After a difficult April, May was much, much better. And it was full of adventures and excitement and new things…
I got stuck in the Dallas airport for 14 hours!
We started our new summer homeschool curriculum and schedule (we homeschool year-round).
Jesse and I ran our first Tough Mudder.
Kaitlynn started taking intensive all-day figure skating lessons/coaching on Mondays and Wednesdays and the ice rink has become my home away from home.
Silas finished out his season of baseball and is already looking forward to next season!
We celebrated the beginning of summer with $0.25 Corn Dogs from Sonic.
We launched my first-ever online video course — Make Over Your Mornings — and have been blown away by your response, enthusiasm, and amazing comments! If you’ve not purchased it yet, you can grab your copy here. (Photo from tshogue on Instagram.)
Silas and I went to San Francisco for a quick business trip. The highlight for him was definitely seeing the Golden Gate Bridge!
Here’s an update on my goals for 2015:
My 12 Goals for 2015
Marriage
- Read 1 book per month on marriage.
- Read in January: 52 Ways to Wow Your Husband
- Read in February: From This Day Forward
- Read in March: For Married Women Only
- Read in April: 50 Frugal Dates
- Read in May: Red Hot Romance Tips
- Write at least 1 love note to Jesse each week.
- Done in January
- Done in February
- Done in March
- Done in April
- Done in May.
Motherhood
- Read at least 1 book aloud to the kids per month.
- Read in January: James and the Giant Peach
- Read in February: The Imagination Station Book 15
- Read in March: The Imagination Station Book 16, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing
- Read in April: Caleb’s Story
- Read in May: Pedro’s Journal
- Write 1 love note to each child every month.
- Done in January.
- Done in February.
- Done in March.
- Done in April.
- Done in May.
Myself
- Complete all She Reads Truth 2015 Bible Studies + memory work.
- Done in January — I absolutely loved the John study.
- Done in February — I really enjoyed the Esther study.
- Done in March — I’m finished the Lent study — so, so good!
- Done in April — I loved the Timothy study!
- Done in May — I’m so enjoying the Women in the Word study.
- Read 1 fiction book per month.
- Read in January: What Alice Forgot
- Read in February: The Cricket in Times Square (read aloud to the kids)
- Read in March: Lizzy & Jane
- Read in April: Dear Mr. Knightley
- Read in May: Walk the World’s Rim (read aloud to the kids)
MoneySavingMom.com
Hire a local personal assistant.
- Done! And I’m so grateful! My new assistant, Ashley, is amazing!
- Launch 2 courses (we’re planning one for spring and one for fall — stay tuned!)
- Woot! Woot! We launched Make Over Your Mornings last week!
- Launch our new product line (slated to soft launch in the summer).
- Release my third book (slated to come out November 2015).
- We’re in the middle of gearing up for marketing and publicity and are in the midst of the final edits. Can’t wait to tell you more about this book in the coming months!
Money
Increase last year’s overall giving totals by 10% in 2015.
- Part of my going to South Africa was to investigate the possibility of our family personally supporting the work of Take Action. After coming home, we both felt this was the direction we were supposed to take and our partnership with them will allow us to meet this goal. We’re so thrilled with what God is doing there in South Africa and, for those who have joined us in this through the #TenDollarTribe.
- Finish funding our Rental House #3 Savings Account.
- We’re still at 60%. We didn’t make any headway here as it was a very low month for us income-wise last month — which is very typical for us at this time of year, especially since we’re in the process of investing a lot of money back into the business right now.
How are you doing on YOUR goals for 2015?
If you set goals for this year, I’d love to hear how you are doing on them! Leave a comment telling us about your progress on them or leave the link to your blog post about them. Here’s to a year of living with purpose, intentional, impact, and meaning!
I just wrote down my half a year goals this week while I was going through your morning video series. For my first try I am breaking them down into six months goals. My goals for the next six months are:
1. College Student: Take a Fall college course towards my degree by December 2015
2. College Student: Read 6 Christian counseling books by December 2015
3. Mother: Homeschool Josiah and complete 75 day’s of 9th grade by December 2015
4.. Christian: Complete all the book’s of John by journaling and drawing a picture for each chapter by December 2015
5. Friendship: Send a card, speak on the telephone, or go out with a friend 26 times by December 2015
6. Wife: Lose 20 pounds so I am physically more healthy for my husband by December 2015
I love how you have them written out so you can see the progress. Do you keep your notes on Evernote, journal, or word?
if your looking for a great book to read, I just read Ordinary Grace by William Kruger and it was excellent it’s a murder mystery but not gory and it’s not about the murder so much but about the people and relationships.
