Word of 2016: Balanced (Motivated by Compassion)

By bobbi
January 8, 2016
4 Comments

For the last couple of years I have been choosing one word or phrase that would be my theme of the new year. In 2013 it was “love God in little things”. In 2014 it was ora et labora (work and pray.) In 2015 it was Be Still.

So what is the word for 2016?? Balanced.

The definition of the word is “keeping or showing a balance; arranged in good proportions.” It reminds me of something someone once told me. They explained that your life is like a table with four legs. Each leg represents the four main aspects of your life – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. When all four areas are balanced, then your table is strong and steady. But when one area is lacking, like a table with a short leg, your life is wobbly and unbalanced.

I need more balance in my life right now, especially after the holidays. I feel like I’ve overindulged in more areas than one. I want to get things back in order but in a realistic and do-able manner. I don’t want my goals to be too far fetched. Instead of saying, “I will lose 50 pounds immediately!” I’ll instead say, “I will return to my daily walking goals and put down the leftover Christmas cookies.” Rather than, “I will dump out all the items in that junk closet and reorganize it before the kids come home from school,” I’ll say, “I’ll spend 15 minutes a day tackling a small organizing project so I am not overwhelmed. Things like that – Balanced.

For my motivation to keep up this balanced way of thinking, I will use the second word that was heavy on my heart – Compassion. It is one thing for me to make a resolution. But it is an entirely other thing for me to actually keep it. I know myself. I get all gung-ho about something and then the novelty wears off and I’m all, “Meh.” However, when there is a strong motivation, it helps me to stay the course. For me, compassion and love are what wins me over. I am a sucker for helping another person out and wanting to do something kind for them. So when I am looking at my budget and am tempted to buy that “must have” item at Target that we really can’t afford, I will think of Brian working hard for our family to provide for us. My compassion for him as a husband and father will be my motivation to step away from the shiny object and move on.

Likewise, when I am at home and complaining about all the stinkin laundry or dirty dishes or the kids that keep interrupting when I am trying to get something done, I will remember that I am their mom. I show my love for my family by keeping a semi-tidy home and I share my love for God by stopping to help my kiddps when they need me. My compassion for them helps me to keep a balanced home life – not always goofing off and not doing my daily duties but also not always so busy that I can’t stop and spend time with my kiddos.

So that’s my word for the year – Balanced, motivated by compassion.

How about you? Did you pick a word for the year? What is it?

Tomorrow I’ll share my goals for January and February. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Periscope/Katch, GoodReads Letterboxd, Spotify or Instagram. 😉

November/ December 2015 (Holiday) Goals & A Review of My October Goals

By bobbi
November 9, 2015
5 Comments

It’s officially been a year since I first started to get into the habit of making goals. Those goals have been a big help and I am so thankful for the last year working with Laura Casey’s Powersheets. They were super helpful in making me look deep into myself and see what I wanted out of life, what fears held me back (without even realizing it) and challenged me to reach higher than I thought I could go. They set me on the right track and made goal-making a reality in my life but now I feel like it is time to change things up and work on my goals through a little different process.

As I mentioned before, I am taking Mystie Winckler’s online course Work the Plan. The course technically does not open until January 1st but I was able to get in early when she had early enrollment in September. I’ll post more about the course in the future but one element that I really like is that instead of monthly goals, she recommends “interval” goals lasting 6-9 weeks. She said our smaller goals should run for at least six weeks since it take that long for an act to form into a habit. Makes sense.

She is also helping us to make our yearly goals and break them down into interval goals. (I’ve chosen to make my intervals bi-monthly so I’ll be working on these smaller goals through November and December.) For each interval, we pick 1-3 projects we want to accomplish by the end of it. We list the tasks that we need to do to accomplish these projects. Those tasks will compromise my even smaller weekly and daily goals. Those along with the daily habits I want to work on will keep me busy for the next two months!

I kept my daily habits really simple because I know what the holiday season is like. I am super busy and I’m prone to get super stressed! So I need to just work on the basics – prayer, sleep, vitamins, water, etc because all these just seem to get forgotten when I am going full speed! I am also really trying to be intentional about my time and making sure that I am not wasting it by wandering around aimlessly working on too many things at once and not actually getting anything done. Ugh!

