{My year of happy} June update and my July project – refresh

My June project’s theme was to nourish myself in 3 main areas – more sleep, more walking and eating better.

The sleep was excellent – I ended off the month on an average of 7 hrs 45 minutes. It is exactly what I said before – if I don’t track it or intentionally go to sleep more, my sleep is awful.

My goal was 4 walks and I managed 3, so not bad, but could be better. I feel really good about one of those walks though because it completely nourished my soul.

The eating better? Yes and no. I chose better meals on the whole, but I could have done much, much more. It’s just so darn cold to eat salads at home during winter. I don’t mind in an airconditioned office but at home I don’t want to see a vegetable straight from the cold fridge.

Onto July…

This month I’ve set a theme of refresh for my life.

  1. We’re going on a family holiday and I want to use the time to completely relax, read some unputdownable novels and rejuvenate my spirit.
  2. I intend to take at least one walk every day with whoever’s game, no matter the weather 🙂 I’m putting this here for accountability.
  3. I’ve been doubting my value in friendships recently and God’s been whispering to me that I am still enough (word of the year – 2015!) so I want to spend time writing down these truths and meditating on what He says about me. I feel like this is the perfect time to get filled up on His Word, just before my birthday month.
  4. We’re coming up on one year in our house so I also want to take the occasion to refresh areas of my home by doing a bit of decluttering, reorganising, sprucing up, etc.
  5. Our house also needs its upstairs outside windows cleaned. Desperately. What is the point of a house with a view if you can’t see properly through the windows, right?!
  6. Then, I think I will try one last time to get my book back from a PR company who has not returned it for a whole year. After that, I’m going to let it go.
  7. And besides all that, I have some birthday parties to throw to celebrate another circle around the sun for all 4 of us.

How are you going to refresh during July?

What I learned in June

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It feels like just the other day when I was writing the what I learned in May post :0

I don’t have many things this month but they are big ones.

I will survive when my children go away and leave us at home alone

My children have probably only spent about 5 – 6 days away from home in their entire nearly 8-year-old lives. This month they spent 3 days away from us and yes, it was super quiet, the house was immaculate, everything stayed as it was and that was kind-of nice, but just for a few days.

I hardly cooked because Dion and I just went out all the time :0

I discovered voice to text

So you may know this already but I didn’t. When you tap in your text field of an email, text, Instagram or whatsapp message, and a little microphone pops up right next to the box, you can tap the microphone, talk and the phone types what you said. (I should try blogging while driving to work!)

I’ve known this for about a week but it’s wonderful. The kids think so too. We’re all sending useless text messages all over the place because it’s SO easy now 🙂

Did you know this trick?

(I don’t know how it works on any other phone, only my iphone 6)

Podcasts can also be listened to like radio

Due to my immense love of podcasts, I keep finding episodes I want to listen to. I have a few regulars I subscribe to but quite a number of them where I check every couple of weeks or so to see the topics, and then only download the episodes that interest me.

Now here’s the thing – I’ve been telling myself they’re like the radio. I don’t have to hear every single sentence and have everything noted down. That’s given me some freedom because if a child comes into the kitchen and talks to me, I don’t stop the podcast – I just switch my attention to the child.

But…. it’s still a really great accompaniment when I clean, organise, or edit photos.

Speaking of podcasts, in case you missed it, I’m on Monday’s episode of the So Suzy Podcast.

What have you learned this month?

Share anything – big, small, silly, serious – I want to hear them all.

6 questions to ask as you do your half-year goals review

As many of you know, I do a monthly goals review every month before I set goals for the new month ahead.

I find that it helps me take stock of what went well and why, and what I need to work on.

We’re now half way through the year and my question to you is this – are you on track with your goals?

For now, go through these questions with me about the 6 months that have just passed, and answer them honestly.

1. When I think about the last 6 months, what do I feel? Am I excited, disappointed or apathetic about my progress?

You want to get an overall sense of the feeling of the half year. Was it too busy? Did you get big things done? Was it a period you just want to put behind you so you can move on?

2. Which areas of my life are working well, which are neutral and which are not doing so well?

This is to drill down into the areas making up each category so you can fix the not-so-good areas if there’s something you can do about them.

3. Why? Or why not?

For this one, write a little bit about the reasons you feel the way you do about each area.

4. What do I need to let go of or are there places I need to lower my expectations of myself?

These could be actual goals or projects, or unrealistic expectations.

5. What can I do differently to make sure the next 6 months move me closer to my goals?

These are the things you know are true for you.

Some of my ideas are:

  • First work on my own goals and then scroll social media.
  • Schedule important project work.
  • Don’t compare yourself to others.

And the last question…

6. How am I living out my word of the year?

If you chose a word for the year, are you living it out intentionally? Do you think about how to incorporate it in your daily life? Is it just not working for you? If yes, here’s your permission to change your word.

Over to you.

My challenge to you is to answer these 6 questions honestly to take stock so you can have a successful second half of the year.

What I learned in May

I love these monthly round-ups of what I learned.

Last month, I learned that:

I read fewer books when I have too many non-fiction in my batch

I’ve always known that I read faster when I read fiction only but in May, I read a total of 10 books (previous two months equalled 12 books each), 4 of them non-fiction!

Does your reading speed change depending on what you’re reading?

My headaches are hormonal

I tracked the days when I had headaches especially since the weather is cooler, and noticed that they happened on the same two days of my cycle.

