One of Mama Kat‘s prompts this week for her Writer’s Workshop is:

2.) Write a blog post inspired by the word: goals.

I have five goals that I’m working on right now – some quicker than others and none of them terribly quickly at all, to be honest. We’ve been wading in deep waters this month as we continue to adjust to all the new. I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot these days but this is where my mind is right now so…

I have a new job which has me learning a lot of new things – which is both exciting and nerve wracking at the same time – it keeps me busy one or two days a week, but which days those are varies. So I’m trying to find a rhythm in a world where everything is different every day. The rules change too often to try and find any specific schedule. On the one hand, I like having plenty of downtime to exercise, clean the house, run errands and watch bad television. But on the other hand, it’s hard to make plans when my schedule is always in the air. It’s hard to make meal plans for a week when I have no idea what my week will end up looking like. And my afternoons lately have been so hectic that I often spend my free mornings just recovering mentally from the previous afternoon.

MM has been diligently working on juggling his increased homework demands with his goal of joining the Black Belt Team at his karate school and the fall cub scout season is just around the corner as if we weren’t busy enough already. Some days I think there is no way we can fit everything in and that cuts are going to need to be made and then other days it all seems perfectly manageable – depending on how much work he gets done at school before coming home and what time karate classes are (because yeah those are at totally different times, too). I’m trying to have faith that we’ll all learn to juggle our new work loads but my outlook varies by the minute.

In addition to the new, there are still normal aspects to life that need my attention. As I mentioned, I’ve got five goals right now that I’d like to achieve – some more immediately than others. I think September tends to bring out the Goal Setting Mode in a lot of us what with the kids starting a new year of school.

Here are the five things I’d like to achieve, in addition to just juggling our crazy schedule:

1. As we adjust to an increase in monthly expenses due to private school, we’ve been keeping a close watch on our finances and are working hard to bring down our spending so that we can make sure we’re still saving money each month.
2. This summer really solidified the fact that I need to lose weight yesterday. I’ve been counting calories most days and trying to exercise at least every other day if not more. It’s been a struggle for me to accept that I’ve lost a lot of flexibility and endurance while I sat around and did nothing for too long. I have been able to slowly start losing weight though so I’m hopeful that I can stick with it and shed some pounds.
3. Supposedly I’m writing a book – and I started a writing group with some friends that will meet for the first time next month. I honestly have barely written anything in weeks and though the story is still on my mind, I’ve had a hard time prioritizing it while trying to juggle all that new stuff I mentioned. So a big goal for me is to find the mental and physical time to start writing regularly.
4. We need to declutter badly and my house keeping could use a little more attention. I guess it makes sense that while we’ve been insanely busy, I haven’t been much of a Susie Homemaker. But the clutter is closing in and I’ll only be able to put this off for so much longer if I want to hold onto my sanity.
5. I hate to even think about the fall and winter holidays already but it’s been increasingly on my mind that Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all fast approaching and I’m not remotely ready for any of them – and don’t really know where I’ll find the time and energy to plan them.

The truth is, this is just me flailing as I struggle to adjust to the changes we’ve taken on and I know that I’ll get through it, probably much quicker than I give myself credit for. But even when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it can still be discouraging to have to continue to trek through it.

What goals do you have right now?