September Goals in Review

You may remember at the beginning of month I sat down and wrote out some of my goals for September. It's hard to believe that we've already come to the end of the month! It feels like I blinked and it was gone. This month was busy and full of excitement.

So, here is a review of how my goal setting, planning and achieving went this month. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount that I was thinking about these goals as the month progressed. I guess by making them public gives me a sense of accountability. Because, well, obviously you would all be tremendously disappointed in me if I didn't achieve them.

1. Celebrate my birthday. Well, obviously, this goal was achieved. I celebrated with a hair cut, a weekend at the lake and a lovely pineapple welcome sign!

2. Prepare for my BFF's homecoming after her year-long adventure in Scotland. You betcha! She arrived home on September 17th. I went with her mom to the airport to pick the girls up. I made millionaire shortbread to take to her and we've been having fun ever since. I've been shopping more times in the past two weeks than I had the whole time she was gone. We've gone for ice cream, out for dinner for a friend's birthday, had a campfire, watched the season premier of Grey's while eating crepes and celebrated her birthday. After two weeks back in Canada, she and her sister are getting ready to move to their new city of residence but at least she'll only be an hour away now as opposed to across the ocean.

3. Submit ethics application for my thesis. Done. The application was submitted on September 11th. I received notice on the 15th that it was reviewed and sent for expedited review and I am now just waiting to get clearance so I can start focus groups.

4. Complete a draft of the first three chapters of my thesis. Umm, done? Kind of. I definitely have a solid draft of my lit review done. It is pretty close to being a final draft. I have a draft of my methodology section done but there is only so much I can write before actually completing the research so I know I will have to make major adjustments as I go. I also have something that might appear to be a draft for an introduction although it still needs a lot of work. I'm currently working on my theoretical framework chapter which is causing me some intense grief. But, I'm chugging away.

5. Make a new soup recipe each week. So far so good! For the month of September the soup recipes I made were: pea soup, roasted red pepper soup, sweet potato soup and cream of celery soup (which there is no recipe for - on purpose). This week I made end of the garden soup but the recipe isn't posted yet. I have been enjoying my homemade soup oh so much! Our favourite was definitely the sweet potato soup. If you like creamy soups, you should really try it.

6. Save enough money in the designated savings account to cover Christmas expenses. This goal was not achieved but I kind of have a really good excuse. Or as good as an excuse can possibly be. My contract didn't start until a week later than I had anticipated so I have had one less pay check so far than I had accounted for. If you read my post about Christmas budgeting you'll know that I had designated my first two paychecks to go towards this account. Once my next paycheck comes in (next Friday) we'll be good to go.

7. Get a new hair cut. Yup. See #1.

8. Start (or I guess I should say re-start) The Love Dare. I finally got myself motivated to re-start the book somewhere in the middle of the month. I'm currently on Day 12 of 40. I have to admit, I haven't been awesome at doing it every single day but sometimes it just doesn't work out. I find I would rather make sure that I do the dare with some thought rather than just trying to get through the book. So, on a day when the dare says "Call your husband throughout the day" and we are both home because it's a Saturday, I save that dare for sometime later in the week. I also joined a Beth Moore women's bible study at my church so I have been focusing a lot of my time there. I am still hoping to get the Love Dare done in October and I am learning some great lessons from it.

9. Complete all canning/freezing/preserving with the produce from the garden. I have done quite a lot of preserving and am proud of it! We figured that I have canned somewhere between 200-250 jars this year. Our cellar is now full of bbq onion sauce, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, salsa, red pepper relish, zucchini marmalade, plum butter, pickled beets and dill pickles. The freezer is full of freezer jam, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, zucchini and beans. The only thing I haven't done yet is applesauce and apple butter which will come in a few weeks once I get a hold of a big bushel of apples. This is a new part of my life this year and I am so enjoying it!

10. Decorate the house for autumn. Done! I am enjoying my fall decorations and have added a few more since the last post so I just might have to show you some more. We still need to get a few more mums and pumpkins for the patio.

All in all, it was a great month! Now on to thinking about October goals...