It’s 3 days into the final week of SOA! (I know I’m late in posting).

So how did your goals for the 3 months pan out?  Did you accomplish everything you wanted to?

Last week SOA was meant to evaluate how you did and see what you can to improve.  This week is about making a plan and putting it into action.  If you accomplished all your goals for SOA than congrats!  But if you’re like me, and didn’t, try creating a realistic approach to your goals and find a way to circumvent the previous issues to get to your goals this go round.

Thanks for participating in SOA!  In a week or so all the posts’ links will be available on a separate SOA page on my tumblr so you can look through them instead of going through my archive.

Hope you had an awesome summer, because I certainly did with SOA!

We’re in our final two weeks of SOA!  How are you feeling about it all?  Do you feel like you have the tools to get through the rest of the year and be just as awesome as these past summer months?  Hopefully you do!

Take a look back and see how your monthly goals are doing.  How are your 3 month goals working for you?  Are you on target for accomplishing them?  If so, do you have any more lofty goals that you want to look to for the future?  If not, can you reevaluate what didn’t work and why you aren’t where you want to be?

This week is about focusing what you can do to accomplish your goals and how you implement in the tools you’ve learned from SOA.

So hop to it!  You got 7 days to reevaluate things and figure out what you want to do with what you’ve learned these past 11 weeks. :)

**I’m posting this a day early.

How’d it go this week?  Getting into a routine so that you can finish off SOA right?

Let me know how things were for you!  I’ll give you a hint for me — my week was less than routinely because of travels.  But we all have weeks like that, just have to make the best of what we’ve been given and try our hardest!

School is just around the corner for many families (we’re weird in the south and start before Labor Day).  So now is the time to start getting your routines in order and start making sure that you can recharge yourself, your goals, and be able to maintain everything while handling your family’s busy schedules.  You might ask how does this go with Summer of Awesomeness?  Well, month one was all about realizing your goals and organizing things so that you can be able to manage your time; month two was about fitness goals; and now, for the final month of SOA, is about being able to combine your organization skills, with your fitness activities, and being able to combine the third element in your life — family — to be able to maintain these goals long-term.

This week is similar to that of your goals and to do lists, but with a slight change. Instead of writing down everything you want to get done daily — make a calendar for the week.  Put down not only your own things that need to get done, but other things for the kids/spouse/significant other/etc.  Also include your food plan in here.  Why?  So that you can make sure easy meals are made on days that you are entirely too busy to cook.  It helps you stay one step ahead and when your spouse asks What’s for dinner (as I’ve heard my father ask my mom one too many times), you can tell them to look at the calendar instead of bugging you.

Now, I’m traveling this week for a few days, so I’m going to modify my calendar to include my travel times, appointments, hanging with friends, and things that I need to accomplish during the time I’m away from home.  Scheduling food is the one thing that I will be leaving off my calendar as I never know what will happen (well, besides ordering Chinese food or Jimmy Johns, haha).  So there are ways to be able to maintain routines and calendars even while on the road.

Best of luck!

Here are some great ideas for digital calendars:

- Google calendars (it can sync with your Android phone if your Gmail account is hooked up — I LIVE by my Google calendar)

- Windows Vista Calendar

- Outlook/mail client calendar

- Microsoft Office Suite has templates you can download that you can use for calendars as well (and print them up!)

- dry erase board (I have a dry erase calendar that I’ve been using for years)

- The good ol’ fashion print calendar that you can find just about anywhere (and might even be on sale with school starting soon)

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I’ve had a request or two about old links to SOA — here are the week in review links (once SOA is complete — and I have some time — I’ll be updating my site and you’ll be able to find SOA that way)

What is SOA?

Month 1: Organizing —   Week 1  Week 2  Week 3  Week 4

Month 2 : Fitness       —  Week 5  Week 6  Week 7  Week 8

Today’s the last day of my official to do lists for the next 2 weeks!  Eek! 

To do:

- make spinach ravioli

- contract work

- job applications (2)

- skype :D

- finish packing & put stuff in car

How’d I do:

- spinach ravioli is DONE.  I doubled the batch so the freezer is stocked with 50 ravioli for the unforeseeable future, plus I have some for lunch this week as well.

- working on contract work still.  Pretty productive with it, just trying to get it ready for the meetings this week

- I didn’t get any job applications done BUT I found 2 more jobs to apply for that I’ll be doing in my off peak hours within the next several days

- skype skype skype. Makes my world go round. <3 (so does my cell phone while we’re discussing it…)

- still have to put things in the car.  It’s only a duffel bag and some pillows, but the duffel bag is missing my toiletries and I was too busy with contract work to do it this afternoon.  I’ll do it this evening.

