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!

March Book Review

We're now three full months in! I realized that I needed to read a little more than four books each month to achieve my goal of fifty books this year. January gave me a big advantage with the completion of ten!!! In February I finished three, which is below my desired average but I'm chalking it up to the month missing at least one day compared to the rest of the months (like my excuse?). March is over and I finished seven books! Below are a synopsis/review in case you might be interested in reading any of them.

1. A Million Steps by Kurt Koontz

I had downloaded this book to my kindle a looong time ago but had forgotten what it was about so it took awhile for me to open it up and check it out. As soon as I began reading it I knew instantly what had attracted me to it. The book is about a man who walked from France to Santiago de Compostela, a city in Spain. It's the Camino de Peregrino (Pilgrim's Walk) that has been occuring for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. There are different trails from all over Europe that end at a church in Santiago de Compostela that is believed to have the remains of St. James (as in the apostle of Jesus, James). The Camino is generally a spiritual as well as physical and mental journey.

I studied abroad in Spain in 2002 and one of our stops was to Santiago de Compostela to view the end of the Camino. We stayed in an old convent and walked through the cathedral and saw where pilgrims end their journey. There's a statue of St. James in the cathedral where people touch his head. The stone is very smooth and has indentions of fingers from all of the people who have touched the same spot. The idea of walking 500 miles across Spain sounds very intriguing. There are shorter and longer mileage options depending upon your desire and ability. We saw a number of people with the telltale scallop shell on backpacks marking them as peregrinos.

I enjoyed Kurt's record of his adventure. It definitely has piqued my interest in perhaps attempting at least part of the trail someday. I know I want to return to Spain with my family someday, and this could be part of that adventure. Another interesting thing (to me) is that the author lives in Boise, which is where my parents live. We could have unknowingly crossed paths somewhere on the Green Belt during one of our many trips to visit.

2. Lovable Livable Home: How to Add Beauty, Get Organized, and Make Your House Work for You by Sherry and John Petersik

I was perusing the nonfiction section of the library and this book popped out at me. We are a little ways into the second year of living in our current home and there are projects I want to do but have not yet done (mainly painting). I thought it would be a fun book to perhaps give me some ideas or at least jump start my motivation to paint and spring clean.

The book was well-organized, with chapters divided into parts of the house. There were lots of pictures to accompany the many suggestions, ideas, and DIY projects listed in the book. I bookmarked a lot of ideas (as you can see) and will have to make a picture file of them, I suppose, as it's a library book I'll have to return in a few weeks. Their website has a lot of great ideas as well and could probably substitute for the actual book.

3. The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity by Sally Clarkson

A friend loaned me this book several years ago. Part of my reading goal for the year is to read and return all of my borrowed books. Parenting is one of the three main categories of nonfiction I read for obvious reasons. This book was very informational and full of useful content for me as a mother, and especially as one who is at home. Sally shared a lot of what she has learned is important in raising children who love Jesus and have a heart for service, two things that are important to me. 

I was a little overwhelmed at all of the material covered in the book and was on the verge of feeling like a failure in the parenting department (in the same way that I feel like a failure as a woman when I read Proverbs 31:10-31) but was reminded that habits take time to develop and parenting is a marathon that requires consistency and determination. There were several things that I feel like I have been making an effort and some progress toward. 

One topic was introducing children to culture - art, music, literature, performance - that is of interest to me because I like all of those things and have been exposed to a lot of cultural experiences throughout my life (and is one thing I like and appreciate about my own childhood). Per Sally's suggestion I checked out some non-fiction children's books on art, women in history and photography. My daughter found several of the books very interesting. After I read her a book about Georgia O'Keeffe, she felt inspired to create her own art. It felt good to see her interest sparked through a new genre of books. As a family I do think we do a good job of exposing the children to a variety of activities and experiences but I appreciated the reminder that books are another form of exploration.

If you are looking for a book to encourage you in your parenting pursuits and perhaps give you new ideas to engage, interact and instruct your children, I would recommend reading this one.

4. The Rosie Effect: A Novel by Graeme Simsion

This is the follow up book to The Rosie Project, a book I read and thoroughly enjoyed. I was curious to see how married life would be for Don Tillman, geneticist. He and Rosie are now living in New York (from Australia) and working/attending Columbia University. He finds out that Rosie is pregnant and sets about to try to prepare for fatherhood in an orderly and rational way. His attempts to do this cause some issues and lead to tension in his marriage. I was very fond of Don and Rosie by this time and was anxious to find out what happened. It was a very interesting and engaging read and I would recommend it, especially if you liked the first one.

5. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Last year I read The Husband's Secret per my mother-in-law's recommendation. I enjoyed it and decided to read some of Liane's other books. This one I thoroughly enjoyed. In the book a woman named Alice wakes up after hitting her head in a spin class thinking that she is 29 and pregnant with her first child. In reality she is 39, has three children and is separated from her husband. She finds all of this information very difficult to process. She discovers that so much has changed in the past ten years and sets about to figure out where things went wrong in many of her relationships while bringing the innocence of her younger self into the equation. I was thoroughly engaged and wondering whether things could return as she remembered them or if they were irreparably damaged.

6. The Longing in Me: How Everything You Crave Leads to the Heart of God by Sheila Walsh

I applied to be on the launch team for this book and was accepted (it officially comes out April 5th). I read the title and felt like it was a book I needed to read, so I was happy when I received the acceptance email. I haven't read any of her other books for adults (I have read some of the Gigi ones with my daughter) but I was in the middle of reading Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God (courtesy of Jen Hatmaker) and was enjoying it and the rest is history. I thoroughly enjoyed the book (a longer review will come later). In it she walks us through the story of David in the Old Testament and his story as "a man after God's own heart" as she helps us understand that our longings are for God. We feel our longings for something and tend to believe that there's something in this world that can satisfy them - people, relationships, success, possessions, etc. Each time we try one, we learn that they are not truly what we are longing, not what will give us rest and satisfaction. The reality is that only God will fully satisfy us and we need to place our trust and hope in him and allow our relationship with him to fulfill our longings. It was such an encouraging read! If you are weary of pursuing things and continuing find that they do not satisfy, I recommend picking up this book and being reminded of God's heart for you filled with love, grace and acceptance.

7. Kissing Frogs by Rich Amooi

I think I got this book off of BookBub suggestions. It's a quick read about a woman who moves into a new house after a failed relationship and quickly meets and develops chemistry with her new next door neighbor. She is determined not to get involved with him but he is not helping as he is interested in dating her. It was a fairly predictable love story but I usually enjoy those as light reads. If you are looking for something fun and light for vacation, this could fit the bill.

Third Month Goal Review

March has come to a close and I am back here checking up on my goals for the year. The first month I was pretty strong. February was also fairly solid. Could I keep steady three months in a row? Let's dive right in!

1. One arts and crafts time per month with the kiddos

With St. Patrick's Day, Easter and the beginning of spring all occurring in March, it seemed pretty easy to find something crafty to do with the kids. I gathered materials to make Easter wreaths and fingerpaint crosses. I really want to make sure the kids understand the spiritual aspects of major holidays, that it's not just candy and gifts but has a deeper, richer meaning for our lives.

And then the kids had no interest in doing either craft. My daughter received art supplies for her birthday and wanted to make a St. Patrick's Day picture to give to her teacher.

Here's the finished product.

My son wanted to draw with crayons and cut. So he did.

I worked on an Easter banner while supervising.

We have talked throughout the month about Jesus, his death and resurrection so the craft was not to be the only Easter-associated thing we did. Funnily enough, my son did the cross project in his preschool classroom at church on Easter.

And I ended up making the wreath craft one day while my son played with (homemade) playdough.

And, of course, egg dying!

2. Blog at least twice per month

This month was much more challenging than previous months. I managed to get my two written for the month but I was sweating the second one, writing it four days before the month ended. It was the accountability of reporting my success or failure on here that helped me push through my writer's block. If I hadn't publicized my goal I probably would have let it slide.

3. Grow in gratitude, contentment and generosity

There is a young woman in our church who has babysat for us off and on the past three years. She spent a year in Laos that ended last spring. She has decided to return again this fall for a two year commitment to teach English and share Jesus with her students. When she left the first time we gave her a one-time donation. We decided this time that we want to sponsor her monthly and began that process this month. We will miss her but we know she will do wonderful things abroad!

I also purchased items to help with various ministries' needs this month. I have been reminded of Jesus' words about not publicizing your giving and feel like this section kind of contradicts that. I do want to grow in generosity but I also don't want to brag about it. So I am not sure how to balance that. Perhaps being more vague in my give, such as noting that I did use resources for others' sake.

"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."  Matthew 6:2-4

What do you think, dear reader? Is sharing progress on this site the same as announcing it with trumpets?

