10 freelance articles
• Transcribe at least 10 hours of work
• Rosetta Stone 1 hour daily
• Scriptures daily
• Martial Arts 3 days per week
• Minimum 20 minutes strength training 3 days per week
• Run 50 miles by August 31st
• Keep laundry and dishes caught up
• Get the master bedroom organized

Of course, once the semester starts I’ll scale back on Rosetta Stone a bit in favor of actual Spanish homework, but if I can get organized in the next week, I can make sure that I have the time to reach my goals, stay ahead on my homework, and keep my GPA where it needs to be.

I also owe you a bit of an explanation on my lack of weigh-ins. Last month I started taking a medication that can cause some water retention, so rather than make myself crazy I decided I wouldn’t weigh or measure until the end of August. This will give my body enough time to adjust to the medication so the weigh-in will be accurate. I’m excited to share my progress with you!

What habits are you trying to get into with the start of the school year looming ahead?

What did you do in July to push you closer to your goals?