The Year of Connect
Happy 2018, Happy Monday, and Happy New Goal Setting Season!
This time of year is so inspiring and a teeny tiny bit overwhelming. I’m always excited for the week after Christmas when I get to celebrate victories of the previous year and uncover new goals for the next. Over the last week, I’ve been mulling over it slowly and praying the Lord’s guidance over the next year of my life. Just like last year, I coupled this reflection and prayer with Lara Casey’s Powersheets and I couldn’t have been more pleased with how things are looking for 2018.
I’m taking action on what matters.
I evaluated my life in terms of a couple different categories – Health/Wellness, Personal Growth, Spirituality, Self-care, Romance/Significant Other, Friends/Family, Finances and Career – rating them on a satisfaction scale from 1-10. It can be difficult when using this strategy because a lot of the areas over lap, but doing this exercise helped me to narrow down places of strength and places of weakness. Of these sections, I choose the three with the lowest scores to focus on next year. As I was reflecting on the numbers, I made a huge discovery: my goals last year resulted in those areas being the highest rated! I felt so validated about making progress even though my efforts and the outcomes weren’t perfect.
On the other hand, last year I struggled with in my goal setting last year is that I added a lot of “fluff” to my monthly, weekly, and daily goals – things like reading a certain number of books, completing Project Life, or taking a photo every single day. These things are all valuable, but setting specific numbers and timeframes for things like these won’t have a positive impact on my life right now even though I like doing them! I found that by adding these things and being able to check them off, I was less likely to spend time focusing on things that were more challenging or new to my routine.
As the goals began to unfold, I considered how these goals would impact me and the people around me and what measures I would use to determine if the goals had been met or not. This really helps me when it comes to motivation.
As I considered these categories and wrapped up my journey with the word thrive, I considered a myriad of new words to choose from. For the longest time, I thought it was going to be whole or brave, but I think those are going to end up being companion words to the one I eventually settled on – connect.
Connect | verb
to bring together, associate or relate
to form a relationships or feel an affinity
synonyms: unite, attach, join, secure, combine
So here we are, my goals for 2018:
- This year I’m prioritizing my connection with God. I want to do a deep study in prayer and intercession as well as read the Bible in a year.
- This year I’m connecting with my body by focusing on the foods I eat and investing in time moving. I also want to explore more natural household and beauty products.
- This year I’m connecting more intentionally online, in friendships and in my marriage. I want to be silly and spontaneous and flexible to trying new things
- This year I want to do a better job of connecting with myself. I want to consider my need for simplifying and perfection. I want to create space for vulnerability and being open. I want to explore new ways of saving money and reducing the temptation of the shopping high.
For each of these goals, I’ve created smaller action items that I’m going to be working on throughout the year in hopes of overcoming burnout and the typical slow down that I start feeling halfway through the year.
I don’t plan on participating in the official One Little Word project like I have in the past, but I am going to keep a journal and follow some of the prompts Ali Edwards has provided through the class in the past. I know that showing up to my word is really going to be the pinnacle on whether or not connect makes a difference in my life.
As a first practice, made this vision board for my planner so that each day I can remind myself what I want to come out of this year and why. There are feelings of cozy, pups, simplicity and body love – all good things for 2018!
Are you choosing a word or making goals this year?
Christmas 2017
This Christmas was full of our favorite traditions. As usual, it was a whirlwind of all the family, all the preparations, and all the fun. Favorite parts: picking out our Hallmark ornaments, ice skating, Christmas eve with my parents and Kevin’s Mom and Scott, day after Christmas shopping, and my first ever candlelit church service.
Life Lately
It’s been over three months since I’ve shared anything in this space, which is probably one of the longest hiatuses I’ve taken since starting my blog in 2010. I spent a lot of 2017 focusing on (read: overthinking) my purpose and my why for everything I do. That being said, I know I want to continue writing and sharing my life in this little corner of the internet but I know I want it to feel different. I’m still trying to figure out what it’s going look like, but right now there’s no pressure. So instead of trying to backfill posts (like I’m tempted to do) I’m just going to dump lots of photos here and let you see what I’ve been up to recently.
I went to California in October and I snagged this shot out of my car window before heading to St. Louis to catch my flight. Chloe looks out the window at me every time I leave the house, and I loved having Kevin in this photo too.
My trip to California was a surprise that only my mom and I were in on, so it was fun to show up and catch everyone off guard. I love a good secret and it was so fun to be there for my cousin’s birthday. We got to do a lot of normal stuff – soccer games, bake cakes, and sit on the patio in the nice weather.
Kevin and I aren’t huge fans of costumes, so we normally put off deciding on one until the last minute. This year we went for something super easy that we could wear over our normal clothes. Best. Decision. Ever.
We were gifted a DNA test for Chloe and it turns out that all of her recent ancestors are labrador retrievers. Not sure where she got her height, weight and personality from, but we love joking about her being a purebred.
The California fam was in town the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we opted not to head home again for Thanksgiving day. I worked both Wednesday and Friday so it made sense not to drive to St. Louis for less than 24 hours. It was the first Thanksgiving that we didn’t spend with family, but we were lucky enough to be invited to Thanksgiving with our sweet friends. These pies? All handmade by Claire.
The following weekend, Taylor and I spent the weekend in Wisconsin for Brittany’s birthday. We had a blast meeting Evan, shopping, eating and breaking out of escape rooms. I knew I had found a new favorite city when I found my way into a bookstore that had a collectors edition of Gone with the Wind and a complete copy of the Chronicles of Narnia before we even left the airport.
To celebrate Kevin’s birthday and some job changes, we ate dinner at our favorite steak house. This place is right around the corner from us, and gosh darn it, we can smell it every. single. night. We love a good meal and this is the best place on the planet, especially when it’s all decorated for Christmas.
Kevin finally let me put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving (for the record, he was the one who put the outside Christmas lights up on November 21st last year (Instagram Evidence) . I purchased this tree for $6 three years ago when I was working at Walgreens. Since we moved into our house, I’ve been looking for a taller replacement but haven’t found anything that fits the space. This was the first year I included the Hallmark ornaments my parents have bought for me over the last 26 years as well as Kevin’s childhood ornaments. I have to admit, the sweet memories made me like the tree a little bit more.
Helmi’s Garden
A beautiful morning that felt like an escape from the real world. These moments are my favorite.
Currently
CELEBRATING: Kevin asked me to be his girlfriend in September eight years ago, so we’re celebrating all of our adventures since then. He even surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers!
WATCHING: Lately, I’ve been watching YouTube videos more than anything else. I tend to listen to or watch crafty videos while I’m working on my own projects, so some of my current favorites are Cori at The Reset Girl, Ali Brown, Courtney at Little Raven Ink, and Adele at Inkie Quill. There are also a couple of new music videos I’ve watched recently: P!NK and Taylor Swift.
WELCOMING: It feels like the weather in mid-Missouri has really cooled down, so we’ve been welcoming the nice fall-like weather with more outdoor activities. Bring on the PSL, leaves, layered clothes, and football games.
PREPARING: College football and tailgating generally takes up a lot of our falls (in the best way possible) and this year we are adding some basketball to the mix starting in November. We’re preparing and hoping for a great sports season here!
PHOTOGRAPHING: Labor day weekend really helped me get back behind my camera. Each year over Labor Day weekend, I shoot our family golf tournament and then I also brought my camera along to a church picnic that we attended. I always notice that the more I use my camera, the more I want to continue using it.
Today I’m joining Anne, at In Residence, for a ‘Currently’ linkup that she hosts on the first Wednesday of every month. Be sure to pop over and see what everyone else is up to!