Goals Update: January 2018

Here is a look at my completed January Tending List and my new February one. Check back on the first Thursday of each month for a month review and a look ahead. Below I organized according to goals to make it easier to follow monthly. 

My completed January list. I tear it out every month to keep it in the front of my planned then tape it back in when I am done.

Spiritual Healing: I have done great with my chronological Bible reading plan. I know many people practice and preach morning quiet time. But honestly my mornings are so varied based on which job I am working, am I off, are we traveling. One of my non negotiables especially if I work the next day, is laying out my clothes down to my socks and underwear, so I have moved by quiet time/ daily reading/ journaling to night as prep for the next day. So far it has worked for me.

February goals: I do want to expand and grow this time. Late in the month I added a worship song pre reading. I also have been using my Val Marie Paper Prayer journal. Let me know what I can be praying over you.

Physical Healing: I finished January with my own left ankle injury. For those that don’t know my husband is currently off work for three months because he broke his right before Christmas. We now have matching bruises. So I am really focusing on nutrition this month. All the physical fitness things were placed on hold the last of the month because I injured my left ankle. It  needs time to heal before I even do yoga or stretching that places strain on my ankle. I also blocked off the first week of February just to have some time to heal.

I changed insurance this year, therefore a main goal this month was to line up new doctors. I have major pain problems with my hips not daily but most days. Massages and visiting the chiropractor help, but often when life gets busy they are some of the first things for me to drop. Also because they feel somewhat self indulgent. But back to my why. If I can not care for myself then how can I care for others.  So pulling those to the forefront of caring for myself. Also, increasing my flexibility is part of this. I took a yoga class this month and did some stretching videos although not as many as I had hoped but #progressnotperfection.

I did develop a solid morning and evening routine this month and will work to make it second nature over the next several months.

February goals: focus on nutrition and letting ankle heal for now. Hopefully up to regualr speed by the middle of the month.

Emotional/Mental Healing: This goal really also ties into my spiritual and physical goal but isn’t EVERYTHING connected, especially in this sense. Reading is something I love. To enjoy the world and to learn about the world. I never thought I would be the person that could be reading multiple books at one time but I am. I have gotten into the habit of having an ebook, audio book and a physical book on hand depending on what setting I am in. This month I read: The Life-giving Home, Braving the Wilderness, and Promise Me, Dad. All have been fabulous.

February goals: Read The Circle Maker. Also, I want to add in some fiction. Post any suggestions in the comments.

Ryan: Honesty/real talk. Ryan has been off work since his ankle injury, so we have been seeing each other more but we also because he can not do much have fallen into the bad habit of watching tv a lot. He plays video games a lot, so making more of a conscious effort on my part to go read or do something different when I feel we are fake spending time together. I feel like we fake spend time together when we are both sitting on the couch watching tv and/or scrolling through our phones.  I have also been dreaming creative ways to feel more connected and accomplish a fun at home, broken ankle approved date night. His love language is physical touch and mine is acts of service.

February Goals: Date night. Plan a trip together, the dreaming and planning is often as much fun as the adventure.

Family: Since this involves other people I am not going to give in depth details here but over-all, generalized updates on my end and perspective.

February Goals: Enjoy Girls Trip.

Financial Healing: Budgeting. Ugh. Why is this so hard. Progress though. I “tracked” spending as in a paid attention but really I want to find a good tracking app and work on our budget better moving forward. Any suggestions on which apps or methods to use?

February Goals: Make a budget and stick to it.

Friendships: One of my main prayers during 2016 was good, strong friendships. I have been blessed with quite a few literal answered prayers and I want to continue to put in the work and effort to maintain those relationships. I made a point to text friends at least once a week this month, call them, hang out in person or send cards/care packages.

February Goals: Continue to forge strong friendships.

Life-Life Giving Home: One of my main goals this year is to create a life giving home, which has many facets but the main one I want to focus the first few months on is simplifying. It will be easier to clean when there is less stuff to clean. I started off the month strong cleaning out on of the spare bedrooms. Mid month to end of the month I focused on the kitchen drawers and I made progress in downstairs bathroom. Mainly in the half bath, many unused cleaning products and home repair items accumulated. I got rid of what we did not need and corralled the left overs more efficiently. I finished the bathroom at the very end if the month. I thought I would need to place it on hold for my foot but I used the activity to stay awake instead of napping. I also have been reading The Life Giving Home I am not quite done but loving it so far. It has some great ideas.

February Goals: Simplify both upstairs bathrooms. Finish the book.

 

Kitchen Drawer cleaning out duplicates and things we don’t need or use. I did not need five spatulas. 

After. Easier to see what we have. 

Half bath downstairs. Store cleaning supplies here. 

So much better! I still want to get rid of some of these toxic cleaning products, but a work in progress. Also, Ryan uses some of this for his car stuff so I need to see whats acceptable to throw out. 

We need a cabinet in out laundry room, which I am hoping we can get built this year. It will provide us with another good place to store extra paper supplies.