All of a sudden it was September, but it feels very in August character for my August GBOMB to be a week late. August was one of those months that you can just feel before it arrives. I didn’t have all that much on my calendar, compared to other months, but I just KNEW it was gonna be bananas. And it was.

Basically the month revolved around my first online planning class – I taught a practice “beta” course and then modified to teach the ~real one two weeks ago. It was a lot of planning and a lot of work and a lOT OF FUN. I really really enjoyed it. I’m so glad I did it! When it was over I was excited to have my afternoons back, but found myself scheming my next big planning plans. (Planning Plans? I’m the worst why do you guys even read my blog????)

We did a good amount of swimming and playing outside, which is just good for everyone. Everyone except my poor Jeep which hasn’t been washed in a month and has roughly 1/3 a bucket of popcorn scattered on the floor and betwixt the seats. I’m sorry baby. I’ll give you a good clean this week. I promise.

GOOD

• The planning class, 100%. I really really enjoyed it, and it just felt natural. I loved it. I don’t know what that means, but I want to keep doing it. If there’s interest I’ll do October, but I also have a cool idea for the holidays so ~sTaY tUnEd
• My back didn’t hurt at all in August! I was super careful, did my stretches, and headed back into the gym with a protected regimen. I didn’t lose weight but I am entering September slimmer, more toned, and feeling so so so much better, physically.
• Reese started preschool! I had so many second guessing thoughts in the weeks leading up to her preschool, but they all went out the window when we met her teacher and the first day of school. This is weird, I know, but now I also know that this is the right thing for my Reese. She’s SO social and loves to learn and play and do things, and I just feel like she will respond so well to this. And she has. It’s really nice to feel like my mom intuition is working sometimes.
• My mom got a puppy! His name is Wrigley and he’s the tiniest, bounciest, fuzziest little guy. We are obsessed. Every day Reese asks to go see “Wriggy.”
• Malone hit 6 months and is healthy as a horse. It felt good to take a sentimental minute and just be proud of her. I feel like I don’t slow down with her near as much, but I appreciate it more than I did with Reese, if that makes sense.
• Football season is here! There are few things we love more than ignoring the Cougars losing while we eat delicious food with our friends each weekend.
• I taught my first ever Relief Society lesson and loved it actually. I can’t speak for them, but it was fun for me!

BAD

• I guess part of this should go in the “good” category. I felt mentally pretty good for ~most of the month. But I did have a couple of bad episodes – some of the worst. It affected me in a lot of ways I couldn’t have predicted.
• We went to approximately 1 week of church. But in our defense we did stay for all 3 of the hours that week so…. thank you.
• I felt like I did a ton of reading but I’m just now (a week into September) finishing my 3rd August book. I kind of bailed on a few but whatever.

On My Brain

• Between Rachel’s season and Bach in Paradise I’ve swung about 20x between “this is dumb and fun” and “this is dumb and I’m done.” Is that just what it means to be a part of Bach Nation? Will I ever find a current show that can hold my interest or am I doomed to watch The Office on repeat forever? What am I saying, that would be amazing.
• Jeremy Guthrie is an LDS baseball pitcher (he used to train my little brother! Cool!!!!) and he wrote this piece about his retirement from baseball. It was just so inspiring and classy and inspired me to be the kind of person who works hard, admits defeat, and above all OWNS my own life. It’s just so good.
• This month I thought a lot about what I think I owe people. Why do I feel like I need to say yes to everything? Why do I feel bad if I do what’s best for me? Why does it feel like I have to choose between being liked or taking care of myself? Why does being nice win over being honest? I’ve just been taking a harder look at interpersonal relationships in my life and seeing a lot of themes and trends that I feel like it’s time to start addressing, and I made some progress this month. I don’t owe everyone a certain version of myself, but I do owe myself care. I do owe people honesty, and it’s good to be honest AND nice, but honest can’t lose to nice.
• I have bounced around probably 5 different family Halloween costume ideas and Ryan isn’t thrilled about any of them obviously. Unless he can go as Macho Man Randy Savage he’s out.

September of 2016 was the worst month we’d ever had, but it’s weirdly making me really excited for September of 2017. This September feels so different. We’ve entered it in such a better, healthy way. I feel good. I feel excited. I feel just the right amount of overwhelmed with good things. I’ve got big goals and big steps to take this month, and it’s gonna be 100 emoji. I just hope it stops being 100 degrees soon.