So, in order to make my goals this year, I want to do bi-monthly check-in’s for accountability! If you want to see my original goals for the year, check out my blog post Straining toward what is ahead (https://logsdonsbigadventures.com/2016/01/07/straining-toward-what-is-ahead/).
I’m going to try to follow the same format from the original post, so, here it goes:
Physical goals: I was really good about running in January and I got myself up to two miles (or a little bit more) pretty easily. I found plenty of time to run since I wasn’t going to zumba or the Y (yet) due to financial constraints. However, in February after we joined the YMCA, I hardly ran at all. I did however start doing zumba, body flow and body combat pretty regularly at the Y, so although I haven’t been running so much, I’ve still been active and working out.
Juicing… I haven’t done very well. I don’t know what it is but it always seems like such a daunting task… prepping the fruits and veggies I want to juice, running them through and this is the real kicker, washing all the parts. It’s just hard to do with the little man around. I’m going to try to still keep up, but I definitely haven’t been hitting the twice a week goal.
I AM back in my pre-pregnancy clothes again and I’m actually a pound or two less that where I started my pregnancy just over a year ago, so count that as a major win!
Financial goals: Well, we haven’t really gotten ahead… there seems to be something nearly every month that sets us right back where we started. This month it was my windshield getting smashed in. Last month it was the kitty. However, that being said, I did get myself a part time gig giving private Spanish lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This helps me to contribute to our family’s needs and slowly but surely we are re-gaining our grounding financially.
Relational goals: Date nights… check!
For our January date night we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse while Trent’s best friend’s wife’s parents watched Jedi. They had sent us a lovely Christmas card with a Texas Roadhouse gift card as well as an offer to babysit. Since our budget has been pretty tight, we decided to use this money for our January date! This was only our second real time leaving Jedidiah (and Nana was a bit jealous that it wasn’t with her), but it was an enjoyable evening out (not to mention delicious food… their bread is Ah-maz-ing!). We did think about our little bubba a lot though and were happy to get back to him!
February date- we went to see a movie- Risen. This time Nana got to babysit while Trent and I checked out this movie about Jesus’ resurrection from the centurion and Pilate’s point of view. It was an interesting angle that I hadn’t seen explored before and we quite enjoyed the movie. The only disappointment was that at one of the most crucial climaxes of the movie, the sound went out… so for a good minute or two we missed all of what they had to say. 😦
We also wanted to have people over to our house for parties or get-togethers at least 4 times this year. I am happy to say that we’ve already had one- a couples party to celebrate Chinese New Year! I will blog about this in a separate post sometime soon.
Spiritual: I am still on track to read through the Bible in a year! My Bible Study gals and I are doing it together, which gives me more accountability. Praying… I still need to do this more often! Verses memorized… half check!
I memorized the Shema (inspired by Andy Gray’s book) in January:
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
February I totally forgot to CHOOSE a verse (or group of verses) to memorize. There are just so many good ones to choose from that I wasn’t intentional enough about getting it done. So, to make up for my lack of discipline in February, I will memorize two passages in March.
Intellectual: I HAVE been using my Spanish much more often, reading books to Jedidiah and giving private lessons.
My goal was also to read at least one book a month- I got this one down.
In the two months I finished three books. The first was “The Butcher.” My mother-in-law gave me this book and said that it was very good- full of twists and turns until the very last page. While I do agree with her there, I can’t say I loved the book. There was a lot of vulgar language, the plot was pretty twisted and I didn’t really like the main characters… they were kind of jerks. That being said, it definitely kept me on my toes!
I also read a book by a pastor from London who visited our church and gave a few different sermons. His name is Andy Gray and his book is called “The Karma Shema Drama.” It is a short book all about the Shema: the call to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength. He invites us to be a part of the Shema unfolding (aka, what he calls the drama), being lived out in tangible ways. While I liked the book, I recommend watching his sermon (you’ll basically get the same info, more or less). The link to watch it is here:
http://subsplash.com/revyourlife/s/d97a8e3/.
The third book I read was called “Fly away,” which is a sequel to the book “Firefly Lane” which, although it’s been on my list of books to read since it came out (a long time ago), I’ve never gotten around to reading. It didn’t matter, as the background was explained enough to not miss much. This book I loved. It connected to me emotionally and was about grace and overcoming. It was more of a “feel-good” book that left me in tears more than once. I definitely recommend this one!
Personal: My goal here was to spend a day doing one thing I love each month. For January, I did a lot of blogging. This IS something I love doing. I also made birth announcements for Jedidiah (only free ones from Shutterfly, so sorry if you didn’t get one). I actually made two rounds of them because Shutterfly was offering different deals and I have so many pictures of him that I love!
Unfortunately, I didn’t proofread this one closely enough and mistakenly put that he was born at 8:03 pm instead of 8:03 am…
In February, I got a photo book made of Jedidiah’s first Minnesota Christmas. I am still working on his birth story book- this will likely be my March project.
Well, that’s it until April, when I will do another check-in! How are you doing on your new year’s resolutions???
Logsdon's big adventures! 