Monthly Recaps

November 2019 Monthly Recap

Greetings! I hope your November and Thanksgiving was wonderful! Today, I’ll be giving my November Monthly Recap.

Writing

My goal was to start going through my book, but I got no writing time in last month. None. I suppose I could’ve spent less time reading… but Legacy came out last month! I just HAD to spend every spare second reading it!

So, on the less desperate side of things, I plan to spend less time reading and more time writing this month.

Blogging

Well… I think we all know how blogging went for me this month, if you read my update post. No posts. No time to write.

But, this month will be better. I plan to get at least two posts out that will continue our bullet journal series.

Goals

My goals last month were:

  1. Drink more water. I did start on my water goal, which was to get to the point where I drank three cups of water each day. I got up to two cups, but not three.
  2. Read three books. I did reach this goal.
  3. Study driving book. Nope. I didn’t. Not even once. I have a driving guide that I’m trying to get through, but I just haven’t had time to study it.
  4. Work on going through your book. This is referring to the book I’ve written. As I said before, I didn’t have any time.
  5. Do a devotion every day. I did not do very good on this goal.

My goals this month are:

  1. Study driving book at least three times a week. Be finished with it by the end of Christmas break.
  2. Get at least two blog posts out.
  3. Work on going through my book.
  4. Get to the point where you drink three cups of water a day.
  5. Read at least two books.
  6. Do daily devotions.

Books

Last month, I read three books and started one.

  1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. This is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, and I loved reading it for the second time. The first time I read this series, my mom read it out loud to me; so this is my first time reading the books for myself.
  2. Legacy. Okay, I have a lot to say about this book, but I’m going to save it for a different post. I got a request to post about this book when it came out, so that can definitely be expected this month, for all of you KEEPER fans. This is the eighth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and I enjoyed it. So. Much! Whenever I had a break in my school work, I buried my nose in this book. I CANNOT WAIT for book nine.
  3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I finished this book for the second time, and had just too. Many. Feelings. Of course, I loved it all the way through and I started book seven the moment I finished it. 🙂

My goal next month is to read at least two books (this is less than last month because I want to focus more on writing and studying my driving guide). I plan to finish book seven of the Harry Potter series, and start another series of books (I’m not sure what I’ll read next).

Bullet Journal

I think I’m finally getting the hang of bullet journaling (says the girl who’s been bullet journaling for over a year). I’ve figured out a system that works for me, and I didn’t miss very many days of filling out my journal this month. That might sound kind of discouraging, given that I’ve been bullet journaling for over a year, but it has truly been an amazing journey. It has been so fun to figure all this out, and I am so happy that I decided to try it.

This month, I did a Christmas-y theme, given that it is December.

I used stencils to create this page, and I’m not thrilled with how it turned out. But it’s only the title page. I don’t really look at the this page a lot.

This is my monthly overview. I have my calendar, and a section for events and another section for goals underneath it. On the right page is a page for reviewing my month. The first two sections are for writing out the positive and negative things that happened during the month. The next two sections are for recording the books that I read and my water goal. Finally, I have a place to record memories and and a drawing of a snowman. Isn’t he just so cute?

Next is my mood tracker. This is a simple tracker. Each day, I’ll choose the snowflake that best shows how I felt and draw it in the empty space.

This is my December Brain Dump, where I can write down anything I want to remember.

Here is my Habit Tracker for this month. It’s the same as always: dates are written at the top, and on the side of the green line is where I will write my habits.

Finally, here is my weekly layout. I did this in gel pen because I couldn’t come up with any color schemes that I hadn’t used on my regular pens and I had a lot more colors to choose from with my gel pens. The left page has all of my extra information and the right page contains all of the daily sections. At the top of the left page, I have a section for my goals. I’ve decided to start doing three goals for each week as well as the ones for the entire month. Underneath that is a section to record all of the exercise that I do during the week. The section below that is divided in two- one for extra notes and one for my water tracker. Finally, I have my to-do list at the bottom of the page.

Life In General

Life in general last month was hectic. We just moved in to our new house last October, and this month was full of unpacking the house and going out. Then came Thanksgiving, and it was from house to house, dinner to dinner, family to family. So now, I’m glad to be back home, writing this post in front of my Christmas tree.

Next Time…

That’s it for today’s monthly recap. My next post will be about Legacy, so if you’re a KEEPER fan, stick around!

