Progress and Goals - August/September

Another two months have gone by since I last shared a progress report on my 2026 goals. I don't even do the greatest possible job of writing a sentence each day to draw from when I do get a moment to do this monthly summary, but it's still good for me to look back and see where I made progress and where I think I could do better. 

At the beginning of this year, rather than choose a Word of the Year or make a long list of all kinds of things I wanted to accomplish, I set two main areas of my life to focus on as far as goals: 1) Improve my overall health and fitness; and 2) Move to a home that suits us better than our apartment. The first goal is quite obviously still very much a work in progress, because while I can say my general health and fitness are good and improving, the numbers on my scale really aren't going down in any significant way. So I guess I need to change some eating and exercise habits even more. The second goal could be considered achieved, because we purchased a house and moved in June. But there is still work to be done as far as making the house truly ours and our home. I wasn't in a particular rush to buy new living room furniture to replace what we have, so in a way I've been waiting to find something I really love rather than just settling for something because it's new. I think we'll make a decision and order that furniture this week though. We do need the guest room set up, and that's in progress, as we finally found the mattress we wanted and it's being delivered at the end of the week. We also decided we'd like another sofa bed to be well-prepared for the whole family to visit, and we're actively shopping for that now. If we don't find what we like we are okay for the October family visit, so we can shop around more before Christmas.

That's the progress report part! Now here are some highlights of what I've been up to recently, along with some photos:

August 1 - Happy Anniversary to us! After lunch we picked up our son and his family and went to Huron for the day. We went to the beach for a little bit, then walked around near the lighthouse. We had dinner at Barardi's and then headed back home.

The first week of August was a pretty quiet one, with nothing much out of the ordinary going on. On the weekend, hubby was at a church board workshop so he was busy. I got my hair done on Saturday morning and then putzed around at home. I made blackened tuna steak for dinner and it turned out so good! And we went for a bit of walk at the Blacklick Metro Park.

Sunday, August 9th was a special church service so no worship team, and I was on my own in the afternoon as the board workshop continued. I picked up groceries in the evening met some SVC friends at Blendon Woods to hike.

Second week of August was a rainy one, with thunderstorms and a tornado in the area too. We had to navigate some road closures because of that, and we had some power outages. Thankfully, no lengthy outages for us. The new bedframe was delivered. On Friday I went to an SVC rehearsal retreat straight from work and was there all day Saturday as well. It was a good weekend!

In some ways the third week of August was a bit of a repeat of the second - so much rain! We had the car in the shop on Tuesday, and on Wednesday our Dinner + Discipleship prayer walk was cut short because of the rain. There was a LOT of rain overnight, so much so that there was a great deal of flooding on Thursday morning. It was a huge hassle for everyone getting to work, with road closures and unexpected detours and so many delays. It took me an extra hour to get to work. Thankfully things settled down on Friday!

Saturday, August 22nd began with a fairly lazy morning. We met our son and his family at Prairie Oaks Metro Park for the Bark Bash. No, we don't have a dog, but our granddaughter adores dogs and they had just adopted a new dog, and this was her first outing. Delilah is the new pup in the family, and this was our chance to meet her. She's a sweetheart! After exploring the Bark Bash, we also went to Homestead Metro Park to walk around there for a bit, then went to Three Brothers Diner for dinner. 

The final week of August was pretty quiet, not much notable. We invited friends for dinner on Friday night, so that did light a fire under me to get the kitchen and living room tidy and organized. We ordered pizza to make it easy on ourselves, and had a great evening sitting outside at the fire and visiting. (Until afterwards when I realized the mosquitos had been feasting on me! I had at least a dozen bites on each ankle)

On Saturday it was once again time to get my hair done. And in the afternoon we checked out the vintage expo with the kids and went to a burger place for dinner. The food was really good but we paid WAY too much for parking!

