Tag: Books!

Monthly Recaps

July Monthly Recap

floraj5604

Hey, everyone! July is officially over, and August has begun! School is about to start back, and I am super excited! Let’s get started!

Reading/Books

This month, my goal was to read four books. Unfortunately, I only read three.

  • A Common Life (The Mitford Years book six)
  • Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities book four)
  • Lodestar (Keeper of the Lost Cities book five)

I was supposed to have finished two more books by the end of this month, but I just didn’t have enough time.

Writing

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much writing done this month either. 😦 We’ve definitely had a busy summer! My goal was to do twenty minutes each day, two hours each week, and ten hours for the entire month.

  • July 1-6: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • July 7-13: 2 hours
  • July 14-20: 45 minutes
  • July 21-27: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • July 28- August 3: none
  • Entire Month: 5 hours 5 minutes

My excuse for the last week is that I didn’t have access to my writing since I was staying at my grandmother’s house. 😉 Overall, I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking with it and getting it done.

Bullet Journal

I was super pleased with July’s pages! They were exactly what I needed, and I’m probably going to stick with the same design for next month. If you missed the pictures for July’s bullet journal pages, click here to see.

I am very proud of myself because I bullet journaled almost every day this month! It’s been a struggle for me to find the time to fill out my journal, and keep up with all the habits and trackers, but this month, I did pretty good!

Now, onto August’s pages.

I didn’t really have a theme this month, so I decorated the title page with school supplies, as seen at the top of the page.

I did end up changing the layout of my Monthly Log a little. Of course, first I have my calendar, which is on the top of the left page. The space under that is divided into three sections: Events, Goals, and Notes. I also did a quote underneath the Notes section.

On the right page, I have a section for Books (to write down the books I’ve read), Memories (to write down memories and fun times to remember), School (to write down the subjects I’ll be taking this year), Blogging (to write down my blog plan for this month), Bullet Journal Ideas, and Writing (to write down how much time I spent writing/editing each week and for the month).

I decided to go back to my original Habit Tracker layout. The one I used last month was too time-consuming and confusing.

This month, I had time to take a picture of my first weekly layout. This is not how I usually do my weekly layouts; I just did a simple layout last week since I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to work on it.

Blogging

This month I did not do as many posts as I would’ve liked to have done, but like I said before: it’s been a busy month.

These are the two other posts I did this month.

Goals

My goals for July were:

  1. Write for twenty minutes every day. I did miss a few days, but other than that, I did pretty well.
  2. Drink more water. Sadly, I didn’t do very well in this area.
  3. Bullet Journal every day. Yay! I did do this almost every day!
  4. Be on phone less. Oops . . . I did ok the first part of the month, but the second part is another story.

My goals for August are:

  1. Be on your phone less.
  2. Don’t stress about school too much.
  3. Drink more water.
  4. Write every day.
  5. Bullet Journal every day.
  6. Pre-plan blog posts and work on them in advance.
  7. Practice piano every day.

Life

July was a pretty busy month, and I have enjoyed my last month of summer. I filled the time with binge-watching Netflix, taking morning walks, writing/editing, bullet journaling, and reading. I spent a lot of time at home this month, but I also stayed at my grandmother’s house last week. That was definitely awesome, because she has a pool!

Just a few days ago, my mom and dad presented me with a new laptop! I’ll mostly use it for school this year, but I can also use it for my writing and blogging.

I start school next week, so this week I’ll be getting school supplies ready, setting up my new laptop (yay!), and watching orientation videos (I do online school). That means I probably won’t get posts out until Saturdays or Sundays during this first month of school- but I promise I’ll try to work ahead.

That’s the end of today’s post! If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments. Also tell me: how was your July? Are you looking forward to school starting? Also, if you have any topics you would like me to do a post on, please let me know!

Thank you so much for reading! Have a wonderful week! Happy writing!

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26 ESV

Monthly Recaps

March Monthly Recap

floraj5604

Hello, everyone! Thank you for your patience! Last month, I remarked on how quickly my month went. March did not go as quickly. It seemed like it was taking forever to get finished! I’m sure it was mostly because I was ready for spring break.

Books

This month I finished At Home in Mitford. I LOVED IT! It was such a great book! It had a little of everything I love added in- romance, mystery, and a little adventure. Like I’m sure I said before, it’s a great book if you want to read a relaxing novel. Yes, I did say adventure and mystery, but you need at least a little action, right? Otherwise, it would be a little boring!

I also finished the second book in the series, A Light in the Window. It was just as good as the first, with a little romance and mystery sprinkled in.

Finally, I started the third book in the series. I’ll let you know what I think about it when I finish it.

Writing

So, this month, I got quite a bit of writing done. I wrote almost every day, adding to my book. For my story of the month, I have decided that I’m going to add on to the short story I did last time. But, I am going to do it in a separate post so I can write more than I usually do. Sorry for the delay!

I’m also going to do a new thing next month to help me track my writing. Whenever I write, I’ll set a stopwatch so I can write down in my bullet journal for how long I wrote each day. I’ll add up my time for each week and compare. Then, I’ll add my weekly times together to get my total writing time for the month. It’s just something I wanted to try.

Bullet Journal

So, this month, I decided that before each monthly recap, I would go ahead and get next month’s title page, overview, and trackers done so I can share pictures for next month. For April, I decided to do something spring-ish. I decided on the theme “Secret Garden”. And without further ado, here is my title page.

Next, I did my monthly overview with vines and flowers to complete the “Secret Garden” theme. I have a section for notes on the left page as usual with another section for goals underneath it. On the top left of the right page, I have a section titled, “books”. Here, when I finish a book during April, I write the name down so I don’t forget about it when it’s time for another monthly recap. To the right of that, I have a section titled, “writing”. This is where I will write down the amount of time I wrote each week. Underneath the section for books, I have a section for my blog. This is where I can plan out a post for each week. Underneath the section for writing, I have a section for memories. This where I can write down memories I don’t want to forget. I haven’t decided what to do under the section for my blog yet. I will probably do a quote.

Next, I did my sleep log. Of course, the tree and owl are there to contribute to the theme.

Next is my habit tracker. Nothing new here!

All of these pictures were taken while we were staying at a cabin in Cumberland Mountain State Park. I really enjoyed my spring break! What about you? What did you do for spring break?

Well, that’s all for this week! I hope you come back next Thursday to read my story! Comment or email me if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 ESV