August Update? Too many blog topics & not enough time!

August Update? Maybe?

I’ve noticed a lot of people do monthly updates in the blogging world. I’d be interested in doing them too if people were interested in reading them? I’m honestly not sure if anyone has an interest in hearing updates about my personal life or where I am at in my blogging journey. So, if you like this post be sure to let me know in the comments. :)

My Quarterly Assessment

At the beginning of July I did a quarterly personal assessment in my Bullet Journal. I plan to do this again at the beginning of October. My quarterly assessment consisted of:

1. The Good- A list of everything good that happened in quarter 2 (April, May, June)

2. The Bad- A list of the bad stuff that happened

3. Quarterly Rating- I rated my quarter two (I gave it a 6 out of 10)

4. Value- Assessment- I did some value sorting and came up with my current top four values

5. Wheel of Life Assessment- I compared a Wheel of Life I did in quarter two with my new one and determined which areas improved recently and which needed more improvement.

6. Self-care Assessment- I evaluated my self-care routine by scoring each category on a scale of 1 to 10.

7. Goals- I created some goals based on the results of the above assessments.

I found this process very helpful. Reflecting on your present situation can help you figure out how to move forward and what you need to work on. If you want more information on those assessments I mentioned above you can read a post I wrote that talks about those three methods: https://www.crazycatnerd.com/blog/getting-back-on-track-three-ways-i-create-new-goals

My goals for quarter three (July, August & September) are:

• Creativity Value- The value I chose to work on was creativity.

  • Become more proficient in doodling

  • Start my Tibetan prayer flag project

• Wheel of Life: Profession- I decided to work on my “profession” category by working on my side project that I someday hope will turn into my main profession, my blog.

  • Put more time and effort into my blog

  • Reach 1,000 Twitter followers

• Self-care: Security- I’ve decided to focus on the security aspect of self-care.

  • Create a new savings account

  • Start listening to a personal finance podcast

I’ve been working towards at least one of the goals in each of these categories this month. Thanks to this little review we just did, though, I’ve decided I’m going to need to start working on that Tibetan Prayer flag project soon!

If you are interested in hearing any more about how I’m accomplishing any of the above, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to go into more detail on any of them!

WDW2020- Getting ready for Disney

We booked our next Walt Disney World vacation for next January back in June. We are going with three very close friends and one significant other of a friend. In July, the six of us discussed and voted on which places we wanted to have table service dining reservations. I made our ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) as we decided on them. I will be talking more about that in my WDW2020 Series which you can find on the Disney page: https://www.crazycatnerd.com/disney-nerd

Netflix

My husband and I watched the following shows in July:

• The Punisher- Season 2

• Stranger Things- Season 3

• Star Trek: The Next Generation- Season 1

• Breaking Bad- Season 1

• The Umbrella Academy

• Parks & Recreation- Season 5

• The Office- Season 8

I’m going to miss The Punisher. I’m in love with Frank Castle. However, I have a new TV crush in that of Riker on TNG.  Also loved Klaus in The Umbrella Academy. Parks & Rec remains on my list of my all time favorite shows.

Games I’ve been playing

A few months ago, I organized my games on Steam into categories based on the percentage of achievements I’ve completed (0 to 24%, 25 to 49%, etc…). I rotate through the categories choosing one from each to play and earn at least one achievement in before moving to the next category. It’s a not a strict system, I just use it as a guide to help me decide what to play next.

Recently, I’ve been playing:

• Yonder Cloud Catcher Chronicles- Just trying to finish up a few achievements so I can declare that game done.

• Cities: Skylines- I’ve been watching some tutorials online as well to try to get my cities to be more realistic.

• Kathy Rain- A point-and-click mystery.

• Headliner- A interesting little indie where you get to choose which newspaper articles to publish and then see how the world reacts.

I’m super excited for Planet Zoo, so I’ve been watching a lot of videos on that as information has been released.

Podcasts I’ve been listening to

Podcasts are an important part of my self-care routine. They improve my mood and get me through the more repetitive parts of my job (and sometimes household chores). My current listening selection involves:

• We’re Alive

• The Wicked Library

• King Falls AM

• Radio Haramabe

• No Sleep

• Welcome to Hellmart

• Jules & James

• The Far Meridian

• The Grey Rooms

• Ostium

• The City Within the Walls

• OZ-9

• The Enoch Saga

• Touring Plans Podcast

• Make Believe Show

• Listen Money Matters

• Liberty: Vigilance

Groceries to go!

I live in a somewhat rural community. We have one small grocery store nearby, but the next closest (if you count Walmart) is 20 minutes away. Our small grocery store doesn’t have as many options as you’d find at larger stores in the city. They are a chain, however, and recently they started a “To Go” service. Now I can shop throughout the week and then pickup my groceries Friday evening on my way home from work. I used to lose my Saturday mornings to shopping, this is so much better. It only costs $1.99- well worth it for me! Most of the coupons I use tend to be store coupons or my store’s shopping reward system, and those are both still applicable with this new method. Grocery shopping zaps a lot of my energy, so I think this is a fabulous service.

Michael discovers paper bags

In related news, Michael has discovered paper bags…

Adorable orange cat hiding in a paper bag.

Yet another photo of the same orange kitty in a paper bag…this time squinting at the camera.

Blogging: I have too many ideas!

Since the beginning of July, I’ve begun making more of an effort on my blog. Unfortunately, finding time to blog is challenging with a fulltime job and a commute. However, I have so many things I want to share with you! 

It’s hard to choose what to work on next. Do I write another post? Do I work on my site and my old posts to make them prettier? Do I promote? If I decide to write a post, what should I write about? I want to share my self-care journey with you, help you plan your next trip to Walt Disney World, recommend some excellent games and podcasts, regale you with tales of my cats, tell you about big cats...sigh. There are too many blog topics and not enough time!

At this very moment, these are just some of the ideas I have bubbling up:

• Bullet Journal Basics (with a particular emphasis on functionality and how it’s not time consuming nor does it require creativity!!)

• What is self-care? (an overview of the topic, a jumping off point for future posts)

• A guide to caring for house cats

• Post #1 (and then #2, etc…) of my Sims Self-care Challenge

• How many days to visit Walt Disney World?

• How to choose a resort at Walt Disney World

• Disney Pin Collecting 101 

• A series of posts on all the different kinds of self-care (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, etc…)

• My self-care routine

• My very, very beginner level yoga practice

• Sleep hygiene

• My favorite WDW quick service restaurants

• A review of the videogame, Kathy Rain

• Comedy Fiction podcasts I love

• Horror Fiction podcasts I love

• Updated profiles/photos of all my cats

• Updates on the info that has been released about Planet Zoo

• My favorite resource management games

• Geocaching 101

And I could seriously keep going. You can definitely help by letting me know your thoughts in the comments. Hopefully someday I will be able to do this as my actual profession and then I will have much more time to dedicate towards all of these subjects and many more. 

In an effort to reach that goal, I’ve begun optimizing my posts for search engines, have become more active on Twitter, and I’ve been sprinkling in affiliate links to products I love. My next step will be to investigate promoting my blog through Pinterest.

Well, thank you for reading! I appreciate you stopping by!