My main big goals do not change but my mini-goals change depending on the areas I need to work on the most. So here is a summary of my progress and my mini goals for November/December.

* * *

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning until it becomes second nature. – For the most part, yes but could still use some work.
Substitute a half-hour (or so) of watching TV or listening to music with something of greater substance, like listening to an uplifting podcast or reading a devotional/ spiritual book. – I’d say 50/50. It was improved but some nights I just wanted to veg in front of the TV and not think. LOL.
Get away from the regular routine for a bit and go to the chapel for prayer and confession. – Done.

Nov/Dec Mini-Goals

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning using the Jesse Tree devotion for the first time this Advent. I won an Advent Devotional Book for Women from Jenny at The Littlest Way (Yay! Thanks, Jenny!) so I’ll be using that along with the beautiful new Advent cards from Blessed Is She.
Short exam and Act of Contrition at end of the day.

* * *

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates. – We had our first lunch date with Bella babysitting the boys. Having a child old enough to babysit for short periods of time is a game changer!!
Make a conscious effort to thank Brian more when he does something for me or the kids and not just take it for granted. – I’d grade myself with a sold B-, with room for improvement.
Let Brian help me out when he offers and stop acting like he can’t do it the way I would do it. Let him have his own way of doing things. (I’ll tell you right now, that one is going to be tough!) – Yeah, this was tough but I think I did fairly well. Well, except for that time…yeah, I can still work on this.

Nov/Dec Mini-Goals

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates. Our lives are so centered around the kids and work that we really need to keep this up. It helps out so much I don’t want to it to let it slip away.
Continue to make a conscious effort to thank Brian more when he does something for me or the kids and not just take it for granted.

* * *

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue to work on doing what dinner prep I can in the early afternoon so I can spend an hour in the late afternoon helping the kids with their homework. – This was a huge fail. I need to work on a better plan to help the kids with their homework and not leave it all to Brian when he comes home. Realistically, with the holidays and upcoming school vacation days, this won’t be properly tackled until January. We’ll revisit it then.
Get the boys involved in Just Run at school and take walks as a family on the weekend. – Yes, on the Just Run and so-so on the family walks. Lots of busy (or rainy) weekends.

Nov/Dec Mini-Goals

Make an Advent Plan to help us keep our eyes on Christ and not get wrapped up in the materialism and busyness of the season. This year we will be doing the Jesse Tree for the first time and I will pick one (or two) of our other Advent Activities to do with the kids.

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

I’ve been slacking on my meal planning and going to the store too often so back to weekly meal plans on Sunday. – A couple weeks were good and a couple were no bueno! Grr.
Spend time on the weekends with Mystie’s Work the Plan course. I have a full calendar in October so the weekends will be the only times I can have a little extra time for this. – Yes. I wanted to be done with the course by now but I’m not. However, I have made progress and feel like I had a things in place to make it through the next two months with my sanity intact. 😉

Nov/Dec Mini-Goals

Make a travel plan for our yearly Fall trip to Disneyland and visiting my family so I can enjoy the trip and be adequately organized.
Make a Christmas plan and budget and stick to it so I am not overly stressed and over budget.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears and trying new things.

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

Once summer is over I tend to drink less so this month more H2O and take my vitamins. (So easy to do yet I always forget!) – Not super bad but not great. Seriously needs more work.
Complete the #write31days blogging challenge and write a post each day on my topic – 31 Days of Gratitude. – I did it, baby!
Complete the Lisa’s online class #LoveYourLettering about how to love your own handwriting and learn the basics of hand lettering. (I started here.) – I made it about 1/2 way but had to stop because there was too much other stuff going on. However, I do love the course and what I’ve learned so far and REALLY want to continue as time allows.

