Well … well … well. It is February 9th …. and I am JUST posting my monthly goal / start / stop /continue list. Bad, blogger Brittany. I wish I had a good excuse for my delay, but really, I was just avoiding blogging for a few days. Phil and I have been in full-on trip prep for our South Africa / Europe trip (one week from tomorrow …. I’ll be in route!) that I sorta slacked on my daily blog post to flip through guide books and plan all the amazing locations I am going to shoot for an upcoming personal project I am working on. Despite that I am only hitting publish on this post today, I’ve wrote this list at the end of January, so I really have been working on these things for the last 9 days …. well maybe minus the last one. :(

// START 

1. Going to bed earlier // I have gotten into a bad habit. I stay up way too late … and then I sleep in way too late. I’ve always been a night owl (and sometimes it means I am getting loads of work done), but I need to structure my day like a normal person with regular hours. READ : 2 AM bedtimes should not happen regularly.

2. Cooking more meals // I feel like I maybe shouldn’t have included this for this month since we will be out of the country for two weeks, but I really want to start making more “meals”. It’s not like Phil and I eat frozen pizza and mac and cheese all the time (only … some … some of the time), but our dinners regularly consist of sandwiches, paninis, soups. Sometimes I wish I was more ambitious with making a warm, home-cooked meal.

// STOP

1. Feeling like I always have to be busy // I swear this runs in my blood. My whole family (including grandma, aunts, cousins, etc) is like this. While I’d rather be busy, I need to allow myself to lay on the couch (with a good book or my journal!) and pretend my constant to-do list doesn’t exist for a few hours … sans guilt.

2. Stalking the Paw Pad Goldendoodles website + Facebook page // WE ARE GETTING A PUPPY! I totally intended on announcing that in a cuter way once he was picked out and named, but I really, seriously need to stop visiting this website. Our little dude isn’t arriving until the spring when we are back in Chicago, however I literally look at the website every.single.day. Oh boy! I’m out of control.

// CONTINUE

1. Reading a book instead of watching tv // One of my start / stop / continue goals for 2015, is to read more and watch less “bad” tv. I’ve been shutting off the TV and picking up my Kindle if I find myself searching for something to watch. I read The Woman I Wanted to Be and Switching Time … two books last month, so I want to keep it up and hit my goal of 24 books this year. Any reccos, friends? I’m always up for suggestions. :)

2. Blogging in advance // I killed it in January. I pre-blogged nearly every blog post, and it felt amazing. Because this week, I didn’t have my posts prepared, and well, it was harder to get back at it. Just like in school, I need to have a rough draft prepped before my deadline, so I just need to do some proofing, and I can hit publish.

What’s on your START / STOP / CONTINUE this month?