A week of cool temps and lots of rain here on the 45th parallel. We have the fall vibes settling in already with the maples starting to get orange. I am seeing the photos on social media with kids going back to school. My New Year feels like it is here already with changing of the seasons and the beginning of the school year. My grandkids start school Monday and the local schools after Labor Day. Back to school has always felt like New Year to me more than the calendar date. This has me thinking about adding new goals to my current goal list and I have just a few goals I want to accomplish this year.

I have been experimenting this week with a changed up morning routine to include doing the Fly lady deep cleaning chore for 15 min each morning before work. I am not doing any crafting in the morning these days since I am not long arming for others often. I am also adding 15 min of exercise in the morning about 3 to 4 times a week. I bought a brain training game on my phone called Elevate. It’s a challenge to do but I want to keep up Math, Language and other skills. I do that after work for about 10 min. My current craft time is in the evenings doing hand work and on the weekends. Instead of playing a musical instrument a few times a week I have changed it to singing with a few online lessons to get me started. The respiratory therapist told me it would help my lungs. I also want to pick one area to declutter on the weekends and take things to a donation center when I have a few boxes. I am also focusing on meditation and mindfulness exercises each morning and daily journaling in my Silk and Sonder. So just a few things to keep me on track for my goals of improving my home and self-care.

I have a few Quilt alongs I want to do and a plan for making seasonal Door quilts for work. I am going to start a Halloween cross stitch soon and keep working on making hexie flowers. I am also working a mixed media art journal at a very slow pace. Those are my crafty goals.

I plan to continue to do this weekly blog, a biweekly podcast and shorts for Instagram and Facebook. I will do 2 videos a month on YouTube if it feels right to make them. If my hobbies aren’t fun then I will assess them this winter to see if I want to do them or change them up a little. Sometimes, you have to decide if you are still enjoying them and need to stop doing them or put a pause on them if there is no joy in doing them.

I have to say that I decided that this September is a time for me to do something new. I have a long weekend planned, Wed, Thurs, Friday, off work. I had initially planned to spend all that time at Quilt Week in Grand Rapids for the AQS show. I changed my mind this summer due to expense, my overall health not being ready for something that strenous, and I didn’t vibe with any of the classes offered. I am going to the show on Sat and staying home for the rest of the time. I signed up for a free online event for organization called Get Organized Virtual HQ. I also watched a few videos by an Etsy shop expert and she is speaking at an event called Amplified during my vacation so I signed up for that, too. If I have time, I am also starting a virtual watercolor course. The beauty of the free summits is that you have access to their content for 24 hours. I typically watch the ones that interest me, not all, and I also watch the 45 min presentation each speaker does on 2x speed. If the content is extra good I slow it down. Usually there are freebies to download and ideas to gather from these events that are valuable. Much of the content is about people selling a course or promoting a book or business so you wanna zoom thru that stuff. I take many creative courses that way also in this format like Cricut projects. I highly recommend them because they are usually professionally done and have great content. AND the best part is the first day of my vacation I am doing something for myself that I have never done before, I booked a massage. I hope it helps me with some of the long Covid aches and pain I have chronically.

I have had a great jump start to my New Year’s goals, so today I am doing a lot of self care, mindful living, house keeping and hobbies.

Are you a fall New Year’s person like me?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Vicki