July has been a month of hit and misses for the New Year’s resolutions, but then, if I’m honest, the first six months were also hit and miss. Of course, there has been a lot going on, and with today being the first day back at work for me, it’s about to get even crazier, and as always, that does affect how well I do on the goals. Here’s my update for July.

First, the writing goal was a fail. While I got back on track in June and met the weekly goal I had set, July was a setback. Between days I had to physically go to work or the days I spent working on school-related stuff at home and days I had things to do for weddings and even some days when I didn’t do much of anything, I accomplished absolutely nothing on the project. The blog was also sporadic, and even though I intended to post more often than I had been, that didn’t really happen either. Now that I’m back at work, I’m not sure how this resolution is ultimately going to pan out. I’m probably being unrealistic to think the project will actually be completed by the end of the year. I can still try to do more on the blog, though, and I can still try to get a lot more finished on the project. It may not be finished, but maybe I can get close to finished.

Second, my reading goal is progressing, but I’m a little behind again. I’ve made it to 41 books and I should be at 43.75. Given what I’ve read in the Bible as part of my reading goal, I can probably say I’m at 41.5, which has me 2.25 books behind schedule. I’m not too worried about that because I’m confident I can reach my reading goal. This month, I added the books of 1 Samuel and Isaiah to books completed from the Bible. I reread Matthew. And I’m reading 2 Samuel and Jeremiah and rereading Romans. For other books, I’ve read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens , which are books on the AP summer reading list. The other book I read this month was The Heist, written by Janet Evanovich (from the Stephanie Plum series) and Lee Goldberg (from the Monk series). I certainly hope they collaborate again.

Third, my weight-loss goal has made progress, though not as much as I’d like. I had hoped to have lost 35 pounds by the end of July, but I have only lost 31.8 pounds, which is 3.4 pounds less than I ended June. Granted, that is close to the goal, and I do feel so much better. I think getting back to a regular schedule, with the return of school, will help me a lot as well. I did manage to get into the routine of exercising through the summer, so I’m hoping to continue that throughout the school year. Brief exercise both in the morning before I go to work and in the afternoon or evening when I get home should help me keep losing weight. Eating on a more regular schedule should also help. I will also continue to track what I eat to make sure I’m not going overboard on calories. I just have to keep motivated. Getting to buy new pants that were two sizes smaller than I bought at the beginning of last school year goes a long way towards staying motivated. I can do this, and I can still be down 60 pounds by the end of the year.

Fourth, we did try a new restaurant in July. It is called Roosters and it’s on Nicholasville Road in Lexington. They have a wide variety of food options, and we all enjoyed it. I had some BBQ boneless wings and bacon cheese fries. I was happy. We also had their fried pickles as an appetizer, and that was also good. Several of the kids had different pizzas, and they were happy with those. Mady had mac and cheese bites, and she ate every bite of mac and cheese, which is good for a one-year-old. I think it’s safe to say that Roosters is an establishment we won’t mind revisiting.

Finally, there was absolutely no progress on the movie resolution. There are still seven movies to watch and five months in which to watch them. I still feel confident that won’t be a problem.

There are a lot of reasons for the hit-and-miss progress on these resolutions, but I’m still feeling confident that I can achieve more success than failure by the end of the year. Of course, I still have a lot of other things to accomplish by year’s end as well, including much for work and reorganizing my house with only one child left at home. I’m going to be optimistic, though, and work toward making these resolutions as successful as I can.