It's officially October and I've got a mess of goals that I'm hoping to accomplish this month.  My plan is to be in good shape with my various projects so that I can still get things done that I want to achieve before the end of the year, despite the busy season that is quickly approaching.  Due to my day job, October spells the beginning of long hours and unusual work hours.  It also brings impatience, frustration, and a never-ending to do list for both work and my personal life.  My hope is to get a jumpstart as early as possible this year, so that, hopefully, I can continue blogging and creating throughout this crazy time!

In order to do that I've put together a list of goals that will help me push towards some peace this year!

Journaling by 5s Book - I completed my first session this past weekend.  I have some video editing to do to get that ready for sharing.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get another session in this weekend, but I'm not holding my breath since I only have one day off this weekend.  I am loving this process though and can't wait to share with you!

Finish editing kit videos - Once again, I have some video editing to get done so that I can get these uploaded and share them with you!  But this kit is just about finished up so I can move on to other projects.

Finish 2013 and 2014 December Dailys - These are my two big projects for October.  I want to complete these two projects.  2013 is just about done, I think I need to finish up a couple pages.  However, 2014 only has a couple pages done, because Jamie's surgeries and amputation occurred in December of last year - making it an extreme stressful time.

Home Decor Projects (Focus on Living Room) - We have been discussing some major changes to our living room that we are wanting to start working on in October.  This includes furniture changes, as well as little touches like curtains and organization.


Montessori/child-led learning projects (Fall) - I really want to delve into Fall and all of the awesome learning opportunities with Atty this month.  We've done a couple projects so far, but I really want to incorporate her current interests (like apples, colors, counting, leaves, and nature) into our learning plans for the month.  We will be making a trip to the local Pumpkin patch in the coming weeks, which should be very exciting if it's anything like last year!


Organization of Art Studio - We are still moving and unpacking my art supplies and art studio stuff.  It was the lowest priority when we moved and so it pretty much stayed at my Mom's in "storage."  So as we've gotten almost everything else put together, I've slowly been bringing my art supplies into our new place.  However, I haven't figured out how organize it yet!  And it's beginning to take over our living room!  Eeek!!  So it's time to get this planned out and usable.

Start Building December Daily 2015 - Once I've finished the previous years, I'm going to start building the foundations for my album for 2015.  I've got some ideas currently spinning around in my head, but not sure how it'll pan out until I start working on it!


So there we go!  Lots of goals to try and get done for October!  It'll be interesting to see how it all works out.  I hope you'll stay tuned and check out my progress.

It is officially over half way through the year and I have no idea where all that time has gone to!  It's been a rough one between Jamie and the baby being sick and such.  Here it is July and my blog has gone to the crickets, as have any other mommy-centered activities.  I spent most of June trying to regain some time and focus, delving into my one little word that I picked back in January.  Up until this last week Atty had been back in daycare for the longest stretch since she started back in February - she almost made it three week straight!  The last three weeks have been pretty amazing.  I had three weeks where I didn't have to struggle with making sure someone was able to watch her while I was at work or not going to work because I couldn't find anyone.  Three weeks of Jamie steadily healing to the point they took the wound vac off of his right foot (where they had amputated his toe several months ago and we worried that it would end up being fully amputated, as well).


Three weeks of life flowing right along.  It has been wonderful.  I haven't wanted to return to the online world until I knew life had calmed back down, in case I had to disappear again.  I have started off rather slowly, easing my way back into my own routine.  ICAD began in June and it was fairly simple to play with index cards and snap a picture for Instagram, even with the crappy phone service in our new place.  Pinterest has also been a nice way of relaxing outside with the family in the evening and getting inspiration, and it was still fairly easy to do on my phone.  Now I'm beginning to dip my toes back into the blog, while not forcing myself to have a strict schedule and go gunho - thus getting frustrated because I can't keep pace due to life's hiccups.  Getting back to my word for 2015 (FLOW).  I'm also dipping my toes into creative videos, something that was on my goals list back in January.  July kicks off #onebookjuly2015, which I participating in again this year.  I've fallen off the planning wagon for most of the year and really need to get back into getting things done!

Another thing that are going on in our little studio world is working with Atty's learning progression.  We have begun to apply some Montessori and unschooling/child-led learning principles to activities, toys, and art that we all do together.  While most of our "equipment" is DIY, we have setup a small Montessori area in our living room that I will sharing, as well as other "educational" stuff that we have been doing with her.


We are all getting back into a routine.  A very exhausting routine, but routine none the less.  My work schedule has shifted to half an hour earlier so everyone in the house wakes up around 4 am.  Mornings are devoted to waking up and relaxing before we meet our day.  We get home from work and daycare we spend sometime while dinner cooks playing with our learning toys and such.  The rest of our short evening is spent playing with toys (balls, bubbles, minimal TV/cellphone apps), and reading books.  By 5:30, Atty is getting fussy, tired, and ready for bed.  Once bath time is over and she is tucked in I have a two to three hour gap of me time.  Recently this has meant playing video games (Dragon Age: Origins), scrapbooking, art-related stuff, planning or blog/video stuff.  It's really working for us.  Any day that Jamie isn't in the hospital or Atty is not sick is a huge win day for me!