July Goals, New Month. Learning to Pivot is more important than learning to plan but also learning to plan was a 2026 goal of mine so here's a monthly plan.

"Just because this month looks different than I expected, there is no reason to just throw it out the window" wrote Sarah yesterday.

And it's true.  Things will be very different than planned this month without childcare, but it will still be a month, and all the nice thinking about July I did last week is actually still kind of relevant to the July that exists this week.

No one has died, no one is sick, no one is fired.  In the grand scheme of things this is such a minor blip in my professional life.  I've taken a combined 2.5 years of maternity leave at this point, and probably 3 months of day and half-day childcare leave over 8 years of being a parent, even if I miss 3 months of work (which I likely won't) this will be so... minor in the grand scheme.

(Even though I'm aware of the grand scheme, the tricky bit is going to be the day to day and my general proclivity to annoyance and childcare overwhelm.  It's all good while I post this blog during my 5 hour Rachel morning.  Let's see how I'm doing on Friday after 3 solid childcare days.)

Anyways, July still exists! I even did some color fun on my Sprouted Daily Planner:

I have to laugh at my "3 normal weeks, 1 camping week" assessment of July.  I guess this does show at that there are no normal weeks.

Hard Landscape of July:

• Date night 1st July
• School summer festival 3rd July --> attended! Fun!
• July 4th and Book Club (Tonight)
• 1 Office Day
• Andy Rachel Day Date Afternoon 11th July
• School Sports day 
• Last day of school July 17th

I've unfortunately had to cross off Andy and my dinner and our Saturday day date.  Another time.  We really don't have much grown up time at the moment.  There's not much that can be done about that, but I am slightly envious of all the "date night with my husband" people that exist (and I realize most of those don't have 2 year old twins hence the date nights are more possible)

July Goals 

• Strength train 2x a week
• Stretch 2-3x a week
• Pilates 1x a week
• Protected Rachel Time every Saturday, at least 4 hours
• Update all photo albums through March 2026 (Basically, February and March)
• Update family budget (I always do this, but I still leave it as a goal!)

I even made a tracker.  I am so proud of myself.  

Will I keep it up? Maybe.  Was it fun to make? Yes.

I'm not putting a goal to this, but I would like to sort out my eating. I've realized that when watching children, my food consumption is basically peanut butter and toast.  Who has time to make a salad while watching 2.5 year olds? Or a veggie scramble? not me.  It probably would be better to figure out how to eat some more nutritious meals, and so I'm toying with a week goal of meal prepping for myself.  But also, I am tired of making food and thinking about food all the time.  So it's not on my month goal list at the moment. Maybe August.

What's your July like? Any goals this month? Do you like a tracker?