Curated Weekly / 12

The last couple weeks have really knocked me off my feet. I've been getting a lot of headaches. I'm totally insecure in my choice of major and with my living situation for next year. My computer broke earlier this week. I spent the majority of yesterday searching campus for my keys/wallet/ID/license/debit card. Probably because of all of these things, I've literally been in the lowest mood ever all week. Major props to H for loving on me and not drop-kicking me for all my whining. 

On the bright side, I got my computer fixed and keys and all back and H and his mom are coming to Florida to visit me for the weekend! I am so excited to see them. I just saw him a month ago, but it has felt like forever. It's tough to deal with rough weeks like this when all your friends are super far away.

I think that's enough about my week haha! How was your week?

• How to actually achieve your 2015 goals (from Kory Woodard)
• More amazing podcasts (from Thyme is Honey)
• 8 tips to establish a morning mindfulness practice (from MindyBodyGreen)
• 10 stupid simple ways to save money on groceries (from poverty luxe.)
• Little ways to (sort of!) sneak exercise in (from A Cup of Jo)
• True story: My husband cheated and we worked through it (from Yes and Yes)
• 10 podcast episodes you should listen to this weekend (from Jennypurr)
• Homemade brown sugar cinnamon poptarts (from Sally's Baking Addiction)

In case you missed it...

• 5 design resources for bloggers
• Tips for long distance relationships (guest post from my boyfriend H!)
• Easy ways to improve your blog design in 10 minutes or less
• My favorite productivity apps

1. Ocean / Alice Smith
2. Bend in the Road / Donavon Frankenreiter
3. Food Chain / Eric Hutchinson
4. Only Rain / Brett Dennen
5. Old Number Seven / The Devil Makes Three
6. Song for Allie / Danny Carvalho
7. Steal My Girl / One Direction (I'm sorryyyyy but it's so catchy!)

This lovely snap from Kenzie of Hello Neverland is seriously making me miss snowy weather. It was in the 70s today here! Click the image to visit her instagram.

Last weeks' goals were to get ahead of blogging and work on better coping techniques for dealing with bad days. With my crazy week and my weekend without a computer, I didn't do either of these at all. 

I'm definitely keeping that second goal on for this coming week and the next few. Lately, if anything doesn't go to plan, I absolutely fall apart. I've never been like that and I'm not quite sure why it is, but anything from an exam grade to the weather can totally ruin my day. I don't like that. This week, I'm going to work on being aware of my mood and how I can kind of stabilize it. 

That's all for this week! What are your goals this week? Any interesting blog posts to share?!

How to Spend More Time Reading

I've always been a pretty big reader. You know, when I was eight or nine, I was that kid who checked out a stack of books from the library so big that I had to use my chin to help me hold the stack. Yeah. But over the last couple years, and especially over the last semester, somehow I've just...stopped. Like totally. 

I think I went four months without reading for fun at all. That's scary to me. I love to read and I seriously believe that I'm a much more intelligent person for it. So over Christmas break, I was reading quite a bit and decided I wanted to change and make reading a priority.

But I'm busy. We're all so busy. It's easy for things that are optional to fall to the wayside when deadlines and exams and pressures come. When I made my goal for this year of reading twelve books, I wanted to make sure that I made reading convenient and fun, not just another thing to do. 

1. Always be in the middle of a book. For me, there's something oddly intimidating about starting a new book. So whenever I finish a book, I first of all try to have another book ready and then I do my best to start it as soon as possible or even right away. 

2. Always have a list of books to read. I use Goodreads for this, but you can use a notes app or pen and paper if you want. You're a free woman (or man); you can do whatever you want. But I always like having a couple books I'm excited about reading so that period of "Ughh, what do I read now?" doesn't set in. 

3. Always have reading material with you. If you read on a Kindle or Nook, that's easy enough to stick in a purse--so are small novels. Maybe toss a book in the car so you always have it in case you have an unexpected delay somewhere. And I'm not a fan of this next option, but you can also read books through the Kindle or Nook app on your phone (including free samples on every book!), but that just gets a little too small to read for long. 

4. Explore other formats. Think about the way you learn best in school. If you're an audio learner, you might enjoy listening to audio books while you exercise or drive. 

5. Read at the same time everyday. I'm specifically trying to make a habit of reading for 20-30 minutes every night before I go to bed. It's great for calming my brain (unless I'm reading true crime!!) and it helps me to set aside that time specifically for reading.

6. Keep a reading log. Like I said in #2, you can do this in whatever form you choose. I like using Goodreads because I can also save a rating or review along with the book once I'm finished. Then, if anyone ever asks for reading recommendations, I can easily flip through books I've read and rated highly to remind me.

7. Be familiar with your public library. The other day--oh my goodness, I'm so proud of myself--I spent time to look up a couple books I wanted to read, find out which of the seven campus libraries it was at, found the floor and the shelf, figured out how to move them (we have moving bookshelves!) and found my book. I was impressed with myself! Seriously though, libraries aren't usually that complicated, but just knowing the process of how your library works will make you that much more likely to read since you won't have to pay for every book. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go read! What are you reading these days? How often do you read?

February Goals

Hi friends! So you may (or may not) have noticed a little bit of radio silence here on the blog last week without the Curated Weekly post on Friday. The story is that on Thursday night, my computer decided to stop charging, meaning that it died and I didn't get a chance to write the post before Friday morning. Even more unfortunately, it'll be at least another few days before the part to fix my laptop gets to me, so until then, I'm writing from my tablet, which is no easy task. This also means there won't be post images or very good formatting for a little while. Sad face.

But before we get too far into February (omg! February!), I wanted to look over last month's goals and set a few for this upcoming month! Yay, goals! We all know how much I enjoy goalsetting.

LAST MONTH'S GOALS:

1. Begin a hand-lettering course. Nope, not at all. But midway through the month, I decided that this just wasn't a priority for me. That's okay! I think I'll look into it again this summer.

2. Read one book start-to-finish. Success! I finished The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie and I've just started a fascinating book called Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman.

3. Visit the Museum of Natural History on campus. Yes! Not only did I visit, but I enjoyed it so much that I signed up to volunteer as an exhibit docent.

4. Write a guest post. I promise I really was going to do this one...but then my computer broke. So that goal is on hold for now.

5. Get a routine down for the week. I've done this about as much as I possible could in a month! I have my classes finalized and most weeks are about the same.

NEXT MONTH'S GOALS:

1. Take a 3-day TV fast. I'm not a big movie-watcher, but I love Netflix and television shows. While I generally consider this a fairly harmless vice, it's a little much these days. I want to take at least three days to reset the way I watch TV out of habit.

2. Go to office hours. This was one of my goals for the semester and I haven't gone to a single professor's office hours. I have this weird phobia of office hours and it's ridiculous. At the very least, I need to pay my chemistry professor a visit because I am not chemistry minded and I could use all the help I can get.

3. Form a workout routine. This sounds so silly. I'm working on my certification to teach group fitness classes. Because of that, most of my exercise is in a group format. Oddly enough, I've found that all of a sudden, I'm sort of at a loss when I'm at the gym by myself and I don't quite know what to do with myself. What's up with that?!

That's it for this month! What are your goals for February?

7 Visually Inspiring Pins

I'm bringing this series back, just because I absolutely love Pinterest and want to share a little more of the inspiration floating around on there. Follow me on Pinterest for more (either by clicking on the link or via my profile in the sidebar).

Leave your pinterest link so I can check out your pins and follow you!! Which of these pins are your favorite? What's inspiring you these days?