It's hard for me to believe that just a week ago we were flying home from our trip to South Africa! It was SUCH a great trip and I can't wait to tell you more about it!
But I needed time to get over jet lag. Time to process what I'd experienced. And time to feel like I wasn't walking around just trying to pry my eyeballs open with toothpicks. 
So I'm excited to finally be back to the land of the living and ready to write about the trip. And oh! There is so much I have to share.
I decided to kind of take you on a journey with me, day by day, of our trip. So you could get a little peek into what we experienced, what we learned, and how it impacted us.
Starting tomorrow, I'll be blogging each afternoon/evening about one day or one aspect of our trip - including what we learned about traveling with young kids, how our kids fell in love with South Africa (even though they were apprehensive at first!), some of the fun adventures we had, and the beauty and hope we experienced in the midst of so much need.
I'll also be sharing more about the work we are participating in there and how you are making a difference in very specific and tangible ways by purchasing products we sell and visiting this site.
It made me sort of sad to be stain-treating all the red South African soil stains on our clothes… It's such a beautiful reminder of such a memorable week! But while the soil might wash out of our clothes, our love for South Africa can't be scrubbed from our hearts. Ever. And now it's not just me who is smitten; our whole family has fallen fast in love!
Our re-entry has been easier than I expected. Since jet lag was so much worse than I'd envisioned last time around, we cleared our calendar for 5 days after the trip and we took it really, really easy - sleeping at weird times and just letting our kids slowly adjust to the time zone here. We're mostly all re-adjusted to US time and life has fallen back into a pretty good rhythm (well, other than a not-so-good few hours this morning!)
Here are my goals for this week:
Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals
1. Write a love note to Jesse.
2. Have an at-home Movie Date with Jesse.
3. Finish reading a book with the kids.
4. Watch the Democratic debate as a family (my kids are loving watching all of the debates and discussing all things political right now!)
Personal Goals
5. Start working on a new handwork project.
6. Finish at least one book.
Business Goals
7. Finish article due for my book launch.
8. Do a Money-Making Mom scope each afternoon at 3 p.m. (Are you joining us for this? If not, you can download the Periscope app and search for my name or @MoneySavingMom to join in live. Or, you can watch the replays on Katch.me/MoneySavingMom)
9. Everything done for special Influencer Boxes to go out to about my new book.
10. Write emails to go out to email lists about book launch.
How did you do on last week's goals? What are your goals for this week? I'd love to have you share your progress on last week's goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you've blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let's cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives! You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.
