December is here! and I’m ready to finish out the year strong… but first let’s re-cap November…
November Monthly Goals:
Much Ado about Much Ado:YES! What a whirlwind month. The show opened, closed, and we celebrated with a cast party. I remain so thankful that we got to direct this show and that we had a cast and crew that shared so much time and talent with us to make it a reality.
Thanksgiving Prep & Celebration: I won’t lie, I took the simplest way out this year. We bought a pie from Costco, we tried very hard not to overplay the weekend, although a lot of stuff still ended up being crammed in as the
weekend went on… I did make the special rolls that I only make one time a year. Mostly though, it was fun to just be with family and friends and to celebrate two Thanksgivings over the course of two weekends.
Run Virtual 10k!: YES! Actually, it was not having debilitating shin splints or tendonitis the day after doing this that I decided to think more seriously about joining Team World Vision. (more on that in this month’s goals!)
Advent Prep & Plan/Create Holiday Budget: We side hustled and saved and set our budget. We agreed not he non-negotiable events for the holiday season. Now we just have to stick with it and be OK with saying NO to a bunch of other really fun things.
Create Winter Bucket List: Thankfully this wasn’t as long as I feared it might be. My kids are pretty focused on Christmas so they don’t have a ton of other suggestions- which mean everything else I added was a fun bonus! Most of these will get combined with Advent plans, but I’m saving a few fun things for the first week of January before school gets back in session.
Back to Inbox 0: YES! Aside from one work email account which I do still need to process through, but I’m going to do that once the semester ends. The other three accounts are done!
November Weekly Goals:
Family Fridays: For the most part yes! There was one Friday that I ended up working, but the kids didn’t mind because they got to spend the day with grandma. I loved the one on one time with my daughter and once again helping at my son’s school.
Get Outside: This was my favorite goal to check off each week. I really fell back in love with the natural beauty of Phoenix this year.
Write! : For the most part this happened. Not quite as much as I’d have liked, but I was exhausted to be honest, so I’m happy with what got done.
Budget/Meal Plan/Family Meeting: This happened and went so well that we were able to stick a little extra into savings to prepare for the holidays!
Re-set a room/De-clutter for the Holidays: This did not happen as much as I’d have liked, but some rooms being re-set is better than nothing being re-set! I definitely underestimated how exhausted I would be while Much Ado was still running and my husband and I weren’t both home to re-set and plan for the week.
Write the Word Wednesdays: Done and done. Oftentimes more than once a week.
November Daily Goals:
10k Steps: I am actually shocked at how many days I achieved this goal. And thanks to training I even hit a few 15k step days!
Express Gratitude: YES! A few days missed but overall— a whole lot of gratitude and reflecting.
Morning Routine: This was ups and downs. Let’s try again in December!
Focused Time with the Kids: This is a great example of writing a goal that was too vague to confidently check off or see the progress I wanted. Brainstorming how to re-approach this and break it into simpler steps for future tending lists.
NO SPENDING: Ups and downs here too, but it lined up nicely with a 30 day financial reset I decided to do with a really lovely, smart account I follow on instagram- definitely spent less than I would have and that set us up well for the holidays.
Yoga Challenge Pose Work: Focused on handstand work. Still have a long way to go but can feel myself getting stronger as I’ve been working on strengthening my core, shoulders, arms… tried some new exercises and got outside my comfort zone for this so calling it a win.
December Monthly Goals:
Create/Maintain Meaningful Advent Traditions: It’s really fun to still explore and add new traditions to our family. I’m looking forward to trying a few new traditions this year and also bringing back a few of our tried and true favorite traditions.
Celebrate Christmas!!!: It’s not like I’m going to forget to do this… but I wanted it to be toward the top of my tending list to remember what the real focus of this month is going toward.
Stick to our Holiday Budget: This is going to be a challenge. It is hard to not be able to give to all the causes and people we want to give to and we are making some sacrifices this year, but I’m confident that our planning will pay off.
Finish 2018 Scrapbook Pages: I got wayyyy behind on my Projects Life Pages once I started teaching. Time to catch up so I’m ready to print everything off and start all caught up for 2019! Thanks goodness they are so simple to use and keep my stress levels down when it comes to memory keeping.
Team World Vision Fundraising to Provide Clean Water: This is the hardest thing on my list, but also one of the most important. I’m not good at asking people for things. But this cause is important to me and fundraising is the reason behind the race I signed up for, so I’m going to be sharing more about World Vision throughout this holiday season (and beyond!) If you want to learn more right now and/or support me in my goal, you can click HERE!
Pre-Christmas Toy Purge: I know I’m not the only parent preparing a toy purge… To be honest, there’s a bin of toys out in our garage that my son lost for not putting away that has been there since last March… and in it are only about three things he’s asked about since then. A few more things will get saved for my daughter when they are age appropriate, but others are being donated or tossed out! I fell a little (or a lot) behind on my goal of simplifying our home so this is a good step back in that direction.
Be PRESENT: I was just telling a friend that even though we tried to prioritize just a few holiday activities, our calendar still go really full really fast… I don’t want to rush through this season. I want to enjoy it and be present with my family, not adding to my to-do list in my head or feeling guilty about the things we didn’t get to do this year.
Prayerfully Approach Powersheets Prep Week: I can’t believe it is time to do a new year of prep work in a new set of Powersheets. To be totally honest with you, I always get a little nervous before starting the prep week because I’m never quite sure what is going to come up or how things might shift based on what I decide to focus on each year. I also get incredibly excited though. If you’d like to join me in preparing good goals for the new year with this incredible tool, it’s not too late! Powersheets are still available and you can get them by clicking HERE 🙂
December Weekly Goals:
Stick to the Training Plan: It is going to be hard to do the miles I’m supposed to each week to train for my half marathon given all the holiday events and people that will be in town, so I want to prioritize sticking to the plan in an effort to not really hate my choices come January… and especially February when it is race day!
Christmas FOOD!!!: Whether this means eating it, baking it, giving it away… it’s the most wonderfully butter and chocolate and peppermint filled time of year…
Family Time: So much happens in December, but I don’t want to lose the sweet family time we’ve started to cultivate.
Budget check in/ meal plan/ family meeting: If we have any hope of sticking to our budget we’ll need to stick to our weekly meetings and check ins.
December Daily Goals:
10k Steps: Once it goes from nice weather to pretty cold I know I have a tendency to want to snuggle under the covers as long as possible instead of getting up and staying active, so keeping this goal on here another month.
Extra Coffee & Jesus Time: In the spirit of advent… I want some extra time to focus on my devotionals, opening my Write the Word journals, doing some readings, etc. Whether this means adding this in during quiet time or just making my morning routine time longer… speaking of…
Morning Routine: Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be back to a decent rate of moving this toward a habit!
Evening Routine: Honestly, at this point I’ll be excited if I can remember to take my contacts out and wash my face each night. Self care really slipped over the last six weeks…
Yoga/Stretch and Recover: With all the running I’ll be doing I want to be sure tendonitis doesn’t become an issue again, so I want to keep strengthening and stretching my legs as much as possible!
O Come O Come Emmanuel: I’ve decided this is going to be a daily Advent prayer/tradition. We’ll sing O Come O Come Emmanuel by the light of the Christmas tree and break a chain on our Christmas countdown. Hopefully the kids will like this as much as I know I will!
Alphabet Resolutions 