April Goals!

It's been a few months since I blogged about goal setting and specifically, my own goals. I'm still using Lara Casey's power sheets and loving them so, so, so much. Every month, a few days before the month starts - I take an hour or two to go over the worksheets and I find them so incredibly helpful to remind me where I was pointed in the first place, to see what worked and what didn't, and take stock of where I'm at. 

I'm still working from the main five desires that I set at the beginning of the year, and each month I just break those down into monthly goals based on where I'm at. I'll tell you, February - the goals just didn't happen. I'm not quite sure what happened in February - but somewhere between the launch of the church and the Lent calendar, I just lived. And I'm not bummed. I mean, we launched a church plant and kept four kids alive. It's ok if some books didn't get read, you know? Because of that, when I set my March goals, I basically revisited my list for February and added a lot of grace. 

Here were my monthly goals for March & how those ended up. 

- join Nick in working on our family budget (he's plenty capable, but I've been really needing to understand our money for a few years now so I can be more intentional): done!

-  make a room plan/to-do list to organize each room in our house: done!

- execute two rooms on the list: done! My office & kitchen & living room are mostly done!

- get exercise routine in order: done! I stopped going to Barre because the timing wasn't good for my family, but added back in more running and that has been really life giving. Also shifted our schedule so I can work out in the morning again. 

- go to doctor's appointment for myself to check hormone levels + make sure all things are functioning properly: not done. Will get done!

- take big kids to well child visit at new doctor: not done, but scheduled for this month!

- identify family rhythms to watch: done and done!

- rebrand Naptime Diaries blog + shop logo, start spring line: done! Can't wait to show y'all!

- pick face wash + find someone to do my makeup: done! I went with the Refine line by Rodan + Fields and I have a plan to get my makeup settled. 

- finish The Circle Maker: allllmost done. 

And here are my April goals! 

The new blog + shop websites launch on Monday the 7th (woohoooo! Make sure you're following my instagram and the shop instagram for sneak peeks), and ya'll - I'm not even ashamed to tell you that I've gone to the DMV twice in the last few weeks to get a driver's license. I have to take the tests because I've moved in and out of state so much and um - I haven't actually done so great in the passing of the tests. But! April is my month! I'm finishing up getting my passport so I'll be all ready for the Kenya trip in May! Most of the stuff on the list is FUN because getting these websites and the spring line of prints and products finished is going to be a huge push of work in the beginning of the month. That's why the back end is heavy in fun and celebration. And you know I'll be celebrating heavily when Nick and I finish our 40 day long Daniel Fast on Easter! 

So that's what is on the books in April over here. 

I'm linking up my goals with The Tiny Twig and her monthly goals post - what's ahead for you this month? Work? Refreshment? Abiding? Celebration? 

I want to hear! 

The Big Five - 2014 goals

It took about five (fun!) days, but I think I'm all the way planned for 2014! I used my #powersheets by Lara Casey to identify five big goals for the year here. Beyond that, I have lots of measurable month goals and benchmarks I want to hit - but here are the big five. 

Walk with the Lord. 

2013 taught me that accomplishments without intimacy mean nothing. And also, where the Spirit of the Lord is - there is freedom, all I have to do is walk in. One way I want to shift how I do that is by just doing, talking less. 

Develop our homebase. 

Anchored, wild, and encouraging. That's how our home needs to feel. 

Steward & Grow our Businesses. 

What's not said in this sentence is that I want to grow and steward these endeavors, and not start any more:). A promise I'm making to my husband - no more new businesses this year. Naptime Diaries, Influence, the book. That's all that on my plate. 

Attain our base healthy & standard of self care. 

I know it will take lots of work this year, but I'm hopeful that lots of work this year will equal a standard of health that just takes maintenance in the future. 

Partner with Nick for financial freedom. 

Stewarding our money well has always been important to be me in the way of  - "I want to steward our money well, Nick you do it!". I've now figured out that is not going to be enough. Just like our physical health, we're going to have to take huge strides to get to a place we can maintain. And I'm excited! 

A few people on the blog or social media asked how I planned and what in the world all of my seven notebooks were for, so here's a quick break down of what I did. 

beginning backwards - my December goals

Ladies. Ladies. Ladies. 

Last month, I blogged my November goals for some accountability and inspiration and man oh man, am I glad I did. Because it helped motivate me and I did it all so well? No. Because now I have public record that I don't have it all together and I've learned something huge about goal setting. Here's a quick recap of my November goals with a check in on each one. 

1. Start a list of my people's love languages w/ ideas of how to tangibly love them. 

My people = husband, kids, family, Gospel Community team, neighbors, Influence team 

This one I did! I started. I didn't finish. But I did start the list. 2. Finish Book Proposal! 

Well. No. Hayley and I haven't finished our book proposal. 

But we are DANGEROUSLY close. 3. Dive into half marathon training. 

The half marathon I was training for? I realized it's the day before our church plant is set to have our first service. This felt like crazy town. So I quit training for the marathon and subsequently quit running. Womp.4. Implement cleaning schedule. 
My sweet husband may or may not have said "I wish we enjoyed house cleaning strategy as much as we do small business strategy." 

