Monthly Goals: July

Here's what I set out to accomplish last month in keeping with my yearly goals and my 30 Before 30 goals and what I have planned for July.

1) Work on my relationship with God.  Something really cool is happening.  I have less of a desire to listen to non-gospel music (to the chagrin of some of those I love).  I wanted to have a more than one year Bible-reading plan so I wouldn't try to rush through it.  I decided to use Our Daily Bread as my jumping off point.  I read the verses associated then read ODB, then the chapter or more. There are some great stories and I like to try to figure out how they apply to my life.  The ones I REALLY don't understand, I look up a commentary for (usually Matthew Henry who I only discovered this month even though he did commentary on the ENTIRE BIBLE and died in the 1700s... I feel SO LATE! LOL).  But it's very cool.

What was at first a, "Really???  Why does this chapter have 55 verses???  Let me pick a shorter one." is becoming, "I'll read that one and then the next one because I want to know what's next.  Ooh!  And I wanted to read more of Ecclesiastes!  Let me go find that!"  Anyway, I wanted to bring my total for the end of June up to 60 (partly because I had read more books than I thought I had).  I read a lot faster than I expected.  I got up to 84 chapters in 28 books.  For July I want to get to at least 120 chapters read.  There are enough stories I'm intrigued by that I'm okay not upping the number of books read.

2) Finish my film.  I wanted to get our film festival submissions up to 10-- DONE!!  This month we wait.  We won't hear back from any until August, but the bulk we will hear back by September.  SO CRAZY!!!  So next month this goal won't be on the list anymore.  Wow...

3) Take the next step in my career.  I pitched my film (present it to a panel of executives from various television stations) at a film festival-- HUGE STEP!!  I got some great feedback, learned, saw a lot of  films & networked.  My first film festival experience was a great one!  I'm so excited that there are many more for me in the future!

4) Try new restaurants.  Of course I did well with this.  I always do.  I want to cut back on this to save money but also by virtue of being in 2 cities where I haven't lived full time ever or in years (Charlotte and Atlanta), it's likely I'm going to be trying lots of new restaurants.

5) Cook at least 3xs a week, 2 of those new recipes.  I am SO BACK!!!  I've tried 4-6 new recipes EVERY WEEK!!  So exciting!!  I love it!!  I love the trial and error, I love the successes, I even like (not love) the failures because I learn something.  I really, REALLY like when people ask me for food advice or try recipes I recommended.  SO COOL!!  Recipes and reviews mostly with pictures are up on my food blog, The Record Dish, including my favorites this month, garlicky butternut squash, velvet potato purée, & south by southwest sliders.

6) Watch more movies.  I'm up to 145 on the year.  That means I still have plenty of time to get to 300 (about 180 days).

7) Workout more. I was shooting for 3xs a week and that didn't happen every week BUT I'm a lot closer & really excited about that!!

8) Statecations.  As mentioned, I went to St. Augustine!!  When I move to NC I'm going to carry over the statecations goal and make it double up on some of my 30 Before 30.  For this month, no statecation goal.  I'd kind of like to go to Augusta but I don't think that's going to happen.

9) Contact my grandma once a month.  Last month I was supposed to finally send her a package of my stuff from graduation & screening that she'll love.  I'll do it this month!!  Very cool & exciting! :)

10) Do FAFSA.  ............