Anyone else feel like April, May and June were just a total blur? Where did they go? End of school/beginning of summer hamster wheel is no joke. I was feeling pretty boo boo faced about what I had managed to accomplish over the last few months until I went back and read my goals in my 1st Quarter in the Rearview post.

Maybe I should’ve been even more realistic and said that I hoped to accomplish my list of goals between April and June, not just in April. Believe it or not, many of the items I wrote on that list I did manage to accomplish in those 3 months, even losing 6 pounds. Thanks to my Whole30 push, I actually lost 7! That whole running thing was a farce, though. Why is it so hard for me to stay committed to exercising when the schedule starts spinning wildly out of control?

Before getting into my list of “hope to’s,” I’ve gotta celebrate some victories!

Here are some things I did semi-successfully accomplish in the 2nd quarter of 2018!

Home:

• Decluttered kids’ rooms
• Several junk drop offs at the Care Center
• With the help of Maj W, built a frame for a USA map I’ve been moving from house to house for 4 years and have it hanging on the wall
• Decluttered the backporch
• Kept plants mostly alive

Personal:

• Completed a round of Whole30
• Shed 7 pounds
• Proved to myself that I can practice self control in regards to food
• Made my first dental appointment for myself since we moved here 4 years ago
• Broke the chains of part time employment

Blog:

• Grown Social Media accounts
• Relaxed my expectations of myself when it comes to post frequency
• Building relationships with other bloggers
• Claimed Yellow Cottage Living on Bloglovin’
• Purchased/Rented Post Office Box for Blog/Business purposes

After evaluation, the past 3 months haven’t been a complete bust!

What I am learning about myself through this whole process is that I’m SLOW! What would take the regular person a month to get done takes me 3. I guess I need those first two months of warm up and the final month to kick it into the right gear. I tend to accomplish a ton when my time is limited – much like the patriotic wreath I started making on July 2nd! At least next year I’ll have a wreath ready to hang on Memorial Day, right?!

So much will change again around our house in the next 3 months. It’s no wonder HarpAlyse has such issues. Her little life has so little consistency. After this weekend, summer swim team will be over. In 13 days or so, Maj W will go back to a “real job” here on the Arsenal. In 30 days or so, the kids will go back to school. In 45-60 days, I hope to have my new business venture launched.

The start of school alone, with 4 kids in public school, brings with it so many moving parts. Heck, the minute the school offices open after their summer break, I need to go and do an address verification or my kids won’t get assigned teachers or a schedule. Note: I’ve already done this for 3 of them, but the office somehow failed to enter my info into the system.

What am I realistically intent on accomplishing in the next quarter? What can I make happen before the end of September?

Home:

• Finish Master Closet (Remember this post? I’ll explain more about why this is still incomplete later!)
• Declutter, Declutter, Declutter
• Garage clean out

Personal:

• Continue to make good food choices
• Incorporate exercise back into my daily routine
• Better manage my time
• Get our family budget back on track

Blog/Business:

• Keep growing Social Media accounts
• Post consistently here on the blog
• Design Media Kit/Press Page
• Set up Email Subscription widget
• Officially launch Yellow Cottage Living’s Professional Organizing Business
• Finish 2 different online training courses in which I am currently enrolled

So many things on my plate, as usual!

Once again, though, seeing the past wins typed up on the screen helps me have better perspective on what I have managed to accomplished. Totally gives me a little sense of success, even if only to minuscule amounts.

Do you write down your goals or intentions? Do you go back and reevaluate? Truthfully, this is the first time in my life that I’ve tried to keep close tabs on the goals that I’ve written on paper or kept buried in the recesses of my mind.

What do you hope to mark off your list this quarter? I like to treat the beginning of the school year as a new beginning – almost like a 2nd New Year’s Day!

Let’s make the 2nd half of 2018 great, together.