I feel like I'm close here. I'm closer to having a consistently cleanER house and I'm also learning to expect less from myself when I have 4 kids and community constantly in & out. 5. Make 10 new Naptime Diaries prints + our holiday gift guide. 

I DID do this! 6. Eat clean & vegan till Thanksgiving. 

No. No. I didn't do this. Not in the slightest. I did JUST start the Advocare 10 day cleanse though and I feel like this is a great start in the right direction. 7. Start Gospel Community website building. 

Started it and will finish it this weekend! 8. Set aside Tuesday nights aside for girl's nights. 

I did do this, every Tuesday except the one before Thanksgiving. 9. Cultivate gratefulness in our home. 

This was not the best goal since it wasn't totally measurable, but I do feel a palpable shift in our home and I am for sure way more aware about how we're expressing our thanks & praise. 10. Finish reading Love Does & Girls With Swords. 

Nope. I let someone borrow Girls With Swords & I'm still halfway through Love Does. 

I would not say this was a crazy amazing month of making my goals happen, but in general, I am so glad for what I learned. I'm adopting two new practices in my goal setting and they might seem like they're a little crazy, but I think beginning backwards is going to help me a bit. Here's what they are: 

1. I'm going to make a list of the things I WON'T DO. And I'm going to try hard to stick to that. Things that I might feel tempted to pick up or put on myself that I need not. 

2. My friend Zoe told me the other day that each day she makes a list everyday, but it's not JUST a list of what she has to get done, it's a list of what she did. She said that most days she felt like she was never getting her to-do list done, but it was because a new list always cropped up organically. When she started jotting down the things she did, she realized how successful her days actually were. So I'm going to try that to fight off the wompy feelings of "what did I do today/this week/this month?". 

And for reference, here's a few things I WON'T be doing this month. 

1. I will not search pinterest for "creative gift wrap" and feel less than because my wrapping paper isn't hand-painted or adorned with gold foil. It's going to be target and maybe some ribbon. 

2. I'm NOT going to do a girls nights for the month of December with our church gals. I think our family needs a little respite to celebrate advent & I think this will also help us do more community activities to meet our neighbors. 

3. I'm not going to work from 3-7pm at all. No checking email, no business texting, no instagramming, no checking on a quick order. 

I'll let you know how my beginning backwards goes! 

What about y'all? What are you NOT going to do in December? I'd love to hear! 

Today's twelve days deal? A copy of Love Does by Bob Goff! You have to spend over $30 in our shop to be entered to win and we'll announce the winner on the blog tomorrow! Yesterday's winner was Hunter H - congrats on winning an 11x14 of your choice! 

November || Grace & Goals

Two weeks ago today, I was sitting in a room excited/scared/nervous/elated to be at Making Things Happen - a two day life + business intensive hosted by Lara Casey, Emily Ley, and Gina Zeidler. It was incredibly life giving and shifting and I can't wait to share more about it in the weeks to come, but today I just want to take a quick action step in sharing my goals for November. I've always been a planner and a goal setter, but I think I've been pretty stinky at setting actionable and measurable ones - things I can actually control and then check the progress of. 

Today I'm linking up with Hayley to share my November goals and I'm also going a step further to list some evidences of God's grace I'm thankful for. I think both will beneficial to see at the end of the month. Want to join me? 

November Goals 
1. Start a list of my people's love languages w/ ideas of how to tangibly love them. 
My people = husband, kids, family, Gospel Community team, neighbors, Influence team 
2. Finish Book Proposal! 
3. Dive into half marathon training. 
4. Implement cleaning schedule. 
My sweet husband may or may not have said "I wish we enjoyed house cleaning strategy as much as we do small business strategy." 
5. Make 10 new Naptime Diaries prints + our holiday gift guide. 
6. Eat clean & vegan till Thanksgiving. 
7. Start Gospel Community website building. 
8. Set aside Tuesday nights aside for girl's nights. 
9. Cultivate gratefulness in our home. 
10. Finish reading Love Does & Girls With Swords. 

Evidence of God's Grace I'm thankful for:

- November in Charleston. Seriously. It's chilly enough that we can sit around the bonfire in our driveway but we can also run on the beach with our kids. 

- Our neighbors and neighbor's kids. 

God has truly blessed us with some precious new friends that we're loving getting to know.  

- Pinterest On the weekends, I got social-media free, but I don't count pinterest. I had all kinds of fun on pinterest this weekend, and even organized my boards. My kitchen cupboards? Look like junk. My pinterest boards? Ahhhhhh. So tidy. 

- My mama coming and scooping me one day last week for lunch. 

- Our amazing assistant Jacey. 

- Our new roommate, Brittany. Britt moved in our extra room and is here to stay indefinitely and I could not be more happy, Nick either. She hangs out with me, helps make dinner, and Nick and I swear that our house smells a hundred times better. She smells nice. 

How about you? 

Goals? Grace? Let's start November intentionally with our plans & praise.  

 

Also, I am  SUPER excited about this!

The eBook Hayley and I cowrote, The Refresh Book, is included in this amazing healthy living bundle! You can get 86 eBooks from over 100 authors for $29.97. I've spent the past few days scanning a few of the books and I cannot wait to dig in to all of them. 
Go grab your bundle and enjoy!