Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I'm loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I've collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! 🙂
This week, I enjoyed getting to make some more meals in my crockpot and share them with you as part of the Eat at Home Challenge.
I wrote a post on How We Afford Snacks on a Tight Grocery Budget.
Silas pitched his first inning of a baseball game and did a great job!
His new school is really stretching him academically but in a way that motivates him, not frustrates him (well, most days!) I’ve been so proud to watch him really put his head down and work so hard on his projects and papers and homework and to see the sense of accomplishment he gets from working hard on something and completing it well.
We celebrated Jesse’s and Brian’s (our friend) birthday by going to TopGolf with friends. I’m not skilled at all when it comes to golf, but we still had a great time together!
I love watching this boy play his heart out on the ball field.
From My Heart…
They started fighting one night last week during the before dinner prayer.
One child began praying and the other child cut in upset that they weren't getting to pray and said heatedly, "It's MY turn to pray tonight!" And then started their own prayer.
You guys. This is life sometimes. I have visions of these heartwarming family dinners together — and then we can't even make it through the before dinner prayer without arguing and fighting.
And of all the things to fight about… they are fighting about who gets to pray!!!
But despite the rough start to dinner, we ended up having great conversations around the table and had fun picking a new show to watch together after dinner (we're trying out Monk — have you seen it?).
No day is perfect. Just like no family picture is perfect…
My parents hired a photographer to come take group photos and family photos when we were together in Breckenridge — which was an amazing idea.
Only thing is, we had a really full week that week and had packed at the last minute and hadn't really had time to think through what we were going to wear for pictures to coordinate with everyone else.
So it was a bit of a mad, scramble, dash to pull off pictures! What you don't know is that I'm hiding my shoe strap that is broken. (I forgot it had broken until I put them on minutes before pictures!) We had to run to Walmart at the last minute to find a shirt for one child who forgot to pack something for the pictures. And the girls borrowed my scarves the morning of the pictures because they didn't like their outfits.
Despite the mishaps, there is beauty. And that is really how I've been trying to live my life… looking past the discouragements, the daily frustrations, the mishaps and miscommunications and mistakes… and looking for the beauty.
Because there is beauty and goodness around us, if we will be stop to take notice of it. And the more we look for it, the more we will see it in the middle of our imperfect and messy lives.
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 58 books read so far this year
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I'm using the Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 36 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 358 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.
Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
**Progress: We've finished three books so far.
7. Take the kids to South Africa. We took this trip in July. What a memorable experience!
8. Go on a family road trip.
**Progress: We've been researching some options for this and are planning to make this happen over Fall Break. Stay tuned!
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
**Progress: The workout room is DONE and the office is almost done!
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.
**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April, the Facebook Live Masterclass in May, and we launched Build Your List 101 in June!
