Gratitude	---
1	Today I am thankful for general conference and early sunday monrings!
2	Today I am thankful for having time to study before my exam tomorrow!
3	Today I am thankful for all my loved ones being safe.
4	Today I am thankful for getting off of work early and getting to relax!
5	Today I am thankful for a morning/afternoon off of work!
6	Today I am thankful for the last day before the weekend!!!
7	Today I am thankful for early mornings and sunrises!
8	Today I am thankful for Sunday! Another day to relax and love and be in love.
9	Today i am thankful for sweet people and friends and easy going days!
10	Today I am thankful for picking up a few more hours at work!
11	Today I am thankful for getting off of work earlier in the day!
12	Today I am thankful for having the morning off to sleep in and relax!
13	Today I am thankful for a relaxing Friday morning!
14	Today I am thankful for days off of work and going out!
15	Today I am thankful for sunday mornings and my family.
16	Today I am thankful for a fun morning going shopping!
17	Today I am thankful for a morning off of work to re-cooperate!
18	Today I am thankful for getting off of work at 2pm!
19	Today I am thankful for a relaxing day without customers! Lol.
20	Today I am thankful for nice coworkers and a regular day at work!
21	Today I am thankful for a short(er) day at work and going thrift shopping!
22	Today I am thankful for a Sunday off of work and going to church!
23	Today I am thankful for getting off of work super early!
24	Today I am thankful for a day off and hanging out at home!!!
25	Today I am thankful for time to refresh and get things done!
26	Today I am thankful for a relaxing morning!
27	Today I am thankful for a short shift at work! And egg nog!!!
28	Today I am thankful for all the compliments I got on my smile!
29	Today I am thankful for an easy going morning and love!
30	Today I am thankful for gettting off of work at 1:30! Woohoo!
31	Today I am thankful for day 7 out of an 8 day work week! And Halloween!!!

Two surveys in a row... I know - bold. Haha. Anyway, here's a super quick halloween-themed survey! Hope you all enjoy! :)

1. The smell of pumpkin guts or rotting leaves?
- In AZ the smell of rotting leaves is non-existent, so I guess the smell of pumpkin!

2. Sweet or salty pumpkin seeds?
- Salty, through and through.

3. Store bought or pumpkin patch pumpkins?
- PUMPKIN PATCH!

4. Wool or knit sweaters?
- Knit!

5. Halloween party or exploring haunted places?
- Oh man, this is a tough one haha. I'm going to say... exploring.

6. Candy corn or mellowcreme pumpkins?
- Candy corn!

7. Apple cider donuts or pumpkin donuts?
- Pumpkin!

8. Apple pie or pumpkin pie?
- Not a huge fan of either, but pumpkin!

9. Scary costume or something silly?
- Silly.

10. Still, silent nights or rainy, windblown ones?
- Rainy, windblown ones.

11. Hocus Pocus or Halloweentown?
- Hocus Pocus (this was also a tough one, haha).

12. Witches or ghosts?
- Ghosts.

13. Raking leaves or climbing trees?
- Hm, climbing trees?

14. Ouija boards or ghost stories around a campfire?
- Ghost stories around a campfire!

15. Frankenweenie or The Corpse Bride?
- The Corpse Bride? Not a big fan of these kinds of movies, nor have I seen either one haha.

16. October or November?
- October!

17. Black cats or owls?
- Owls.

18. Fireplace or candlelight?
- Fireplace.

19. Monster movies or their classic novels?
- Monster movies!

20. Carve or paint pumpkins?
- I've never painted pumpkins but I DO think I'd love that, haha. BUT, carving for now ;)

How do you feel about golden oreos?

Okay, so "habit tracking" has been something that I have struggled with for SO long. Somedays, or strings of days, I feel like I have everything on track and then BAM - one day I'm busy, lose my streak, and then let myself keep going, going, going, GOING further and further away from my goals and I end up having a 7 day streak of NOT doing my daily habits. Anyone else relate?

Anyway, I tried out the whole bullet journaling spread, I've tried the cute printables, I've tried all the free habit tracking apps that my iphone has to offer and NOTHING was working for me! I'd either hate the program, or hate the paper clutter or just end up spending hours and hours working up a "perfect" spread only to realize a few days later that I hate it - or that I want to incorporate something new into my daily habits.

Then in December of last year I had this weird google sheets kick, haha. I was OBSESSED with google sheets because I had just discovered it, and because google docs is the bomb.com. Being in school and super busy and already carrying around way too much around campus I LIVED for google docs and it's accessibility - so when I discovered google docs I went a little nuts...

