Well this is something different! I’ve never written a post checking in on my yearly goals midway through the year, but I did an Instagram story yesterday sharing some of the progress I’ve made, and thought it might make a good blog post, too!

To recap, I set four focal areas for 2017 with the help of my PowerSheets. I’ve chipped away at them with specific, smaller goals each month, many of which I’ve shared with you in my monthly goal updates! Much of this should sound familiar to frequent visitors :)

Focal area no. 1: Become a woman of prayer
Progress I’ve made: The biggest and best change we’ve made is to offer impromptu prayer at dinner and other meals instead of a standard blessing. John and I switch off days. For two people who did not grow up praying out loud, this has been a great way to get more comfortable with the practice and warm up to teaching June more about prayer as she gets older. I’ve also read several books about prayer, bought a prayer journal (though I haven’t used it yet), and bought a new Bible that I love.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I would really like to try out a new devotional (I have heard great things about Streams in the Desert), establish a morning rhythm of prayer, give Bill Hybels’ prayer journaling practice a try, fill out my prayer journal, and begin praying with June before bed.

Focal area no. 2: Love my loved ones well
Progress I’ve made: The best thing I’ve done for this goal is to institute monthly prep days. When I thought about what had stopped me in the past from doing kind and fun things for the people I love, it wasn’t a lack of money or time, it was a lack of preparation, and my prep days have been a game changer. I’ve also hosted a Favorite Things party, made several neighborhood friends, restocked my card supply, and put our surprise birthday trips in motion.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I’ve got a lot more work to do on my surprise trip for John, to start!

Focal area no. 3: Cultivate a rich life for my family
Progress I’ve made: We completed our backyard renovation! It was a huge project and an expensive one, but we have relished having a beautiful space to be together outside. We’ve also finished our wills and had them notorized, we went camping, we picked strawberries three times, and I’ve read 16 books!
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: Everything on our summer fun list! I’m looking forward to building more community on our street, to our annual pumpkin carving party, to epic road trips to visit family this summer, to more Life & Science visits, and to more holidays with June!

Focal area no. 4: Live fit
Progress I’ve made: I am a student of ballet once again! I also wear a FitBit daily and challenge myself to get 10,000 steps. I’ve been experimenting with short at-home fitness videos, something I’ve never really tried before.
What I hope to accomplish in the next six months: I would love to spend more time stretching before bed. I’d like to hit 10k steps more days than not each week. And I would really love to get back into a rhythm of a neighborhood walk each night.

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 $25. A little birdie told me there are only a few hundred left, and since they’re selling at a rate of a few hundred a day, that stock won’t last long!

One reason I love to write these monthly goal posts is because they are the best to look back on! (Much like blogging in general, actually!) I love marking where I was at a certain point in time, and being able to see how much has – or has not – changed. With a few years of monthly goals under my belt, I can now even look back to see how a particular month has changed over time. So neat!

I feel good right now. I feel good about June. It’s my last extra-busy month at work before a string of really fun personal travel in July, August, and September, so it feels a bit like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I’m ready to dig in and get some things done! (Like our loft – ahem.)

What I read in May:
— The Little Way of Ruthie Leming (His writing was not my favorite, but I found the story very engaging.)
— Grace, Not Perfection (I breezed through this in a day and a half after hearing so many good things. I don’t think it’s the message I need most right now (I probably err on the side of giving myself too much grace, haha!), but if you love Emily, you will love this book!)
— Books I’m reading throughout the year: The Power of a Praying Wife and The Lifegiving Home

Revisiting my goals for May:
Add to my gratitude list every day this month (I batted about 50% on this, and it made a difference!)
Go camping with the Rays (postponed to June!)
Take the first step in a birthday project I am working on for John
Try a new workout video at least three times (didn’t get to this, but see below!)
Purposefully plan for Memorial Day, since we’ll be staying local (it was very low-key, but fun!)
Try Bill Hybels’ prayer journaling practice from Too Busy Not to Pray
Finish a complete organization sweep and purge of our loft (not finished, but progress was made)
Print our summer fun list and post it on the fridge
Buy new patio furniture for our backyard
String up lights in our backyard

June goals:
— Try Heather’s 15-minute Mom + Baby workout at least four times (thanks to Victoria for the recommendation!)
— Go camping with the Rays!
— Finish a complete organization sweep and purge of our loft
— Film June in June, Volume Two
— Clear out my backlog of gifts and cards to send (Between graduations, weddings, and showers, May had me underwater!)

Keeping it simple this month so that we can focus on our summer fun list! As a reminder, here are my 2017 guideposts. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!

There was so much goodness in April, but unfortunately as I look back over the last few weeks what I remember is feeling dogged by demons that don’t usually bother me: comparison, envy, bitterness… yuck, ew, gross. It has seemed like there are a lot of voices out there telling me the choices I’m making are wrong, or not worth it, or less than.