Productive day.  Spent a few hours out and about getting things done with the folks and then mid-afternoon started in on the spinach ravioli.  I was at one point contemplating not doing it before I gave in and told myself it would be worth it.  I think I spent less time on it this go round than I have in the past just because I really didn’t have time to do things slowly and I wanted to get them done.  The ratio of ravioli that split open to those that stayed closed was significantly less than it has been.  I think I’ve finally perfected the perfect noodle to flour combination to get it to not be sticky and remain closed.  Also had leftover noodle dough so I made a batch of egg noodles that I’ll have sometime later this week when I get back in town.

The to do list that I had for the first 6 days of August is about half complete.  I’m kind of disappointed in myself for not getting more done with the time that I had.  But there is nothing I can do about it now.  I can’t focus on what could have been, I need to focus on what is.

Going to be an early next couple of days, not as early as tomorrow, but still early and busy.  Really looking forward to it though.  

Anyway, those are my ramblings for today.   Happy Sunday!  Hopefully your weekend has been as productive and eventful as mine has.  And if not, tomorrow is Monday, let’s all show this new week in August what we have in store for kicking its butt!

How did your fitness challenge go this week?  Get all your workouts in?  Did you see an improvement over the past month?

Let me know how things went! Are you planning on continuing these exercises in the future?  Did you hate much full body effort burpees had? (I know I did!)

Whew!  It’s been a busy one folks.

To do:

- A.M. 5K on the treadmill

- Bar Mitzvah

- make spinach ravioli

- tidy up room 

How’d I do?

- 5K — 43:30  (I got an evil eye from the gym floor monitor because of the “30 minute only” sticker on the treadmill.  My whole justification for not getting off comes from the fact that half the treadmills were empty and no one was waiting. If they were filled and people were waiting I would have given it up willingly).  Also, looked at my running records.  This is the FASTEST 5K I’ve done.  Just under a minute faster than another one.  And I didn’t even put full effort into it.

- went to the Bar Mitzvah, nothing too special

- took my parents out for lunch and did early primary voting since I’m out of town for the primary

- did a whole bunch of errands and shopping around town (found a portable hair straightener that I like….I’ll try it out tomorrow or something, no matter how I try it out my hair will frizz because of Florida weather)

- 5 hours of contract work stuff

I had an early morning today (as some of you noted) because I had a long day and knew if I didn’t get a run in this morning it just wouldn’t happen.  I got to the gym at 6:55 and walked right into a treadmill RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES ON TELEVISION.  It was awesome.  Until I realized it was two foreign countries playing basketball.  I guess that’s what I get for going to the gym at 7 on a Saturday.  Oh well, it kept me more entertained than watching the news or another episode of Dr. Phil (which is usually what I catch on the tvs closest to the treadmills I get).

I opted to take my parents out for lunch because we don’t get to do it that often, especially with how busy I’ve been recently.  Since lunch was near where we needed to go for early voting we did that.  Plus some shopping.  So half the afternoon was spent outside of the house, which gave me little time to focus on making spinach ravioli.  It’ll be moved to tomorrow’s to do list, which is fine by me.

All in all, today was another good day.  Could have made a few better food decisions (fried whitefish? YES PLEASE!), but it wasn’t anything too terrible that I’ll regret tomorrow.

It’s Friday, it’s Friday, it’s Friday!  Gotta get down on Friday!

It’s a sales tax free weekend down here in Florida, alongside tons of awesome awesome sales.

I texted Kal in the dressing room of Kohl’s this beaut of a message: “Woo! Size 14 capris for $8. Suckers are mine :)”. And then I proceeded to dance around in the Kohl’s dressing room to Maroon 5’s “Payphone” in these awesome size 14 capris (note: I’ve been stuck in 16 for forever and since I rarely actually wear pants nowadays due to working out or either at home in lounging clothes, I needed a pair of pants that fit…and apparently 14 seems to now be the size my body is sticking to instead of 16).

The loot: From Target — 1 MEDIUM running skirt (a tad too small, but I’ll get there!), 1 X-LARGE shirt (OMG guys, with Target’s skewed sizes I’ve only ever fit in 2X or larger…this is awesome news!)…..From Kohl’s — new bra (same size as before, old one just was worn down), 2 SIZE 14 capris (one jean, one tan), 1 LARGE shirt, 1 MEDIUM running shorts, 1 MEDIUM running skirt (I was dancing around in this with the large shirt right after trying on the capris).  And at Kohl’s? I saved $148 dollars, spent only $24 (technically $49 but I had a $25 gift card).  How awesome are those savings?

Anyway…ya’ll are probably wondering what in the world today’s SOA goals were and if I accomplished them —-

- go clothes shopping

- contract work 4 hours

- put away laundry & pack for 2 trips 

- clean bathroom

How’d I do?

