I asked a few people in my small group this evening what an “ideal day” looked like for them, from beginning to end. It only seems fair for me to try to answer my own questions from time to time, right?
Version #1 (assumes a sunny and warm summer day)
7:30am: Wake up, brush teeth, grab some coffee from the kitchen (that I would have made the night before), and drink my coffee in bed while reading articles/pinning things on Pinterest.
8:30am: Shower, minimal make-up, and put on a casual flowy dress or skirt. Pack a bag with books and a notebook and headphones. Eat a bagel or a smoothie for breakfast. Put iced coffee in a travel mug.
9:30am: Bike to the library. Do some minimal browsing but then set up shop at a table with all the stuff in my backpack and read and write for hours.
1:30pm: Bike back home and eat some lunch–nothin’ fancy, maybe a turkey sandwich, Goldfish crackers, a banana, and Fig Newtons?
2:30pm: Pick up some iced coffee. Go for a walk with husband at a forest preserve.
4:30pm: Go to Trader Joe’s and pick up ingredients for a stir-fry, as well as some wine.
5:30pm: Make and eat the stir-fry for dinner while watching a funny movie or TV show.
8:30pm: Walk into town and go to one of the local bars. See if some friends want to join as well. Order a soft pretzel, beer, and watch/sing-along to a local cover band. Stay for the band’s entire set.
12:30am: Go home, drink a ton of water, put on Comedy Bang Bang on Netflix, then fall asleep.
Tomorrow is April, folks! Not sure how we got here already, but I’m excited for a fresh new season and the onslaught of Cadbury creme eggs. Aided once again by my Ink + Volt planner, I’ve thought through and settled on a fun way to ease back into month-long challenges in general.
My go-to method of learning about people I don’t know very well is to explore the relatively safe space and colorful world of popular culture with them, asking all kinds of borderline-annoying questions about TV/music/movies/etc. So this challenge features the music portion of this lil habit of mine, and it turns the tables by making myself answer the prompts I so often enjoy using to interrogate prospective lifelong friends.
First, I need to fill out the part of my planner that acts as my oath and covenant for the month:
Second, I need to share my questionnaire! May I present to you, my month-long Song-a-Day challenge prompts….
BEHOLD:
(I know it’s for 31 days, so I’ll probably just answer the last 2 questions on the 30th)
As I mentioned in the planner, I’ll be reporting on my progress at the end of each week with links to my songs–who knows, maybe we can get a decent playlist created as a result of this too!
Feel free to play along at home, and share your answers in the comments. Have fun–and wish me luck!
April is the first FULL MONTH OF SPRING! Yahooooo!!! I honestly couldn’t be more relieved. Winter is generally a tough season for me personally, and it’s a long season in Chicagoland. Though April is often a toss-up here weather-wise, I welcome it, like Scott Stapp, with arms wide open. Longer days, spring flowers, and a glimpse of more pleasant days to come. With this in mind, it’s time to get goals for the month together and ready up that planner! I for serious dropped the ball in March with goal-setting and planning, but I don’t want to take up any time wallowing in it (other then the time it took to write this sentence). Instead, let’s dive into the lofty, ambitious goal setting.
Maya Rudolph makes everything a little bit better!
I’m using this amazing Ink + Volt planner this year, and the prompts/space for goal setting have been incredibly helpful. And when I don’t like a prompt or just don’t feel like answering a question, I’ll just fill the space with whatever I want. Each month there’s a place to track a habit for the month too–I’ll come back to that in a different post.
So then, my goals for April 2019 are (da da da daaaaaa…):
Goal 1: Start my garden I have kinda big plans for my garden this year, and so I need to basically get rolling with this as soon as possible. I’ll have to clean up my garden beds outside (hopefully they’re not too cold!) and get some compost added to it. I’ll also be starting the seeds for some of the pickier plants (e.g. tomatoes, peppers, etc) down in the basement so that they’re ready to transplant when the time comes!
Goal 2 & 3: Read some books I set a year-long goal at the start of 2019 to read one book per month, and so far I’ve read through three. I’m near the end of Rob Bell’s What is the Bible, so I’m confident I’ll finish that as well another book (probably Thomas Lennon’s Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles) by the end of April!
Goal 4: Host brunch Have I mentioned that I really look forward to spring each year? Another reason why is that one of my favorite “traditions” we have here at my house is Easter brunch, which we usually host the day before Easter (is it called “Easter Saturday”? I’m not sure). I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. It’s probably not terribly wise, but I like to experiment with different menus and breakfast recipes for this particular gathering, which mainly consists of our [very forgiving and patient] friends.
One of the cutest books I own!
Goal 5: Make a Peeps-centric dessert or craft I actually don’t always enjoy eating Peeps, but I usually can’t get over how cute they are, especially the chicks. The season for Peeps comes and goes so quickly, therefore I want to create something really fun with them this month.
Goal 6 & 7: Re-organize some rooms This one is self-explanatory, but here it is for the sake of accountability! We got some Ikea shelves for this project already, so now we just need to discern what does and what doesn’t “spark joy” and generally stop being a couple of hoarders. 🙂
My sub-goal: To track my progress here for you guys to keep me honest! I’ll post about my successes (or epic fails!) as the days march on. What are your goals for April?
