Popping in late for a monthly goals post, but on the early side for a year-end review of my 2018 goals, so let’s call it even? :) As you may remember, in an effort to keep my monthly goals from looking exactly like my regular to-do lists, I tried to set one goal per yearly goal each month. I liked this system a lot–it ensured I looked back at my original goals and inspiration board for the year often and never lost sight of my overarching vision for the year. Before jumping into my December goals, I thought I’d go through those yearly goals and let you know what has overall gone well, where I’ve fallen short, and how I feel about that goal or area of life moving into 2019.

1. Grow deeply in relationship with God. 
In so many ways, this goal feels impossible to measure, because no matter how deeply I grow in relationship with God, I know I’ll spend my entire life longing for more. The more I know Him, the more I want to know Him, so what I do know never feels like enough. That said, I’ve been in a morning prayer routine for most of the year for the first time in my life, which I’m so grateful for. I saw His goodness, mercy, and love radiate through the lives of the many saints I studied and celebrated this year. Progress was certainly made, and I’m excited to continue this through 2019, and long beyond. One of the biggest improvements I’d like to make next year is physically “showing up” where God calls me–to adoration, to reconciliation, and to more daily Masses, much more routinely.

2. Create purposeful routines and rhythms in our schedule that enable us to tend to our family, loved ones, and home well. 
If you’ve been following along all year, you know I was very impacted by A Mother’s Rule of Life (as recommended by my friend Claire)at the beginning of 2018. Creating a Rule was tremendously helpful, but I wasn’t good about adjusting it as the needs and schedules of our family changed throughout the year. I do plan to pick this back up, starting with a new version for January-March.

3. Cultivate a life-giving home.
Maybe at the beginning of 2019, I’ll get an updated home tour together to show you some of the changes that have occurred this year! We’ve made some small, but significant updates (no big projects; just a few intentional purchases and some thoughtful rearranging) and I’m happy with the way our home currently serves our life. We’ve also implemented some new rhythms into our routines, most notably with liturgical living celebrations, that have certainly breathed life into our home in new ways.

4. Tend to our marriage with joy, friendship, faith, grace, and love.
It is a little crazy to me that the CPA just wrapped up a few months ago…Dave’s studying already seems like forever ago! I’m truly so proud of him–aside from passing with flying colors, his dedication to his study schedule is what kept our family most afloat during those months (January-September). Our post-CPA celebration trip alone to NYC a few weeks ago was very needed and deeply refreshing after a packed-full year, and we came home feeling so rejuvenated as a couple. We’d love to make solo getaways, even if they’re just for a weekend staycation, an annual thing. Dave called it our family’s corporate retreat :)

5. Love long-distance family members and friends well.
This was one of my hardest goals to stick to this year, since, like you’ve probably realized, it took most of my energy to keep things strong and functioning within the four walls of my house this year. I definitely have a long way to go when it comes to checking in with long-distance loved ones, but I am proud of the ways we physically showed up for people this year, which included six 11-hour road trips. NOT easy with a toddler in tow, and not necessarily something we’ll do again, but I’m glad we gave it our all this year.

6. Tend to my health and wellness consistently.
The main reason I feel I can check this one off is that half-marathon training (I started in May and my race is on January 1) has required decent consistency. I’m grateful for that accountability, but to be honest, it has been MONTHS since I went to our gym to work out, rather than work from my laptop in the lobby! I’m not planning to do another big race next year, but I’d love to keep this consistency up with one run, one Pilates class, and one home workout or another class at the gym per week.

7. Grow as a writer/blogger and steward my creative gifts well. 
This is the one goal I feel most confident to leave a big fat check mark next to! Even though blogging has been more sporadic than I would have liked lately (working on it, friends, I promise!), I’m so pleased with the posts I’ve contributed to the Blessed Is She blog, the work I’ve done for copywriting clients, and most of all, for putting myself out there to Gal Meets Glam, which ultimately led to them hiring me as part of their team. I’d love to continue to grow into my role there, and there are so many more writing projects I want to pursue, so this goal is still going strong for 2019, in even bigger and bolder ways.

8. Actively learn about finances and become more involved in maintaining them.
I didn’t do anything big for this goal, but I do think I made a lot more of an effort to understand our finances. Just asking clarification question after question until I actually understood something, rather than brushing over it, has helped a lot! Dave was also very proactive about making sure I was involved and had the opportunity to form and share opinions about different aspects of our finances, which I appreciate a lot (especially considering he’s an expert and I agree with whatever he wants to do 99% of the time!).

9. Read a variety of books: fiction, nonfiction, spiritual, and business.
Definite yes to spiritual and nonfiction books, which are most of what I’ve read this year. I honestly have a hard time staying motivated to read business books, but since I’ve mostly stepped back from my copywriting business right now, I’m fine with that. I would love to read some more excellent fiction next year! My issue is that I’m really picky about fiction, so I need to be a little more proactive about researching reviews to find books I think I’ll enjoy.

December Goals

1. Celebrate a prayerful and intentional Advent.
2. Write Rule of Life for January-March and print it.
3. Make a physical list of action steps we need to take to prep our house to sell, in case that’s the route we take in 2019.
4. Go on a year-end review date night (inspired by Emily).
5. Set a date and venue and start planning for my sister Dana‘s bridal shower!
6. Complete half-marathon training!
7. Update my business website copy to better reflect what I’m doing now.
8. Have a year-end finance meeting and set financial goals for 2019 with Dave.
9. Read The Road Back to You (decided it was about time to see what this Enneagram thing so many of my friends love is about!) and a fun fiction book.