If there’s one thing my PowerSheets have taught me, it’s that visibility is key to progress. It’s not usually hard to do the things I want to do, it’s just that life gets in the way. There will always be something louder or more urgent than organizing photos, taking evening walks, or celebrating a Sabbath. Writing things down, checking in on my PowerSheets throughout the month, and sharing my goals here – each of those actions are a reminder to move forward, a little prod to take action.

And as you’ll see below, the little by little adds up…

Goal no. 1: Finish organizing our family photos, and create our first two albums.
Progress I’ve made: This feels like the never-ending project (a year and a half and counting), but friends, THE END IS IN SIGHT! In addition to all the steps I took last year, this year I have backed-up, culled, edited, and sorted ALL of my iPhone photos from 2017-2012 (and cleaned my phone off as I went!).
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I need to cull and sort my iPhone photos from 2011, 2010, and 2009 (those will be easy) as well as the photos from 2018 and the first half of 2019 (those will be hard). Then, I need to copy relevant photos from Facebook into my external hard drive sorting system, and then I will be ready to create my first album!! (I’ll likely use Artifact Uprising!) I’m planning to include five years in each album; the first one will cover 2005-2009.

Many of you have asked for more details about the steps I’m taking. I am happily planning to share in the next few months!

Goal no. 2: Ride bikes as a family, and complete the MS ride in New Bern.
Progress I’ve made: We took our road bikes to the shop for a tune-up, acquired two bike seats (for free!), figured out we can’t attach the seats to our road bikes (boo), bought a used trailer off Facebook Marketplace (earlier this week!), and as of last night, took our first bike ride as a family of four!!
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: This goal was on hold for most of this year as we waited for Shep to grow :) Now that we have the okay from our pediatrician, we are excited to ramp up in a big way to get ready for the MS Ride we have in our sights. Honestly, it seems slightly hard to believe that we’ll actually pull off a 100-mile ride from today’s vantage point, when we’ve taken exactly one ride for the entire year, but we have all the motivation we need: John’s cousin was hit with a sudden and devastating onset of MS in March. There are a lot harder and more impossible things than riding our bikes for a few miles.

Goal no. 3: Rest in the Lord as we carve out weekly Sabbaths.
Progress I’ve made: I have read much of what the Bible has to say about a Sabbath (and collected my notes in a Google doc). I gathered ideas from episode 002 of Nancy’s podcast. I’m a few pages into this book, which has been recommended by many. We’ve worshipped in church *almost* every week this year.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: Much! I’d like to come to a shared understanding with John of what Sabbath means for our family, then work backwards to identify the steps it will take to make it happen each week. And then I want to live it out, piece by piece!

Goal no. 4: Give my best to our church.
Progress I’ve made: The creative team I helped spearhead is off and running! We helped add life and color to Easter services and we’ve firmed up messaging across several different platforms.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: The last piece I’ve been asked about but haven’t touched is auditing and improving the church’s web presence.

Goal no. 5: Move my body throughout the day, every day.
Progress I’ve made: At the beginning of the year, I introduced this as “the goal I really don’t want to set but know I need to.” Friends, it’s been slow going. We have picked back up with evening walks, but I’ve fallen out of many of the habits I began at the beginning of the year (a mini walk midway through the day, standing for the first hour) as my workload has picked up.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I just reactivated my mini walk alarms on my phone. I have a goal this month to jury-rig a standing desk upstairs for days I’m at home. I’d like to hit 10k steps more days than not each week.

Goal no. 6: Connect more deeply in our neighborhood.
Progress I’ve made: Katie and I enjoyed ten successful weeks of our meal exchange before their move. I have gotten to know our across-the-street neighbors. I read this book. I’m actively looking for potential friends each time we go to the pool :)
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I have a bead on a new friend prospect who actually reached out to me via our neighborhood Facebook group… planning to be bold and invite her to do something soon!!

Goal no. 7: Complete our family room.
Progress I’ve made: We hung a mirror over our fireplace, refreshed our gallery wall and refreshed a few frames in it, found an ottoman for our big chair, added a lamp and a plant, printed and framed a few photos for our mantel, came up with a garland system (more about that soon!), installed a new rug and sold our old one, and switched out a few pillows.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I would love to make a final decision on our coffee table, add a floor lamp behind one of our chairs, switch out our throw blanket, replace our bar stools, and maybe add curtains??

