One month of 2022 goals in the books, friends! And I am celebrating a major win over here. As you may remember, one of my goals for the year is to make my fitness a priority, and as part of that, we kicked off a Q1 Peloton challenge with our siblings at the beginning of the year. John and I didn’t get the W, but we came roaring back from injury and pregnancy with ferocity. I logged at least one activity every single day, adding up to over 900 minutes of cycling, stretching, yoga, and strength training in January. Y’all, in ALL of 2021 I logged 1,800 minutes (!!). Though we didn’t win this first month, the challenge did exactly what it was supposed to – got our butts back on the bike. I’m not back to my pre-Annie PRs yet, but I’m getting closer with each ride. Plus, the habit of working out daily really started to rewire my brain to crave a ride each day. SUCH good progress here.

Whatever your goals for this year, I hope you have some progress to celebrate, too! :)

On my calendar this month:
— Celebrating Chinese New Year! We will 100% be eating dumplings tonight.
— Making valentines with June and Shep! We are going with a Thomas theme for Shep (and will be giving these little cuties out) and for June, a rock theme, loosely inspired by these. I’m thinking of putting together a post rounding up some of our valentines from past years, if that sounds helpful! For whatever reason, valentines have turned out to be one of our biggest craft occasions all year – they’re fun! :)
— Our Valentine’s Day fun.
— My birthday! Hoping we get a sunny day so we can go for our traditional walk in my favorite Raleigh neighborhood.

What I’m loving right now:
— It’s been about two years since I set up my recipe binder, and this past weekend, I spent a few minutes cleaning it out. Bliss! I tossed recipes we don’t really make anymore, split out categories for pasta and soup based on the way I meal plan, and made sure I had printed out any recent favorites. If you have a physical recipe binder, I highly recommend this practice!
— I’m sure you’ve listened to many-a-podcast-episode on social media in your time. I have, too. But this mini series from Risen Motherhood was just enough different from anything on the topic I’d already listened to that I wanted to pass it along! As someone who creates and consumes social media both personally and professional, the Gospel-centered perspective was refining (especially this episode).
— Wordle, man. It’s so good.

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

What I read in January:
— The Last Story of Mina Lee: This is a debut novel, and unfortunately, I think it shows. The writing was a bit clumsy at times, and the messaging, a bit heavy-handed. But I liked diving into a life experience that’s different than mine, and the plot line and narrative switching did keep me reading until the end.

My reading list for 2022, if you’d like to follow along!

Revisiting my January goals:
Finish culling and sorting 2021 photos + print our favorite Instagram photos from 2021
Prep for Valentine’s Day fun
Edit Sheptember (Done! See it here!)
Paint prayer sticks with the kids (Done! Has been fun so far!)
Morning time with New Morning Mercies on Fridays (Twice! Tripp’s writing is dense and really makes me slow down and think, so I’ve loved having just one page to chew over throughout the day.)
Lay out 2012 in family album (No! This one stings a bit. I really want to stay on track with this project, so committing to two months in February – eep.)
Choose a DR program or meet with an actual IRL physical therapist (Local eval booked for this coming week!)
Complete the first month of our fam Peloton challenge (Done!)
Choose a contractor and set a start date for our kitchen refresh (I spent the month chasing down, meeting, and corresponding with various contractors. No start date yet, but getting closer!)
Organize the new Best of EFM page (I made progress! More to go, but it’s a start.)
Fill out 2021 entry in our Christmas memories book

February goals:
— Finish culling and sorting 2021 photos + print our favorite Instagram photos from 2021
— Morning time with New Morning Mercies on Mondays and Fridays
— Lay out 2012 in family album
— Lay out 2013 in family album
— Complete the second month of our fam Peloton challenge
— Make and/or approve a kitchen design board
— Finish the Best of EFM page
— Make plans for June’s summer. This will be our first summer with an elementary-school summer break, and with two working parents, I want to be thoughtful about how we will (and will not) fill her days. We already have a few things in place and I’m excited to do some more brainstorming!
— Memorize a first selection of scripture with the kids

As a reminder, many of these are drawn from my 2022 goals!

I’d love to hear: whether you have goals for the year or not, what win are you celebrating from January?

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