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

When I sat down to write my March goals, I was two weeks into taking care of June by myself during the day, and feeling a bit discouraged and overwhelmed (hence all the talk about “simplicity” here). The vantage point from four weeks later feels totally different! We move easily through our days, and they are a joy and a delight. That being said, more change is on the horizon. I transition back into work in the middle of the month, and my Mom is coming to stay with us for a few weeks to watch June before she starts daycare (we like to call it “school” :) ) in May. I know some of you are hoping I will write about going back to work, but I haven’t yet decided what, if anything, I’d like to say. For me personally, I know that hearing about the work/childcare arrangements of others, if they are “better” than mine, is one of my biggest jealousy triggers. Which is ridiculous, because I have an understanding workplace with lots of flexibility, the ability to have June home with me during the day, the resources to send her to our first-choice school, and a job I love. With all of my parenting posts (and all of my posts, period!), my aim is to make you feel more equipped and lifted up, not sad or discouraged. Maybe it’s just my perspective or individual neuroses, but I feel like work talk has the potential to do the latter. I will keep thinking on it! But for now, let’s chat about goals… Revisiting my goals for March: Bring a thank you gift to the post-partum nurses’ station at the hospital where I delivered Read “The Practice of the Presence of God” for NR Book Club Work push-ups and

Happy New Year, friends! I’ve finally resigned myself to the fact that I’m in the middle of recovering from a cold, which doesn’t help with the “fresh start” feeling, but we’re laying low and making the best of it. I really enjoyed looking back at 2013 a few days ago, and now it’s time to look ahead! Y’all know I love me some goals, but let’s back up for a moment. The reason that I set goals — big goals, small goals — is to help me move closer to the person I want to be and the life I want to lead. In the past few years, I’ve used a combination of goal types in this pursuit: Daily goals. You can see my daily goals for 2013 here and 2012 here. The basic idea is that I make a list of daily practices that I want to become habits by the end of the year. In January, February, and March, I promise myself I’ll do at least three of the practices every day. In April, May, and June, five. In July, August, and September, seven. In October, November, and December, nine. The thing I love most about this system is that it doesn’t expect me to do everything every day, or all at once. I’m able to gradually incorporate the changes into my life over a year, and if I slip up a few times, that’s okay. I use this to track my daily progress. I prefer this type of system/habit building to setting one-off goals because it shifts the focus from checking things off and moving on to moving forward in a sustainable way. Monthly goals. See here or here for examples. John thinks these are more similar to “to do” lists rather than lists of goals, but

Hello, friends! Welcome to June! John Dolan I completed all of my May goals except the household maintenance calendar/checklist. I’m pretty much done with it, but I thought it would be wise to get settled in the new house before finalizing and printing! Per request I will plan to share it here afterward. On to June! This month I will… — Finish moving and unpacking! — Plan our July road trip to Michigan! — Buy an American flag for our porch before the Fourth of July — Build a raised bed — Sharpen our knives. A sharp knife is a safe knife, after all :) — Meet our three closest neighbors (and hopefully make a good impression!) — Clear out the starred items in my Google Reader before it shuts down, and switch to another service (Feedly?) You can see all of my 101 in 1001 goals here and my 2013 daily goals here. If you’d like to share your goals for June, I’d love for you to either list them in the comments or leave a link, and I promise I’ll check them out! P.S. I meant to add this note to my last post, but I wanted to let my NC peeps know that I just added a “North Carolina” category to the blog, where all my local posts can now be found!