I always love reading about your goals, Crystal! I’m especially loving going through the make over your mornings course. SO good! Was wondering how you choose read-aloud books for your kids? Do you have a go-to list? Thanks!
Right now, we’re reading through the books from our Sonlight curriculum. I’m pretty sure those will keep us busy for the next 9 months or so!
I love how you read one fiction book a month- excited to check those out! I committed to reading one this month! Loving the Make Over Your Mornings! So good!
I’ve got the same goal for June too. It took me 6 weeks to read the last one. Lol
I tried to set much more doable and enjoyable book goals this year and it’s worked out really well. I feel like I’m still reading quite a lot, but I’m really enjoying the books I’m reading and able to savor them more because I didn’t set such lofty or ambitious goals. Sometimes, less is more!
My New Year’s Resolution was to create habits to improve my health. We moved from the Seattle area to the Portland, OR area on April 1. Despite the huge transition and even though it caused some set backs, I’ve rallied and maintained my habits from January to March: not biting or picking my nails, tracking my food intake, and going to bed between 9-9:30.
My May habit is exercise. I walk Monday through Saturday for 30 minutes with my toddler in the stroller. We go at about 7:15am after she gets up; after I only change her diaper, I leave her in her pjs and put on her shoes and we’re out the door! This gives me no opportunities to make excuses: I have too much to do, it’s too hot, it’s raining, we’ll be to late, etc. I plan, and we’ve budgeted for a YMCA membership so I can get some mom alone time while doing cardio and strength training and she can play with other kids in the daycare for up to two hours. However, I’ve postponed signing up because she’s had a hard time with the nursery at church and I want to wait to spend the money when I know she’s more ready to be left at the day care and I have more fortitude to leave her while’s she crying!
My June habit is applying sunscreen – no matter what. I often finding myself debating if we’ll be in the sun or the shade, is it cloudy enough, etc? I decided I’m just going to apply it. It’s not worth the internal debate and I’ve found tricks to getting my daughter’s cooperation (she helps me put mine on first, helps put the stick kind on her fact, etc).
If anyone out there is struggling with their goals, I really encourage you to just pick one and try to form a habit. When it’s a true habit, it’s on autopilot and you no longer have to expend mental energy to accomplish it!
Thanks for giving us this forum Crystal. I was listening to Michael Hyatt’s podcast last night and he said we want our blogs (I don’t have my own – yet!) to become a community for the readers.
You are SUCH an inspiration! I’ve loved following along with your goals this year and am SO proud of you for sticking with them and following through with them! Way to go!
I’m working on simplifying our lives. Each week I’m tackling one task (some big and some small). Here’s my post from this past Saturday:
http://everydaymindfulliving.com/simplify-saturday-wash-towels-less-frequently/
I love the idea of tackling one task each Saturday!
Love that you guys invest and steward your money so wisely! My hubby and I just paid off his car loan yesterday, so all that’s left is our mortgage and we are hoping to have that paid off by my 27th birthday! God is good. It’s amazing how he blesses us when we spend his money like managers instead of owners. 🙂
WOOHOO! Way to go! I’m so proud of you!
It’s so helpful to be given a glimpse of your real life, Crystal. Thank you for your transparency – it inspires me to be more intentional and work hard! It (me, marriage, family, work) is so worth it!
Your pictures are so great! They tell the same story as your words. 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind encouragement! I’m so grateful that it’s an inspiration!
Looking forward to seeing what the new product line holds. I am doing fairly well with my yearly goals, except for….the healthy eating ones….kind of blowing those this month. Trying to get back on track but with all the Graduation open houses and then 3 birthdays this month it is going to be tough.
Yay for progress on your yearly goals!
Congrats on the successful launch of your course! I am on Day 3 and am loving it! The course is very motivating and also easy to follow. It’s also very realistic! You certainly set the course up with hopes that we would be able to succeed! I am looking forward to see what changes will be made by the end of the course.
That is so fun that you were able to take your son on a business trip. What a wonderful memory for both of you! And San Fran is a great spot. 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind encouragement about the course! I’m so grateful to hear that!
Glad to hear May was a good month for you! It was good for us too! Didn’t get too much done in my goals though since I spent most of the month preparing for our sudden trip to DisneyWorld on last day of May which was so fun!
Oh, how fun to get to have a trip to DisneyWorld!
If you loved Dear Mr Knightley, check out Edenbrooke and Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson. Thank you for sharing your goals and progress. You have inspired me to actually set goals and try (more) new things. 🙂
I’m with you! Julianne Donaldson is one of my favorite authors! 🙂
Thanks Crystal, for the extra push to accomplish my goals. You are always a breath of fresh air!
I have never heard of Julianne Donaldson — thanks so much for the recommendation!