It finally feels like “ordinary time” in our family – we’re home from celebrating Christmas, we feted our birthday girl, we toted our tree to the curb, and we waved goodbye to my parents yesterday as they headed north themselves. The house feels a little empty without all the people and the decorations, and the calendar feels that way, too, as I look ahead. And that feels SO good.
In terms of goals, this is where it gets good, too – these monthly posts where I break down my big goals, take little steps forward on the things that matter to me, and hold myself accountable (with your help!). Let’s take a peek!
A few housekeeping reminders here at the beginning of the year: if you’d like to get an email every time there’s a new EFM post, you can sign up for that here. If you’re ever searching for something I’ve mentioned loving in a past goals post, you can find it here. And if you’re looking for my Amazon shop (mostly favorite books and kid stuff!), you can find that here!
On my calendar this month: — Celebrating our best six-year-old girl! For weeks she’d been talking about making pumpkin pie for her birthday dessert then took a hard turn toward make-your-own sundaes at the last minute :) — Our 17th dativersary! Since we started dating at age 17, this milestone marks the point where we will have spent more of our lives together than apart. I will probably have more thoughts to share on that, but here’s one to start: we are the luckiest.
What I’m loving right now: — I’ve wanted a dimmer switch for over our dining room table basically since we moved into our house. I’d think about it multiple times a week, but apparently I never mentioned it to John… and when I did last month, he promptly went out and bought one and installed it in, like, 20 minutes. I don’t even have a link for you (I think he got it from Home Depot), just a testimonial that the dimmer switch of your dreams is approximately 20 minutes away, ha!! — My sister-in-law introduced us to the Nate Bargatze Netflix specials (there are two of them) over the Christmas holiday, and they are such winners! Like our other favorite, Jim Gaffigan, they’re family-friendly and truly funny. Recommend! — With a kindergartener now in the family, I’ve been on the hunt for a school-years memory book. I recently purchased this one and am so pleased with it! It’s modern, stylish, has great prompts, and covers kindergarten to senior year (sob).
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 December: Reading slowed down in December with travel, holiday prep, and sharing more than my usual number of blog posts, but I did squeeze in a last read for my 2021 list: The Book of Longings. Though it came highly recommended by a number of trusted sources, it took awhile for me to add it to my queue – a book about a fictional wife of Jesus just made me raise my eyebrows. But I love Sue Monk Kidd’s writing, and I’m glad I took the plunge. I think overall The Invention of Wings is better, partly because of the writing but also partly because I never quite fell in love with Ana, the protagonist. It’s just hard to measure up as the wife of the son of God, ya know? But I did really love the first half of this book, where she lends some color (backed up by lots of research) as to what the years before Jesus’s public ministry might have looked like.
Revisiting my December goals: Set our 2022 budget (Done! This always feels so good!) Finish embroidering the numbers and sewing the pockets for our Advent calendar (Done!!! I finished the numbers and my angel mother-in-law sewed the pockets for me. Bless!) Edit Sheptember (I chose a song, downloaded and uploaded the clips, and edited the first 15 seconds! Then the holidays carried me away, ha!) Embroider shirts for I, J, M, and T (M completed! The rest tabled.) Book our spring break and Michigan trips for next year (Done!! So excited about returning to Michigan after 5 years!) All the blog posts. Just, all of them. (I did not get to all of them, but I did get to 9, which is pretty good!)
January goals: — Finish culling and sorting 2021 photos + print our favorite Instagram photos from 2021 — Prep for Valentine’s Day fun — Edit Sheptember — Paint prayer sticks with the kids (an idea from this episode of the Risen Motherhood podcast) — Morning time with New Morning Mercies on Fridays (my sister also has this devotional, so texting her when I read it will be a good way to stay accountable – and connected! :)) — Lay out 2012 in family album — Choose a DR program (thank you for all the recs!) or meet with an actual IRL physical therapist — Complete the first month of our fam Peloton challenge — Choose a contractor and set a start date for our kitchen refresh — Organize the new Best of EFM page (right now it’s just a random list of posts inserted by my developer, but soon it will be fun and useful!) — Fill out 2021 entry in our Christmas memories book (I need a new memory keeping commitment like I need a hole in the head, but here we are.)
As a reminder, many of these are drawn from my 2022 goals!
