One of the benefits of being an educator is being officially off-duty during the summer months. That is not to say that I don’t work during summer but it does afford me a little more time to focus on things that I can’t normally spend time on when school is in session. I still go in to work at school but since school isn’t in session, my hours are a little more flexible during summer months. Every summer, I make a list of things that I want to accomplish by the end of summer. It usually includes things like cleaning the house, organizing the pantry, etc.

This summer, in addition to spending time with family and friends and traveling, I decided to set goals to help me focus on things I want to improve for myself. There were four goals I came up with for the summer.

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• Photography — I love taking photos and want to get better at taking photos. I don’t have the time to take a class so in lieu of taking a class, I am being more conscious of taking notice of what is around me and how I can turn it into an interesting image. To help me do that, I followed www.captureyour365.com to give me ideas/prompts for a photo to take everyday this summer. The pictures I took and posted to my social media account this summer are not what I normally posted, but I think that is the point for me. To get out of my comfort zone and to try and see things in a different way. I also upgraded my Olloclip lenses and am making an effort to use them to take better photographs.
• Blogging — I started Living Hilo Style to share what I (and my friends) love about being a Hiloan and also to share about our travel adventures that we take from Hilo. My friends and I all love to travel and just as much as we love our hometown, we do love to experience new things. During this summer, I am trying to spend a little more time focusing on reflecting on life as a Hiloan and sharing more on the blog. If you want to share a post on Living Hilo Style, we’d love to publish it. Just let us know.
• Fitness — Fitness has been a goal of mine for many, many years and my fitness level goes up and down based on what is going on in my life. This past school year, I got pretty busy and didn’t focus on my fitness as much as I wanted to. This summer, by using my Apple Watch as a motivator, I tried to close the exercise ring as much as possible. Since I was able to take my daughter to soccer practice, I made it a point to park the car when dropping her off and going for a walk and enjoying the beauty and our warm Hilo summer weather until she is done with practice. During my walks, I tried to notice what was around me and used what I saw as subjects for my photography and blogging topics.
• Gardening — I’ve been blogging and posting about my garden regularly but like my fitness, I haven’t had as much time with my garden during the school year as I wanted. I wanted to plant some new things and spend time clearing out the weeds that are trying to take over. What are your favorite things to grow in Hilo? My neighbors and I swapped some plants with each other. I shared some strawberry runners with friends and got some gardenia and pumpkin seedlings and some beautiful sunflower blossoms in return! So lucky! I love sharing the products from my garden with my pals.

So–now that summer is over for me, I’m reflecting on what I did–or didn’t do. Photography — I used the Capture Your 365 themes to help me focus on documenting my days while integrating some theme into the picture. Although I didn’t post a picture everyday, I did learn some new things. Blogging — I did try to focus on getting some new posts and sharing some of my older posts so that is a win for me. Fitness — Ummm — I didn’t lose any weight but I did get some workouts in so I guess that is better than zero. Gardening — I had fun in the garden this summer. I got some new plants, learned about some garden pests, and made a few garden to table dishes. That’s a win for me. All in all, it was a good summer. Living Hilo Style.