It's July.

It's true. I'm not sure quite how it happened, but July has arrived. I could tell you all about how "Boundaries, Balance, and Choices" worked out in June, but you probably already know how it went based on my (lack of) posts. Why lie? The truth is that while there were a handful of times--maybe 6 or so--that I actively tried to reframe what I was doing so that I was mindful of choices and balance...well, most of the time I was just trying to keep my head above water. It was a hard month. I could tell you why, but then I'd get bogged down in negativity, and that won't help move me forward. We'll chalk it up to something I need to come back to at a later time. Perhaps after my meditation retreat in August. For now...Onward!

July is going to be cooking (healthily) month, with perhaps a bit of cleaning thrown in. The goal of cooking is to increase my repertoire (which currently has about 4 dishes in it) and my confidence AND the likelihood that we will eat more healthily. The goal of cleaning will be smaller, but possibly more challenging--to find a system that will work for both Michael and I. Something that will allow for a "clean enough" home that won't drive me crazy, and yet a system that won't inherently drive Michael crazy.

Another goal is to keep up with the blogging. One of the weak aspects of June was that the crazier and more frustrating and all-consuming work got, the less I did the things I needed to do to stay sane: blogging, exercising, eating healthily, and getting enough sleep. So this month, I'm going to keep that in mind and try to carve those out as priorities.

Here are the goals:

1. Cook, at minimum, 3 nights a week. I want to shoot for more, but I also want to set myself up for success here and we have to remember that I've probably cooked all of 6 times in the past year. *stop laughing*
2. Find a workable cleaning solution and implement it
3. Blog about it all...even the failures, so you can all share the experience. And maybe the recipes.