My pal Sarah over at Devastate Boredom recently started a fun monthly series on goals and intentional living. She started it back in the summer, when we were off living like mountain people, so I wasn't able to join in. However, I figured since I wrote this post back in January, it wouldn't hurt to check in with things half-way through the year...
It turned out that our year took quite a different path than expected - right off the bat - which altered my goals pretty significantly:
Goal #1: Get back on the bike
If you click here, you can read a bit about my cycling history. Despite a rocky start, I did manage to get back out on the bike before the close of the first month. But I only made it out a couple of times before learning that my current bike rides had me in the same situation as my last - pregnant. And while I did manage to continue to ride throughout my first trimester while pregnant with Gv (I'd been training for the MS150 then, so my bike break took place after that big ride), I hadn't been on the bike since that point and knew this time around that I didn't want to take any chances with little baby's safety, since falling on the bike while clipped in is quite the production and not something I wanted to take a chance with, after having been out of the saddle for so long.
So, goal #1, out for the year.
Goal #2: Get rid of more stuff
Well, when faced with adding a new little member to our family, my desire to weed out junk ramped up considerably, so I went all KonMari and started to attack my closet, which resulted in five yard-trash-sized bags being hauled outside for the Vets truck to come and collect and I was well on my way to knocking out this goal.
But then tragedy struck. Right around the end of the first trimester, we lost our sweet little baby, completely altering our plans once again.
It was not an easy thing to go through, in any way. It wasn't just physically or emotionally difficult, but due to complications, I was basically completely out of commission for several weeks, which meant that the house totally went to pot while we all just did what we could to survive. G not only worked himself silly all day in his classroom, but followed up in his school's after-school tutoring program before then stopping to work with his private tutoring clients each night on the way home. He'd walk in the door, exhausted, only to then scramble to put together something for us all to eat before doing whatever he could to set up food for me and Gv for the next day when he would be gone again. Gv was such a trooper during this time - keeping herself occupied pretty well, but that also meant she'd drag out just about every item she could find that would be acceptable to play with and then strew it all over the floor...
Needless to say, it took me a while to clean things up and get back into the swing of things after all of this.
Like, it took a couple months.
So, goal #2, while having a promising beginning, managed to fall off the list, as well.
Goal #3: Make something new in the kitchen
Finally, something I managed to accomplish! Thanks to the gift I created for G this year, I had the motivation to tackle this one at least once every month, even despite all the craziness that had become our life.
You can read all about these culinary creations here, but these monthly trips have become one of our favorite things to do together and one of the best parts of our year.
Goal #4: Create something
Aside from playing my little part in creating new life or the crafts I did with Gv during our Latticed Learning time, I haven't really been able to work on this goal. However, we have a wedding coming up in our family soon and I've got plans to create a special gift, so I'm hoping that will jump-start my creativity and get me going on at least a few projects before the year's end.
Goal #5: Live more in the moment
This one, I can report, has been the most consistently worked on. It's been the year of "yes" (or at least, "why not?") where I've set aside my plans and just gone with the flow - taking the time to make the most of every second we have with each other.
If anything, our struggles this year ensured that goal #5 would be achieved. When you lose something so special, you realize that you don't want to take the good things you still have for granted.
So there's my check-in - but what about the rest of the year?
Well, I've finally recovered from our big annual camp-out (you wouldn't believe how long it takes to unpack, clean, and put everything away after such fun!) and I'm still catching up on some of the emails and appointments that were put on hold during the time we were away, so I just now feel ready to tackle some goals again:
1. Get back into a better groove of blogging, completing my daily to-do list, and basically, general life again.
2. Create not only that wedding present I mentioned, but a trail map display idea I had while hiking on our trip this year.
3. Get rid of (and hopefully sell) all the boxes of weeded-out "stuff" that have been piled up in our office for the past year.
4. Continue to plan and execute our fabulous trips and also finish writing up my 31 Days series (like this and this) before the month's end.
5. Get back on the bike. It's still far too hot out around here to even think about riding during the day and early evening is no longer an option now that the Zika virus has hit full-force in our area, but I'm hoping to at least wake up super-early one weekend morning in the next couple of months and get out there and ride again.
We'll see how it goes...and whether I decide to check-in with these goals again next month, or just wait and do it again at the end of the year.
But it's good to take the time to reflect and make an effort to be more intentional with things.
How are you doing with your goals for the year? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
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