So apparently in this season of life, a one-week vacation necessitates a two-week blogging hiatus. Our trip to Corolla with John’s family was so wonderful, though, and I can’t wait to share it with you soon – hopefully before we jet off to Maine in a few weeks with my family, and the cycle starts all over again, ha! Thanks for hanging in here while life happens, friends!

Speaking of life – last year this month we were preparing to meet our son, and this year we’ll celebrate his first birthday. I am the luckiest.

On my calendar this month:
— Celebrating the birthdays of my two favorite guys: John and John Shepherd!
— Celebrating the birthday of America with our town’s kiddo parade (decorated bikes and all!)
— That other great American holiday: Cow Appreciation Day!
— My book swap party!!

What I’m loving right now:
— We received The Circus Ship as a gift recently, and it was an instant favorite with the whole family! (More of my favorite picture books here!)
— As someone who prioritized paying off her student loans as quickly as possible, I was fascinated by this episode of the Freakonomics podcast. Highly, highly recommend a listen!
— Peaches! Time to trot out my annual exhortation that you make this recipe. We’ll be enjoying it on the Fourth.

What I read in June:
— Finished all 1000+ pages of Pillars of the Earth. It lived up to the hype – it’s just an unabashedly great story that moves along at a rollicking pace, with tons of twists and turns over several decades. Can’t wait to dig into the sequel, though I think I’ll give myself a little breather before I do!
— I’m about halfway through Sabbath as Resistance, recommended to me by one of our pastors. It’s a little anti-capitalism for my tastes and has me feeling like I’m back in college with its density, but I’ve already applied some of its wisdom to my yearlong experiment, so I’ll keep plowing through.

Revisiting my June goals:
Finally book our camping trip! (Done! We’re headed to Lake James!)
Cull and sort remaining iPhone photos – 2011, 2010, 2009
Download and sort Facebook photos (Done!)
Plan my book swap party (Done! So excited for this!)
Sign up for the MS Ride (Eeeeeek! I did it!! A few of you have asked for my fundraising page – it’s here, if you’d like to see! I’d be very honored by your donation.)
Create a standing desk upstairs
Define Sabbath for our family (Working definition complete! Excited to try things out this month!)

July goals:
— Edit June in June, Volume 4!
— Have a friend date with my new neighborhood friend Casey
— Wrap up ALL remaining photo organization
— Give feedback for our church website
— Choose a standing lamp for behind one chair
— Buy a new pot for our mantel pothos plant

Keeping things simple for this second month in a row of travel! I’d love to hear: How do you usually celebrate the Fourth?

Affiliate links are used in this post!

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?

Affiliate links are used in this post!

Happy May, friends! No preamble today – let’s jump right in!

On my calendar this month:
— A trip to Nashville to visit my younger sister!!
— Shep’s baptism, which also happens to be Mother’s Day weekend – and both sets of grandparents will be in town!
— The premier of The Bachelor (though I am dubious about this season’s lead…)

What I’m loving right now:
— Lisa pointed me toward this piece on my last goals post, and unsurprisingly, I loved it. The writer is also the author of 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, which had been on my TBR list – but reading his article moved it closer to the top!
— This is one of the prettiest homes I’ve ever seen. Lots of inspiration here for easy coastal style!
— We made this mustard chicken last week for the first time and it was delicious! Extremely simple to prep and it roasts in the oven, which means hands-off cooking for mama. Win-win.

What I read in May:
— This is unusual for me, but this month I switched between three different reads. I picked up The Lifegiving Home again and read through the first three months of the year, I’m about 3/4 through Where the Crawdads Sing (was a little slow at first but now I’m tearing through it!), and I’m a few pages into This is Where You Belong!

Revisiting my April goals:
Cull and sort 2018, 2014, and 2013 iPhone photos (made some progress here!)
Go on an evening walk every day it’s possible
Repaint gallery wall frames
Print a photo for our mantel frame
Add a few more plants to our back bed
Plant our vegetable garden

May goals:
— Book our camping trip for later this year
— Send out invites to a book swap party!!
— Finish culling and sorting 2015, 2014, and 2013 photos
— Write a Marvelous Money post on investing (the people have spoken!)
— Commission an art print from Katie in prep for Father’s Day
— Order Shep’s bike helmet
— Refresh our living room mantel

As a reminder, many of the goals above are drawn from my 2019 goals!

Alrighty, choose your own adventure. Tell me:
A) What you think about Hannah as the Bachelorette.
B) Whether you’d be interested in a post on our technology family ways. (The 12 Tips piece got me thinking, and though I talk about the topic a lot I don’t believe I’ve ever devoted a whole post to it.) If so, let me know what you want to know.
C) Whether you’d want to come to my book swap party (!!!)
D) What questions you have about investing.
E) The thought of your choice or all of the above.

Affiliate links are used in this post!