Nov/Dec Mini-Goals

Basics – water, vitamins, walk at least 20 minutes and in bed by 11 on school nights.
Follow the plan! Don’t do what I FEEL like doing but get the priorities finished. This month’s motto – suck it up and get it done!…with a smile. 😉
This may be crazy but this month I switched my planners. I know! I have loved my Erin Condren for the past year and a half and I posted last month about how I set it up BUT as I’ve been taking Mystie’s course, it talked about how well the bullet journal went with the plan. The more I looked into the bullet journal the more I sort of fell in love with it’s simplicity yet room for creativity. I decided to try it out in November and December when my planner is really put the test. If I like how it goes, I’ll stick with the bullet journal. If I don’t, I’ll go back to my EC planner in Jan 2016. I’ll write a separate post about setting up my bullet journal soon.

Okay, that’s it for now. Time to get dinner on the table.

What about you? What is the one thing that you really want to work on this month?

October 2015 Goals (& A Review of My September Goals) & 31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 9)

By bobbi
October 9, 2015
4 Comments

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 9 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

Last year, I started to get into the habit of making goals.The idea was a little foreign to me. It was something I associated with business men or entrepreneurial women. Not something a stay at home mom and part time blogger would do. But now I am so grateful to those who inspired me to set goals and for Laura Casey’s Powersheets that helped me define what those goals should be in my life. I have seen real progress over the last year and in this season of life I have more free time to explore some of the projects I had to put on the back burner when I had babies and toddlers in the house. So for my progress, for my extra time and for the grace of God that helps me put in the effort, I am truly grateful. 🙂

Last month I shared with you my September goals and now it is time to review those goals and make new ones for October.

My main big goals do not change but my mini-goals change depending on the areas I need to work on the most. So here is a summary of my progress and my mini goals for October.

* * *

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning until it becomes second nature. – I have been doing well at keeping my morning devotional time, although it still does not come easy. I have to “force” myself to stop and spend quiet time with God before I tackle my To Do list.
Print out and memorize the “Come Holy Spirit” Prayer. – Yes, I printed it out and made it into a bookmarker and printable, which you can download here. It really helped in learning it. 🙂
Re-focus on my phrase of the year Be Still by finishing the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy With God in the Busyness of Life. – Nope didn’t happen. I have hardly read anything at all. Ugh. Althoug, I did try to BE STILL during my devotional time so that was good.

October Mini-Goals

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning until it becomes second nature.
Substitute a half-hour (or so) of watching TV or listening to music with something of greater substance, like listening to an uplifting podcast or reading a devotional/ spiritual book.
Get away from the regular routine for a bit and go to the chapel for prayer and confession.

* * *

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates. – Going well. We have an out of house date planned for this weekend. 🙂
Continue to work on having the home picked up and my attitude in check so Brian comes home to respite and not chaos. – Mostly good. There were a few days when I was a volcanic mess about to erupt but that wasn’t the norm.
When Brian gets me upset, still treat him with respect and not like he is another one of my kids. – Hmm…I think I have been better. I’d have to ask Brian (or maybe the kids) for an honest review.) 😉

October Mini-Goals Reviewed

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates.
Make a conscious effort to thank Brian more when he does something for me or the kids and not just take it for granted.
Let Brian help me out when he offers and stop acting like he can’t do it the way I would do it. Let him have his own way of doing things. (I’ll tell you right now, that one is going to be tough!)

* * *

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Revise the kids chore charts now that school is back in session. – Done. For the most part they have been doing a great job at pitching in and doing their chores, even though some unnamed kiddo may give the a drama queen a run for her money during chore time.
Do what dinner prep I can in the early afternoon so I can spend an hour in the late afternoon helping the kids with their homework. – This still needs serious work. The busy afternoons of multiple school pick ups, driving to and from appointments and practices, getting chores done, homework started and dinner on the table is the toughest part of the day. I definitely need to work on this more.
Incorporate three feast days into the family life to help the kids better appreciate the fullness of the faith. This month it will be Mary’s birthday on the 8th, the feast day of St. Matthew on the 21st and feast of the Archangels on the 29th. (This one may be a little ambition but I’m going to add it anyway.) – I think this is the goal I am most excited about! Our evening before bed time is almost as hectic as our afternoon time but on Mary’s feast day I wanted to start evening family prayer time. I thought we could have a little time for prayer, intentions and say a decade of the rosary. It went so well, we did it the following night and the night after that and every night since. It is the perfect way to end the kids’ day and for Brian and I to start our evening. I’ll share more about it on a separate post next week. 🙂

October Mini-Goals

Continue to work on doing what dinner prep I can in the early afternoon so I can spend an hour in the late afternoon helping the kids with their homework.
Get the boys involved in Just Run at school and take walks as a family on the weekend.

