The year is officially halfway over and I’m ready to check in on how I did with my goals for June, what’s up for July, and a little more overview on the first half of the year. So let’s jump right in with a June recap:

California here we come… Love the wacky adventures I have with this guy…

June Monthly Goals
*Establish new (simpler) rhythms & routines: This didn’t quite happen, the whole month ended up begin kind of wonky with me really struggling with anxiety and depression and feeling heartbroken over national policies of family separation and still just not feeling like I have a sense of what our new schedule looks like. July is a bunch of anti-schedule insanity so we’ll try this goal again the second half of August with the start of the new school year…
*Sell/Donate stuff in garage corner: This is going onto August’s tending list since it didn’t happen in June and we’ll be gone the weekend my church takes donations for cradle Sunday this month.
*Clean hall Closet/Office: The closet got done. The office did not. Our computer slowly crashed and died to a lot of effort went into trying o back things up before it officially kicked the bucket (got about 90% there which I’ll take!)
*Celebrate Father’s Day: Yes! It was a little chaotic but it happened with lots of love.
*Finish Summer Travel Prep: YES. Feeling good and getting really excited for the upcoming trips.
*Live simply/No Unnecessary Spending: Overall yes. a few things came up and I lost some resolve during my week or two of really struggling mentally and emotionally but falling back on the budgeting habit we’ve cultivated made it easier to recover and refocus.
*Create/Start Summer Bucket List with Kids: YES! We had so much fun brainstorming this list and we have started checking off items as well as implementing the tradition of Family Movie Fridays where we watch a movie with our son that he picks/has not seen before. It has become something he looks forward to each week and when it’s finally Friday he tells me “I’m so excited mom!!” These are the memories I want to cultivate with my kiddos.

June Weekly Goals:
*Project Life/Baby Book Work: Project life yes. Baby book… I need to create the space to work on this physical project. I did get some done and sorted a few more pictures. I also need to buy some new insert pages to finish this project. A little progress for sure, just not quite as much as I hoped.
*Caligraphy Practice x2: This happened about half the time. Similar to the baby book project, the biggest hurdle I’ve found is finding clean and clear space so hopefully course correcting the office will help as I continue to tackle this new skill.
*Meal Prep/Family Meeting: Less batch cooking than we’d planned but we did a good job sticking to our meal plans anyway and in using the instant pot to manage how hot our kitchen gets.
*TV Free Evenings x3: YES. I think I only missed on this one week and it really makes so much of a difference.
*Sabbath & Self Care: Hit and miss here and putting it back on the list for next month.
*Artist’s Date: Did most of these aside from one week. Have started to really cherish a little time away that is not dedicated exclusively to writing or running errands so I can clear my head and recharge.

June Daily Goals:
*Hydrate: Progress not perfection here, but I have to give a shoutout to my friend Kelly for recommending the Plant Nanny app because it really is motivating to drink more water so I can see those cute little plants grow… It’s such a simple app but it really has helped!
*Artist’s Way: Finished up the Artists Way but felt a bit like I limped across the finish line. Still, feeling like I have a lot of new thoughts and creative energy to bring to future projects so definitely calling this a win.
*New exercise plan: I sure tried a lot of options, and I had a good experience doing The Balanced Life Pilates challenge again, but still don’t feel like I have any semblance of routing or rhythm the way I used to with yoga. July is crazy but hoping more of a plan can emerge in August.
*7.5k Steps: Definitely got more consistent overall but still hit and miss. Still feel ready to bump up this challenge though!
*Read: Yes! More on this in my overview from the year.

Now let’s move on to July Goals!

Even an hour or two with these beautiful humans recharges me and makes my heart feels so full…

MONTHLY GOALS:
Enjoy vacations/celebrate!: Two trips to California this month and it’s easy to feel really overwhelmed when traveling with kids. I’m looking back over some advice I wrote last year and trying to remind myself to focus on the fun not the stress along the way. All of us are SO excited for some beach time and cooler weather and making lots of wonderful memories.
Be PRESENT as you reconnect with old friends: I get the really wonderful opportunity this month to see old friends who mean a lot to me and don’t live nearby anymore. I want to make sure I’m enjoying the moment and not distracting myself during this gift of time together. One of the reunions I thought would be taking place this month actually took place the end of June instead so I’m sharing with you a picture of that loveliness because don’t be fooled, even though I want to make sure I’m not distracted by screens, I will still have my phone on me and want to take a ton of pictures…
Research New Computers: As I wrote above, our computer died and we need a new one ASAP. I want to make sure we get one that will respect our budget but will also last a while so we don’t have to go through this again anytime soon. If this goes really well hopefully I can add to this goal and also get everything re-loaded from our back up and set up in a new schedule, but with all the travel and other events this month I am really just making the goal to research/buy a new computer.
*Might add one more goal midway through the month once our traveling is done. Trying to keep it simpler for now though.

WEEKLY GOALS:
Project Life/ Photo Routine: I know that it will be really easy to take hundreds of pictures while on vacation especially and that’s why I want to be sure I’m deleting the unusable/oops/super blurry pictures each night or every other night so it doesn’t get overwhelming when I go to back up photos next. I am also, in spite of the work I did last month, still behind on my project life pages and I want to catch up during our road trip time so I can get them printed next month.
Sabbath and Self Care: This may take some creativity during our travel days, but I still want it to be a focus. Even if the self care has to fall on a different day once in a while.
Creativity Time: Whether that be calligraphy practice, theatre related work, writing, or making new things, I just want to keep the creativity vibes going strong.
Focused time with each kid: I want to focus my time with my son on helping him prepare to transition to preschool this fall and time with my daughter to encourage her voice (she’s pretty quiet compared to her brother but when she gets a little quiet time she just opens up and cracks us up!)