But that’s not the truth. For me, I think these feelings stem from ingratitude, and I’m choosing to do something about them. The truth is that my life is an embarrassment of riches, and I’m going to put in the effort to feel and act accordingly in May.

P.S. Longtime readers may remember that April, May, and June are traditionally my busiest months at work, with lots of travel. If posts are more sparse than usual, you’ll know why! I would love for you to join me for updates along the way on Instagram.

What I read in April:
— Present Over Perfect (I liked it a lot, and can see that it’s such a needed message for so many folks my age! Shauna is a beautiful writer.)
— Tender at the Bone (Loved this one! I read Garlic and Sapphires last year, and only wish I had read Tender before, since that’s where it falls chronologically!)
— Books I’m reading throughout the year: The Power of a Praying Wife and The Lifegiving Home

Revisiting my goals for April:
Confirm the location and month of John’s birthday trip (Yay!! We will be going in October, but of course I can’t tell you where!)
Pick strawberries (Three times!)
Make Jenny’s popovers and strawberry jam for a Saturday breakfast
Try Bill Hybels’ prayer journaling practice from Too Busy Not to Pray
Travel to Alabama and Mississippi (See here, here, here, and here!)
Visit Duke Gardens or the WRAL Azalea Gardens (We actually went to both!)
Celebrate Easter with joy
Finish a complete organization sweep and purge of our loft (I don’t think I did ANYTHING AT ALL to move this goal forward in April.)
Research patio furniture (Research was done, and we’re now hoping our backyard will be finished by May 15!)

May goals:
— Add to my gratitude list every day this month (I might also start a Write the Word | Cultivate Gratitude journal)
— Go camping with the Rays!
— Take the first step in a birthday project I am working on for John (his birthday is in July)
— Try a new workout video at least three times (going to cruise over to Victoria’s blog for research, as she is always trying something fun, it seems!)
— Purposefully plan for Memorial Day, since we’ll be staying local
— Try Bill Hybels’ prayer journaling practice from Too Busy Not to Pray
— Finish a complete organization sweep and purge of our loft (hope springs eternal)
— Print our summer fun list and post it on the fridge (here’s last year’s)
— Buy new patio furniture for our backyard
— String up lights in our backyard! (!!)

As a reminder, here are my 2017 guideposts. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!

On Saturday, our family had one of the best days in recent memory. The weather was perfect – 75 and blue sky sunny. We started with beignets down the road from our house, then browsed at the flea market and NC State vet school’s open house (June got to pet lots of doggies!). We drove the long way to Merritt’s for lunch so June could nap in the car, then had ice cream in Fearrington’s Adirondack chairs. After playing in the grass and watching the cows, we headed home for dinner on the sidewalk of our town’s picturesque main street. Then it was bath, jams, and time for bed.

More of that, April, please: simplicity, sun, and my sweet family!

What I read in March:
— Born Standing Up (Steve Martin’s biography, though sadly it didn’t cover the Father of the Bride years!)
— Parenting (I liked this book a lot. There were a few things he said that angered me, but most of it was good. However, I really wished that he had given more good examples – he gave lots of examples of bad conversations and the wrong way to do things (most exaggerated), but it would have been SO much more helpful if he had given good examples of how to do the things he was recommending! I’d love to hear if anyone else has read this and agreed.)
— A Lantern in Her Hand (a 1928 novel about a pioneer woman, given to me by Sam for my birthday)
— Books I’m reading throughout the year: The Power of a Praying Wife and The Lifegiving Home

Revisiting my goals for March:
Offer an impromptu prayer at dinner instead of our standard blessing (hands-down the best thing we did this month! Will be continuing indefinitely.)
Get back into my habit of reading the Bible before bed and prayer journaling
Fill out the first month in my prayer journal (this has been challenging, so I’m trying something different for April…)
Do a complete organization sweep and purge of our loft (got some work done, but definitely not a clean sweep)
Complete as much of June’s baby book as I can
Confirm the location and month of John’s anniversary trip (moving this to next month because it is a must-do!)
Confirm our next camping destination
Watch the premiere of HGTV’s Home Town

April goals:
— Confirm the location and month of John’s anniversary trip
— Pick strawberries
— Make Jenny’s popovers and strawberry jam for a Saturday breakfast
— Try Bill Hybels’ prayer journaling practice from “Too Busy Not to Pray”
— Travel to Alabama and Mississippi – my first time being away from June overnight
— Visit Duke Gardens or the WRAL Azalea Gardens
— Celebrate Easter with joy
— Finish a complete organization sweep and purge of our loft
— Research patio furniture – hoping our backyard construction will be done by the end of the month!

As a reminder, here are my 2017 guideposts. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!