Three October Goals

(source)

1. Making moving as a family a priority. During the summer, with the pool open and the sun constantly up, ensuring the kids move enough is effortless. However, I have noticed that during the fall we become significantly more inactive.

Actionable steps:

• Attempt to teach Ina to ride her bike. She doesn't really seem to care that she still requires training wheels, so I told her she could ride her bike to school (with me running next to her) once in a while if she learned. Hopefully that is good motivation.
• Weekly dance parties. Trying to follow Let's Dance videos on YouTube is a legit workout.
• After dinner walks - not long, even 10 minutes helps!
• Outings that involve hiking, exploring, or moving. I am thinking the park, Longview Lake, pumpkin patch, etc.
• Nature scavenger hunts

2. Read more books. More books for myself and more books for the girls. The other day I realized that Mira is being read to significantly less than Ina was at her age (around 5 books a week versus 5 books a day), as we do most of our reading after she is asleep. Ina is also reading out loud really well, but I am not doing a great job of sitting down and listening to her read, which is something I would like to change.

Actionable steps:

• Weekly library trips
• Read at least one book to Mira daily
• Read four books (for me) in October. I am already half way through one, and have three more checked out from the library, so the hardest part is done.
• Have Ina read out loud to Mira. Genius.

3. Lose five pounds. Ugh, I hate to be so specific/public/body shaming-esque. I wanted so badly to effortlessly "clean up my eating" and exercise more and have the last 5 to 10 pounds of baby weight just fall away. It turns out that (for me, at least) mostly eating clean and consistently exercising is a great strategy for weight maintenance, not weight loss. So, if I really want this to happen I need to be specific and intentional while also enjoying life.

Actionable steps:

• Track food on My Fitness Pal and make a decent effort to stay within the calorie limit most days of the week.
• Exercise every day (gym on weekdays, morning walks on the weekends)
• Drink 80 oz of water per day.

And other things to do/look forward to in October:

• Order 2019 planner (ridiculously excited).
• Buy a new coat. My current one pre-dates my six year old daughter, so I think it is time for an upgrade.
• Get my eyebrows waxed. I always put this off and then think, I can do this myself, and then accidentally wax off half my eyebrow. Plus, going to the salon feels like such a treat, even if it is only for 15 minutes. 
• Take the girls to a pumpkin patch. I can't wait to see Cora's face light up as the corn pit was her absolute favorite thing of 2017.
• Get flu shots for the family. Necessary.
• Dan's dad's Rendezvous meal (favorite meal of the year)
• Our church's Dream Team Appreciation night. Always so fun.
• So many birthday parties
• A friend's wedding - built in date night!
• Ina's parent teacher conferences-looking forward to hearing how the year is going!
• HALLOWEEN!