• Finish 3 books. DONE. I finished all three of the books on my list:  The Red Head of Auschwitz, and The Calamity Club, and  Listen for the Lie.
• Clean/maintain 25 things in my house. DONE.
  1.) Changed our outdoor light that was burned out,
  2.) Filled all of the soap dispensers
  3.) Cleaned all three toilets x2
  4.) Deep cleaned my daughter’s throw rug
  5.) Steam-cleaned the carpet in the guest room
  6.) Organized the shoes on the shoe rack
  7.) Cleaned the closet in the laundry room
  8.) Cleaned the dust off the kitchen ceiling fan.
  9.) Cleaned my iron, which somehow had dried-up soap on it.
  10.) Steam-cleaned my daughter’s bedroom carpet
  11.) Wiped down all of the kitchen appliances
  12.) Wiped down the backsplash in the kitchen
  13.) Cleaned the spiderwebs inside our house.
  14.) Cleaned the spiderwebs outside our house.
  15.) Wiped down the entire front porch with webs and debris (I used this handy brush that helped me get up high and in cracks.)
  16.) Cleaned the closet in the spare room.
  17.) Steam-cleaned part of our bedroom closet
  18.) Cleaned the light fixtures in the dining room
  19.) Cleaned the inside of the microwave
  20.) Cleaned the kitchen sink
  21.) Changed out our shower curtain to the winter one
  22.) Cleaned dust out of our kitchen heater vent
  23.) Organized our front living room
  24.) Took down the spring (!) wreath and put up the winter one
  25.) Wiped down the front of the kitchen cabinets.
• Take my daughter on three college tours. DONE. We knocked this out by visiting two colleges in Wisconsin and one in Illinois.
• Go to the gym 12 times. 16% done. I went 2x. I won’t make this goal this month; I need to develop a routine so I start going regularly again.
• Walk 12 miles. DONE. I walked five miles since the past update and previously three miles this week and seven miles for the last updates.
• Do Tai Chi 10 times. 50% done. I did Tai Chi 5x.
• Do yoga 10 times. 10% done. I did this once.
• Write and publish eight blog posts. 37.5% done. I only published three blog posts. 
• Redo the budget for a possible decrease in employment. DONE
• Unsubscribe from my recurring order subscriptions on Amazon, Chewy, and Thrive. DONE. 

Do you set goals? If so, do you set yearly goals or shorter increments?

The post My Monthly Goals for October 2026: Update 4 (Final) appeared first on Mom's Plans.

• Finish 3 books. 33% done. Definitely making progress on this one. I finished  The Red Head of Auschwitz, I am on page 260 of The Calamity Club, and I listened to the first hour of Listen for the Lie.
• Clean/maintain 25 things in my house. 12% done.
  1.) Changed our outdoor light that was burned out,
  2.) Filled all of the soap dispensers
  3.) Cleaned all three toilets
• Take my daughter on three college tours. We have three college tours scheduled, so this one should be accomplished soon!
• Go to the gym 12 times. I went, but it was closed due to a burst pipe.
• Walk 12 miles. 16% done. I walked two miles this week.
• Do Tai Chi 10 times. No progress
• Do yoga 10 times. No progress
• Write and publish eight blog posts. 25% done. This is my second blog post. 
• Redo the budget for a possible decrease in employment. DONE
• Unsubscribe from my recurring order subscriptions on Amazon, Chewy, and Thrive. 33% done. I deleted the Chewy autoships, but I still have to delete the others.

I’m off to a fairly good start. Now I need to amp up the exercise for next time.

Do you set goals? If so, do you set yearly goals or shorter increments?

The post My Monthly Goals for October 2026: Update 1 appeared first on Mom's Plans.

• Finish 3 books. The three I plan to read are The Red Head of Auschwitz, The Calamity Club, and Listen for the Lie.
• Clean/maintain 25 things in my house. I find cleaning the whole house overwhelming, but cleaning one thing? I can do that. I’ll also include regular maintenance tasks that need to be done. (Obviously, dishes are done multiple times a day, and laundry is done regularly.)
• Take my daughter on three college tours. This is my goal, but it is entirely dependent on her schedule. She will be taking two college classes in person for Dual Enrollment and also working 20 hours a week, so we’ll try to accomplish this.
• Go to the gym 12 times.
• Walk 12 miles.
• Do Tai Chi 10 times.
• Do yoga 10 times.
• Write and publish eight blog posts. This will be a big stretch for me as my blog writing lately has slowed down significantly.
• Redo the budget for a possible decrease in employment.
• Unsubscribe from my recurring order subscriptions on Amazon, Chewy, and Thrive.

That’s it for the month. A gentle reintroduction to goal setting (and accomplishing) and starting to exercise again.

Do you set goals? If so, do you set yearly goals or shorter increments?

The post My Monthly Goals for October 2026 appeared first on Mom's Plans.

