Sharing a monthly Infographic Update was one of my favorite things I committed to this year. I was super impressed with myself for following through in January, February and March, but April kind of derailed me. Before I knew it, we were a few weeks in and I hadn’t written much down to help me keep track. Then it was time to share May and I felt like I couldn’t work on it until April’s was finished. It just snowballed from there. I decided the only way to really get myself on track was to illustrate the numbers in June and stop feeling guilty about April and May. June was {for obvious reasons} my favorite month to compile yet. And I’ve come up with a new system to help collect data for the following months and *hopefully* I won’t fall behind again.
In case you didn’t put two and two together, we pretty much lived at the beach last month. I only managed to write six blog posts {while racking up over 60 instagram posts} and sort of fell off of the planet. I can assure you the 300+ photos I have to share {next week!} from our vacation will tell you all of the details you’ve been missing. In the meantime, I’m trying to get real life back on track and establish some sort of schedule and routine again. Josh has been kidding me about my extended vacation {shopping dates and dinner with friends} and asking when I was going to return to the real world. I’ve actually grocery shopped, made a few lists and gotten everything on the calendar to help with that transition this month. Is it okay to admit I’m not ready?!
I decided since I was so faithful with my bullet journal last month {at least on the days I was actually in town}, I could spend a little money and get a nicer moleskine. I loved the kraft paper ones, but I wanted one with dotted pates instead of lines, more pages and a nicer cover. I grabbed this purple leather one at Books a Million a few days ago and I’m in love. It is the same overall size as my kraft one, so it isn’t taking up any additional real estate in my purse or work tote.
I’m still working with a calendar on the grid and it is so much easier to keep track of than the list form I was using the first month. The dots help to lay out a grid more easily and I like not having lines within my squares. I did move Sunday to the end of the row and I am already loving that six days in. Keeping the weekend together and giving them bigger squares is PERFECTION.
I kept my blog scheduling section essentially the same, but left an entire facing page for lists and ideas. This may or may not be enough room, but it will at least get me started. While I’m only using this for July, it gives me enough space for a second month’s editorial calendar, which is super helpful with planning. I’ll just move those entries onto August’s pages when it finally arrives. I did go ahead and write in the posts that I knew I would be sharing on certain days and the others can live on tiny post it notes on the right-hand side until I know what day I’ll be sharing.
My next section is for current design jobs and a place to keep track of all of our happenings for next month’s infographic. See? I told you I had a better system in place moving forward!
I’m sure today’s list will grow considerably, once I get to work and get started on my day, but I did go ahead and add a few “to-dos” to get me started. The other benefit to a book with more pages, is that I can doodle here without feeling like I’m filling it up too quickly. If you’ve been following along for any time at all, you’ll know that drawing space is a MUST for me.
Am I the only one that is disturbed at how quickly July arrived? I always anticipate June flying by because that is what happens to summer, especially if you travel at all. This one just seemed extra speedy, even though we filled it full of wonderful days. I’m hoping to slow down a bit in July. Stay close to home and spend some quality time with the girls before school gets started. They both have camps and practices and fun things planned for the month, but I want to spend all of those in between days sleeping late and swimming and licking ice cream off of our chins. I’m planning to read at least four books, take the kids to see a movie, get back in the habit of daily Bible Journaling and FINALLY get our house on the market.
My biggest goal for the month is to get our eating habits back under control. Josh has been eating 70-80% clean since the first of the year and I could just KICK MYSELF for not following suit. We’ve been even more out of control this month with all of the travel {hello, take out and ice cream for dinner} and I am so ready for garden fresh vegetables and home cooked meals. I’m tackling another round of Whole30 starting today and I am determined to stick it out for the entire month. I told Jennifer that I was going to have to text her multiple times a day to keep from eating cheese and bread as often as I’ll want to.
Okay, let’s go tackle July!
