Fall semester goals

To celebrate the official beginning of fall yesterday, I set some official goals for the semester that have kind of just been stewing around in my brain for a few weeks now. Wanna hear em?

- Plan meals for an entire week in advance. I have a theory that this habit would save time, money, and waistlines if I would ever just jump on board and make it happen, but I mostly fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to dinner. If I can be a planner for one full semester, I think I can get a good feeling for whether or not it matters. (Because let's be real here, I've totally loved nearly all of my last minute dinners, so goodness knows that if this was about taste, I would never even think about trying this.)

- Finish my family finance class before December. I will, of course, need to actually start this class, like, yesterday to reach this goal. But now that I've settled into my classes and figured out my homework plans, I have a pretty good feel for how much free time I'll have to work on finance. And I think I can hunker down and make it happen!

- Revamp my scripture study (again). I'm close to finishing the Book of Mormon, and after that I want to draw up a new study schedule that incorporates lots of different sources, specifically including Preach My Gospel and whatever the latest conference Ensign is. I also want to establish a habit of sharing what I learn with others, in person and through technology. #sharegoodness, anyone? Oh! I also want to watch BYU devotionals with Joseph, but we'll see how that ends up fitting with our schedule.

- Blog regularly. What does this un-quantified goal even mean? Well, I have really enjoyed writing and scheduling posts in advance over the summer and I want to keep that up. For unidentified reasons, I have more blog post ideas during the week if I already have posts written and ready to go. Also, my life feels more productive if I have a blog post going up automatically at 6:00 AM while I sleep soundly in my bed. It's weird, I know, I'm okay with that.

- Celebrate our first year anniversary (!!) by shirking all responsibility and heading to Salt Lake for a weekend. Okay, this one's already planned and ready to go. It doesn't really count as a goal, but I am super excited for it. 

- Write missionaries! This goal has to be on every goal list I ever write or else I never make it happen. Why is this the hardest thing in the world for me? We may never know. 


Okay so this list looks long to me (maybe because they're paragraphs instead of bullet points?), but there are only a couple things on here that I wouldn't already be doing. This is one of the ways that I find success in my goal-setting: I try to choose a couple goals that add something new to my routine, and then I pair them with a few other goals which slightly extend or simply maintain my current routine. Generally, when something becomes enough of a habit that it doesn't need to keep being a goal, then I have a success story.

And to balance this text-heavy post...random pictures! I wanted to share this sunset when it happened, but I never got around to it. Wasn't this rainy Sunday absolutely beautiful?

These pictures are from the same sunset but facing different directions at different times. And you can also picture rain coming down all the while to make them more accurate. If I may quote a primary song (because since I was recently called to the Primary, they are the only songs in my head anymore), "I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me."

Happy fall, folks!