Be BRAVE!

Sometimes I think this blog will forever plague me.  I think that I will never quite figure out how to blog regularly, or how to know exactly what would be good content for this little space of mine. So instead of writing something that isn’t good, I just don’t write at all.  And I’m a big fan of “Progress over Perfection”.  If you are struggling with something, that is the first thing I will tell you.  Yet for this instance, progress is never made because I feel like my writing isn’t good enough to be read.

At the beginning of the year, I decided to choose a word of the year.  I prayed over it and thought about what would be an appropriate word to describe what I was hoping for this year.  While singing in church one Sunday morning, I realized my word is BRAVE!  I want to be brave in all my actions.  Sending an email to someone I’d like to collaborate with, going to a bible study with no one that I know, getting an actual business license.   These things scare me to death.  And somehow, remembering my word has given me the courage to get it all started.

But I haven’t blogged about it.  I haven't done the thing that takes the most courage, and told the world what my word for 2015 will be. 

So here it this: THIS YEAR I AM GOING TO BE BRAVE!

What if I fail??  What if I’m not always brave in everything??  -- That will be ok. At least I had the courage to try something big and scary.  Something that sets my heart on fire and gets me excited about life. And now I’m taking the courage to tell the world about it. And I'm going to continue to give myself a LOT of grace and keep blogging.  Even if it is only once every 2 months. 

If you are struggling with not getting something done, I do suggest you always remember “Progress over Perfection”.  Sometimes it helps to get something out there, so you can improve it and move forward.  Don’t let the fear stop you.  Whatever it is you want to do in life, remember to be brave!  And if you ever need some encouragement, feel free to send me an email!  I’d love to send you something back with lots of exclamation points and excitement!

2014 & January Goals

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Happy New Year!

I hope your 2014 was everything you wanted it to be.  And if it wasn't, I hope you can look back at what went wrong AND what went right and make the needed changes for 2015.  That's the great thing about a new year, it feels like a fresh start.  Put all the bad and old behind you and look forward to the changes you want to make.  These past few days, I've been praying and working on creating goals for the upcoming year.  I'm sure this list will be adjusted and changed as the year goes on.  But it is so nice to have somewhere to start!

Last year, I bought the Powersheets from Lara Casey.  Before you begin the actual goal planning, you are instructed to list what worked and what didn't work for the previous year.  One thing that did not work for me last year, was not filling out my powersheets every month.  So instead of buying a new set this year, I repeated the work in a journal and I'll use the remaining monthly goal pages from the set I have.  If you need help getting started on making goals, I recommend getting a set. They are worth every penny!

And it's not to late to start.  Like I've said before, there is nothing special about January 1st.  It's never to late in the year to start setting goals and making what matters most happen!

2015 Goals

-Read 15 books (would love any recommendations!)
-Exercise more...at least 3-4 times a week
-Read through the whole Bible
-Plan our anniversary trip
-Plan more dates with Phil
-Mail 3 postcards a month to friends and family (email me your address if you'd like one)
-Hang up prints and photographs around the house
-Learn French
-Bike 125 miles in the BikeMS weekend
-Start new business I've been dreaming about (Can't wait to tell you more about this!!)
-Be an encouragement for Phil while he works towards meeting his weight loss goals
-FINALLY clean, declutter, and organize the craft room

January Goals

-Apply for passports
-Go ice skating downtown with Phil
-Start "The One Year Bible" plan on YouVersion
-Learn more about getting a Small Business License
-Meal Plan every week
-Set up a blog schedule and STICK to it
-Finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and start #GIRLBOSS
-Organize fabric in the craft room

If you make goals for the year, I'd love to hear them and help keep you accountable.  Feel free to leave them in the comments!

Let's make 2015 our best year YET!!!

September Goals

Happy Tuesday!

August was such a wonderful month for me.  I felt like I worked hard and played hard all month.  And, besides biking every week, I met all of my goals for the month.  I’m not sure that has ever happen!  I was so glad to get caught up on my sewing.  Of course, I am behind again after launching the new product a few weeks ago. But that is a good problem to have. Thank you everyone for all the encouragement.  And I read more books this month.  I finished the Divergent Series this past weekend so I’ll be posting a review soon.  Even though the month was busy, I made time for a sweet friend to take some headshots for me to use on my social media sites and my Etsy site.  I’ll also post some of those up here soon so everyone can see what amazing work she did!

September is a busy month for us.  Elaina and I are biking 50 miles on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. (Jacob is doing 100 miles on Saturday!!!) If you’d like to support us and donate to a great cause to help find a cure for MS, feel free to follow this link here.  I need to raise $300 to be able to ride!  Then I’m going hiking with Elaina and Jacob the weekend of the 20^th.  If you know Phil and me at all, you know we aren’t hikers.  We prefer air conditioning and football games over climbing a mountain, any day.  BUT, somehow Elaina convinced us this would be a good idea and we agreed to go along.  If you don’t hear from me the week following, you’ll know I refused to hike back down the mountain.  :-)

And finally, some of our best friends are getting married the last weekend of the month.  I CAN NOT wait to celebrate all weekend long with those two! 

So here are some of my goals for the month of September:

-Only get a week behind on orders

-Enjoy BikeMS

-Celebrate the birthdays of two of my favorite people (Elaina and my daddy)

-Go on at least one date with Phil in the midst of the busy month

-Take LOTS of pictures while hiking

-Soak up lots of love at the wedding of dear friends

I’d love to hear how your August went and any September goals you may have!  Feel free to leave your goals in the comments section and I’ll give you some extra encouragement along the way!

-Faith

July Goals

It’s July 1^st.  I can’t believe the year is half way over.  It has flown by, but has also been full of so much joy.  Time spent with family and friends, Making Things Happen conference, and another anniversary celebrated with my sweet husband.  I hope I’m making the most of 2014.