I realized that when it comes to habit tracking that more than ANYTHING else the functionality and accessibility of your habit tracker should be your deciding factors. For me, google docs is SO easy to manipulate and update when needed, and you can still add in highlighted boxes or change text/text colors - plus it takes a whole 5 minutes to set up! Being able to access it from ANY laptop, desktop, and/or phone during any time of the day is just the icing on the cake!



The screenshot above shows my general habit tracking spreadsheet! This is just the skeleton of my habit tracking month - at the end of the month it looks a whole lot crazier and messier - yet it's still super functional and easy to use ;)

Basically, I start off with the list of habits that I want to MAKE SURE I do DAILY. My top priorities are weighing myself every morning, queing my favorite youtube videos and blog posts, working out, DOCUMENTING how much money I spend, food journaling, doing 20xp of duolingo, writing in my "gratitude journal", practicing the law of attraction, listening to a conference talk, reading my scriptures, FLOSSING, and just tracking the days I do and don't wash my hair (this one is the weirdest/grossest one, I know, but I like knowing how long I can go without washing my hair before it gets out of hand, haha).

Anyway, as seen above the little boxes from the 1st-31s of october that document my "spending" are already pinked out with a dash through them - meaning I'm trying my hardest not to spend money those days ;) OBVIOUSLY if I spend money then I'll white that box out and check it with a little 'x' but I like to pre-pink those out so that I know what I'm shooting for that day.

After the greyed out column, there are columns that read "date/place/$$$/card". This is where I track my purchases! If I spend money I write what day it was, where I spent the money, how much I've spend, and the method of payment I used.

The next section (meaning after the next grey column - that's what I'm calling them from here on out, haha) is my food journal! Everyday I write down my weight (lbs), what I ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner and what I had for snacks that day!

The sections after that are my gratitude, attraction, and conference talk sections! Gratitude speaks for itself - each day i write out a sentence of one of the things I'm grateful for. The attraction section is for things that I wish to "speak" into existence! This one is more fun and silly - but it really motivates me and helps me lift my spirits! Lastly, the conference talk section is where I write the name of the conference talk I listened to for that day and the speaker!

And that's it! That's how I habit track!
I make a new sheet for every month and I just tab through them when I want to see how well I'm progressing (or regressing). The month of october is so vastly different from my january sheet which makes it so much more exciting and interesting to see! I've added a few more habits and a few more habit "sections" and I'm able to play around with it and cater it to the things I'm interesting in tracking!

How do you guys habit track? What are some tips you all have for me!? Let me know! and thanks so much for reading!

xo, me.

Hello again everybody!!! I am SUPER excited about today's post because I am seriously the BIGGEST freak when it comes to my finances/credit score/spending habits/EVERYTHING. So sharing with you guys how I've been spending my money is super exciting for me, haha.

Basically, if you asked me a year and a half ago what I spend my money on I'd tell you straight up the Target dollar spot - on the daily - and the Dollar Tree/dollar stores in general. Also, TJ Maxx/HomeGoods/Marshalls (seriously, I had a problem). I used to buy SO MUCH FREAKING stationary stuff and notebooks and stickers - I had an entire collection of about $300+ dollars of STATIONARY. It was crazy.

After trying to find a good way to organize everything (and also spending a ton of money on the organizers as well) I gave up. I trashed stuff, gave EVERYTHING to my mom or my sisters and I just quit it like cold Turkey. OF COURSE I'll buy an occasional cute pack of stickers or a notebook if I REALLY feel like I can't live without it (hasn't happened yet) - but I'm not thinking about my purchases as "adding to my collection", more of just "is it functional?" "do I have others like it at home?" and "will i EVER use it? or just stare at it?" So that's how I quit that bad habit! Haha.

Nowadays, I actually haven't been spending my money. Before my stationary-craze, I used to go out EVERY weekend and buy a brand new outfit to wear to class for the ENTIRE week. Literally, I was a nut job. After realizing how easily the clothes I was buying either shrunk, or just realizing that I'd wear something that ONE time then decide I'd never wear it again and donate it - I seriously saw myself throwing away my hard-earned money!

SOOOO, lately I've just been saving up. Instead of spending a ton of money on things I don't need, I invest a little more into the things I DO need/use daily (like makeup, hair products, ect). However, that just means instead of buying a 6 dollar mascara, I'll "splurge" and buy a 10 dollar one, lol. I also think my mindset has changed SO much over the past 4-5 years. I used to just NEED things to say that I have them, or in case of an "emergency" or whatever. But I realized that clutter seriously KILLS my mood and my overall mindset. I hate it. LOVE having a clear space and a clear mind in result of it! So I seriously don't even feel like NOT spending money is that much of a struggle because I realize that I basically have all that I already need - and if I don't, I go out and buy it/replace it/whatever and it's not a big deal!

