Successes, Struggles, and Soon-to-Bes: September 2016

Can you believe it has been a month already?!?!?!?! 
So here we go:

Successes:
My biggest success this month is that I finally got my book blog up and running. This is something I've been toying with for a long time but was always afraid to make the commitment, afraid that I wouldn't have anything interesting to add to the book world, afraid that it would cut into my reading time too much, afraid that I wouldn't follow through. But who wants to live in fear? So I did it!!! I have been blogging consistently twice a week and plan on making it three times a week starting this month. I also set up a facebook page and have 41 followers, only about 25 of whom I know personally. I'm super excited about this endeavor and feel like I have made a successful start! (If you're interested in checking it out here's the link: ElizabethAnne Reads or you can find it through my facebook page here. No pressure guys, just if you're interested.)

Another big success is that I did start running again this month. I have not been as consistent as I would like to be but it is at least a start, and as a little self esteem bonus, I lost 5 lbs. So there's that. 

The other thing I want to mention is that I stopped sleeping with my phone next to my bed. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal but I have an ongoing struggle with spending too much time online. So now, I plug in my phone in the bathroom before I go to bed and it stays there until after I read my Bible in the morning (or at least it's supposed to, it hasn't been a perfect month). Seriously though guys, who needs to check facebook at 2am? Nothing is happening then...seriously...nothing...

Struggles:
My ongoing biggest struggle is discipline. I know I talked about this last month and I like to think I've made a few improvements this month but they have been few and fairly insignificant. I continually struggle with how much time I spend online, how often I exercise and how I eat, how I spend my money, and how diligent I am in being productive with my time. I hate that I can't seem to get in control of certain aspects of my life. This is going to be a BIG focus for me in Ocotber!

I've also been a little frustrated this month with my vehicle situation. My truck has a blown head gasket. I'm still driving it but the truck will need to be replaced soon. (I've decided that putting that much money into fixing it isn't worth it.) I understand that vehicles die, my frustration is more that I had been careful in budgeting out my finances this year so I would be able to start a travel fund and now that is all screwed up. I need to work on my attitude and be thankful that I already had some money set aside that can be used on a new vehicle. 

Soon-to-Bes:
My first goal this month is to limit my time online. I'm going to set my timer for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening and leave it at that. There is absolutely no reason to spend more than an hour each day online. 

I want to will continue running and going to the gym consistently this month. Physical, spiritual, and emotional health are all important but I never seem to be able to be successful in all of them at the same time. I want to will continue working on all types of health and finding the balance between them. 

And on a related note: Mental health. I'm not sure if it's just my age or if it's the evil influence of technology dumbing me down, but my memory is not what it used to be. I am going to spend more time working on strengthening my brain this month, mainly through memorization. I am going to memorize chapters in the Bible, poetry, and piano music this month! How much better for my brain would that be than watching youtube videos of funny animals? 

I will also stop saying 'I want to' and start saying 'I will'!!!


I hope this encourages you in your own journey!
Thanks for reading!

Successes, Struggles, and Soon-to-Bes: August 2016

I have been thinking a lot lately about living life purposefully, setting goals for myself and following through, working on changing who I am and becoming who I want to be. I'm really good at setting unrealistic goals for myself, like deciding that in the next year I'm going to run a marathon, become fluent in three new languages, learn all the Chopin etudes, and read 250 books. And do you know what follows that goal list? Failure...generally on the first day...and then self pity and depression, because I can never change. I will always be stuck in my rut and I will never be the person I want to be. So I'm trying to approach life differently this year, trying to set realistic small goals that, over time, help me achieve the bigger, less realistic ones. So my plan is to write a monthly blog post outlining some of these goals in the hope that the accountability will work in my favor and slowly I can become more of the woman God created me to be. 

Successes:

My biggest success in August was that I actually took time to write out some goals and some even bigger dreams and a few steps to get me started in the right direction. Even this blog post is a huge first step for me. So yay me!

Also, our annual family camping trip this year was a huge success (in my opinion). Beautiful weather, great bike rides, many books read and board games won, and no injuries! Oh! And I tied with my dad in game of mini golf (he usually wins), so that was great fun! 

My last success for the month was having a better balance in my reading. I say I like to read a lot of different things (and I do!) but my reading list in the last few years would not have reflected that. This month I managed to read classics and non fiction, as well as my usual fiction. I read 10 books this month which is fairly average for me but...

