Monthly Goals: August

 Hello friends! I hope you all had a nice weekend! I go back to work on Tuesday and am very much looking forward to a fabulous school year ahead!

Today I am linking up with Sarah and Holly for Hello Monday to share my goals for the month of August.

Monthly Goals: November

 Hello friends and happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice weekend. This past weekend was my annual girls trip with my two best friends and it was a DREAM.

 

Goals for the Month of April

 Hello friends and happy April!!!! With the start of a new month comes some new monthly goals. Let's have a look:

- Freeze It Friday-- I know I'm not the only one this happens to, but we throw away produce in our house weekly. I really hate food waste, so this kills me! I have gotten a lot better about only buying things we will eat and doing our best to use them up, but sometimes the food just goes bad before we can get to it. I have decided that every Friday this month, I am going to go through our fridge and look for produce on the verge of going bad. If it isn't going to get used in the next 24 hours, I need to wash, chop, and freeze it.... hence "Freeze It Friday". I love to pull out frozen veggies to add to soups, pasta sauce, etc and obviously frozen fruit is great in a smoothie.. there's no reason not to do this! Here's hoping I can eliminate even more food waste (and possibly end up spending less at the grocery store too!).

- Read 4 Books-- I am hoping that while we are at the beach I will be able to get a book or two in! My book list currently has 42 books on it-- I need to make a dent in it!

- Spend 15 Extra Minutes In Prayer Each Afternoon-- For Lent this year one of the things I decided to do was add an additional 15 minutes of prayer into my day. I already had my quiet time in the morning and love to pray at night with the kids before bed, so I figured a good time to add additional prayer would be the afternoon while the kids are napping. This has been a game changer! Don't get me wrong, I love starting and ending the day with prayer, but I am also tired/groggy/out of it and I struggle to focus. Throughout Lent I would put the kids down for their nap, make myself an afternoon cup of coffee, then sit down with my Bible, prayer journal, and devotional. I am really loving this and am hoping to keep it up now that Lent is coming to a close.

-- Get Our Garden Fully Prepped and Ready-- As you all know, our family loves to garden! I love getting out there and getting some sunshine while growing some of our own food. I especially love the kids helping by digging around in the dirt next to me. My mom has some lettuce and cherry tomatoes growing in pots in her sun room and Lily Grace loves to go over there and make a salad from Nana's garden. I  love that she's excited to eat salad. 😉 We have big plans for everything we want to grow this year and I just can't wait!

 

Simple but hopefully attainable goals this month! Notice what I didn't have on there this month? Any fitness goals. At the beginning of the year I had super high hopes of getting back into exercising regularly and doing some form of workout 300/365 days this year... well I have failed MISERABLY at that! I'm pretty sure I can count on both hands how many times I've been able to squeeze a workout in since January. Our gym finally just opened childcare back up this week, but I'm going to ease myself into it. I feel healthy, I am healthy, and that's what matters right now. Maybe in the second half of 2021 I'll have time to get back into a routine with exercise... but it sure isn't happening now!

 

Please share if you have any goals you're setting for the month! I always love to know other people's goals because it might inspire me to make better choices too!

Today I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites. Have a nice weekend!

Monthly Goals February

 Good morning and happy Monday! I hope your Monday is off to a great start so far.

 We are here at the beginning of another month which means it is time to make some new goals. Last month I read the book Loving My Actual Life, and in the book the author tries an experiment for 9 months to see what changes she make in her own life to see how she can improve it. Rather than be frazzled and stressed out all the time she wanted to see what positive changes she could make and whether or not they would make a difference. One of the things she tried was to incorporate more time for quiet in her daily life-- this really resonated with me! I realized that every day our house is full of noise from 6:30 am until about 7:30 at night. While a lot of it is good noise: kids playing with each other, family talking to one another, etc., some of it is just background noise: Alexa telling us the news, me listening to an audiobook, music playing in the background, a podcast, etc. There is something that really resonated with me about the importance of quiet. Maybe I can be more present in the moment if I don't have so many things going on to distract me. So some of my goals this month will be relating to incorporating more quiet in my day-- something I think I will be very grateful I did!

