Goals, Monthly Recap

Preparing For Changes Ahead {June 2020 Goals + May Goals Recap}

I didn’t mean to go so long without posting. Like many others, I didn’t always know what to say, and I also found myself emotionally spent for many different reasons. This is a time of a lot of uncertainty and change in our nation, and it’s also a time of a lot of uncertainty and change for our family, as we prepare for a probable move and start trying to figure out the logistics of all that (like where we’re actually going to be living).

This will never be a political blog as I largely try and stay out of political discussions whenever possible, but I don’t want a silence on my part to be misconstrued, either. So I will share with you what came about when our church leader–President Russell M. Nelson–met with the leaders of the NAACP here in Utah. They shared these four ways (which I will quote) that we can all be part of the solution, which our family is implementing:

  1. Pray that we will all abandon attitudes of prejudice.
  2. Look for ways to reach out and serve someone of a different background or race.
  3. Teach children in the home to love all and to find the good in others.
  4. Learn to value the differences in others.

I know that as we all do our part, especially when it comes to educating and modeling a good example for those we have influence over, positive changes WILL happen.

I’ll probably go back to regular programming from hereon out, but I didn’t want there to be a question of where I stood.

Now here’s how last month’s goals shook out, followed by the (short) list I’ve made for June.

Note: There are affiliate links to products mentioned below, which means I may get a small commission on any purchases made through the links at no extra cost to you.

This is how most of the pics from this little family photo session went 🙂

May Goals

  • Have a family movie night
    • Sure, we ended up watching our family pick together (Onward) over 3 or 4 nights instead of just on one night, but I’m still counting it! It was a fun thing to do together, and I thought the movie was hilarious and beyond original. (We only recently jumped on the Disney+ bandwagon and have been pleasantly surprised at how much we ALL love it. I was even more pleasantly surprised to find out that Rakuten–formerly Ebates–offers cash back of up to $15 on a subscription. And, if you sign up for Rakuten through my link, you’ll get a check for $10 cash back, which makes the subscription that much more affordable.)
  • Watch two movies with Matt
    • Disney+ for the win again! We watched Glory Road and Stargirl, neither of which we’d seen before. (Note: I LOVED the book of Stargirl, and I was glad that the Disney adaptation did a *decent* job of keeping with the quirky charm of the book. But if you haven’t read the book yet…you should. It’s quirky, inspiring, and uplifting, and when you finish, you will be empowered to be utterly and completely yourself.)
Dressed up to go out on the town #9yearsstrong
  • Do something special for our anniversary
    • My mom came up (bless my mother—she does so much for us!) and watched the kids so we could take advantage of some of the local restaurants being open again to celebrate our 9th anniversary. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse (which doesn’t have a great gluten-free menu, unfortunately, so Matt’s meal was a bit lacking), and we stopped by our local garden nursery for plants for the vegetable garden. All in all, a really nice night out!
  • Go on family hike
    • Nope—our weekends are now consumed with house and yard projects, and on Sundays we just wanted to rest from all we’d done the day before.
  • Get a haircut (both me and Matt)
    • I tried more face-framing layering in my haircut this time as well as a return to the “V” shape in the back, and so far, I’m a big fan! Always nice to feel like you’re looking your best.
  • Read 8 books
    • I crashed and burned on this one and only finished 3. Oh, well. This was kind of just a fun goal anyway to see if I could continue on my streak of averaging 8 books a month for the whole year, but we just had a lot going on in May that prevented me from reading as much. No guilt over it, though! Some months are just like that. (P. S. If you want to see what I’m reading, add me as a friend on Goodreads! I love “meeting” people over there!)
    • As for the 3 I did finish, I read: House Lessons: Renovating a Life, Free Range Kids, and A Homemade Life.
  • Finish The Age of Innocence
    • Nope. I don’t think I read a single page. This will have to be shelved for the time being, as I’m prioritizing my books from the library and the books on my summer reading list.
  • Go to chiropractor
    • I finally went, and it felt soooo good to have my back put back into place again! Fingers crossed that it can stay in place for at least a few more months.
  • Get 5,000 steps a day
    • I was on a perfect streak until about halfway through the month, and then I let it slide on a couple days, and then my battery died (twice) so that I didn’t know an accurate step count for those days…I definitely walked more than before though, so I’m not counting it as a total wash.
  • Start Kayla Itsines’s BBG (again)
    • I got most of the way through this exercise program after having my second child, but then I severely injured my back during one of the workouts. I was all sorts of nervous about starting this again, so I knew I would have to start slow and just do the program MY way (not how it’s written). Unfortunately, I only did one workout, and then I stopped because I was too tired many days (sleep training a baby is no joke!) and my back still hurt (this was before I went to the chiropractor). I know I need to start exercising regularly again…I just need to figure out the best way to go about it right now. Not sure what to do going forward at this point.
  • Plant vegetables (+ maybe some more flowers)
    • We planted a lot of both, and one of the highlights each day is going outside to check on them. For more specific details on our garden projects, check out my other blog.
  • Finish spring cleaning list
    • Nope–I placed this on the back burner, since we need to do some nagging tasks around the house first to get it ready to list, and then we’ll be thoroughly cleaning the house before showings (so I figured this would get done anyway).
#reallife
  • Make 4 recipes out of America’s Test Kitchen Baby + Toddler Cookbook
    • This is part of my 2020 resolution to “cook from my own shelves” more, and I haven’t missed a month yet! My favorite recipe by far we made this month was their garlicky chicken and rice soup, but the apple crumble recipe was amazing too!
  • Get lawn + weed treatment done
    • It’s already made a huge difference, and once we get the layer of wood chips on, our yard is going to look great!
  • Replace fridge filter
    • I’m shelving this for now, as our filtered water from the fridge still tastes fine and our money needs to be put elsewhere at the moment.
  • Contact credit union about getting preapproved
    • Yes! We were able to get preapproved in time to make an offer on a house we were interested in. Unfortunately, the seller accepted a different offer than ours, so we’re still looking. But it’s nice having the preliminary stuff done, just in case.
  • List Mazda
    • I not only (finally) listed it, but we sold it at full asking price after only a few days! I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is.
  • Sleep train Hyrum
    • I’m counting this as complete because Matt and I are no longer taking turns sleeping out on the couch with the baby in his bouncer by us, and I’m no longer needing to feed him at night. Most nights he still wakes up and needs to be reswaddled or have the binky put in to fall back asleep, but we’re much further along than before.
  • Start Hyrum on solids
    • We need to be better about not missing any days, but he has solids more days than not, and he is getting much better at the whole process, too.
  • Go through all bags/bins of kids’ clothes
    • I went through several, but seeing as I had 12 to go through, it was a lofty goal. I went through about half.
  • Iron patches on Matt’s jeans
    • Nope. I knew this one would be tricky because I procrastinate both mending AND ironing foreeeever, so combining the two just seems like a recipe for failure. It needs to be done though, so I just need to put on my big girl pants and do it.
  • Print photos for 3rd family album
    • I got really close to finalizing which pictures are going into our 3rd family album, but I’m still about 20 pictures short. This will likely get shelved for the time being though while I have more pressing things to worry about in June.
  • Update tabs for I Dream of Acres (aka, the new blog)
    • This was a case of “done is better than perfect,” but I at least wrote a bit on one tab and then hid the other tab until I can devote the time and focus to do it.
  • Blog 12 times
    • I did six on each blog, so just barely completed this.
  • Update one old recipe post
    • I have a lot of good spring recipes in the archives, but the pics definitely need some work. (If you want to make sure you don’t miss the updated posts when they go live, follow the blog’s Facebook page or follow me on Pinterest, as those are usually the only two places those updated posts will be shown.) However, as many of the spring recipes I had in mind involve all-purpose flour and now both my husband and I are eating gluten-free, the timing was not great. I’ll have to shelve this for later.
  • Finish online photography class
    • Nope, didn’t do anything on it. My focused time to work on personal projects lately has been extremely limited, but as Bluprint actually just announced that they’re shutting down permanently, I wanted to try and finish this while I could.