Goal no. 8: Kick off The Years of Making Magic.
Progress I’ve made: Done!
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I’m considering this goal complete! Now I just get to enjoy checking things off for the next few years :)

How about you, friends? Are your goals for the year still going strong, or have they changed?

P.S. If you’re looking for help with goal setting and achieving, the PowerSheets I use are on sale this week for $29. A little birdie told me there are only a few left, and at the rate they’re selling, that stock won’t last long!

For the last several years, June has been synonymous with blueberries for our family. There’s a pick-your-own patch not too far from our house, and when the blues are in season, we try to go at least once a week. We venture out in the early evening, after work or after dinner, the golden hour when the heat has slacked just a little bit. This particular farm is magic, and the berries are so plentiful and perfect you can fill a pint without trying in about five minutes – but we always linger longer than that, enjoying the evening and each other. This is “the good stuff,” as they say, and I am so looking forward to another month of it.

P.S. I’m working on a post for later this week with an (almost) mid-year update on my 2019 goals for you – lots of good progress has been made!!

On my calendar this month:
— Blueberry picking, of course! I’m hoping to make these muffins with our bounty.
— A beach week with some of our extended family! June is SO excited to have a sleepover with her cousin MULTIPLE DAYS IN A ROW!
— Filming June in June Volume 4! The hunt for the perfect song is on!

What I’m loving right now:
— Going to the pool! We splurged on a membership for the first time this year and are trying to go once a week.
— Nancy’s podcast! And I’m not just saying that because she’s my friend :) She delivers a powerful punch in a short amount of time (usually 15-20 minutes). My favorite episode so far is number 002!
— Our brother- and sister-in-law got Shep this little dish to commemorate his baptism, and I thought it was lovely. I know we’ve chatted about baptism gifts in the past, so I thought I’d pass it along as a great suggestion!

What I read in May:
— Finished Where the Crawdads Sing. Loved it – going on my favorite fiction list.
— Almost finished with This is Where You Belong. I would rate it good – nothing groundbreaking, but if you don’t love where you live and are struggling with how to change your perspective, it might spark some ideas for you!
— A few pages into Pillars of the Earth – a classic BELOVED by my sister and several friends. It’s an intimidating size but with so many enthusiastic evangelizers, I’m excited to dig in!

Revisiting my May goals:
Book our camping trip for later this year (still in progress! We’re close!)
Send out invites to a book swap party!! (Done! I can’t wait!!)
Finish culling and sorting 2015, 2014, and 2013 photos (DONE!! Also 2012! I am on fire!!!)
Write a Marvelous Money post on investing (not yet!)
Commission an art print from Katie in prep for Father’s Day (Noodled around with this myself… need to print a test print!)
Order Shep’s bike helmet (Done! Now to find a bike trailer – we are hoping to find a Burley Bee used!)
Refresh our living room mantel

June goals:
— Finally book our camping trip!
— Cull and sort remaining iPhone photos – 2011, 2010, 2009
— Download and sort Facebook photos
— Plan my book swap party!
— Sign up for the MS Ride (it’s in September!! Eek!)
— Create a standing desk upstairs
— Define Sabbath for our family

I’d love to hear: what does June mean for you? What are you looking forward to this month?

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I welcomed your questions about our transition from one to two kids on Instagram, and you gals didn’t hold back – in fact, there were so many that I’m going to break them up into several posts! Today, we’re talking all things pre-arrival and the first few days.

As always, remember that this is just one family’s experience, and we certainly don’t have everything figured out. I hope something here might be helpful for you as you navigate growing your own family!

How did you know you were ready for a second kiddo?
Though it took us awhile to decide we were ready for our first, there was no question about jumping back in a second time – it was more a matter of choosing the right timing. When we decided to have one baby, we were basically deciding to have (at least) two.

In terms of timing, I was hoping to be pregnant by June’s second birthday, and I was. I’ve read that 2-3 years is actually the hardest gap for developing sibling relationships (1 year and 4/5 years are statistically better, apparently), but 2-3 felt right for us, and besides, I think there are more salient factors than the number of years in determining the quality of a sibling relationship! I liked that June would be walking and talking by the time a sibling arrived, but not so set in her only child status that a sibling would be an incredibly-jarring adjustment.

I was also keeping in mind the cyclical nature of my work and hoping to time a birth for a lighter time of year. Of course, the content of my work changed radically while all of this was happening, so that didn’t end up being much of a factor in the end.