September started off with just a regular work week, as Labor Day was late this year. We did go to Maryland for the long weekend, leaving Friday right after work and arriving at the "old homestead" a bit after midnight. On Saturday morning I met friends from breakfast and then picked up Kennady and spent the afternoon shopping with her. We met up with hubby after his lunch with former work friends. We had a late afternoon nap after all of that, and then got Chinese takeout and had dinner at the house with Spencer.

It was really good to go to our old church and visit with some people there. We went out for lunch with the whole family (except our daughter-in-law who was at her sister's) and with some dear friends from back in the day. The youth pastor who had been at that church back when we started attending was a very good friend of ours and we'd tried to stay in touch when he and his family moved to New Brunswick. His wife's family is from the area in Maryland, and her dad is our daughter's boss, so we always had a connection to news even when we didn't see each other often. Anyway, they just moved back to Maryland so it was very fun to catch up with them! That afternoon I went to visit my good friend who hadn't been able to join the group for breakfast on Saturday and caught up with her. In the evening we went with Spencer to meet Kennady and Dan at Carroll Creek in Frederick where we got in a good walk and had ice cream.

always a treat to see our granddaughter!

We did sleep in a little bit on Labour Day, then took Spencer out for brunch at Cracker Barrel. Then we packed up our stuff and headed back home.

September 8th it was back to work! And it was another stormy week too, with thunderstorms that knocked out power for several hours one night. One day I left work early because of a bad headache and was just lazy all evening.

September 11th, hard to believe it has been twenty-five years since that awful day. In the evening, we went to the Macedonian Festival at the Orthodox church in our neighborhood and had a delicious dinner. Loved seeing the church. Our friends came over later in the evening for a fireside chat and to share some of the Macedonian desserts I'd brought home. (And I remembered to use bug spray before sitting at the fire this time!)

On Saturday, September 12th I had another all day rehearsal with SVC, and in the evening we attended a watch party for the OSU vs Texas game. The game started out great for OSU and most of us went home at halftime, but Texas came back to win, much to our disappointment.

On Sunday afternoon, Harrison and family came over to watch football and we grilled brats, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. 

The week of September 13th didn't get off to a great start, as I had been up sick part of the night and felt awful. I went to work late and came home early, and even skipped out of SVC rehearsal. Fortunately I could participate via zoom. It did make me mad to miss though, because hubby and I could have shared a ride that week since he had board meeting and SVC now rehearses at our church. Thankfully, I felt better by Tuesday morning and rest of the week was pretty standard. 

Saturday, September 19th I went with girlfriends to the Backwoods Fest which was a lot of fun! On Sunday we went out to lunch with friends.

During the week of September 21, we finally got our 2013 RAV4 into the shop to get a "new" engine put in! That was a long while coming, and hopefully we'll have it running soon enough to use it while family is here in October. 

This was the reason I was little late for work one day - the ducks have taken over the street!

On Thursday evening, we went to a fundraiser dinner for Lower Lights in the evening. The Boathouse was the beautiful setting. The meal and the company was excellent, and the cause a worthy one.

On Saturday, September 26th, we finally made it up to Cuyahoga Valley National Park! This is something we've been wanting to do for almost as long as we've lived in Ohio. We met our son and his family for breakfast, then drove up to Cuyahoga Valley. We explored around the Boston Mill Visitor Center for a bit, then hiked the trail out to Brandywine Falls . . . the five mile round trip hike! There were some challenging places with lots of steps and climbing, but I'd say it was worth it. The Falls are beautiful and I imagine are even more so when the autumn leaves are at peak. Though I understand it's very crowded then too! After our hike, and after our granddaughter collected her first Junior Ranger badge, we went into the town of Cuyahoga Falls and had an early dinner at a really neat burger joint. We also made a quick stop at an antique and collectible shop called The Bomb Shelter in Akron. 

an easy part of the trail!

There are a couple days left in September, but as of now I expect they will be fairly standard work days. 

How has the last month or so shaped up for you? Leave a comment and let me know!

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