September 2018 goals

September is the month of our wedding anniversary! We’re celebrating six years of marriage on September 15, and I am still the luckiest person alive to call John mine – but more about that later.

One thing I’ve learned in more than a year of walking out my monthly prep days is the power of pairing or batching things that are important to me. The general idea is that I attach things I’d never forget — like the date of my anniversary — to things I want to remember or do. In this case, that means I pair celebrating our anniversary with marriage-related tending: reading a marriage book in the month of September (likely this one, based on your effusive Instagram recommendations!), taking some time to read through our vows, and getting my rings cleaned. I’m also planning to pull out our photo album and flip through it with June. These things might happen otherwise, but by bundling them all together I make it more likely that they will. And putting them on my prep days note makes it even harder to forget!

September promises to be a great month. Here’s a look at what else is ahead for us!

On my calendar this month:
— The first gathering of a new family group we’re visiting at church
— Our neighborhood’s food truck rodeo
— A visit from my parents!!

What I’m loving right now:
— Like many of you, I’ve mourned John McCain’s passing this past week. I think his farewell letter was beautiful, and a great answer to anyone who wonders why I’m a patriot. Also this: “But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.” Amen.
— We zipped through a whole season of The Great British Baking Show in the hospital, and another one in our first few weeks at home. It has been a perfectly charming and calming companion in the first few weeks after bringing a newborn home! There are currently five seasons (called “collections”) on Netflix – our favorites are two and three.
— If my clothing budget was unlimited, I would have bought multiple colors of this swiss dot top from J.Crew! As it is, I stuck with just the lovely pale periwinkle version.

What I read in August:
— To Kill a Mockingbird: If I only read one book, at least I made it a great one :)

Revisiting my goals for August:
Edit June in June, Volume 3 (Done! Coming to a blog near you soon!)
Newborn photo session with Graham (Can’t wait to see them!! Here are June’s to tide you over in the meantime.)
Replace fan in nursery (Done! Here’s the fan we swapped in.)
Hang art in nursery (Sneak peek!)
Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos (Did not do this, but I did make major progress in sorting and culling older photos, so I’m calling this a win!)
Family worship, especially in weeks we can’t get to church (This was tough, but we did worship online every week and sang along!)
Daily walks, as the weather allows
Decide on format for monthly baby photos
Watch About Time again (Just arrived in the mail, so we’ll be watching it in the next few days!)

September goals:
— Start every day on my knees in a short prayer, offering my day to God (this will be part of my anthem)
— Sort and price all clothes for my favorite consignment sale (and shop it, of course!)
— Make an itinerary and reservations for our upcoming trip to Asheville
— Bake apple cider scones for June’s teachers on the first day of fall (a fun tradition we started two years ago!)
— Cull and edit all 2018 iPhone photos
— Experiment with listing a few things on Poshmark (you may recall this has been on my “no” list in other seasons, but I’m giving it a try!)
— Do something to welcome our new neighbors

If you have goals for the month (or something you’re loving right now!), I’d love to hear in the comments!

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