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Fill in my new planner for Sept 2015 – Aug 16. – Done and done, baby. I share my planner here.
Spend some time in the evening working on Mystie’s course Simplified Organization. – I actually put that course on hold to take Mystie’s other course Work the Plan. It had to do with working on goals and how to make those goals happen in a way that suits your family. That is what I have already been working on here and I’d love more direction and tips. I started it at the end of September so this will be ongoing for awhile.

October Mini-Goals

I’ve been slacking on my meal planning and going to the store too often so back to weekly meal plans on Sunday.
Spend time on the weekends with Mystie’s Work the Plan course. I have a full calendar in October so the weekends will be the only times I can have a little extra time for this.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears and trying new things.

September Mini-Goals Reviewed

Track my eating. – Big fat NO. Grr.
Plan a blogging schedule. – This is still a work in progress.
Spend a few minutes a day just writing and getting thoughts down on paper. It doesn’t have to be for a post but just to keep the process flowing. Use the Listers Gotta List challenge for inspiration. – For the most part, yes.
Record more scopes on Periscope. – I never got to this.

October Mini-Goals

Once summer is over I tend to drink less so this month more H2O and take my vitamins. (So easy to do yet I always forget!)
Complete the #write31days blogging challenge and write a post each day on my topic – 31 Days of Gratitude.
Complete the Lisa’s online class #LoveYourLettering about how to love your own handwriting and learn the basics of hand lettering. (I started here.)

Okay, I think those are all doable but if I get even half done I’d be happy. 😉

What about you? What is the one thing that you really want to work on this month?

PPS – This post may contain affiliate links.

Tuesday Tidbits – Online Courses and Projects for October: 31 Days, Hand Lettering and Making a Plan

By bobbi
September 29, 2015
11 Comments

Hey guys, I haven’t been around my little online home lately and I thought I’d do a quick catch up on what’s going on here now that September is just about to end. What the what?? Well, I should have known that October was almost here since a number of stores already have Christmas decor (!) but that’s a whole other post. 😉 Right now, I’m just touching base on what I’ll be working on over the next month in case you want to join me before September ends! 🙂

The kids have been back in school for a month now and I’ve been trying to carve out an hour a day to work on some projects that have been sitting on the back burner for the longest time. Here are a few things I will be tacking this October 2015.

31 Days of Writing

Last year I participated in the 31 Days of writing, which is a challenge to bloggers to post 31 days in a row on one topic. Last year I did 31 Days of Gratitude with photos and (mostly short) posts. It was a good exercise to get me used to writing more, taking more photos and to pause and be thankful for the blessings God has given me or to look at a difficult situation and see the good in it.

The project is difficult enough to challenge me but not so hard that I would fail after the first couple of days.

Are you a blogger? Will you be participating? Even if you aren’t, there are a lot of great topics. Check out the categories and I guarantee you’ll find a blogger talking about a topic that is of interest to you.

31 Days to Love Your Letting

One of the bloggers participating in 31 Days is Lisa from Creativlei.com. I first got to know Lisa though her Periscopes. She is one of those ladies that just has a loving, generous and creative spirit. She does lovely hand lettering (which I’d describe as is a broader and more creative form of calligraphy) and she will be teaching an online class on how to love your own handwriting and learn the basics of hand lettering. The classes are short and can be done in 10 – 15 minutes to it is really doable with my busy schedule.

I’ve been wanting to learn how to hand letter for years but never really took the time and effort to go beyond a few doodles. Well, that changes this months since I signed up for the (free!) class. Lisa will be posting on her blog and doing live Periscopes to answer questions and show you samples of what we’re learning. So what do you think? Shall we learn together?