Finally, John was hoping for a summer baby, and it’s fun how things ended up working out – Shepherd (July 31st) is slotted into a heavy lineup of family summer birthdays, including his uncle (July 1st), his Daddy (July 15th), his cousin (July 30th), and his Pop-Pop (August 7th). I love that we will almost certainly celebrate his birthday on the Island some years, which is a special kind of magic!

How did you help June with the transition to big sister? Any suggested reading?
We started talking about the baby more as my belly began to be more noticeable – just talking about how he was coming and that we were excited and that she was going to be such a great big sister. We talked about how he was going to be a part of our family and would be our baby. We’d also talk a lot about other friends her age who had siblings to help her connect his arrival to something concrete.

People would often ask us whether June knew what was happening, which was hard to answer. She was a young two for most of the lead-up (she was 2.5 when Shep was born), and so many things went over her head. She certainly told people she was going to have a brother, but I don’t think she really knew what that meant.

We read a few books – When You Were a Baby and How To Be a Baby were two favorites – but I’m not sure what effect they had on preparing her for her new role!

This is a kind of indirect answer, but I think the biggest ways we helped June prepare to be a big sister started long before I was pregnant. Helping her to develop patience and the ability to play independently, disavowing her of the idea that the world revolves around her and that she’ll always get her way, and growing in her a desire to be a helper (which I think most toddlers naturally have!) all made WAY more of a difference in the transition than talking about what the baby was going to be like or reading a book.

Overall, June has never been particularly interested in babies (takes after her mama :)), so we kept things low-key. Since his arrival she has always been accepting of him, but typically more interested in her own activities or thoughts – ha! (Shep, however, has been OBSESSED with her from the start, and they love to make each other laugh!)

Did you try to potty train before Shep’s arrival?
We did – kind of? Potty training was an ongoing process for us :) Our pediatrician had recommended 2.5 as a good age to try, which of course was exactly when Shep was scheduled to arrive. After seeing her cousin use the potty on vacation in June, June was motivated, so we rolled with it a little early. I would say we were still very much in the midst of training by the time Shep arrived, but it wasn’t a bad thing – we were mostly hanging around at home, so the bathroom was nearby and accidents weren’t a huge disruption.

How did you transition June to her big girl bed?
June is a GREAT sleeper, and I had NO desire to rock that boat when we were also getting up overnight with a newborn. She didn’t show any signs of climbing out of her crib until the end of September, so that’s when we made the switch. We tested the waters by having her sleep on a toddler inflatable mattress while on vacation, and just told her not to get out of the bed. Aaaaaand… it worked! My biggest concern was that she would immediately start walking around the room, but I had heard from many friends that their kids just didn’t, and June was the same.

When we got back from vacation, we made a big deal about sleeping in her “big girl princess bed” and she was excited to do so. She helped us disassemble the crib and move over her twin bed (it had been in her room since birth, which maybe helped – no jarring new piece of furniture!). Her bed is pretty high (we use this bumper), which I think has helped to dissuade her from getting in and out – she can, but it’s not as easy as just sticking a foot over the edge.

When and how did June first meet Shep?
My Mom arrived the night before my c-section and took care of June while we were in the hospital. June came to visit for the first time the afternoon of our second day in the hospital, a little more than 24 hours after Shep was born. This turned out to be good timing – we had had a change to get to know Shep, but I was still enjoying the effects of the morphine drip from the surgery. That evening, the effects wore off (my hospital gave morphine for 24 hours after surgery), and my transition onto just painkillers was rocky, so hours 30-40ish were the roughest for me, pain-wise.

June brought a little stuffed bear to the hospital as her gift to Shep, and she was delighted that he had a gift for her to unwrap, too – a stuffed Jellycat pig :) Not sure how much of a factor that played in getting their relationship off on the right foot, but it was sweet!

June was able to climb up in the bed with me and snuggle and take a look at Shep. It was a short but sweet visit!

Which was the harder transition – 0 to 1 or 1 to 2?
1 to 2, only because 0 to 1 was hardly a blip on our radar. I am exaggerating, of course – there were many adjustments when June entered our lives! – but in every way she made things easy for us. Shep did and does, too, but in most things he is just a smidge more challenging than she was.

For us, one child (especially the child we got) was easily absorbed into the life we already had. She was easy to take anywhere, would snooze in her car seat under the table at a restaurant until six months or so, and didn’t really change much about how we spent our days and nights and weekends.

