First Monday’s Month in Review: Rewind June

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Happy Monday morning!

I cannot believe that June has come and gone, can you?  Seems like I was just crunching the numbers for May and here I am back at it.  Breaking out the laptop calculator and all my fingers and toes to bring you my calculations for June.

Let’s start with the blog.

In June, Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After had:

1. 2,050 page views, +47
2. 1,449 unique visits, +53
3. 1,099 first time visits, +23
4. 350 return visits, +30

Yay!  As I predicted last month, my numbers would be up in June, thanks to the Style Me Bloggers $200 GAP brands gift card giveaway.  It would be waaaaay cool if my numbers didn’t go back down this month.  Maybe I can giveaway some free advice?  Would that keep you coming back for more???

I wrote 14 blog posts over the 30 days of the month.  So one every two days?  Kinda.

The likes on my blog Facebook page are up by 20 for a total of 199.  I like to be liked.  And love to be loved. Ooops, that doesn’t sound right.  I think that is one of those Freudian slips where Michael Scott on “The Office” would say “that’s what she said!”

I now have 102 followers on Bloglovin’.  Yeah, baby.  Up from 64.  Maybe this is where I should say I love to be loved?

On Pinterest, my daily impression and daily viewers were down.  Let’s skip over those numbers, want to?  And just say that my number of Pinterest followers was up.  Up to 1102.  Love me some Pinterest.  Which begs the question what did I do every evening after dinner before Pinterest?

I have 60 Twitter followers which isn’t really relevant to me because I don’t even get the whole Twitter-Tweet-Chirp business.  And I don’t like birds.  Well, I like them a little bit more than I used to but that isn’t saying much.

I have 80 Instagam followers, which I think is great fun.  I enjoyed doing the #RealLifeSprinkledRight 30 day photo challenge in June.  Thank you, Michelle at Sprinkled Just Right for inviting me to participate with you.

Now onto life.  How did I fare in the numbers game in real life?  How did I do at achieving my goals?  And what’s on the docket for July.  Glad you asked!

Quality of Life goals:

• Read an adult book and a fairy tale, write a review of each for the blog.  I submit to you, my THREE books.  Read the review for The Rough-Face Girl here.  Reviews for the other two coming right up.

• Write everyday, somewhere, something.  At least once a week in my gratitude/prayer journal.  Three entries for June.  Tried to begin each week by writing in my journal.  Missed one Monday.
• Devotional time 5X a week.  Read out of Devotions from the Garden 1X a week.  Yup.  I think my MIL May would love the Garden book.

• Work on artistic projects.  Do one DIY project for Motivational Monday link-up.  I did my message frame for the Motivational Monday link-up with Carrie at Curly, Crafty Mom and Anything Goes with Sandy at Sandy’s POV.  Take a peek here.  Skryped (Skype + Scrapping with my sister) once with Valerie, worked on pages for Christmas 2011 (here’s where I need a fast-forward button, I can’t get caught up!).  Attended Hobbies for the Cure with librarian friend (and just regular friend-friend) Martha.  Worked on my message frame and my scrapbooking at Hobbies for the Cure.

• Catch up on savings for Christmas.  Yeah, not so much.  What’s $703.00-$573.00?  That’s how much I am behind.  Every time we need cash, I dip into my Christmas fund.  And then I don’t pay myself back very well.  Let’s just say there were a lot of twenties and now there are a lot of ones.

Self-Care/Appearance goals:  (I did better in May and even better in June)

• Do 30 Day Beginning Runner’s Challenge plus gym in the a.m.  I am on day 19 of the runner’s challenge because I got off track and had to start again.  But I have run 26.75 miles this month through the challenge and a little extra on the side.  I ran three miles on July 1, so I am off to a good start for this new month.  We started trying to go to the gym in the morning which worked pretty well until PC got sick.  Hit the gym 10 times in June.  Walked up McKelligon Canyon three Sundays.

 

• Fitness Blender abs, arms and weights.  Fail.  Have lifted weights some at the gym.  What number is some.  Ummmm, in this case let’s say five times.
• Swim 3X a month.  Epic fail.  What number is zip?  Nada?  Cero?  Ok, zero.  Swam zero times.  Zero looks much prettier and less disappointing in Chinese.

• Get mani/pedi 1X a month; get massage/facial 1X a month.  I rock this goal.  Every month.  One massage in the couple’s room with PC.  One pedi.  One mani.  1+1+1=3  Just call me an over-achiever.  (For some reason PC says I have splayed toes.  I don’t get it.  Do you? I think if they are a bit splayed it is only because I have to use them when I do math.  Splayed toes are much easier to count on.)

• Whiten teeth and floss.  Not as much as I should but more than I swam.  Let’s leave it at that.

Healthy Living/Wellness goals:   (Better than May but room for improvement)

• Drink H20, take vitamins, take Miralax.  Yes, yes, yes.  I did take my Miralax, my Metamucil, my Colace. I won’t give you the number of times it worked.  Just know that I keep track of that, though, and for the month it is probably only a single digit number.  Let’s say 9.
• Limit alcohol to 1 drink 3X a week.  I am not a BIG drinker but I do have an occasional glass of wine or a beer. But now that I am in training (that’s what we are calling my 30 day running challenge), I am not even having that much.  Half-bottle of Malvasia Bianca has been in the frig for days.  Yay, me.

• Limit sweets to Saturdays.  With the exception of my Hershey’s Kisses and Hershey’s Hugs and the occasional fun-sized Almond Joy, oh, and that one Reese’s Oreo cookie, I have done well with this.  Oh, and the mini-nutty buddy ice cream cones.  Only had a few of them.  Hurry up, Saturday!!!

• Portion control, cook and eat at home.  Do PB and Js, grilled cheese and Campbell’s tomato soup count as cooking?  Oh, good.  Then yes, yes, yes.
• Sunscreen and sunless tanning.  Yes, no.  I have to get after this sunless tan.  I am going to be out in public in my bathing suit week after next while we are on vacay.  Seeing me in my bathing suit is bad enough when I have a tan.

Personal Growth/Relationships goals:

• Keep PC my numero uno, my priority, my Prince Charming.  I think I am doing well here.  PC, what do you think?  Are you out there?  I attended three out of four of his ball games.  Went with him to the batting cages. Watched and paid attention to several Cincinnati Reds baseball games.  Planned date night to the Chihuahuas game, another to church and dinner out, and have done all of the planning for our up-coming vacation.  July should be a really good month in this department.

•  Listen to Bren and Buff.  Support Bren.  My oldest daughter, Brennyn, is going through some hard times right now.  I care too much to just listen.  Does that make sense?  I probably say too much, offer too much advice, though.  I did help her with a big project for work, edited her essay and Skyped as she worked on a display board.  Brennyn did very well with this project and has earned a nice raise and recognition.
• Skype with my Coo 2X a month.  I Skyped with Cady once and have talked to her on the phone several times. Really want to make this a priority.  I will be seeing her in July so need to build on our relationship then and start regularly Skyping with her after that.

So, that’s my June in a nutshell.

Or a blog post.

I did work the last 3 days of school.  And I volunteered at the Holocaust Museum once.  My sister and I are planning a presentation for the Texas Library Association Annual Conference next April and I have worked some on that, too.

With vacation coming up, I know July will be full of fun times with family.  Hope you will come back to share some of that with me.  And hope you will follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin‘, Polyvore, and Goodreads to give my numbers an added boost.

Thank you!

Is there a goal you have made great progress on?  Would love to know more.  Please leave me a comment below just to share and to let me know you stopped by.  So glad you did!

Hugs and kisses,