September Goal Review

We are officially into fall and it's once again time to check in on my goals for the year. You can read about previous months by clicking the links: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August.

1. One arts and crafts time with the kids each month

  I wanted to do something fall related as I love the season but I didn't have a lot of time to come up with something. I decided it might be fun for the kids to make leaf rubbings so I gathered some leaves from around the yard. While they waited for me to get set up they worked on creating additional pictures. They seemed to enjoy leaf rubbing but it did not keep their attention long. .

I think J's favorite part was removing the paper from the crayons.

Self-portrait!

2. Blog at least twice per month

  For the month of September I decided to participate in all of the Friday Five writing prompts given over at MrsDisciple. I had fun writing about quitting as well as women and men I admire. The bookmarks post was fairly easy and did not require as much emotional involvement. The crying prompt, however, was challenging. It took me a bit to figure out what to write about. I am glad that I gave myself this challenge. I don't know whether publishing a post once per week is too much with all of my other responsibilities. I'm still working out all of my responsibilities and time management. I do enjoy writing and sharing I just don't want it to take away from my family. I also wrote a post about a great book I read recently.

3. Grow in gratitude, contentment and generosity

  I do feel like I have a more thankful heart toward God this month. I do still have negative mental rants here and there but it seems that a lot of my prayers include thanksgiving toward God for who he is, his faithfulness and his provision. I have written in my gratitude journal at least once per week. I am trying to appreciate the people in my life and the ways they bless and help me.

I love that my fall decor helps me to remember gratitude.

  I do feel fairly content with where I am. I am in a bit of transition at the moment but I am confident that God will bring me through and the result will be positive. I have what I need and appreciate what I have.

  I have been trying to continue to be generous to those around me with time, thoughtfulness, gifts, and encouragement. I could grow in the generousness of my grace and in thinking the best of those I come in contact with. I need to continue to believe that everyone is doing the best they can and that, if I am witnessing unkindness, then they must be having a bad day and the behavior is an anomaly. That's the kind of grace I would like to receive. I am not usually purposefully unkind or ungracious to others but I have bad days and bad moments.

  My verse memorization has fallen to the back burner. I love God's word and am encouraged by it but keeping this on my plate would be more stressful than helpful right now. Verse memorization tends to come in spurts in various seasons. I know I'll get back to it again for awhile and then take another break. I still know a lot of verses by heart that encourage me.


September's a wrap. How did the month go for you? Did you start a new goal? Let go of an old goal that is just too much write now? What did you accomplish or start in September that you're excited about? Tell me!

Sixth Month Goal Review

We are officially half way through the year! I have worked on the same goals for six months straight. How have I done? I've recorded each month's summary. Below is June's record. You can read about January, February, March, April and May on the linked pages.

1. One arts and crafts time with the kids each month

This goal is one that makes me sweat a lot. I am not a crafty person so it's a chore to peruse kid-friendly ideas that we *hopefully* have most or all of the materials for. I didn't think this month would be bad because it contains Father's Day and I usually help the kids make cards for their dad.

Father's Day 2013

However, a friend of mine emailed a link to a DIY cat tent. It looked relatively easy and we had all of the materials so I thought we'd check that out. My husband donated an old t-shirt to the cause so this was a free craft (hurray!).

I had the kids decorate the shirt because it seemed like the most kid-friendly part for them. My daughter also tried to help curve the clothes hangers for the tent poles but it was too challenging for her.

Their final contribution was enticing the cat into the tent. They eventually found success.

Of course, we also made Father's Day cards.

2. Blog at least twice per month

This goal is also never easy to achieve. Now that it's summer it will be a bit more challenging to find time to sit down and write, as well as additional time to ponder topics I may want to write about. The first post was about sharing the themes of my current season of life. I did manage to get a second post in with a couple of days to spare. I have been listening to a couple of great podcasts and blogging about them seems to be my way to process them and share their personal impact.

3. Grow in gratitude, contentment and generosity

As you may recall, the first month of the year I tried not to spend any money on non-essentials. I had kind of kept up with that for a few months but the last two months I have kind of fallen off the no new purchases. I think it being summer and wanting to have some fun new things for the kids has contributed to that. They took swim lessons in May and I have purchased goggles and dive rings toward the cause of water confidence. I also am visiting my family for a few weeks and I tend to do some thrift store shopping while I'm here because 1) free babysitting so I can go without the kids, and 2) the prices and quality of items are excellent. (Actually, the only non-experience, non-food items I bought out west in June was a pair of dress shoes for J at a thrift store and three outfits for K on clearance - two for future holidays. Not too bad considering my normal habit.) I would also mention yard sales but we're not doing that until the July portion of my trip so I'm sure I'll cover anything I pick up at those next month. I will work on being more conscious about whether it is something to be used or simply an impulse buy.