January Goals

 It feels a little funny to be just now posting my monthly goals and we are almost halfway through the month, but this month was off to a busy start! If you are new around here I am a big believer in goal setting. I love to set goals for myself each year, and then mini goals each month towards helping me reach my bigger goals. Last week I posted my yearlong goals for 2021, and this week I am sharing some smaller goals for the month of January.

 

Monthly Goals: December

Well today is December 2nd which means it is the beginning of a new month. I love the beginning of a new month for a fresh start and a chance to try new things. As you all know, I love to set goals for myself each month and they usually go towards helping me reach some more long term goals for myself. So today we will have a look at December's goals, but first let's check out November:

Monthly Goals-- November

 Good morning friends and happy Friday! Anybody else happy for this week to be over? What. A. Week. 

Ugh. 

If anybody needs me I will be over here hoping and praying for ANYTHING positive in the news next week. 

On a brighter note, we are in a new month and with a new month brings a new feeling of being refreshed and starting over. I'm trying very hard this month to look for the positive in every day. Which brings me to my #1 goal this month:

1. Bring Back the Positivity/Gratitude Journal! For awhile there I had been doing so well with my positivity journaling and I had noticed a significant impact in how it was affecting my mood/how I viewed my days. I got away from it for awhile because it felt like "one more thing to do" when I was getting ready for bed at night, but I think it's time to bring it back! As we are all struggling with going into month 9 of COVID and all the anxiety that causes (not to mention the stress of the election!), I think it would be beneficial for me to start physically writing down 5 positive things that happen each day. Each and every day has a multitude of things to be grateful for, and I think taking the time to actively seek them out will be beneficial!

2. Train for and Run the Turkey Trot- Another thing that is always a helpful mood booster is exercise-- so I'm hoping to get back into running consistently. I have been sporadic with my running regimen since COVID started just because our routine changes frequently and it's hard to find the time. I have signed up for a Virtual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving weekend and I am super excited to have something to train for again. If you are looking for a virtual race to run, check out www.virtualturkeytrot2020.com . You can run anytime between the Thursday of Thanksgiving through Sunday, submit your time online, and then you get a t shirt and a medal! Not to mention you are doing something healthy for your body. You don't even have to run, you can walk it! There's really no reason to say no 😉

3. 1 Minute Planks- I was doing this over the summer and for the first time ever I had actual noticeable abs! Devin wanted us to try some different ab exercises for a few months, but I swear simple planks caused the most noticeable difference I've ever seen. So I'm going back to it!

4. Read 4 Books-- My New Year's Resolution this year was to read 40 books (one more than last year). Then life got crazy and I didn't read nearly as much as I was hoping to. I probably won't be able to get to 40 books this year, but I'm hoping to get as close as I can. I think I can average 1 book a week this month, especially if audiobooks count!

5. Have Christmas Cards Ordered by Thanksgiving-- I have noticed that the longer I wait to order cards each year, the longer the turnaround time. I'm hoping to avoid that by ordering them by Thanksgiving, then they'll hopefully arrive the following week and I can get them out ASAP.

6. Have Most of Our Christmas Gifts Ordered By the End of the Month- I did this last year and it made the holiday season much more enjoyable since I wasn't rushing around/stressing about who was going to get what gift. Then I could focus all my attention/energy on baking, going to see Christmas lights, crafts with the kiddos, and all the holiday fun we love so much. 

What about you? Do you set goals for each month? If so, what is one of your goals this month?

Thanks for reading along today! Please know that one of the things I am grateful for is YOU. Thank you for reading this blog of mine and for making this hobby more than just a hobby, but a way to interact with like-minded women who support each other. 

Today I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend!

Monthly Goals October

 Good morning friends! It's time for another round of goals for the month, and this month I am trying to focus on getting back into a fitness routine. For the past month or so my usual routine has gotten out of whack and I just workout whenever I find time. The problem with that is that by not making it a priority, I find that I am working out significantly less often. So it's time to change that! Here are my goals for the month:

Monthly Goals-- August 2020

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you had a good week! Today is the last day of July and I wanted to share a peek at what goals I'm setting for myself for the month of August. 

