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Well, that was quite the blogging break. More on why I took a spontaneous hiatus in future posts. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t any one thing. For now, I will provide our September monthly recap.

September is my birthday month and we celebrated by visiting some of our favorite people. I was able to spend my actual birthday with my parents, my brother and my nephew (whose birthday is just a few days after mine). I also spent time with friends, including an epic pairing of wine and Cheez-it crackers and a feast of middle eastern food.

Our lives and prior routine have been disrupted by the relocation that’s in process and Mr. Vine’s regular weekly travel schedule. In September we were still dealing with some pet health issues that kept our vet bills higher than normal. By this time we’ve also started buying some items for our new home renovation. Spending is high as a result and the markets were unenthusiastic. It feels like we’re treading water.

Here were my September goals:

• Cross one item off 101 tasks lists
  • I accomplished a 100 mile run month
• Meet AppleWatch Activity challenge
  • September’s challenge was to earn 1490 exercise minutes during the month and I did it!
• Perfect month for AppleWatch activity
  • Came close to this one, but didn’t make it
• Weekly Instagram post
  • Definitely failed this one – social media and this blog were both on the back burner throughout the fall
• Get back on schedule for blog posts
  • Ha! We know how this one turned out.
• Pack for move
  • I’m not completely packed, but a move is still 3-8 weeks away. I started packing and am continuing to make good progress so I’ll count this one as achieved.

I didn’t set any new goals for October.

Here is a look at our chart for September:

The large spike in August involved a down payment on a new home. So even though September spending was high, it looked much better than August.

I will get you all caught up on our financials and on life stuff in the coming weeks.