The verbal vault from talking about “June” to talking about “the kids” is representative of the leap forward in our life as parents. Outings require just a bit more forethought, scheduling has become just a bit more difficult with two routines to take into account, and going about our daily lives has become just a bit more complicated. More about all that in part two :)

How did you function with a toddler while running on no sleep?
Don’t hate me, but I never felt like I was functioning on no sleep. Yes, most nights I was getting up two or three times, but Shep (like June) was good about nursing and then falling back to sleep pretty easily for his first few months of life. John and I were also able to fall back asleep when he did, so sitting up in bed for two or three half-hour stints overnight didn’t phase me too much.

June also doesn’t wake up super-early – usually between 7:30 and 8 if left to her own devices – and John would usually graciously get out of bed when she woke up and get her started on breakfast so I could sleep in a little bit longer.

Also helpful: from the beginning, we would always try to put Shep down for a nap during June’s afternoon nap. It didn’t always work, but if both kiddos were asleep, you can bet both parents were asleep, too :)

Okay – I think we’ll leave it there for part one! If you have a question I haven’t answered yet, feel free to drop it in the comments! I hope this has been helpful!!

More in this series:
Part Two (gear)
Part Three (finances, blessings, challenges, bedtime, what’s most different, and more!)

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I recently listened to a Coffee & Crumbs episode all about media, and between that and our lively discussion about Where the Crawdads Sing and Educated on my last post (and the planning underway for my book swap!!), I thought it might be fun to keep rolling on the reading train. So today, all about my life as a reader… and I want to hear about yours!

What do I read?

Right now I’m averaging about 20-40 books in a year, or 2-3 per month. About half are non-fiction, and half are novels. I love…

…(good) parenting books
…pop psychology and behavioral economics books
…personal finance books
…books that give me practical ways to live out my faith
…books that deal with the intersection of technology and family
…novels with exquisite writing.

And of course I read the Bible! Usually this version.

How do I read?

I exclusively read physical books, for a few reasons.

I prefer the experience of real books – seeing the typography on the page, feeling the heft of the book shift from right to left as I page my way through.

I am a visual learner, so I tend to retain more from a paper page – even if I haven’t marked it, I can often recall where a certain quote I paused over was (top left corner, bottom right) many days later.

I want to live in a home with books because I think they’re beautiful and because I want where I live to be filled with things I treasure. Environment is a strong way of imparting our values to our kiddos, and there is almost nothing I more want to give them than a love of reading.

On that note, I read physical books because I want my kids to see my reading. I want that to be one of the most common sights of their childhood, me curled up with a book, to learn from my example that reading is a delicious past-time, one of the most delightful and worthy ways to spend an hour. I could be doing anything with my phone in my hand, but when I’m holding a book, my priority is clear.

When do I read?

At this stage in my life, most of my reading is done right before bed. This is both good and bad. If I’m reading a book that’s sucked me in, I’ll eagerly head to bed early to squeeze in a few more chapters. However, if I’m reading a book that’s sucked me in, I’ll often stay up too late to squeeze in a few more chapters :) Some nights I read for 15 minutes, some for an hour.

I’m also diligent about leaving a book in my car or packing one in my bag if I’m heading to an appointment so I can read on the go instead of scrolling on my phone. I imagine this will become even more helpful when our kiddos are in activities that require my chauffeur services!

Where do I find books to read?

Fiction I almost exclusively borrow from the library – I tend to only read it once, so to me it doesn’t make quite as much sense to buy! Nonfiction I prefer to buy (on Amazon or Thrift Books), because I’ll often read favorites multiple times. I also like to underline quotes or ideas that hooked me (often for use in EFM posts later!) and am an eager lender of my favorites to friends and family members. (Stephanie has my copy of The Coddling of the American Mind right now and when I get it back I’m sending it to Kim!)

It also helps that one of my benefits at work is a book library, which is $15 a month to spend on the “personal growth” book of my choice! As an Enneagram 5, lifelong learner, and avid reader, this is heaven :)

I keep an iPhone note on my phone for “Books to Be Read” as well as a list of the books I read each year (they are some of my most-referred to notes!). I add great suggestions to it from my Articles Club ladies, from my siblings, friends-in-real-life and on Instagram, from EFM readers in the comments, and from a few favorite blogs (Cup of Jo and Everyday Reading especially!).

More posts about reading:
My thoughts on reading in 2014 (a few things have changed!)
25 favorite picture books
25 favorite chapter books
My favorite parenting books

I think my next reading post will be about the books I recommend most often – though of course, if you’re an avid reader of this blog, I’ve probably already recommended them to you :)

In the meantime, I’d love to hear: what are your favorite types of books to read? And when do you read?

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