This post is chock full of goodies. So let’s get to it!

Before we take a look at November, I want to tell you a little bit about the last few days of October went. Now, you’ve all heard about Sandy, but I haven’t really said much about our situation. Thankfully, we feel totally blessed that absolutely nothing happened. After spending seven weeks in a hotel last year when our basement flooded and sprang an oil leak from our boiler, we were ecstatic. Obviously, really sad and upset for everyone else. We know how much it sucks.

We bid our time watching television, reading, and playing board games with our downstairs neighbors. So fun! I finally understand how the game Clue works. I feel like such an idiot but I honestly hated the game but I just didn’t understand it. Now I do. Wanna play?

Our power never went out, although it flickered and threatened for hours. Our town borders the Long Island Sound, but just the very end of it, so while the coastal part of town has flooded and lost power, we survived. Whew! Much of our county didn’t. My school was closed for three days, and several friends still don’t have power. It seems very hit or miss whether or not people are affected by Sandy. So strange. Despite the hurricane aftermath, we decided to celebrate Erik’s birthday at the restaurant where we had reservations, Blue Hill at Stone Barns. It is a very chic farm-to-table restaurant, and it was the best dinner we’ve ever had. When we drove up to the restaurant, I could tell all the neighbors were without power. Turns out, the entire restaurant was being powered by generators. Enjoying my husband’s elegant birthday dinner at a restaurant running on generators? Not something I thought I’d do but it turned out fabulously.

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October Reflections

Create a Functional School / Work Schedule: This didn’t really happen quite the way I imagined it. I’m still feeling like I’m all over the place, but I’ve adjusted how and when I spend my time. I feel like I’m less behind than I did last month. We’re almost done with this term (only six weeks left) so I kind of feel like it might be a little late to work on a new schedule. I might try again for Spring term, which starts at the end of January.

Start Training for a 5K: Indeed I am! Sort of. I did really well at the beginning of October, and then I threw out my back. But I’m getting into the groove again with my Runkeeper app, which I just love. I’m using a 5K running program and it let’s me get back on track from where I left off. Hopefully I’ll be in shape enough to run our town’s Turkey Trot in a reasonable amount of time.

Read Every Day: I actually did pretty good with this, although not necessarily for large chunks of time. A chapter (or half, if it was long) for most of the month from this one book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Then I sped through Gone Girl and A Year of Biblical Womanhood in four days! Of course, the hurricane kind of helped with my concentration. Not much else I could do… In any event, success!

Establish Morning and Bedtime Routine: Definitely not. In fact, probably even worse than just creating a school / work balance. Going to bed way too late (mostly from reading) and getting up late, meaning there were lots of sneaking into the classroom just as class was starting. Very stressful and not good. Needs work!

November Intentions:

Weight Training Three Times a Week: I’ve known for a long time that weight training is the best for blood sugar management and weigh loss. At least, for me. So I need to get my butt in gear and go more often. Although I enjoy running (finally!), it just isn’t cutting it in those two areas. My new plan is to weight train Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and then run Tuesdays, Thursdays and at least one day on the weekend.

Read Five Books: Now that I’m building reading into my schedule, I want to build more reading time. It’s not enough to just read a few pages here and there. I’ll never make a dent in my to-read list if I don’t start dedicating more time! Besides, I’m realizing that most television is just really bad and that I’d much rather read a book then mindless “entertainment.”

Daily Cleaning and Organization: Our apartment is a disaster most of the time and the only reason it ever gets cleaned is because we host a lot of parties (next one is our holiday party on December 1!). But immediately after that, it’s a disaster until the next time someone comes over, and we do a mad-dash to get things nice and neat. Of course, we always comment on how nice it is when things are clean, so I’d really like to make more of an effort to small, regular chores throughout the day and the week, rather than doing everything all at once. I’m hoping to make a schedule, which I will share… assuming I can get organized enough to do it!

Less Time Online: This is something that I think most of us are guilty of, but it’s something I’ve noticed in spades for me. I waste way too much time online. I don’t have anything to show for the hours and hours I’m online, so my new rule (hopefully) is that unless I’m doing something specific on the Internet, I need to get off. I can’t just say “Well, I’m going to hang out on Twitter.” As much fun as that is, there’s so much else I could be doing (reading, cleaning, weight training, to name a few…). When I do check in on social media, I want it to be for a very specific purpose. Sharing something. Asking something. Or checking to see if someone’s spoken to me. But I’m not going to just waste the hour reading tweets. If something is that important, someone will tell me directly.

But… I’ll also be participating in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I’ve done it before, but the last couple of years I seem to falter around Thanksgiving. So a mini-intention is to not screw up NaBloPoMo and actually finish the darn thing!

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I’ve been casually hinting at a surprise diabetes project for the past several weeks, telling folks that I’m announcing it on November 1st, which begins National Diabetes Awareness Month. Well guess what?! It’s November 1st!

You can check out the announcement for my totally awesome new project at DiabetesMine. I’ll have a bit more on it here next week…