So there it is - the fact that I haven't really been spending money because I realize that spending money for the sake of spending money has been the dumbest thing I ever used to do, haha.

Hope you all enjoyed! What kinds of hobbies/collections do you guys have that you're spending money on (I tried embroidery and my neck hurt for like 2 months straight. But I'm REALLY looking into knitting? #grandmastatus)? ;) Thanks for reading!
xo, me.

Okay, so I think that this blog post is looooong overdue, but also slightly premature? If that can even be possible? Haha.
Anyway, in about May/June I started learning German on Duolingo! For years, and years, and YEAAARS I considered buying Rosetta Stone to learn French - but then I hesitated and thought that I should buy it in Spanish instead - and then I realized that spending that much money on something I was flip-flopping on constantly was not a good idea, haha. So I looked up free learning resources and came across Duolingo! Like I said, years ago I kept flip-flopping on what language to learn and I just generally wasn't that interested or motivated in being COMMITTED to learning a new language, so I clicked around Duolingo for like, a day and then completely disregarded it for months after that.
Anyway, fast forward a year or so and I decided that I was going to make it a GOAL to get a 7 day streak on Duolingo - and then it just grew from there! I decided to learn Portuguese seriously because my ex boyfriends dad was from there and we were all talking about planning a trip to Portugal to visit their family! Anyway, needless to say I do NOT need to learn Portuguese anymore, haha. So I decided to go for something totally different and new - GERMAN!

Okay, so for the first two months I went hard in the paint when it came to learning German, haha. I did like 300+ XP a day and I was writing notes and practicing religiously. But then I started working again and that all fell through. I still do my minimum 20 XP a day, but there is a HUGE difference in comfort and confidence. When I was doing 300 XP a day I was like "okay, I got this in the BAG" and now I'm struggling between fem/mas/neuter forms of "the".

I got to 60% fluent in like 3 months. OBVIOUSLY, there is something wrong with the stats on Duolingo and I know I'm no where near half fluent in German, but that was my motivation! I can almost easily read out sentences and decipher what words could mean - but listening to German is a whole new ball game.

So here are my PROS for Duolingo:
+ it's FREE.
+ it's easy and aesthetically simple and pleasing.
+ it's almost a child-like app/website: its bright and fun and you just click buttons to answer questions.
+ there is an additional app for flashcards compiled from people all around the world which is AWESOME.
+ it lets you set how much "XP" you'd like to do a day, and shows you your streaks, and gives you a nifty % each time you get more "fluent".

And my CONS...:
+ OBVIOUSLY not as good as having a teacher or an all inclusive app/website.
+ all inclusive meaning having various listening and speaking activities...
+ you can OPT OUT of speaking (which I did) which means that although I can read through words and understand what they mean, I more than likely can't pronounce it.
+ the way grammar is taught is also kind of confusing?
+ The organization, I'm sure, has a rhyme and reason that just happens to be unbeknownst to me - but if you learn, let's say weather - there can be several modules meaning weather 1 could be merely about rain/snow/thunder/whatever and then you can go through like 5 other modules and get to weather 2 that talks about sunshine/umbrellas/whatever. I WISH it could all be together and in one go - but then again I have no idea the best way people in general learn a language so MAYBE its beneficial?

In conclusion, I think duolingo is great and I HIGHLY recommend it! Of course it has it's downsides, but it's free and fun and teaches you a LOT as far as free apps/websites go! So give it a try and let me know what you guys think about it too!

Thanks for reading! xo, me.

It's fall y'all! Well... not if you live in Arizona - but a girl can dream right!? Anyway, I seriously CANNOT believe how fast this year is freaking zooming by, and I LOVE it! This month should be fun because I have fall break! But also - it's the last month before real life Christmas/holiday shopping madness begins... and I work retail... so pray for me! Anyway, here's this month's goal list!

1. Have a fun fall break! *as this is currently being written I have NO idea what I'm officially doing for fall break - but I will for sure keep you guys updated ;)

2. Lose those 5 lbs babe! I have somehow, someway plateaued at 125 lbs ONCE AGAIN and I know if I push myself a little bit harder that I can get over it - so once again, another weight goal haha.

3. Get rid of another 5+ articles of clothing (+ side goal: don't buy anymore!) I'm STILL trying to declutter my closet/life so making sure that I go through my closet every few weeks is mandatory around here, haha.

4. Take more pictures! For a few weeks over summer my instagram game was going strong and then I stopped being inspired and posting as often - so that needs to change!!!!!

5. ACTUALLY DRESS UP FOR HALLOWEEN!

Thanks for reading my October monthly goals! Hope you guys have a fun and safe month!
xo, me.