After the angst of last year, this year’s goals came clearly and quickly, and I’m really excited about them! As always, I set my 2022 goals with the help of my PowerSheets – they remind me what really matters to me and then help me make those things a priority. Sharing my goals here, year after year and month after month, is quite possibly the most potent factor in any progress I’ve made, so thank you, as always, for being kind, listening ears! :)
1. Return to in-person worship. My understanding of Jesus’s vision for a life of faith centers around learning, growing, and loving in a local community. Like many, we have worshipped from home since churches closed at the beginning of the pandemic, and that has been good in many ways, but I have felt strong confirmation that it is time for our family to open ourselves back up to the discipline and delight of in-person worship. This is not as simple as walking back through the doors (hence why it’s a goal), but it’s also very tender, so this is probably not a goal you’ll be hearing much more about right now. But it’s number one for a reason :)
2. Bury the word of God in our hearts. If I want to invite my children into a life of faith, the most powerful thing I can do is to live one myself – and let my children see me living it. The word of God needs to be on MY tongue if I want to teach it to them. The fruit of the Spirit needs to be in ME if I want to encourage it in them. The life of a believer needs to look like the best, most true and joyful and free life if I want them to say – I want THAT. This goal will initially focus on building a morning quiet time for myself and memorizing scripture as a family, but I’m open to where it takes me!
3. Complete my outstanding creative projects quarter by quarter. Last year, I had two goals related to creative projects and memory keeping, and while they all inched forward a bit, I didn’t move any of my many projects across the finish line. This year, to lend urgency, I’m assigning my projects to quarters and will only focus on one at a time.
Q1: 2010-2014 family photo album Q2: First 10 years of EFM book Q3: Kid memorabilia and memory keeping (baby books up to date, etc.) Q4: Advent calendar
4. Make my fitness a priority and have fun doing it. Fitness was 100% not a priority in 2021 – being a healthy pregnant person and a cozy post-partum person was, and that was perfect for that season of life. And 2022 is a new season! I have several goals under this umbrella: complete a diastasis recti program (any recommendations?), compete with our siblings in a Peloton challenge in Q1 (and probably Q4), add Annie into our life as a bike-riding family and get back out on the trails (starting in Q2!), and complete an MS75 ride in September with John and hopefully our brother- and sister-in-law!
5. Celebrate our marriage with joy! This one gets an exclamation point :) We are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary this year, and that is a milestone worthy of celebration! There’s not a lot I want to *do* for this goal; I mostly just want to make it a focus to praise the Lord for all He has done and continues to do in our marriage. We’ll continue with our monthly date nights and celebrate big-time with our anniversary trip in September. On that trip, I’d also like to incorporate some “marriage summit”-type activities and vision casting for the next decade, which will take some intentional pre-planning.
6. Refresh our home one quarter at a time. We have a few projects already in the works, and like goal no. 3, I’m going to try to focus on these one by one.
Q1: Refresh our kitchen (and possibly our mantel) Q2: Tweak our loft into a true play room Q3: Refresh our powder room Q4: Probably nothing – enjoy the holidays :)
7. Establish new rhythms for our family. I am so grateful that many things are running smoothly and joyfully in our family. I also know that our family is always changing, and so upgrading and fine-tuning our ways of life will always be one of my most important roles (alongside John!). The five of us are held together and built up by rhythms, routines, and traditions, and so it’s worth spending time tinkering. I need to do a little more mapping on this goal, but there are a few rhythms I’m considering implementing, codifying, or deepening: Sunday dinners, Sunday mornings (see goal no. 1!), family meetings with learning topics (oh yes), once-a-month friend lunches, Write the Word Sundays with June, family hikes, and baking together.
8. Make meals easier. This is by far the simplest goal! I have focused on various aspects of getting food on the table in my goals for the last few years, and I have seen HUGE strides in making this part of our family life run more smoothly. This year, this goal is basically about buying a secondary fridge/small chest freezer and developing a rhythm of doubling and freezing meals and incorporating frozen meals into my weekly meal planning. I also want to build out 1-2 “brainless” weeks of menus for each season that I can copy and paste when I’m short on time. That’s it! :)
As always, each of these goals will be broken down and lived out through my monthly goals. A little time at the beginning of each month and week picking out a few tasks that will help me move these goals forward goes a long way!
On that note,I’ll be back with my January goals post and my 2022 book list soon, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear what you have planned for 2022. Have you set goals yet? I’d truly love to hear, so please drop a note in the comments! I can’t wait to cheer you on.
