Do we ever get out of the cycle of “Wow! How did we already get to the end of September?!” or “It’s almost October, what happened to the year?” No? Okay, great, so it’s not just me.
It’s been a good month, a FULL month, and I feel like I’m finally finding a groove here on Substack. Now let’s see if I can keep it up next month. 😅
Here at the end I thought I’d do a bit of a round up: posts I wrote, other articles I read, rabbit holes I trailed down, etc. I love a good look back1 as we prep to move forward and you know I love a good list (or five).
in case you missed it
other recent reads
📚 The Best Bookshops in Europe
🍂 Notes on How to Romanticize Fall
🧥 I Don’t Want to Dress Like a Cool Girl. I Want to Dress Like a Nora Ephron Character
🤩 A Unified Theory of Glen Powell (read first, then read👇🏻)
🧑🏻🦱 The Men Who Like Women & The Men Who Don’t. Yes, We Can Tell.
✨ We’re In Love With These Drawings of Paris
🦄Lisa Frank Docuseries ‘Glitter and Greed’ Set at Amazon Prime Video
🏡 The Things I Learned Living Alone
🎓 The Importance of Educability
🇺🇸 How I’m Making Election Decisions
🍎 Opening the Locked Box: School Violence as my Steady Companion
monthly goals update
September was one for the books! I had a few habit trackers in place as well as some accountability that really seemed to make a difference!
75 Soft (and accountability with Grace)!✅ Progress! I’m giving myself some grace for making progress even if it wasn’t perfect every day (and that’s some real progress for this perfectionist!) Had a week or two that were REALLY off, but one was also a high anxiety week so… not surprised those went hand in hand. There’s a reason I chose 75 SOFT, and I’ve decided to adjust it to 75 days complete between now and Christmas. Seems a bit more managable.Budget my new paycheck (slight annual teacher raise)! ✅ I’ve started the new budget AND I met with a financial advisor to get retirement prep in order (late to this game, but better late than never).Direct Mamma Mia well/peacefully! ✅ This is well underway! Having a team to make this show happen is making all the difference. Just under 3 weeks until opening night!Begin with 100 Unplugged Hours! ✅ Total Hours this month: 25Book In = Book Read!✅ I’ve read 3 out of 9 books brought in this month, so it’s at least a start! I read/listened to 8 books total this month, including some on my backlist and from the library.Try a new church/small group!✅ I've visited a new church a few times this month, and I’m working my way towards a new small group.Continue building my emergency fund! ✅ FINALLY! I’ve started then stopped this so many times over the years… but I’ve nearly met my starting goal of $1000 set aside!See live theatre (that I didn’t direct)!2 ✅ Dad and I went to see The Screwtape Letters (a play version of the C.S. Lewis book) and I went back to my old school to see their production of Murder on the Orient Express.FollowLet’s Read the Gospels& readLiturgies for Wholeness!✅ Yes on this too! I didn’t make it every day, but quite a few days, and I’m really enjoying both.Celebrate/enjoy the start of fall! ✅ Check, check, check! Fall candles, a smidge of fall weather, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins? The best.
One of my most successful months goal-wise! Now to keep the momentum in October…
memorable moments
RIP Professor McGonagall. Maggie Smith has been a steady figure in my favorite movies and TV shows since I was a child, and I always said it would be her death that would hit me the hardest from HP. 😭
I attended a conference in Galveston for the Texas Educational Theatre Association, and I taught two workshops (Marketing Made Simple & The Lazy Genius Theatre Teacher). Seeing the shirts I designed in the wild was a fun bonus (and I think I’m going to finally have my own merch booth next year)!
Mamma Mia has been going strong (we open next month!) and we had a fun time with a sing-along movie night after one of our rehearsals. We’ve also made $17,000 in our fall fundraiser, so I’m already daydreaming of the shows up next!
We also had our first homecoming celebration this year (our campus is only 2 years old and graduated our first seniors in the spring). The joys of living in Texas is all things homecoming mums! Yes, I know they’re weird, and yes, I’m still obsessed.
down the rabbit hole
I ended up on a Notre Dame kick over Labor Day weekend. It all started with Saving Notre Dame doc about the restoration of the cathedral, then I back tracked to find coverage of the actual burning. Of course, I needed to follow it up with a favorite of old2 AND the incredible soundtrack from the musical. Still so sad it never made it to Broadway and I’m dreaming of directing it someday.
Notre Dame: Race Against the Inferno & Saving Notre Dame on Disney+
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (animated classic of course)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame Broadway musical soundtrack & Youtube recording of the La Jolla production
And then because I’m a huge Kevin Kline fan, it took me back to The Road to Eldorado3, so that wrapped up my Labor Day movie watching. It’s still so funny years later!
for your listening pleasure
It’s finally officially fall (September 22nd, you took too long…) so some timely, wizardly ambiance is definitely called for. These have been my go-to’s this month.
purchases made
I’m trying to be better about my finances, and I have plans to share more about this journey moving forward, but for now this list is more for myself. Cataloguing how much I brought in over one month and…
YIKES!
Lots of it was on sale and plenty was returned, but sheesh… Can next month’s goal be to get this number down? 🥴 (And by “can it” I mean “it definitely will be”).
Classic Camis (returned all but 1)
Magnolia Journal - Summer 2024 (missed this somehow in July!)
DVD RCA Cable (boring but necessary)
Old Navy Cloud Motion Tunics (4 colors, so soft!)
The Life Impossible (returned, will try through my library later)
Sunflowers from H-E-B 🌻
Black pants, jeans, Black & green-ish joggers
Black sweater with hood
Make it Easy cookbook (pre-ordered then returned, will circle back to it)
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow (returned, again, going for the library)
3 birthday cards at The Paper Source
More sunflowers at Trader Joe’s 🌻
Mr. Malcolm’s List, A Rogue of One’s Own, and The Rule Book at HPB
Skirts to wear to school (leopard, red, teal)
Hermione Tee’s (1, 2, 3), So Long London Sweatshirt, & tote for fall
Fall dress, earrings, and bracelets from Francesca’s
Clicker & HDMI cord for conference presentation
Replaced my favorite socks
Sunglasses for over my regular glasses (lost my Rx sunnies… boo)
So much unnecessary shopping… but admitting you have a problem is the first step right? 😅
What a month! Plenty of goodness to read, old movies watched, and new outfits to get me through the fall.
Here’s to the end of September (and onward to October)!
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I’ve been using The Next Right Thing Journal for 4 years to look back each month (and throughout the month). It’s on my list to pick up again before the end of the year.
Y’all. I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a kid and loved it… then I watched it again as an adult and thought “Woah… that’s dark.”😮 At age 8 I thought the gargoyles were funny and wanted to dress as Esmeralda for Halloween (I met her at DisneyLand and MY DAY WAS MADE). At age 33 I’m wildly more aware of the undertones (and overtones). Still excellent (and fun to sing along too) but boy did we have no idea what it was really about as kids. 😅 (Nope, Hellfire is not about Frollo wanting to kill her… not at all… 🥴)
Kevin Kline AND Kenneth Branagh? Two of my favorite actors in one place and I didn’t know it for years!