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! 🙂
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Kathrynne wanted to take me on a date for my birthday. We decided to go to Barnes & Noble and she paid for the outing.
I got this yummy turkey and brie sandwich.
I already showed you the flowers my parents sent me for my birthday, but I have to show you another picture because they made me so happy!
And then on Thursday morning, I left on a much-anticipated girls’ trip to the beach.
I went with two of my closest friends — Jamie and Lauren. We had anticipated this trip for weeks and it was the best ever!
We're so grateful to our husbands for their kindness to take care of things on the home front so that we mamas could have a girls' weekend!
The last two months have been full and there have been a lot of weighty and emotionally taxing things I've walked through. So this time away was amazing and so soul-filling. I didn't know when we planned this a number of months ago just how much I was going to need it!
We all need quiet spaces in our life to reflect, refuel, and recover. Maybe you can't get away to the beach, but can I encourage you to do something in the next 24 hours to refuel and refresh yourself?
Maybe that's taking 15 minutes to read a book or drink a cup of tea or or take a nap or call a friend or bake something or organize a drawer or sit with a child or watch a funny clip on YouTube or take a walk. Even if you don't feel like you have time, you can find 15 minutes to slow down and intentionally rest and refuel yourself.
From My Heart…
For years, I believed the lie that I didn't know how to be a good friend. Because of some past hurt and rejection, I told myself that I was a disappointment to those closest to me.
I let this lie become my truth and I built a thick barricade around myself to keep other women at arm's length. I was self-protecting… and when anyone would get too close, I'd pull back.I didn't realize I was doing any of this, of course. I just thought that I struggled to make friends and felt lonely much of the time.
All this changed when Jamie and Lauren entered my life. Both of them pursued me… for months. They wouldn't give up. They kept pressing in, even when I pulled back.
I'm so grateful for their friendship for how they have been used by God to help me recognize so many lies I was living under and have given me the courage to step into the freedom that comes from believing the truth, fully trusting people, breaking down the barriers, and letting people in.
Our time at the beach was an amazing time of laughing, reading on the beach, honest sharing, deepening our friendship, and just enjoying life together.
"We can't win when we go it alone." -Jessica Honegger
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: 63 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: 39 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 375 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 this week. 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!
