For a person who loves routine, this past spring and summer were insane.  They were the best kind of insane, of course — lots of positive life changes going on.  But because of all that, I didn’t really have any goals besides get these things done!  Now, my life has calmed down a bit (although I’m not so naive as to think it’ll stay calm forever).  With this small bit of calm, I’m ready to get back into focusing on goals again.

Household/Misc

• Establish a chore rhythm — Christopher and I are really pretty good at housekeeping — but we could be better.  I made us a chore chart, and we haven’t quite made it work with our routine yet, but I’m hoping we will figure out how to balance the household chores.
• Establish a hair/makeup routine — Throughout college, I wore my hair in a bun almost every day.  I knew a few ways to put it up, but I was either too lazy or too tired to fix it.  Now, I have enough time to focus more on how I look, and I’m ready to put in the effort.  I finally went to a nicer salon and got it cut shorter so it’s easier to handle, and I’ve been curling it every few days — the goal here is to keep that up, and find cute ways to put it up when I don’t want to use heat.  Makeup is a different story — I want to learn to do better eye makeup, but I have very hooded eyes, which I’m learning are a little more difficult to work with.  What I need to do here, then, is 1) watch YouTube, pin hooded eye ideas on Pinterest, and practice, and 2) slowly build up a collection of higher quality, easy to use makeup.

  

• Gratitude journal — A lot of people I know online and in real life have started gratitude journals.  I’ve had this on my to-do list for about a month now; I think it would be a huge help for me, with my negative tendencies.  My cousin announced on Insta November 1st that she’s doing a month of intentional gratitude, and that brought it to the front of my mind again.  What better month than November to start this kind of project?  My goal is to start one and use it at least a few times a week — hopefully I’ll see a difference in my attitude.

Spiritual/Religious

• Find a church — Regardless of my spiritual beliefs at the moment, this is something Christopher and I need to do as a couple.  We were both raised Christian, so we’re both comfortable in that environment.  I have a little bit of a problem participating in church when I don’t technically call myself a Christian, but it will also help me make my decision, I think, as long as I’m honest with anyone who asks where I am spiritually.  Christopher is more open than me to Christianity at the moment, too, so it will be a help to him, and it will also be a good way for us to meet some people our own age.  We’ve talked about how searching for a church will be good for us both in multiple ways, since we’ll be able to start over and choose our own church, rather than feeling obligated to attend our childhood churches like we would if we had moved to either of our hometowns.
• Read books/explore spiritual life more — In order to make the decision I need to make, I need to be intentional about learning and assessing.  I can’t just sit and moan that I can’t decide — I need to do something about it.  I need to figure out what my questions are, list them, and try to get answers.  This will mean actually reading the Bible, talking to people like my best friend and sister, and considering what my hangups are.

Hobbies

• Music — Since college is over, I finally have the time and motivation to start playing my flute again, and I so glad, because I seriously missed it.  Playing by myself is no fun, though, and since I don’t take lessons anymore it’s hard to find the motivation to practice and improve the things I need to improve on.  I really want to find a band or flute group to play with (and I think I need to get my flute serviced).  I’m kind of hoping that whatever church we settle on will have an orchestra, but that shouldn’t be a factor in how we shop for a church, and church hunting takes a lot of time.  I’d rather find a group sooner than later, so I’ll be looking around and hoping there’s something that will fit into my schedule.
• Sewing — About 3 weeks ago, I dropped my sewing machine off to be serviced — it was unusable since it kept bunching thread.  I have 2 projects in queue at the moment: a tulle skirt for my best friend, and a t-shirt quilt for my sister.  I’d love to have these both done by spring at the latest.
• Blogging — I’ve slacked off a bit on blogging lately, so I need to establish a new blogging schedule.  I’m shooting for one post a week now, and I need to figure out what day will be easiest for me to publish on a regular basis.  Additionally, I’d love to do one full book review every month (besides my what I’m reading posts) — but we’ll see how that goes.  I think that may have to be amended, but it’s worth a shot.
• Spanish — I’m still very aware of the fact that I need to keep up my Spanish or I’ll lose it, so I’m trying to find ways to do that.  Podcasts aren’t really my thing, and books frustrate me because I read so slowly.  I do like reading the news in Spanish, though, and I’ve found a few websites that interest me.  Reading Spanish news is something I can do at work in between customers coming in, so that may be a good option just to keep me in the language a little bit.  And I can’t forget about the other blog I started that was supposed to be all in Spanish — I’d love to make it a priority to write there, but I need to decide exactly what I want to write.  Most of the ideas I come up with I end up using here instead, so that will be something to think about.

If you ever read these posts and want to join me in seasonal goals, leave a link in the comments!  I’d love to see what others are working on.