Because the rest of September is going to be spent playing catch-up, I decided to just close out my September goals now. I didn’t achieve any of them, but I definitely have grace for myself since I was sick. Here’s what I accomplished:

• Finish 3 books. 33% complete- one down, two to go. I finished a book that wasn’t on the list that I needed for a book club last week: The Busybody Book Club. It was a cute, feel-good book that I really enjoyed. Review coming soon!
  Regarding the other books, I didn’t read The Maidens or Red Head of Auschwitz at all this week, but I’m 50% done with My Friends.
• Read 300 pages in The Calamity Club. 36% complete. I’m on page 111, and it’s getting good, but, I had to put it down because my book club for My Friends is coming soon, and I need to finish that book!
• Clean one thing in my house for 22 of the 30 days in the month. 45% complete. So far, I’ve done the following:
  1. Cleaned the front of my stove
  2. Cleaned out my car and emptied my little trash can in there
  3. Washed the dehumidifier pan
  4. Rearranged the contents of my kitchen cupboard and put things we don’t use often downstairs
  5. Cleaned off my kitchen counters
  6. Cleaned my washing machine & dryer tops
  7. Boiled kitchen towels to get the funk smell out of them
  8. Cleaned the downstairs bathroom
  9. Swept and mopped my kitchen and dining room
  10. Washed all of the rugs in the house
• Take my daughter on three college tours. No college tours yet.
• Go to the gym 15 times. 40% complete. I went 6x so far. I have to get moving on this one!
• Walk 15 miles. 33% complete. I walked 5 miles
• Do Tai Chi 10 times this month. 40% complete. I did this 4x and forgot how much I enjoy it! I have to do it more.
• Write and publish eight blog posts this month. 62.5% complete. 5 done so far!

The post My Monthly Goals for September, 2026: Final Update appeared first on Mom's Plans.

• Finish 3 books. 33% complete- one down, two to go. I finished a book that wasn’t on the list that I needed for a book club last week: The Busybody Book Club. It was a cute, feel-good book that I really enjoyed. Review coming soon!
  Regarding the other books, I didn’t read The Maidens or Red Head of Auschwitz at all this week, but I’m 23% done with My Friends.
• Read 300 pages in The Calamity Club. 36% complete. I’m on page 111, and it’s getting good. Soon I’ll have a hard time putting it down so I can read the other books!
• Clean one thing in my house for 22 of the 30 days in the month. 32% complete. So far, I’ve done the following:
  1. Cleaned the front of my stove
  2. Cleaned out my car and emptied my little trash can in there
  3. Washed the dehumidifier pan
  4. Rearranged the contents of my kitchen cupboard and put things we don’t use often downstairs
  5. Cleaned off my kitchen counters
  6. Cleaned my washing machine & dryer tops
  7. Boiled kitchen towels to get the funk smell out of them
  
• Take my daughter on three college tours. No college tours yet. Question–do you have an interest in reading a review of the colleges we visit? If so, I could write a blog post about that.
• Go to the gym 15 times. 13% complete. I went 2x so far. I have to get moving on this one!
• Walk 15 miles. 20% complete. I walked 3 miles
• Do Tai Chi 10 times this month. 20% complete. I did this 2x and forgot how much I enjoy it! I have to do it more.
• Write and publish eight blog posts this month. 37.5% complete. 3 done so far!

The post My Monthly Goals for September 2026: Update 1 appeared first on Mom's Plans.

I still want to set goals, but I don’t want to set myself up to be a failure. My friend suggested just setting weekly goals, but I decided to set my goals one month at a time and monitor the progress weekly. So, here are my monthly goals for September 2026:

• Finish 3 books. I need to read two books, The Maidens and My Friends, for two book clubs I have at the end of the month. I also want to finish The Red Head of Auschwitz, which I’ve been reading for the last 6 weeks or so. (The content is raw, so I need to take frequent breaks.)
• Read 300 pages in The Calamity Club. (This is for an October book club, but it’s such a large book, I broke it down to reading 10 pages a day. That will get me to 300 pages by the end of October.)
• Clean one thing in my house for 22 of the 30 days in the month. I find cleaning the whole house overwhelming, but cleaning one thing? I can do that. (Obviously dishes are done multiple times a day, and laundry is done regularly.)
• Take my daughter on three college tours. This is my goal, but it is entirely dependent on her schedule. She will be taking two college classes in person for Dual Enrollment and also working 20 hours a week, so we’ll try to accomplish this. Question–do you have an interest in reading a review of the colleges we visit? If so, I could write a blog post about that.
• Go to the gym 15 times. The last two months of summer I slacked on going to the gym, so I have to pick this habit back up.
• Walk 15 miles. I also slacked on this, so I will start slow as I pick the habit back up.
• Do Tai Chi 10 times this month.
• Write and publish eight blog posts this month. This will be a big stretch for me as my blog writing lately has slowed down significantly.

That’s it for the month. A gentle reintroduction to goal setting (and accomplishing) and starting to exercise again.

Do you set goals? If so, do you set yearly goals or shorter increments?

The post My Monthly Goals for September 2026 appeared first on Mom's Plans.