Still, I want to approach this next half of the year like a new beginning.  I completely fell off the wagon when it came to reading the Bible through and I haven’t kept up with my goals very well.  I definitely haven’t kept up with this blog very well.  It was way harder than I ever thought it would be.  I read everyone else’s blog and they make it seem so easy.  I’ve never been good with words, which may be why I struggle with this so much.  But I’m not going to give up.  I’ll try approaching it from today forward like a new start and see where it goes from here!

So here are some short term goals for the month of July.  We will see how well I can keep these.  I’ll try not to set something to large!  :-D

-Spend time every week cleaning and organizing the craft room (ß Why is this still on the list??)

-Make and post the new items for Faithfully Made (So excited about this!)

-Post on the blog 3 times this month

-Go eat with my grandparents

-Finish reading “The Dog Year”

-Enjoy a weekend at the lake with friends

-Celebrate America!

That is probably more than enough for one month.  We will see how it goes at the end of July!

Are you starting over in July?  I’d love to hear about some of your goals this month!

Faith

Weekend Recap and April Goals

My first weekend in months completely social media free went WONDERFUL!  I got to spend so much more time with Phil and actually started a new book that I’ve been wanting to read.  So here is my weekend in photos!

Mudcats game Friday night.  We ate way more food than we really needed but it was totally worth it!  We had a great time, even if the home team did lose.

Enjoyed an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the local fire station.  Always fun to support a great cause.  Then we attended my cousins wedding.  I just love weddings. They remind me so much of the reasons I love being married and I always enjoy hearing the vows over again.

Sunday was full of church and working on an announcement that’s coming to the blog on Friday! 

My April goals will not be as big as the last few months.  I’m realizing I don’t need to do more stuff in less time, but to spend more time on the things that really matter.  (Thanks MTH for that lesson!)  It’s also my anniversary month, so I want to really focus on Phil this month!  And make him feel special each and every day.

-Finish reading “Love Does”

-Sort fabric in craft room and find something to do with lots of scrapbook stuff I don’t need (if you would like it, free of charge, please let me know!)

-Enjoy a fun weekend in Savannah celebrating 3 years of marriage

-Ride my bike 3-4 times to prepare for Bike MS on May 3^rd

-Continue trying to read my Bible daily

I'd love to hear about your April goals; feel free to leave them in the comments section!

#socialmediafreeweekend

Y’all.  March flew by.  I read a few blogs regularly and used to always wonder why they didn’t blog more often.  I thought, “It can’t really take that long.  They should post every few days.”  How wrong I was!  This blogging thing is way more difficult than I ever imagined. 

March was a crazy month for me.  My family went through some tough times and I appreciate all the prayers everyone sent up.  I didn’t complete many of my goals I set and I’m realizing that’s ok.  I just attended the Making Things Happen Conference and found that I need to focus more on what matters most.  I’ll post more later about the conference, once I’ve soaked up all the information that was given out, but it was a great two days and I’m so glad I went.

This weekend I’m applying one small lesson and I’m going to do social media free weekends.  I tried this a couple of times last year and loved it.  But then I got back into the habit of spending more time on Instagram than with Phil.  So this weekend, I’m actually going to delete the apps from my phone to make this easier! (But I’m sure deleting them tonight will be tough)  If you would like to join me and many other MTH alumni in not using social media this weekend, just hashtag #socialmediafreeweekend and leave a comment below.  I'd love for you to join me!  

And I’ll do a weekend recap here on Monday to share all my big plans this weekend and have my April goals ready.  They will be a week late, as usual, and that’s ok too!  

So, y’all go out and have a wonderful weekend.  And don’t forget to focus on what matters most!

-Faith

March Goals

Y'all, February was not as intentional and goal oriented as I would have liked.  I didn’t fill out my Powersheets for last month and I could definitely tell.  Earlier this week, I completed the sheets for March and have my tending list sitting on my kitchen counter.  It is a daily reminder of all my goals so I can’t let them slide under the rug!

March is also time for the Making Things Happen Conference.  I am SOOOO excited to be attending with Elaina.  This conference is meant to fire you up and get you excited about the road ahead, while teaching you about goal planning and making the most of your time.  Then day 2 is all about branding your business!  Can’t wait to meet all the lovely ladies and soak up a ton of information.

Here are my March Goals:

Add three new postings to Etsy*

Get the Christmas stuff out of the Craft Room*

Read Numbers* and Deuteronomy

Spend time with Papaw

Write a blog post once a week

Clean out my closet and give clothes away

Find out more information about Bible Studies at church
Have FUN at MTH2014

*did not complete in February

I'd love to hear all about your March goals.  Feel free to leave a few in the comments and we can keep each other accountable!

February Goals

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Hey Y’all! 

Welcome to my little piece of the internet!  I wanted to start this blog to keep myself accountable throughout the year.  And to document and keep track of all the FUN I have this year.  Elaina and I will both be posting (so welcome to her little piece of the internet as well!) and also providing any Faithfully Made updates.  (Go check out the shop!!)

I’ve been seeing a lot of monthly goals posted around the internet and I think it’s a great idea.  If just one person reads this and keeps me accountable, it will be worth it!  I’m a little late for February 1^st, but it’s never too late to start! 

So here are my February Goals:

Finish reading “One Thousand Gifts” and “Monuments Men”

Add three new postings to Etsy

Get the Christmas stuff out of the Craft Room

Read Leviticus and Numbers (Trying to read the Bible through this year!)

Spend time with Phil’s Grandparents

Write a blog post once a week

Enjoy a FUN Valentine’s Day with my love

I’ll try to recap at the beginning of March. 

2014 is going to be my year and I’m so excited to see everything it is going to bring!!!!