- Clothes you already know about.  It was awesome, beyond awesome, to fit into everything comfortably and grab the right sizes off the racks.

- Did 4 hours of work and then some.  Things are starting to run real smoothly

- Laundry is away, 2 trips are packed for (missing items from both bags are on lists to pack) — also, how is it that 1/3 of my bag for my vacation is running clothes/Vibrams?  Oh, and I was again made fun of for my lists and the fact that I’m packing for a trip happening in 1.5 weeks.  Well, sorry honey, but that’s just how I roll. 8-)

- bathroom is cleaned

- SOA Fitness Challenge: bicycle crunches — 50 in 30 seconds;  jumping jacks — 60 in 1 minute; push-ups — 15 in 45 seconds; burpees — 5 of ‘em before the body ached

Today in a nutshell: Awesome, amazing, finishing off a great week of terrific things.  Positive levels in check.  There are still things in life that I need (job, scale to reflect work output), but there are other things in life right now that are making it so great to be alive.  And to those things, I am happy.  Super happy, that at least aspects of my life are falling into place.  A friend used to tell me that things happen at the right time for the right reason, they can’t be forced, but they just happen.  And I hated waiting for things to happen.  But that’s how I’m looking at jobs now, something will come and it’ll be for the right reason.  I just have to be patient. I need to remind myself of this and look at other things in my life and how they’ve just fallen into place.  Right place, right time, right reason.  

It’s already Thursday?  WHERE DID THIS WEEK GO?!  Ugh.  My to do list for this week is nowhere near complete. :(

To do:

- religious school meeting

- contract work 4 hours

- 30 Day Shred/gym/stretching depending on how sore legs are

- figure out how to find more hours in my day to do things

How’d I do?

- spent SIX HOURS for religious school stuff. Not what I had intended on doing, but in the end I am fully prepared for my girls for this next school year and am ready to teach them all exciting things.

- haven’t done the work yet, that’s for post-dinner.  It’ll get done though because I’m ready for it and need to get in gear with everything.

- stretch stretch stretch!  I tried to do the SOA fitness challenge this week and just felt how stiff my body was, didn’t really make it past the bicycle crunches and push-ups.  I didn’t get enough sleep and slept in a really awkward position *shifts eyes towards the dog for taking up the bed*

- yeah, I need a magic go back in time each day so that I get more hours because today certainly showed me how little time I have left to do things before I go on vacation.  On the bright side they are small things, but still have to get done.

I’m tired, went to bed late, got up early, didn’t get nearly as much as I wanted to do.  I’m kind of in a grouchy mood for that because I could have gone to bed early and actually gotten up and gone to the gym but I didn’t.  But I got caught up in a Facebook chat and it didn’t happen.  Lesson learned.  

It’s just one day, and I’m certain a good night’s sleep and a great day at the gym tomorrow morning will fix it.  I just need tomorrow to get here so I can redo today.

To do list:

- laundry

- submit thesis chapters

- work stuff (5-7 hours)

- skype :)

- 2 jobs applications

- SOA Fitness Challenge

How’d I Do?:

- it’s amazing how much laundry one can accumulate in 2 weeks by just working out and lounging around the house….anyway it’s DONE

- SUBMITTED chapters.  28 pages in all.  Not bad if I do say so myself.  Despite the fact that they’ll be heavily edited, at least they are written.

- Work things — got about 4 hours of work stuff done, which makes me feel accomplished.

- skype skype skype <3  What would we do without modern day inventions?

- SOA Fitness Challenge — bicycle crunches — 45 in 30 seconds; jumping jacks — 40 in 1 minute; push-ups — 15 in 45 seconds; burpees — 3 of ‘em before legs hurt too much

I was asked by FOUR different friends today when I was leaving our conversations to go to the gym.  Yeah, people know me well.  I, however, took a much needed rest day from the gym today as I woke up a little too sore for comfort.  I got up at a decent hour and got my laundry done, and then proceeded to catch up on life from the past few weeks — had to clean out my email, did work stuff, and then spent the entire afternoon on skype.  Yup, totaling 4.5 hours.  Worth every minute.  Makes me feel happy.

I didn’t get job applications done, that’ll be for tomorrow, Friday, and the weekend, along with contract work related things and packing stuff up for my mini-visit and contract work-related stuff happening next week.

All in all, I’m in a happy place and things (excluding a permanent job and scale) all seem to be aligning within the stars just right.  Sometimes it’s hard to look back and think about what your life used to be like, and sometimes it’s even harder to look ahead and wonder what your life will be like in the future.  That’s why we live for the moment, live for the day, cease it, embrace it, and you can be empowered to do things you never thought you could once do.