How was your November? Are you all set for Christmas? Are you a KEEPER fan? Tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3 ESV

Monthly Recaps

September Monthly Recap | Review of my 1st Bullet Journal

What!? Another month GONE!? Already!?

I don’t know if that’s how you’re feeling, but it’s definitely how I’m feeling. So, I hope you understand why this post is so late…

I’ll make up for it with the full post I have planned for today. I’ll be doing my September Monthly Recap and giving you an overview of what my first bullet journal looked like.

Books

So, this month I finished reading the series that I started in August. The title of the series is The Golden Filly Series, and it’s a set of ten books about a teenage girl who rides horses. Tricia Evanston, the main character in the book, hopes to become a jockey after high school, but she also has to deal with the fact that her father just found out he has cancer. Tricia struggles with anger at both God and her father. The series follows her horse-riding journey, and she attempts to win the Triple Crown. Tricia learns that she should trust and praise God in everything, and she and her family learn to deal with her father’s cancer.

These books are really good, and they give a good lesson for those willing to listen.

Since I knew October was the next month, I decided to reread the Harry Potter series. I got Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book in the series, read before the end of September, and I plan to continue the series throughout this month.

Writing

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much writing done last month, and I probably won’t get much done in October as well. I’ve had tons of tests and studying to do in school, and this month, I won’t have much time because I’ll be packing boxes! My family is getting ready to move to a different house before the end of October!

But… I actually did get one big achievement done in my writing during September. My school has a writing prompt each month, and you can submit what you wrote in response to the prompt to the school. If they like your story or poem, then they will work with you for the next few weeks to revise it, and then publish it on their blog! Well, guess what! I submitted a story based on September’s prompt, and I got chosen!

Here it is if you want to read it: https://enlightiumacademy.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/48000952365-the-final-letter.

The prompt was to write a story of poem about a letter.

Bullet Journaling

I feel like I did pretty well in my bullet journal last month. I filled it out almost every day, and I am proud of the hard work I’ve done to get my new bullet journal ready.

I’ve been working really hard on my new journal for the last couple of weeks, getting it ready for this month. You’ll be seeing pictures soon!

Blogging

So, I definitely didn’t get as many posts out as I wanted to… I only did one… oops… Please, forgive me. I’ve been super busy recently. This month I’ll try to do better.

Goals

My goals last month were:

  1. Fill out bullet journal every day. I did pretty good on this area.
  2. Write every day. Here, I did the opposite of ok…
  3. Be more productive. I feel like I was. I did lots of planning for my new bullet journal, and spent a lot of time studying.
  4. Get A’s and B’s. 95% of my school work was probably an A or B.
  5. Do 3 blog posts. Oops…

My goals for this month are:

  1. Get to where you’re drinking three cups of water every day.
  2. Bullet journal every day.
  3. Pre-plan posts and get them out on time.
  4. Be better about logging exercise.
  5. Read Bible every day.

Review of my 1st Bullet Journal

This is how much time was done in my bullet journal:

  1. 1 year
  2. months
  3. weeks

The following is a list of the pages I used in my bullet journal:

  • 8 habit trackers
  • 8 sleep logs
  • 6 mood trackers
  • 8 different weekly layouts
  • 3 dream logs
  • 2 gratitude logs
  • 4 pages for school: grade trackers
  • A list of birthdays
  • A page for books to read: a list of books I wanted to read
  • A water tracker
  • 3 quotes pages: pages dedicated to quotes or Bible verses
  • A weather tracker (which turned out to be beautiful)
  • A page for books of the Bible: a checklist where I could check off the books I read
  • A packing list: a list of things I always pack on a trip
  • A page for my ideal day: a schedule for a perfect day
  • A cleaning list: a list for cleaning my room
  • A fitness tracker: a place to track the exercise I did
  • A page for New Year’s resolutions: a list of my New Year’s resolutions and a tracker for them
  • A stress tracker
  • A page for Keeper of the Lost Cities: a page where I listed out my Would You Rather questions I had created

And that’s all the pages I did in my bullet journal. A few of them I probably won’t do again, but that’s ok. At least I know what pages work and what pages don’t.

Well, that’s it for this post!

How long have you been bullet journaling? Do you like bullet journaling? Have you tried it? How did your September go? Talk to me in the comments! I love hearing what you all think about what I post!

My next post will probably be next week, and it’ll be all about starting a bullet journal, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5 ESV