Struggles:

...seven out of the ten books I read were in the last week of August while we were on vacation, meaning up until August 23rd, I had only read 3 books, so that is actually a pretty poor reading month for me. Which gives some insight into my biggest struggle right now: Spending too much time online!!! This is huge for me. The internet is a great tool, but I should not be spending several hours every day watching youtube videos, or playing backgammon, or book shopping... I can't even begin to tell you how quickly 5 minutes of internet time can suck me in and suddenly my whole day is gone and I accomplished nothing. I hate it! So I am instituting some pretty strict internet rules for myself this month in the hope that it will help me to be more productive in many areas. 

My other biggest struggle (which is definitely related to internet usage) is discipline in general: Discipline in eating right, exercising consistently, being diligent in the time I spend with Jesus, spending time online, how I spend time in general, how I spend money. It's a huge, overwhelming thing that I need to work on. I don't want to waste my life. I don't want to be the person that looks back and talks about all the things they were going to do. I want to be the person that does them and has great stories to tell!

Soon-to-Bes:

And all that brings us to this section, where I get to talk about the things that are coming up for me and things I want to change in the coming month. 

First of all, we're headed back into fall and more piano lessons. So I'll be setting up my lesson schedule in the next week. Also, I'm looking ahead to Christmas and making plans for church Christmas choir which will be starting up in just a couple weeks. 

For goals this month, I already mentioned limited internet time. I also want to start running again. I really would like to do a marathon someday...not this year...but I think I can manage a 5k by the end of the year. 

In closing:

Thanks for reading my rambling little blog. Honestly, this is more an exercise for myself and less for you guys, but maybe I can inspire you a little bit too and we can journey together. Speaking of inspiration, I have two people that deserve serious credit for inspiring me. Nathan Johnston, who always inspires me, but specifically this post inspired this blog, and secondly Caitlin over at BookChats (check out her youtube channel here, it's all about books!) who graciously gave me permission to use her Successes, Struggles, and Soon-to-Bes outline. 

Readathon Update #5

There comes a point in everyones life, after staring at the same page for an hour and dropping the book on the floor several times, when you admit that it is time to gracefully withdraw from the competition. That time has come for me. I made it 21 and a half hours and I never grew tired of reading so that makes this, my first readathon, an epic success. Thanks for reading and cheering. Good luck to those of you still in this for the final hours!

Final stats:

Pages Read: 1009

Audio Books: 1.5 hours

Currently Reading:
Finnikin of the Rock  (pg 343 of 399)
Book Scavenger (pg 130 of 343)
The Hobbit (audiobook) 1.5 hours

Books Completed:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (274 pages)

The Penderwicks (262 pages)

Readathon Update #4

Phew! 18 hours down, 6 to go!

I'm still here, still reading away. I am starting to get just the tiniest bit droopy but I think a bit of caffeine and a midnight snack will perk me right up! So far, this isn't turning out to be as hard as I anticipated but I guess the toughest 6 hours is still ahead of me. But I will press on, no giving up now!!!

Current stats:

Pages Read: 892
Audio Books: 1.5 hours

Currently Reading:
Finnikin of the Rock  (pg 320 of 399)
Book Scavenger (pg 36 of 343)
The Hobbit (audiobook) 1.5 hours

Books Completed:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (274 pages)

The Penderwicks (262 pages)

Readathon Update #3

Yay! We have reached the halfway point. I still feel like I'm going strong, in fact, if anything, I think I have become even more inspired as the day has progressed. And, best of all, I'm excited that I still have 12 hours of reading time ahead of me!!!

So here are my stats as they now stand:

Pages Read: 597
Audio Books: 1 hour

Currently Reading:
Finnikin of the Rock  (pg 200 of 399)
The Penderwicks (pg 123 of 262)
The Hobbit (audiobook) 1 hour

Books Completed:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (274 pages)

Readathon Update #2

Okay, seriously, Six and a half hours in and I'm loving every minute of this day, but how have I never realized what a slow reader I am? I know it's not a competition and I'm not worried about keeping up with other people but I just thought I would be further along than I am. *sigh* Oh well. I'm having fun and that's what matters.

So here are the current numbers:

Pages Read: 322

Currently Reading:
Finnikin of the Rock  (pg 48 of 399)

Books Completed:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (274 pages)

Also, thanks to those of you that have been stopping by and commenting. It's so encouraging! I'm off for a quick bathroom break and then to raid the fridge. Happy Reading! (and snacking!)

Readathon Update #1

Good morning all! Its not quite 3 hours in and I am 155 pages into The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I love it, just so you know. I am taking my first quick break to check in online and get some breakfast. Also, I discovered I won a prize in Hour 1! YAY!!! Totally wasn't expecting that one!

So here's the official info:

Pages Read:155

Currently Reading:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Books Completed: