Goals Update: October

It's almost the end of October, and I feel as though Kentuckiana still hasn't experienced a true autumn season.  It was too dry this year for the leaves to turn those deliciously bright shades of yellow, orange, and red.  And it was just too bloody warm to really feel as though summer had finally released its grasp.  It is finally starting to cool down a bit (and I mean a bit), but when I realize November and December are rapidly approaching, I feel as though I should be needing to wear my winter coat every now and then.  Of course, I realize that in a few months time, I will probably be complaining about the cold and how I'm tired of wearing seven different layers of clothing at a time.  Okay, I exaggerate.  This part of the world doesn't exactly require seven layers of clothing during the winter months...but you get the idea.  Now that I've rambled on about our lack of autumn and my desire to wear a winter coat, how about an update on those goals?

Become a faithful member of the 5 am club.  So maybe not 5 am every day (or any day for that matter), but there were definitely several days which I got up fairly early.  For instance, on Wednesday I was up at 5:30 baking a birthday cake.  How many people are up at 5:30 to bake a birthday cake?  That's what I thought. 

Memorize 52 verses. Pass...

Memorize (the first half) of the book of James. No excuse; I just suck.

Continue in the SWI program. I finished term one (Cross Cultural Ministries) and am now halfway through my term two class, Baptist Beliefs.  On Monday, I will be registering for next semester.  I'm hoping to take Biblical Parenting (no, we are not pregnant and are not planning to be any time soon, so just put that question back inside your mouth where it came from) and Old Testament/New Testament Survey.

Read through the Bible. Fail...I have confessed this to the girls in my community group and they are starting to hold me accountable.  That, dear friends, is hard.

Continue to think through our family traditions. Again, it's hard to quantify this one, but I feel we have great holiday traditions (our Jesus tree, Advent celebrations, cream cheese Christmas cookies) and am excited to experience them again this year. 

Communicate with our family (and friends) more. A fair success; I should probably still take some more time to call some individuals with whom I haven't spoken in a while.

Build up our emergency fund. Nada...but we will be adding to that very soon.

Make a huge dent in our car loan. Dent?  What dent?  There is NO LOAN!!!!  Because we paid it!  I'm removing this goal from the list for updates now.  YES.

Cut our grocery bill. The hubs is going to help me with this one...I am going shopping once a month for everything, but am allowing myself to go mid-month for milk and additional fruit and veggies if needed.  Anything else has to wait for next month.  I already went shopping for November's meals; I was so on top of things I even remembered to get enough frozen pie crusts for all the pumpkin pies I will be making for work, family, etc in the nest few weeks.

Develop a consistent and workable cleaning schedule. I pretty much just pick up in the morning and evening, and then try to do a thorough cleaning once a week.  It's worked out really well, except our spare bedroom is getting a bit hectic...the Christmas presents are starting to pile up in there, but I am not letting myself wrap them until about mid-way through November.  I love wrapping Christmas presents...

Read 30 books.  I reviewed several books for different blogging programmes this month, and I finished A Prayer for Owen Meany.  I'm enjoying Tess of the D'Urbervilles right now, and I am also hoping to finish a few more books on my 2010 Reading List.

Scrapbook.  So...I think I might join my friend Liz and try out the digital scrapbooking.  She pretty much convinced me the last time we chatted...so, I'll let you know how that goes.

Continue blogging. All right; I apologize for the video-laden blogging recently.  But, all in all, I felt this month was a good blogging month.  I am been a wretched blog-reader and blog-commenter and am going to work diligently on that next month, bloggy friends.