Monthly Goals-- July

Good morning everyone! I hope your July has been off to a great start. We are still at the beach and are having a blast soaking up the sun. I wanted to pop on and share my goals for the upcoming month because you ladies help to keep me accountable! This month is going to fly by because we have two weeks at the beach, then have family coming in town for Liam's rescheduled baptism. He was supposed to be baptized in March, but then everything shut down due to COVID and we had to reschedule. Here's hoping we are still able to do it 🙏.

Here's a look at my goals for the month:

Monthly Goals January

Ladies, I will be honest with you... I am on the struggle bus this week! Anyone else feel a little in over their head right about now? We are hosting family from out of town, I started back at work last week, and we have about a million other things on our plate right now. I'm having one of those weeks where I'm trying to do 100 things simultaneously and I don't feel like I'm doing any of them well because I'm spreading myself too thin. I know we all have these moments and "this too shall pass", but good Lord... I'm ready for life to slow back down! Thanks for sticking with me through the craziness.

Which brings me to my next point...

Nothing like posting my monthly goals halfway through the month, right?? Hah! Oh well. Last week I posted my goals for the year and one way I try to make sure I reach those goals is to set intentions for each month that work towards the bigger goal. For example, if my yearlong goal is to read 40 books, then my monthly goal might be to read 4 books this month. Let's get to it!

That's a Wrap 2019...

As I'm writing this, today is the last day of 2019 and it has been the most wonderful year for our family. This was the year that we:

Monthly Goals- December

Good morning! Tomorrow we are hitting the road and headed to Disney World! If you'd like to follow along with our family on Instagram, you can follow me @lcdarrell. 

It's time for the last monthly goals post of 2019. Throughout the year I like to look back at my New Year's Resolutions for the year and try to set concrete goals for each month that help towards reaching the bigger, year-long goals. From looking at my post on 2019's New Year's Resolutions, I actually didn't do too bad! I didn't get all of them accomplished, but I'm very happy with the ones I was able to check off my list (especially #5 😍).

Here's a look at what I have planned to do in the month of December:

Monthly Goals- November

Good morning! I don't know about you but I am really excited about the start of a new month, especially one this close to Christmas. I know that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is really going to fly this year for our family because: a) Thanksgiving is late this year and b) we will be going to Disney World for a week (woohoo!). My goals for the month of November are going to be mostly geared towards getting organized/prepped for the holiday season so that the month of December isn't stressful for us. I want to spend as much time as possible soaking up all the holiday fun with the kids. Here's a look at November's goals:

October Goals

Good morning friends! I'm a little behind on posting monthly goals for this month, but better late than never, right? Let's take a look at how September went:

Monthly Goals-- September

I cannot believe it is already almost September. This year has flown by! Anyone else here excited for the (hopefully) cooler temperatures September will bring? We had the sweetest little taste of fall weather here this weekend. Sunday was in the mid 70's with no humidity. It was BEAUTIFUL! Now if only would stay that way for awhile, right?? 
Before we move on to September, let's take a look at August's goals:

Friday Favorites-- August Goals

Good morning friends and happy Friday! Today we are headed to visit Devin's family in Wilmington for the weekend which may be our last beach trip of the summer- bummer! It is crazy to think that school will be starting back up for me in two and a half weeks. What?! This summer flew by! In the meantime we will be over here trying to soak up every last little bit of summer with our girl since it'll be our last summer with just her.

I'm sure I've mentioned this a time or two over the past few weeks, but I have gone into crazy nesting mode and am trying to get all my ducks in a row before this baby comes. I remember very well those newborn baby days where you are overwhelmingly exhausted and busy caring for a newborn. I would like to have as much prepared in advance as possible! That being said, I have already knocked out all of my monthly goals for July and am now looking forward to August to see what else we can get accomplished.

Here is a quick glance at July:

Monthly Goals-- June 2019

Hi there! I am a little behind the curve in getting around to my monthly goals post seeing as it is already the 10th-- oops! But better late than never right?? Before we begin with the month of July, let's look at how June went:

Monthly Goals-- June

Good morning friends!! Today is our last FULL day of school and my last day of actually teaching. Tomorrow we have a half day but thank God our principal fills that day up with some important and fun end of the year activities so the teachers don't have to worry about planning anything on this crazy day!

If you need me tomorrow I will be walking around somewhere looking exactly like this:

Monthly Goals-- May

Happy Monday friends! I hope you all had a good weekend. Our weekend looked a little like this: