Based on the memes circulating the internet, January felt long for just about everyone, and while it certainly did for us, I don’t say that in a negative way. The holidays just feel so far in the past already! The past month held some transitions–adjusting to a new babysitter (and therefore work schedule), settling into our new weekday rhythms (so much improvement since we cut weeknight TV!!), and starting to plan my sister’s bridal shower and Dave’s 30th birthday party, both coming up this March. We “KonMaried” our closets and donated three big bags to Goodwill. We redid our bathroom cabinets (first house project since we first moved in)! Dave joined a rock climbing gym and is loving it, and we both signed up for a fun 5K race next month. We also found out Charlie was accepted to our first choice preschool for the fall! It has been a full, but very sweet, month, and even though we’ve been keeping busy, I feel much more balanced than I did at the end of 2018. What more could I ask for from the start of the year?

I’m happy to say hello to February–I’ve always loved that this last month of winter (at least, in North Carolina) is short and that Valentine’s Day falls smack-dab in the middle of it. We almost always stay in for Valentine’s Day, and I think this year, we’re going to do a fancy at-home date with good takeout and a movie rental. I’m trying to think of something sweet to do with Charlie that day too, so if you have any ideas, let me know!

January Goals
1. Read To Know Christ Jesus daily during morning prayer time.
2. Plan our January feast day celebrations.
3. Read two fun fiction books. (I read The Paris Wife and Summer at Tiffany. Both enjoyable, easy reads, though I realized the latter is actually not fiction, whoops! It’s a memoir–one of my go-to genres–and a completely delightful one at that. Add it to your summer reading list!)
4. Paint master bathroom cabinets.
5. Go to the newly scheduled PiYo class each week this month. (Womp womp…it’s apparently an every-other-week class! This threw me off, so I went once, but also did some Tone It Up workouts at home to make up for it.)
6. Thoroughly review survey feedback and make notes on takeaways.
7. Outline an album design game plan for the year, and start curating photos for 2015.

February Goals
1. Continue reading To Know Christ Jesus daily (it’s so amazing!) and go to two holy hours without anything to read.
2. Celebrate four February feast days.
3. Read one fiction book and one nonfiction book.
4. Choose and buy a rug for our master bathroom. (Already ordered this one and cannot WAIT to get it in the mail!)
5. Move my body every day–runs, walks, Tone It Up, pilates…doesn’t matter!
6. Schedule a photography training session with one of my sweet photographer friends–so excited about this!
7. Finish curating 2015 photos.