Work the Plan

Okay, well that covers the more creative side to my personality but I am also working on making the time to be creative. I have found that even though I have a little more free time I also have so much on my plate that I don’t know where to start. I’ll spend too much time on things that are secondary and then forget to do the things that are mandatory. The situation has gotten so much better since I’ve been making big goals and breaking them down in to smaller goals but I am ready to take it a step further and streamline my planning so there is less “busy work” and more progress.

Cue the lovely Mystie Winckler. Mystie has created a new online course called Work the Plan that “is a streamlined productivity class for moms that will walk you through setting up a system with synergy and the habits to keep it going.” The classes are broken down in short videos that walk you through creating a plan (if you don’t already have one) or streamlining your plan to make it more doable. It is a good introductory class before jumping into the more in-depth Simplified Organization course. You can follow the course at your own pace so 15 minutes a day has been doable for me.

Technically the course doen not start until January 2016 BUT you can join early by September 30th (tomorrow!) at a reduced rate. ($32 instead of $49.)

Well, those are the projects I have set up for next month. It should easily fit into one hour a day, unless I do a longer gratitude post.

The month of October is either going to push me to reach higher than I thought possible or drive me to drown my sorrows in chocolate chip cookies. Here’s to working towards a win! (I just watching Lord of the Ring with my son Andrew, who had never seen it before, and I am pumped to go on this journey and face my own fires of Mordor by putting in the effort to persevere, rather than giving up when it gets too tough. Wish me luck. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope or Katch (past Periscopes), GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

PPS – This post may contain affiliate links.

September 2015 Goals (& A Review of My Summer Goals)

By bobbi
September 5, 2015
9 Comments

Last year, I started to get into the habit of making goals. I shared with you my summer goals and now that summer has flown by it is time to review those goals and make new ones for September.This month is actually my favorite month to work on goals because after all the less organized, playful days of summer and with the kids return to school, I am ready and energized to tackle some of the needed areas of my life.

My main big goals do not change but my mini-goals change depending on the areas I need to work on the most. This summer although I did not accomplish everything I had planned, there was enough real progress to feel like a made some big strides. For one prone to procrastinate and spin her wheels in the ground, that is muy bueno! So here is a summary of my progress and my mini goals for September.

* * *

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

Summer Mini-Goals Reviewed

15 minutes of prayer/ journaling in the morn. – This was a little hit and miss. Not great but not terrible. I could definitely use more work on this area.
Turn my mind to God through the day, even if only for a brief moment. – Yes, I have worked on that and have spent more time turning my mind to God.
Memorize the “Come Holy Spirit” Prayer – Yeah, this did not happen.

September Mini-Goals

Continue with the 15 minutes of prayer in the morning until it becomes second nature.
Print out and memorize the “Come Holy Spirit” Prayer.
Re-focus on my phrase of the year Be Still by finishing the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy With God in the Busyness of Life.

* * *

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

Summer Mini- Goals Reviewed

Plan weekly at home date night or an hour long outing on the weekend. – Done and done. 🙂
Once a month, plan a longer date with a babysitter. – Yeah, baby. Done. (Thx to visiting family who made this much easier!) 🙂
Have the kids do a quick clean up before Brian comes home so the place doesn’t look like a war zone when he comes home. – Proud to say, Yes!
Bite my tongue and let Brian come home to a kiss from his wife instead of a tirade of all the drama he missed while he was away at work. – Hmmm… maybe 75% of the time. So, it could still use some work but has been better.

September Mini-Goals

Continue to plan weekly date nights and monthly out of the house dates.
Continue to work on having the home picked up and my attitude in check so Brian comes home to respite and not chaos.
When Brian gets me upset, still treat him with respect and not like he is another one of my kids.

* * *

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

Summer Mini- Goals Reviewed

Plan a daily time for the kids to read and work on a little school work so they don’t forget everything they learned. – This went okay but not great. Some progress made.
Have screen-free times during the day when the kids must be outside playing or doing something constructive (ie Legos, puzzles etc). No iPhones, iPads, tablets or computers allowed. (Mom included! Gasp!)) – This one was HARD for all involved but it worked. The kids spent way less time on screens, mama included.
Weekly outings – beach day, picnic, library, aquarium etc. – For the most part, yes.

