What a heavy time, friends. As freedom-loving people – as people, period – John and I have been watching what’s unfolding in Ukraine with horror. We’ve been buoyed by the glimmers of unity and energy in response, but knowing what’s happening halfway around the world has added a hard, sad edge to my days. I’m sure you’ve felt it, too.
Given all that’s happening, it can feel wrong and strange to chip away at my goals or write about them here… but the freedom to do what matters is a freedom that democracy provides. Along with praying and donating, I can celebrate what we have here, and part of what they are fighting for over there, in a small way.
A win that must be celebrated this month: we think we have found a church home, per my first and most important 2022 goal. I am 2/2 for crying on Sunday mornings so far, which we can ascribe to taking communion after two years, worshiping with other believers, and/or the state of the world right now, but mostly, just… feeling like we’re home. It has been a long, tender road to get here and I am so grateful. Thank you, Lord.
On my calendar this month: — The Survivor Season 42 premier! Falling on Wednesdays as it does, this show is such a bright spot in the middle of our weeks. — My very favorite kids consignment sale, returning after a two-year hiatus. — Some St. Patrick’s Day after-school snack fun, like this or this.
What I’m loving right now: — This post is from last year, but since I think God used Val to speak to me about returning to church, it seemed appropriate here. If you’re a believer and are struggling with this decision from any dimension, I think you might appreciate her comprehensive and gracious thoughts on this topic. — Why are non-tee, non-fussy short sleeve shirts so hard to find?! I recently snagged this one and it is GREAT – breezy, easy to wear, pretty. You can see it on me here! — Reader Meghan recommended this episode of Laura Tremaine’s podcast on “time anxiety” on a recent post and I enjoyed it, too. It’s in a similar vein to an EFM reader favorite, but she takes the topic in a few different directions.
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 February: — The Evening and the Morning: This is the prequel to the Ken Follett Kingsbridge trio I’ve read over the last few years, and it did not disappoint. Set in 997 (!), it is as rich, layered, and enjoyable as the books that come after it – and sets them up so beautifully, it makes you want to roll right into re-reading them.
Revisiting my February goals: Finish culling and sorting 2021 photos + print our favorite Instagram photos from 2021 (Went to do this last minute and it seems something is wrong with their software to pull photos from IG?!) Morning time with New Morning Mercies on Mondays and Fridays (Eh. I did this a few days but was reminded why I almost always prefer to go all or nothing on habits – it’s harder for me to make something a habit when I’m trying to remember to do it just a few days a week!) Lay out 2012 in family album (Yes!!! This has been a goal since last spring!) Lay out 2013 in family album (Got the photos loaded!) Complete the second month of our fam Peloton challenge Make and/or approve a kitchen design board Finish the Best of EFM page (More progress, but not done yet.) Make plans for June’s summer (Almost done!) Memorize a first selection of scripture with the kids (Done! June and I memorized four verses from 1 John.)
March goals: — Cull and sort the first six months of 2021 photos — Lay out 2013 in family album — Lay out 2014 in family album and send it to print! — Finish the Best of EFM page — Complete the third month of our fam Peloton challenge — Do PT exercises daily — Visit two community groups — Follow the Matthew reading plan — Memorize another piece of scripture with June — Buy a small freezer for our garage (!)
As a reminder, many of these are drawn from my 2022 goals! Affiliate links are used in this post.
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.
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?
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.