Here are my two verses memorized for this month:

Deuteronomy 6:5-9: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

1 Peter 5:8-10: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, stand firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 


How are you progressing on your own goals (yearly, monthly, just decided on, whatever)? Can I encourage you in any way? Please let me know!

February Book Review

The second month has ended and so it's time to discuss the books I completed this month. Not nearly as many as last month but that's okay. I have no idea how I finished so many in January - probably neglected responsibilities like cleaning and laundry.

1. Eve: A Novel by Wm. Paul Young

I had read The Shack years ago when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like seeing various perspectives on how people understand God. I thought it would be fun to read his new one since it is obviously a fictional account related to the Eve of the Bible. It seemed like it would fit into a science-fiction category and it took me a bit to feel like I had a grasp on the world being described.

The story is about a young girl who is found barely alive in a shipping container. It appears the container ends up in some other dimension and time and the people there work to resuscitate and heal her. She cannot remember who she is or where she is from and keeps having lucid dreams that she is witnessing Creation with Eve. It sounds weird and the story kind of jumps around some but it did describe Eden and the fall in an interesting way. I was kept guessing about what would happen and who was trustworthy throughout the story. I found it very engaging.

2. Balancing It All: My Struggle of Balancing Priorities and Purpose by Candace Cameron Bure and Dana Wilkerson

I watched Full House growing up and thought this might be an interesting read. In it Candace talks about growing up in her family and on the hit show. She talks about how she met her hockey-player husband and the challenge of deferring her career dreams so that he could pursue his along with everything that comes with having and raising a family. She talks about not growing up a Christian but still with Christian-like morals and her journey to accepting Jesus and trying to become the wife, mother and woman she felt she was called to be. I appreciate her candidness and honesty about not always getting things right. I know she's not perfect and I didn't necessarily agree with all that she said but I enjoyed learning more about her and what she's learned. It also makes me want to watch Fuller House but we don't have Netflix. [I did get to watch the first episode and enjoyed all of the nostalgia from the original show.]

3. Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue

I hadn't heard anything about this book until my husband gifted it to me for Valentine's Day [books are kind of my love language (actually it's words of affirmation but books contain lots of words)]. I read the back and, as I dove into it, was hopeful that it would end positively. The book is from the perspective of a five-year-old by named Jack who lives in Room with his Ma. We learn that his mother was kidnapped as a teenager and has spent nearly eight years imprisoned in this room by her captor. From Jack's perspective we see how his mother has tried to protect him from understanding the truth of their situation while also giving him as full and normal a life as possible. 

I struggled with this book from the beginning being a mother of both a daughter and a son. I desperately wished that Jack would stay safe and they would both somehow make it out of the room. I felt like I had to keep going despite the sad circumstances just to see if there was light at the end of the tunnel. I felt that using Jack's perspective helped the book not to be so dark and depressing. A very interesting read.

Did you read anything worth recommending in February? As always, I love to hear about what others have enjoyed.

Second Month Goal Review

We've completed another month of 2016! I started out the year strong. How did I do in February? Let's review my goals and find out!

1. One arts and crafts time per month with the kiddos

Since it's February, I knew we could do something Valentine's themed (as long as I could get everything organized and together before the second Sunday of the month. My daughter's class was passing out valentine's and she had decided that she wanted to make her own so that made the decision of what to do quite easy. We gathered up supplies and she got to work.

Meanwhile, we needed something fun for my son to do. He likes stamps and stickers so I thought he could make his own valentines with those supplies. He also wanted scissors since his sister had them so I obliged.

My daughter enjoyed personalizing each valentine for her classmates. Some had stickers. Some received stamps. She drew special designs and wrote specific phrases for others. She seemed to have a blast and was proud of her completed projects. 

One of her completed valentines

My son's valentine was quite colorful

I decided to also attempt a Valentine's craft to make our home a little more festive. Our house has decorations for Sept-Dec but the rest of the year it's fairly plain. I think it turned out lovely.

2. Blog at least twice per month

I am trying not to use my monthly reviews as counting toward my twice per month goal or it would be too easy. After posting my January reviews I was struggling with something to say. Thankfully the holiday gave me something to write about and helped restart my brain's idea center. I ended up with three non-review posts for February! My latest one was reaaaalllllly long and I was a little concerned that people wouldn't want to read so much. But I reminded myself that God will do what he wants with my posts and I'm just to trust him with my story.