September Mini-Goals

Revise the kids chore charts now that school is back in session.
Do what dinner prep I can in the early afternoon so I can spend an hour in the late afternoon helping the kids with their homework.
Incorporate three feast days into the family life to help the kids better appreciate the fullness of the faith. This month it will be Mary’s birthday on the 8th, the feast day of St. Matthew on the 21st and feast of the Archangels on the 29th. (This one may be a little ambition but I’m going to add it anyway.)

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

Summer Goals Reviewed

Make a master TO DO list broken down by each room in the house. I have a tendency to work on too many projects at once and I don’t complete any of them. This way I can pick one item on the list, get it done and mark it off. – I never made a master list because I did not have a lot of free time this summer to work on projects. I sorta forgot that summer also means having kids underfoot 24/7! Okay, maybe not at night but by then I am too exhausted for anything other than vegging on the couch!)
Update my freezer and pantry inventory and plan my weekly meals around the items that will be expiring soon. – I never updated the list but I have been eating out of the freezer and using up forgotten food.
My menu planing has grown stale so this past month I have been trying one new recipe a week. (Preferably using my about to expire food.) So far it has worked out well. – Not each week but every couple weeks, yes.

September Mini-Goals

Fill in my new planner for Sept 2015 – Aug 16.
Spend some time in the evening working on Mystie’s course Simplified Organization. (By the way, if you are interested in this course, sign up for her email first. There is a discounted price through the email.)

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears.

Summer Mini- Goals Reviewed

Daily hydrate, take vitamins and walk for 20-30 min. Use my Fitbit to keep track. – I’ve been decent on the water, sometimes lacking in the vitamins but rocked the walking. I made it 55 days straight hitting my goal of walking 10,000 steps a day. However, this week I was sick and needed some rest.
Track my eating otherwise I keep underestimating how much I’m eating each day. – Major fail. Lack of weight loss was the proof.
Plan a blogging schedule that allows me time to enjoy what I love each day without going to extremes – spending no time on the blog or getting sucked into a posting rabbit hole. – Postponed. Family life and summer took over any thoughts of blogging.
Plan some girls day out with local mom friends. – Not as many as I had hoped BUT I did co-host a Blessed Brunch so that was awesome. 🙂
Buckle down on my Goodreads’ 2015 Reading Challenge. I pledged 12 books this year. I am in month six but only on book 3. Time for summer reading! – I am in month 9 and have read 7 books so I have a little catching up to do.

September Mini-Goals

Track my eating.
Plan a blogging schedule.
Spend a few minutes a day just writing and getting thoughts down on paper. It doesn’t have to be for a post but just to keep the process flowing. Use the Listers Gotta List challenge for inspiration.
Record more scopes on Periscope.

It may seem like too much but in the season of life I am in now I have a little more free time and I can focus on these things. (I remember a time when I rejoiced if I simply was able to shower and not do bodily harm to myself or anyone else before Brian came home.) Each season looks different!

What about you? What is the one thing that you really want to work on this month?

PPS – This post may contain affiliate links.

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Tag Archives: monthly goals

Word of 2016: Balanced (Motivated by Compassion)

November/ December 2015 (Holiday) Goals & A Review of My October Goals

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears and trying new things.

October 2015 Goals (& A Review of My September Goals) & 31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 9)

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears and trying new things.

Tuesday Tidbits – Online Courses and Projects for October: 31 Days, Hand Lettering and Making a Plan

September 2015 Goals (& A Review of My Summer Goals)

Main Goal #1: To always have God at the center of my life and to deepen my love for Him. I want his will to be my will and motivation.

Main Goal #2: To be a loving and holy wife to Brian and to work at keeping our marriage strong, to nurture our friendship and spend time alone to reconnect.

Main Goal #3: To be a good mother that loves her kids and spends time with them and is not always “too busy.” I want to teach them about their faith and how to love and serve God in their young lives.

* * *

Main Goal #4: To bring order into our home so I am not stressed out by the mess and chaos. When things are organized our family life runs smoother and there is more peace.

* * *Main Goal #5 – To take care of myself physically, spiritually and mentally so I can be a happy and healthy wife, mother and friend. Taking care of myself mentally also means challenging myself to come out of my comfort zone and facing my fears.