Another year has wound around and here we are, with my last set of monthly goals for 2021. This year has been a bit of a strange one for goals, from my protracted indecision over setting them in the first place, to the major life upheaval (both abundantly good and unexpectedly challenging) we experienced in the middle of the year, to squeezing progress around a quick pace of life since returning to work in the final quarter. Thanks to the calendar and my PowerSheets I’m in major reflection mode at this point, which is my favorite place to be in December. More to come! But for now, here’s what I have planned for this month…

P.S. I am planning to share another “best of the year” post this month, on December 15. If you have a blog and would like to join me, I’d love to have you! Planning to use the same prompts as last year – you can see them here! It will be fun :)

On my calendar this month:
— Dinner out with John for our 2021 review and celebration. We are going to Second Empire in Raleigh, which we haven’t been to in over ten years!
— A trip to Charlotte to see The Nutcracker with the ladies in my family.
— A Christmas visit to Connecticut with the Thomas family. Hoping for snow :)

What I’m loving right now:
— My PowerSheets prep work. The best reset and chance to dream!
— I’ve found the native Apple podcast app annoying to use since they updated it a few months ago, and on the advice of the internet, recently switched to the Overcast app to listen. It’s free and the functionality is fantastic!
— This is lame since they’re not available any more, but Cultivate’s Advent conversation cards have been SO fun to keep on our dinner table and pull from each night! The OG conversation cards are equally good, though :)

As a reminder, you can find allll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!

What I read in November:
— Self-Portrait in Black and White | “Thomas Chatterton Williams, the son of a ‘black’ father from the segregated South and a ‘white’ mother from the West, spent his whole life believing the dictum that a single drop of ‘black blood’ makes a person black. This was so fundamental to his self-conception that he’d never rigorously reflected on its foundations―but the shock of his experience as the black father of two extremely white-looking children led him to question these long-held convictions.” Being a memoir, his perspective is obviously specific – but it also allows him to ask some very intriguing questions. A thought-provoking and worthwhile read.

A little update on my 2021 reading list: it’s been a joy! So far, I’ve read 15 of the 24 books on the list. It doesn’t seem like I’ll get to all of them before the end of the year, but I hope to finish 3-4 more before December 31st!

Revisiting my November goals:
Complete the backing for our Advent calendar (Made some progress on the numbers!)
Finish the sermon series
Make gift plans for all the people and execute as much as possible
Edit Sheptember
Embroider shirts for I, J, M, C, and T (I completed one and it looks SO CUTE! The tee fabric is much different than the Advent calendar felt I’m used to, though, and it took longer than I anticipated.)
Do my November holiday prep (Cards have arrived, newsletter is half done, calendar is planned, spiritual formation is underway!)
Begin my PowerSheets Prep Work (Done! Already hyped for 2022.)

December goals:
— Set our 2022 budget
— Finish embroidering the numbers and sewing the pockets for our Advent calendar. If I can also sew on the tree, I will have amazed myself!
— Edit Sheptember
— Embroider shirts for I, J, M, and T
— Book our spring break and Michigan trips for next year
— All the blog posts. Just, all of them.

Since we’ve been chatting about podcasts lately in these goal posts, I’d love to ask: what are your current listens? Right now, I am grateful to get to listen to Coffee + Crumbs, Honestly with Bari Weiss, The Lazy Genius, and Raising Boys & Girls. Tell me what else I should consider!

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