DAILY GOALS:
Hydrate: Especially with travel I can forget to do this so once again this is my top daily priority this month. I won’t let you down, plant nanny!
Evening Routine: I have a better idea of what I want this to look like and I think that clarity will make it easier to stick to but will still take a while to make a habit. One thing I’ve decided is to try and mirror my morning routine a bit more so it feels a bit more familiar. One of those things I think will be most helpful is mirroring my coffee and Jesus morning time with an evening time of tea and the Examen. For those who haven’t heard of the Examen, it’s a Jesuit style of prayer meant to be done at the end of the day so you can review/examen the ups and downs of your day and bring your gratitude and failings before God. I’m hoping this helps me find more peace at night, and really that’s a big component of why I think setting up an evening routine is important. I have been having horrible insomnia lately and I want to cue my body and brain in as many ways as possible about when it is time to sleep.
Move Your Body/8k steps: I still forget to even wear my Fitbit sometimes, but I’m making progress on this habit. maybe I’ll be up to the recommended 10k steps by the end of the year, right? A testament to little by little adding up instead of starting with a goal that would have discouraged me. I also want to keep trying new options to move my body and feel good physically. I’m definitely not abandoning my yoga practice, I just think maybe in this season I need to alternate it with other options until I can get back to a regular schedule and studio practice.
Practice focusing on others: This also relates to my anxiety and my longing to do whatever I can to combat it. It also relates deeply to my need to put more good out into a world that is hurting. Similar to my random acts fo kindness goal, some days focusing on others may be something really small- like setting aside what I’m doing to really listen to what my kids are trying to tell me instead of telling the to hold on while I finish a task. Others it might be a random act of kindness or helping a friend in need or volunteering or donating. The focus has to be connected to an action to prevent my spiraling down a rabbit hole of focusing on terrible news I have no control over.
Caffeine Curfew/Screen Curfew: I’ve started getting stuck in the vicious cycle of suffering insomnia so I’m exhausted all day so I drink caffeine all day so I have even more trouble falling asleep so get up and stare at a screen which makes it even harder for me to sleep which makes me even more exhausted and caffeine dependent the next day etc etc etc…. so I’m challenging myself to re-establish the habit I had going earlier this year of not charging my phone in my room and of getting off it at least an hour before I plan to go to bed. I am also setting a “caffeine curfew” of 1pm which should be late enough that I can indulge in a cup of coffee or tea during quiet time/nap time and get through the afternoon. Maybe by the end of the month I’ll be ready to move my “curfew” back to earlier in the day but I’m starting with 1…

The Year So Far…

So June was a bit rough and it left me feeling a little discouraged. However, something I love about the Powersheets is that they give you times to refresh your goals a few times a year and reflect on where you are how far you’ve come. Here are a few big picture ways I’ve moved toward my goals:

*Donated at least ten boxes of stuff and trashed several bags/recycled many boxes of things I no longer need
*Made my room into a more peaceful space and made time in my day for scripture and reflection thanks to my morning routine.
*Created a photo backup system that particularly helped when our computer crashed. I can’t imagine how panicked I would have been if I didn’t know precisely when I last backed up my photos and that I am confident I still have all those on my phone, ready to back up when we get our new computer.
*I am about to finish my 35th book for the year. My goal is to read a book a week (aside from Christmas and potentially a tech week- I officially set my Goodreads goal at 50 books for this reason but at the rate I’ve been going I’m hoping I’ll make it to 52 anyway!) and while this particular goal wasn’t listed in my powersheets, it’s kind of a subgoal of two of my focuses for the year- It’s a goal under the big goal of building endurance- because I want to build mental and emotional stamina alongside my physical stamina and reading helps me keep my mind sharp and it also keeps me from spiraling when my anxiety is bad. It’s also a part of my goal fo cultivating a more peaceful home. By modeling quiet time reading to my kids it encourages them to take some quiet time and do the same. I deeply desire to help my kids love reading as much as their dad and I do and while we’ve always done a lot of reading TO them and WITH them, I want them to know that we can read ALONGSIDE them as well. I’m also hoping to tie this goal a bit more to living liturgically as I’ve recently compiled a list of books about or by saints I admire.
*Yoga improvements!! Speaking of the goal of enduring- my physical endurance has definitely improved in the first half of this year. Much of this is related to my yoga practice which I’ll detail in a post in the near future. I also ran a 5k and am hoping to run another by the end of the year! More on this in a future post as well…
*Paid off all our medical debt! I wrote about this in my post on the Financial Goals Guide, but It really was such a relief to get this done and a year ago it seemed like such an impossible task.
*Made a lot of great memories during a really exhausting time. This is my favorite thing of all.
Those are a few of the big things that come to mind. Here comes the second half of the year and I’m looking forward to continuing to taking little steps toward my goal and celebrating little by little progress along the way.

How are your 2018 goals going? Let me know if there are any ways I can help cheer you on!