School has officially started, and at least one of our neighbors has already started preparing their Halloween decorations. We need to start planning ours.

We took our boys to Boston and Salem just before school started, a much-needed trip that was hectic, but enjoyable. We rode the train from Baltimore to Boston (and overall had a positive experience), toured Boston for a couple days, visited the Lego Discovery Center (our four-year-old’s favorite part of the entire trip), stayed in Salem for a few days, and had dinner with an old college friend and her family.

Now we’re figuring out our school-year routine and making plans for the autumn, primarily in our garden and cleaning out the house before we’re inundated with new toys for Christmas. I’m not ready for any holidays, but I’m glad September has arrived.

Last Month’s Goals

1. Finish three books.
2. Survive until the start of school.
3. Enjoy our last big trip for the summer.
4. Try to exercise and stretch.

Finish three books?

I finished the final book in Manda Scott’s Boudica series, Dreaming the Serpent Spear, which I obviously reviewed already, because it was fantastic. That’s it. I’ve made some good headway on another novel, which I’m excited to review, for very different reasons.

I’m doing alright on my Goodreads reading challenge: 13 of 24 books completed; less ambitious than last year, which has turned out to be a good thing. I’ll need to finish almost three books per month to hit it by the end of the year. Time to find some shorter novels on my To Be Read list.

Survive ’til school & enjoy our last trip?

Success! See above.

Try to exercise and stretch

Success! After aiming low and just trying to figure some basic stuff I could do for August, I ended up picking a couple of calisthenics type exercises to do after my main stretching routine. These I counted as 10 minutes of “stretching” in my fitness tracking app, just to make it easy to count up how many times I did it.

10 times throughout the month of August, plus one brief weight-lifting session in a hotel fitness room, and a whole lot of walking on our trip.

The brief stretching/resistance routine has definitely helped me feel like I accomplished something on those days. What’s missing is longer yoga sessions or weight-lifting sessions.

But progress is progress, and with a more normal routine at home, I feel like I can make some more happen this month.

Goals for September

1. Finish three books.
   • Current reads: I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole; A Promised Land by Barack Obama; The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Alan Poe, by Edgar Alan Poe and Benjamin Franklin Fisher (editor)
   • Likely next reads: The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar for fiction. I’m not close enough to finishing Obama’s memoir to consider my next nonfiction read.
2. Stretching & exercise. I’d like to continue with this basic stretching and resistance routine just as a filler for my busier or lazier days. What I need to work back in is longer yoga or weight-lifting session. I’m thinking 20 minutes at minimum, twice per week.
3. Organize around the house. Build shelves in my shed and get shit off the floor. Get rid of old clothes and toys we’ve collected. Organize the new shelf in the basement.
4. Community resilience. I’ve alluded to this and related themes in many of my haiku of late, but it’s been pressing on my mind all year. I need to find ways to contribute more directly and proactively in my community. I know there are lots of options out there, so I think I just need to pick one and start doing it.

Steve D