This month was crazy. It was going all dandy and we were looking forward to a family vacation when one by one we started dropping like flies to a stomach bug. Thankfully we were able to defeat the bug and all get healthy again but that week seemed to take forever and really took a lot out of all of us. It also really affected our goals for the month.
Goals for March
1. Family Goal – Spring break trip
This was almost called off due to the bug we caught but thankfully we were still able to pull it off. We left two days later than planned but still managed to pack in a few fun things. We celebrated Jamison’s birthday with my family, took a trip to IKEA and found some great things for the house, a trip to the LEGO store for all sorts of fun, and spent an afternoon with my very best friend and her little boy. I call it a success! It may not have looked exactly like we planned but we embraced life as it happened and everyone had a great time.
2. Home goal – Complete a full month of our new homemaking schedule
Registration for this course ends March 31st! I’ve been really impressed with how this course is working for us. Even when we got sick the house didn’t completely fall apart because we had been working with this system. We had food on hand because of prepping during Kitchen Day. I had blog posts written ahead of time because of Office Day. We did have extra laundry because of getting sick but it wasn’t on top of our regular laundry because we do one load per day and stayed on track. I’ve even been able to swap a few days around when something came up and it worked so smoothly. I wish I had known about this method YEARS ago because it would have made life make so much more sense. Is the house perfect? Absolutely not and it never will be. But that’s all because of effort. If I wanted to spend more time making it look sparkling I could but right now I’m happy with having a handle on managing everything rather than making the house perfect. It’s significantly better and tasks are more manageable now that we have a plan in place.
One big thing that helped me implement this method is an app on my phone where I can keep track of all the tasks for the different days. I add each task in based on the day they belong and to the default list for the daily upkeep tasks like dishes and wiping off the table. Each morning my phone chimes and reminds me how many tasks I have for the day. I can also set tasks to repeat on various timelines so I’m not needing to remember when or how often things need to happen. So helpful!
3. Self goal – More fruits & veggies
This goal got sidetracked the week we were sick. Nothing healthy sounded good. In fact nothing sounded good. I wanted to be eating salads for lunch every day and snacking on apples and bananas. Um, those are not things that sound good when I’ve got a tummy bug! I did manage to eat a couple bananas but otherwise it was peanut butter toast or dry crackers. But I’ve been really trying on all the other days. I even sent Jamison’s birthday cupcakes to work with Micah so they wouldn’t be here tempting me. I do think I need something to keep track of my fruits and veggie intake though rather than trying to remember what I’ve eaten.
Goals for April
I spent some time thinking and praying about how to approach my goals and decided focusing on one area was helpful initially but now I need to spread my focus a little more. Now I’ll have a single goal for different areas: family, home, and self. As I continue to see how this works I may expand the number of areas to make sure I’m growing as I need to be.
1. Family Goal – Study the Easter Story
We are just finished our current devotional so I’m going to find a good family Easter devotional (or a couple shorter plans) to keep us focused on the ultimate sacrifice Jesus paid so that we can live. I love using the Bible App because there is such a huge selection of devotionals and studies plus I can switch between various translations of the Bible to get a better understanding of what sections mean.
2. Home Goal – Donate the clutter
We’ve been working our way through the Clutter Buster Challenge (and hopefully you have too!) but we haven’t technically gotten rid of anything! It’s all being stored in our garage right now as we wait for my MOPS group’s fundraiser with a local thrift store. They are paying us per pound for donations so I’ve been hanging on to everything. I want to try and work ahead a bit on our weekly challenges to find more to donate plus actually get it all out! Our garage is being taken over and we’d like it back. The fundraiser is on April 29th – just in time to spend this whole month working on purging our home of unneeded items.
3. Self Goal – Study vs. reading
I’ve found myself simply reading the Bible again rather than really digging in and studying. While reading it is better than nothing if it’s only a task for me to check off a list then I’m not going to get much out of it. I’ve been working through a Bible survey that takes me through the key chapters in the Bible over the course of a year which I’ve really enjoyed but is really only an overview, it doesn’t go in depth like I’d like. Micah and I are going to work a study together and I’m looking forward to spending time in the Word together.
What are your goals this month? How do you decide on your goals?