How is November over?

No, seriously. I blinked and Thanksgiving happened and now it’s almost December. It’s been a blur.

Anyhow, the penultimate month of sucking it up. Can’t wait to write what I’m going to do for 2018.

So, what was I up to this month? Here’s how I did on my goals:

1) Take family and personal health seriously.

What does that look like? I want to:

a) Cook at least 5 meals a week.

Yes. Still doing well on this. I am particularly pleased because when we visited my brother during Thanksgiving, my kids actually ate foods they don’t normally eat and were minimally assholish about food. This made it much easier for me to relax and enjoy the time spent with my brother’s family.

I firmly believe that me cooking so much and training them to eat food even if they think it’s gross has helped. The other contributing factor is my mother continuing to take my kids out on a weekly basis to eat lunch. She has done all the hard work of civilizing my feral children and I have reaped all the rewards.

b) Be active once a week.

Did I walk this month? I must have. But our preschool was on break so I think I did not walk as often as I used to. Plus, it’s finally gotten cold and dreary. No, thanks.

c) Wash face and brush teeth twice daily.

Still pretty regularly washing my face in the morning and slathering on the sunscreen but again, failing on the night time routine. My skin has stopped being as soft and glowy.

d) Take vitamins and supplements.

Despite buying a pill box (Amazon affiliate link) on Amazon, I have not used it. So, I have totally failed this month with the pills. It’s really because I cannot stand the smell of the omega oils pills. It smells like the prenatals I used to take and it totally makes me gag.

Suck it up, Self. This is supposed to make my bones un-hollow.

e) Go to sleep when the kids sleep 4x a week.

I have not done well with this sleep thing this month. Between staying up late several weeks in a row for writing deadlines and then staying up late to read because stupidity, I failed failed failed.

But I got in a lot of important stuff!

f) No texting while driving.

FINALLY! A win! I give myself a B+. I don’t know why I was better. Possibly because I didn’t drive for a week when I visited my brother. But also, for some reason, my FOMO didn’t act up.

2) Take my responsibilities as a grown up seriously.

It took me 90 minutes to fold 4-5 loads of laundry the other day. It made me sad. But it likely would not have taken so long if I had just folded it right away in the first place.

I hired my handyman again to fix a lot of random stuff (my kids keep providing this man so much business). I also actually cleared my house so the housecleaners could deep clean parts of my house. So, I consider that winning.

I FINALLY filled out the forms to get reimbursed from our homeschooling charter school. It’s about $2500 total between the older two kids for this semester so I’ve been an idiot for procrastinating.

Also, also? I WAS NOT A DICK WHEN VISITING MY BROTHER.

We all know that I’m usually an asshole so I am very pleased that I was not. I was a decent human being.

Therapy works.

I think I may go out and buy a lottery ticket. Oh, wait. Therapy has not yet made me lose all sense of math.

Oh, and I even remembered to buy Christmas presents for my kids’ teachers ahead of time this year instead of during their last class before break. WIN!

3) Write.

I did awesome again this month. Now, it may not seem so because I didn’t actually post that much, but I did do a lot of writing. As I mentioned last month, I booked several paid gigs so I wrote those.

I also submitted speaker proposals to two conferences and got TWO speaking gigs at Type A 2018! I am moderating a panel on How to be a Dope Facebook Group Admin with Brittany Minor of Clumps of Mascara and Michelle D. Johnson Garrett of Divas with a Purpose. Then, I am also speaking on How to Unleash Your Creativity Through the Delicate Art of Not Giving a Fuck.

Now, I just have to combat Impostor Syndrome and tell myself that I deserve these things and I am qualified to be there! I will find out from the second conference this week to see if I got those.

Truthfully, though I am beyond excited to get the speaker gigs, I am MOST pleased about actually applying. I was nervous but then I decided that if I don’t ask, the answer will always be, “No.”

I want more YES in my life.

I also worked and edited my first paid piece in the online magazine, Hold the Line. I actually received the nicest REJECTION letter from their editor. Well, I suppose it technically it was not a rejection because she suggested I rework the piece until it was less sucky, but I could have taken it as a rejection and stopped, versus putting in the work to make it better.

I am grateful to Dots, who helped me IMMEASURABLY with the second draft. I am also amazed at how much a professional editor can change a word or two to make me sound intelligent! It is so cool!

I can’t wait to tell you guys when it publishes. It’s a paid magazine, but it’s so worth it. That way, they can pay their writers which is quite a rarity in the online space. Especially for a new magazine.

I am super excited to tell you folks about my next year’s goals so look out for it soon. How have you been doing for your new year resolutions? Still going strong? One more month to go! Don’t write off 2017 just yet. There is still time.

Let me know in the comments.