I slacked off a bit on my gratitude journaling. I will blame it on end-of-the-school-year business but it's just an excuse. I still enjoy it a lot and feel like it helps me to be reminded of all that I do have to be grateful for as well as help address things that are on my heart and mind.

This month I read The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed To Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown and part of Wholehearted living, according to her research, is gratitude which is the source of joy. The book also encourages us to stop striving for acceptance and be ourselves, which I feel is intertwined with contentment.

We were hoping that an opportunity to move closer to family would open up for us, but it did not materialize. I was a little disappointed but it has encouraged me to seek to be content where I am and embrace what I have as fully as I can. It's an opportunity to choose contentment daily instead of thinking about something that may never happen.

I also read Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up which was even more motivation and encouragement to get rid of unnecessary stuff around the house and, hopefully, be content with and enjoy the stuff I currently have. The only problem is that I read it while I am on vacation away from the house so I have to hope the desire to declutter does not ebb before I get back home.

This month I worked on being more generous with my time - working on saying yes to things that are good and fun for my family and for others. I tried to be more willing to lay down my agenda and schedule and allow opportunities and others to receive more of my time. It's hard to say how successful I was but I can think of instances when I chose time with others over my own thing and offered to help with things that others needed done.


Here were my intended verses for the month:

Isaiah 26:3  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

Psalm 62:5-8  Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

You may have read my post this month about trust and rest. As you can tell, these verses address those themes. However, I got busy and distracted with summer break and getting ready for vacation that I did not make time to memorize both of them. The first one was short and easy and encouraging so I know that one. The second one did not get memorized. Fail. Plus I've probably forgotten at least half of the previous months' verses for lack of practice.

So, it took six months to slack on something. Not terrible. And it doesn't mean I won't hit all of my goals next month. Each day, week, month is different and I have to give myself grace when I can't do it all.


So, what goals were you working on in June? How did you do? How much more progress are you still hoping to have? What helps keep you motivated? Do you know what temptations are in your life that hinder your ability to achieve or improve on your goal?

Fourth Month Goal Review

April has come and gone and it's once again time to check in on my goals for the year. You can read about January, February and March if you'd like. Without further ado, let's get to it.

1. One arts and crafts time with the kids each month

I wasn't sure what the kids and I would do in April. They both had their own ideas so I went with them. My daughter had received a Sofia the First sun catcher to paint in her Easter basket and wanted to work on that.

My son also wanted to paint and used the dot paint set we had to create a picture.

When those projects lost their interest my daughter decided she wanted to get out the art set she had received at her birthday and create a picture. My son had received a Paw Patrol coloring book at Easter and chose to color in that for a bit.

Finished creations

In between assisting them I decided to work a little on my photography, attempting to create images I could use on the blog.

2. Blog at least twice per month

I managed to achieve this goal again this month. I blogged four times. One was a book review for a launch team I was on. The others were just feelings and struggles and thought processes.

3. Grow in gratitude, contentment and generosity

A new friend introduced me to interactive prayer journaling this month. It is an opportunity to more clearly hear God speaking to you. It starts out by sharing your gratitude with God. My journaled gratitude has ranged from family and friends to medicine to the beauty of nature. It has helped me to remember that I have so much to be grateful for and, I think, has given me a more grateful attitude and heart.

I participated in a spring cleaning challenge in April which I thoroughly enjoyed. It helped me to clean out parts of the house I have been meaning to but kept putting off. I was also motivated by our neighborhood's yard sale at the end of the month. I cleaned out a bunch of clothes from my wardrobe, unused toys and too-small clothes from the kids (We decided the kids could keep the money earned from selling old toys and would use it as an opportunity to introduce the "give/save/spend" idea with money. Neither really understands the value of money yet, but perhaps it's at least a helpful start for the six-year-old.), baby things we no longer need and other miscellaneous things from around the house. Anything I couldn't sell in the fall children's consignment sale was dropped off at Goodwill after the yard sale. It felt really good to purge so many things from the house.

I didn't receive any feedback about whether sharing specific instances of giving went against the verse posted so I will once again be vague. We did give in addition to normal giving this month. I probably could benefit from increasing generosity with my time, specifically giving more undistracted time to my children.

Here are my verses for the month:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ~Galatians 3:26-28

I only ended up memorizing the above verse but it was technically three verses so I guess it counts. ;-) It was hard for me to get this one firmly in my memory.


So, tell me about your goals this month. What were you trying to do? Did you achieve it? Are you going to try again next month? Try something new? Fill me in!