June Goals

I’m keeping it short and simple for June (well, short and simple for me anyway—I know some people who would look at this list and still think I’m a bit crazy!):

  • Celebrate Mathias’s birthday
    • Mathias turns 2 this month! We’re not ones to go *too* crazy for birthdays, but we’ll at least try and plan something fun, despite all the current restrictions.
  • Interview Dad for the blog
    • I loved interviewing my mom last month about how she made a single income stretch so far with six kids, and I’m wanting to do another interview this month with my dad.
  • Vote in the Utah Primary
    • I’m not always super good about voting in anything but the National Election, but I’m trying to be better at being more informed, especially since local leaders make the biggest difference in our day-to-day lives generally.
  • Finish online photography class
    • Hoping to do this before Bluprint shuts down!
  • Read 5 culturally diverse books to the kids
    • We read diverse picture books anyway, but I’m trying to be even more intentional in how I teach our kids about race and diversity.
  • Make 4 recipes out of Whole 30
  • Donate 12 boxes to the DI (the Utah version of Goodwill, basically)
    • I think we currently have 9 or 10 ready to go, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. It always feels so good to let go of excess stuff we no longer need.
  • Finish going through all the bags/bins of clothes
    • I still have four bags left in the garage to go through.
  • Get house ready to put on the market
    • We don’t 100% know what we’re doing at this point, but our goal is to have the house ready to list by the end of the month. I’m hoping that June brings some clarity in our plans going forward, which I’ll keep you apprised of here (when it comes to “for sure” news, anyway) or on the other blog (where I waffle between options every week).

This month could get pretty interesting, just because there are soooo many things that could happen (or start happening) with a possible move coming up in the next couple months. Should be an interesting June!

How are you holding up?

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