bodner037

This year I have been setting goals each month using four themes: balance, purpose, health, and organization. These themes have helped me focus each month on specific steps towards creating positive changes and growth. In June these themes still apply, but my focus is a little different. This month is a bittersweet one for me, as for the first time in over 10 years, I am preparing to change

I keep thinking that we're into spring: the warm, t-shirt and shorts, pretty flowers spring that we are all desperate to see — and then another cold snap comes through and everyone gets a little bummed out again. Which all just reminds me that this time of year takes a little patience. Those warm spring days will come, but in our part of New England it takes a little longer. Similarly

March wound up being a crazy month, which made getting to my goals harder. But, it also made me think about the importance of the goals too. My Four Year Long Themes: Balance - Find balance across all areas of my life. Purpose - Reflect on the purpose of the things I own and my time. Health- Spend time focusing on improving my own physical and mental health. Organization- I am always

February seemed to fly by, which meant getting to my monthly goals and my four year-long themes was not as easy as it might be in longer months. My Four Year Long Themes: Balance - Find balance across all areas of my life. Purpose - Reflect on the purpose of the things I own and my time. Health- Spend time focusing on improving my own physical and mental health. Organization- I am always

This year I'm continuing to keep my monthly goals based on four year long themes. Each month, I try to work on these goals in a new direction. My Four Year Long Themes: Balance - Find balance across all areas of my life. Purpose - Reflect on the purpose of the things I own and my time. Health- Spend time focusing on improving my own physical and mental health. Organization- I am always

In the past few years, I've enjoyed participating in a Monthly Goals series with several other bloggers. Each month bloggers share their goals and update on the progress they've made. By posting my goals here, for all of you to see, it's made me feel much more accountable to meeting the goals. After a few months off from goal making I've decided to refresh the practice for the New Year. This

I've always considered myself a pretty amazing multitasker - I've even prided myself on how many projects I can have going on at "once." When brain research came out a few years ago claiming that people officially can't multitask, I completely didn't agree with it. Of course people can multitask- moms and teachers do it 100 times a day.  Coming out of a summer season where I purposefully

Anyone who is with a long term partner and has children knows that connecting amid parenting is hard. This coming month my husband and I will have been married 8 years, although we've been together much longer than that. There is not another person in the world I would rather share this journey with. We met as teenagers, grew with each other for several years, and in our mid-twenties eagerly

We're almost a week into July, and just posting our monthly goals  . . . but that fits perfectly with our focus for the next month: Keep Summer Simple. For whatever reason, this summer I'm feeling the need for us to keep it simple - slow it down and just enjoy the best parts of this season in our part of the world. The temperatures are warm, the world is green, the swimming is perfect, and

This spring a big focus for us as a family has been getting the backyard ready for summer. We're pretty blessed to already have a large backyard, but this spring it's gone from a fun place to play to a pretty kid focused yard. One of our motivations has been that this summer (in addition to visiting some of our favorite local spots) I really want to spend time just relaxing, at home in

So today I forgot my boss' birthday . . .  I should mention that I was supposed to be his "birthday buddy" and bring in a treat for the whole staff to share . . . I should also mention that I work in a pretty small town, with one small store, and no bakery  . . . So forgetting meant no treat for a happy staff to share. Forgetting meant totally having to own up to it. And, for me, forgetting

Whether it's the unusual winter we just had, the sporadic temps we're still experiencing, or just a touch of late cabin fever - I am so ready for spring, a real spring, to arrive! Something about this spring also has me thinking about those classic activities that families and kids get to experience during the warming spring months and I find myself just wanting to slow down and enjoy those

This year our monthly goals have been focusing on specific tasks rather than multiple goals each month. In January we tackled more decluttering throughout the house and in February we worked on using our slow cooker more to help offset busy nights. We found several recipes to enjoy this past month, and even started tweaking several to create our own recipes. (You can look forward to seeing those

So somehow January flew past me. Even though I chipped away at my January Goal of Decluttering and Organizing, the busy pace of a usually quieter month meant I just didn't get as far as I wanted to. (Although happily we did make some progress  with cleaning out toys, clothes, and several cabinet spaces.) As I've discovered in the past with this goal, sometimes this is one that takes a few months

Last year we joined the Monthly Goals series and found it to be a great way to keep us motivated during the year to tackle a variety of resolutions. Rather than kicking off January with a whole list of resolutions, each month we selected a new goal and worked towards meeting that goal. This year we're again excited to be joining in on the Monthly Goals series. I quickly realized last year that

Hard to believe that almost a year ago I started setting out monthly goals. Throughout the year I feel like the goals have helped me to focus on a variety of house and family related realms. I've loved seeing and feeling progress over the course of the year. With progress in a lot of areas, one area I still need to focus on is blogging. I love writing this blog and I can't believe that this

With new schedules and new routines this fall things are definitely feeling different, and a little more frantic than they were in the past. For some reason at the end of the October I really started to feel the new changes to our family routine and weekly schedule.  For the most part things feel a little more rushed, a little less flexible, and a lot more scheduled. Big Brother is

I'm not going to lie, I didn't do so well with my September Goal of Getting More Sleep. In fact, I probably should just continue it into this month. But, I knew this would be a hard habit to break. So, I'm going to try and keep it going this coming month. However, with our new school year routines this month, it's become pretty clear there's another monthly goal I need to tackle: make our school

Okay, now that the fun of summer is over and my oldest kiddo has started kindergarten, I know it's time to face up to the monthly goal I've been avoiding all year: Get More Sleep. For most people, the idea of getting more sleep would be a welcome treat . . . and for me that is true. But there's also a part of me that goes into a true panic at the idea of taking on this goal.  It's not