July Goals

Wow. The switch over to Bloglovin has sure kept me busy this week! I want to be sure I keep up with all of the blogs I love - plus I've found so many great new ones! Don't miss out on the HUGE link-up of giveaways!

I'm linking up with Jess at I {Heart} Recess to share my goals for July. This summer is flying by MUCH too quickly. :/

Personal:  I need to work on getting 8 hours of sleep per night - no more, no less (within reason). My inner night owl comes out in the summertime, so I'm staying up late. I'm also adjusting to a new house (which gets a LOT of early morning sunlight) and working on settling down my brain from a lot that's happened the past 7 or 8 months. Most nights I'm sleeping about 4 hours, off and on - but when I get really tired, I catch up and sleep 12. Not a good cycle, especially since I'm back to school the end of July! Any advice for getting on a good sleep cycle? It has been so long, I don't remember how...

Family:  My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and my boyfriend and I all live within 5 miles of one another. Yet we sometimes go a week or more without all spending time together! A goal for July is to be sure to see them all at least once a week - for a family dinner. Do you live near your family? How do you spend time together?

Health:  We moved less than a month ago into a new house, and prior to that, had lots of problems at our old house, so we were eating out WAY too much. Not only is that not healthy, it isn't good for our wallets! We've done better the past two weeks, but need to cut it down a bit more. What are some of your favorite simple, summer recipes?

School:  At my school, each teammate is responsible for planning one subject area for the entire team. My subject is math (which I LOVE). Last year, we implemented common core for the first time. I learned so much from our successes and failures over the course of the year. Now it's time to map out next year, to be sure we have enough time to be sure students have deep understanding of concepts. How do you map out your year? Are there special tools, resources, or websites you use?

Blog/TpT:  Blogging is tough for me. I enjoy it, but I really struggle to make regular posts. I see so many fun linky parties that I get overwhelmed. I know I need to take baby steps, and just enjoy the process - not worry so much about others. I know I have a lot to share as I enter my tenth year of teaching. I also have about a billion and one ideas for TpT products, and I just can't keep up with all the ideas I have. I want to plan it out a bit, to help keep myself on track. How often do you blog and/or create products? Do you have a schedule, or just play it by ear?

Outside the Box:  At the new house we're renting, the owner has a small desert landscaped front yard and a nice-sized backyard that is partially desert landscaped and part grass. I haven't mowed a lawn since I was in high school, helping out my parents. I certainly have never had a mesquite tree that sheds an incredible amount of seed pods in the summer - let alone two of them. It is really fun (ha.) to rake and sweep up pods when it's 110 degrees, and bugs love the pods and crawl in and out of them. Eww. Luckily, my boyfriend doesn't mind yard work - but I can't let him have all the fun...can I? :) 

Pretty shade tree.
Source.

Lovely pods covering the ground - not so pretty.
Source

Be sure to link up and share your goals for July! Stay cool, my friends!