Still not sure what to do as my gynae was all “yes, that’s normal” the last time I mentioned it, but at least I’ve isolated it.

Konmari first, then organise clothes

This year I swopped over my summer and winter clothes, and it was SUPER fast. Like in 30 minutes. Here’s a photo of my wardrobe if you’d like to see, and here’s a photo of my long-sleeved tops.

I have a strong suspicion that it’s because I’d Konmari’d before.

You have to act immediately if you want to catch seasonal photos

Autumn in Johannesburg is a tricky beast. One weekend the leaves are still green, the next they start turning, you have a few short weeks of that glorious golden glow and then they fall off.

This year I had a full weekend when the leaves were glorious, and then the next weekend it rained non-stop the entire weekend, and then half the leaves were gone. I still made the most of it and ended up going on 3 photohunts for beautiful autumn leaves.

I have to track my sleep forever 🙂

I reached my 3-year Fitbit anniversary on 26 May. More than anything else the Fitbit can do, I most appreciate the sleep tracker.

I’d been easily hitting my sleep goal of 7.5 hours, but I’ve really had to work at maintaining that this month. No idea why but I suspect it has something to do with my natural night owl tendencies.

More on this because I need to focus on sleep in my year of happy project for June as the theme is nourish.

What did you learn in May?

PS Thank you for completely indulging my love for all these photos 🙂

What I learned during September

Happy October, blog readers. Hope it’s a good one.

Today is freezing cold in Jhb, my absolutely favourite weather, and so I’ve been smiling the entire morning.

I did my Goals Night yesterday morning before anyone else was awake and here are the top 3 things I learned during September:

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It’s always better to talk something out rather than to assume things

You all know our house has been on the market for 6 months now and I’ve been stressing about it. I finally made a meeting with the estate agent to talk through why our house is not selling vs other sold signs I do see going up in the area.

Our conversation was a tiny bit awkward but mostly great because I learned a few things I didn’t know.

I always feel better when I take action

Related to the above, nothing seems to have changed but, aside from that meeting, I’ve also taken action on a few house-y things and it feels great to make a few phone calls, check a few things, get quotes on a few other things, etc.

I’m fully aware that it’s a control issue. So be it 🙂

Realise when you’re the only one stoking the fire

I invest a lot of time and energy into friendships generally speaking but someone at work asked me if I was the only one stoking the fire. Interesting concept so I gave it some thought and I started holding back just a bit.

The interesting thing is some friends carried on stoking the fire, and some stopped. I realised it fully in September because I don’t think I’ve had such a month empty of socials.

That’s not to say I’m stopping investing in friendships but I’m now aware that in certain instances, if I want the friendship to continue, I’m going to have to do most of the initiating. I’m prepared to do this but just not as frequently, so where I might have made plans once every two months, every 4 months will have to do 🙂

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Some other September highlights:

  1. Kendra and Connor had an excellent term at school. They also both got glasses last week after routine eye checks which they have to use for close work (the opposite of me, but Dion is far-sighted too).
  2. I handed over some high-maintenance stuff at work which I’m thrilled about because this specific responsibility has never been my best work.
  3. Dion and I had a movie date! I think it’s the first one this year (at the theatre) – Bridget Jones’s Baby.
  4. I read 8 books, 3 of them non-fiction. Check out my Goodreads —–>> (the icon on the top right of my sidebar is linked)
  5. I finally finished the series on How I paid off my house in 5 years. Like I said on Instagram, I’m thrilled this is done because it’s done the worst of any of my posts. I want to (secretly) take them down but at least I can now refer people to the blog to read more if they’re interested when we talk in person.

I didn’t intend for this post to be so long, so let’s leave October goals for Thursday 🙂

What did you learn during September?

What were some of your highlights?

PS I’m linking this post up here

July review and August goals

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July was interesting 🙂

It felt a lot worse than it actually was.

But actually, when I stopped and did a proper review writing it all down, I realised that I actually got a lot done.

This is the point of doing a monthly goals review – to stop and notice the things you did do, instead of only the things you didn’t.

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Just a few highlights:

  1. we had a wonderful family holiday in Ballito – lots of good food, walks, times of connection and reading
  2. we moved house (!) – I think if we did nothing else this is AWESOME 🙂
  3. I met up with 5 different friends, all one-on-one
  4. I read 8 books, none of them audible books. I bought 3 books on Tuesday morning because this month is a normal working month, not one where I take 2.5 weeks holiday.
  5. I got my hair done. My appointment was moved out due to the holiday and move, and you know how you can’t WAIT to get your hair sorted again? Yes, that was me 🙂
  6. My tax was done!

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A few goals for August:

  1. Sell old house (please pray – the pray without ceasing praying – for God to send people who will love that house and who can afford it)
  2. Organise handyman to put up shelves and get all our photo frames up
  3. Write the paying off the house post – this may be more than 1 post, depending on how much I have to say.
  4. Participate in #AugustBreak2016 on Instagram. I think this is my third year and I love it. I enjoy the prompts, the community and it’s a good time of year for me as I’m feeling reflective (it’s my birthday on Saturday!) and the weather is still cool enough to wander around getting nice photos.
  5. Organise July photos and select photos from Ballito holiday for printing.
  6. Write for 20 minutes a day.

Over to you.

What are you going to read, what are you going to listen to and what will you do to keep yourself sane this month?

And a very happy birthday to Terisha who started out as a reader and has now become a friend!

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