3. Grow in gratitude, contentment and generosity

This month I participated in a mug swap with a Facebook group. It was fun trying to find fun things to send to an unknown woman that she'd enjoy. Last year I would have been more concerned with spending money on someone I didn't know but I focused on it being an opportunity to show love to another person. Each participant also donated money to one of the group member's adoption fund. Of course, it wasn't completely unselfish because I did receive my own package from a thoughtful woman. Steps, right?

Jen Hatmaker had a "Share the Love" event where people could register themselves or someone else to receive a free copy of her latest book, For the Love. After the registration period, other people could pay for one or more copies of the book to be shipped to one of the registered people. I chose to send out a book. The exciting part is that 2250 books were sent out - one to everyone who signed up for one!

This month was also the first children's consignment sale of the season. I thought one way to grow in generosity was to use any money made from selling our old clothes, toys and books to bless others however the Lord leads. Ten percent will be given to our church and the other ninety will be used for opportunities the Lord provides. I struggle off and on with spending money because I don't earn any as a SAHM. I try to focus some on saving money but that seems different than bringing it in. With this little bit of extra, I hope that I will feel freer to give.

I worked on memorizing two more scripture verses this month. They are below.

Matthew 11:28-30 - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Psalm 68:19 - Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

I am continuing to try to avoid impulse purchases for myself. I know I really don't need anything so if I can focus on enjoying and appreciating what I do have, that will be progress. My mother-in-law decided to get rid of one thing from her closet each day for Lent (I assume clothing closet) and I think that's something I could do as well. I haven't started but removing forty things would definitely be a bit of a challenge and an opportunity to be grateful for and content with what I already have. I'll report back next month and let you know if I did this.

How are you doing on your goals for this year or month? Are you participating in Lent? If so, are you giving something up or did you add something?

First Month Goal Review

Okay, so we've officially come to the end of the first month of the year. I thought it might be fun to let you know how my goals are currently coming. Splendidly, should be the answer because everyone has energy in January for new or lofty endeavors.

1. One arts and crafts time per month with the kiddos

On MLK Day we were supposed to have a play date but one of my kids was sick so it turned into our craft day. I had already determined that in January we would make paper snowflakes because my daughter seemed to enjoy doing them in December of 2014 (Yes, that long ago. I told you I'm terrible at crafts). I also thought it might be fun to try paper doll chains with the snowflake scraps.

Neither of these turned out that great. My daughter became frustrated trying to cut through the thick paper for snowflakes and couldn't quite figure out the chain cutting to make the paper look like people. My son has minimal cutting skills. Small slits in paper is all he can really do. I ended up doing most of the work.

Our cat sitting among the paper creations

So I punted and gave them both paint and paper and they had a blast. My son drew a T. Rex (at least that's what he told me) and my daughter drew a birthday cake for her uncle, a tree and an owl.

The T. Rex is the bottom left picture, birthday cake upper right

In addition to supervising I finally completed a project I started several years ago - turning an oatmeal container into The Very Hungry Caterpillar to use as an activity to read along with the book. It turned out fairly decent and both the kids love feeding the caterpillar as we read the book.

All the food was glued to baby food jar lids (some not pictured)

2. Blog at least twice per month

So far so good here. I actually blogged two times in the first week, eight overall. Also, the fact that I've been struggling a bit has provided material for posts. I'm trying to be more transparent this year. I have learned that when I am vulnerable it gives others permission to do the same. Jon Acuff calls it "The Gift of Going Second".

3. Grow in gratitude, contentment, joy and generosity

Okay, so this one is a little hard to determine empirically. I do feel more joy in my relationships. I struggled through some discontentment and discouragement mid-month (or perhaps most of the month as you may have noticed from my other blog posts) but I feel like I've turned a corner. God is helping me to learn to enjoy my relationships as they are and also showing me steps I can take to improve my relationship skills with others.


After posting my initial list, I edited it a bit. I read a book that suggested I focus on a goal in each of my passions. I determined that my main passions right now are Faith, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships and Blogging. So an additional one that is more tangible for faith (than number three above) is to memorize two scripture verses each month. Below are January's.

John 14:1- "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."

1 Peter 4:10 - Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

John 15:5 - "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Yes, I realize that's three verses. I can be an overachiever at times. January's a long month. Perhaps it can be considered an early start on February.


In January I also tried to not spend money on anything but essentials. How did I do? Find out!