Turning 30 Goal Check-In: Month 9

How is July over already?!  This summer is going by WAY too fast.  I am so thankful that I'm not headed back to school next week, even though I do miss my colleagues and students.

This month we kicked it into gear with several projects, which also meant less time on some of my Turning 30 goals, but with these other projects finishing up, I'll have room to slow down and start doing the daily intentional living I'm craving.

As I shared in my post about how I let my simple goals get complicated, the first lesson is simple living that I've really learned this year is to not take on too much at one time...even if in the long run it leads to the life you want.

This year I joined the farmers market board, we bought chickens, built a chicken coop, took on a few other house projects, sold all of our dining furniture, decided to try to build a barn wood table, expanded the garden and added a pumpkin and squash garden on our 20 acres on top of just our regular lives in the summer.  All of these things will eventually lead to the full and simple life we're working towards, but taking on so much at one time wasn't a very good plan.

Alright, let's dive in to how things went this month!

Goal #1: Read More

Progress:  Since I wrote last, I read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  It was beautiful.  I loved it.  I convinced my book club to read it since I've wanted to read this book now that we keep bees.  From what we know, so far, about beekeeping and bees, Kidd did a great job on portraying beekeeping accurately.  I'm not usually one to buy fiction books.  I like to buy non-fiction because I underline and write in the book, but with fiction I rarely re-read so I don't much see the point.  However, this book is one that I may have to buy.  I will probably re-read it.  I would love to read it with L one day when she's old enough to handle the content.  Now I'm just trying to find a way to watch the movie since my library doesn't have it and I guess our library system doesn't do inter-library loans on movies.

And that's all I finished in July, other than Simply Calligraphy which I don't really classify as reading.  Most days I was so worn out from working outside in the garden or on the chicken coop that I didn't have the mental energy for reading.

I'm still working on Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria and my Seamless study.  J-man has started only taking one nap a day instead of two, so I'm having to rework my schedule as to when I get the blog, Bible study and housework done.

Goal #2: Continue Going to Yoga

Progress:  I made it a few times this month, but our instructor has taken some time off for vacation and spending time with her family before school starts, which I think is great.  Well, not great for me, but I love that she's putting family and self-care first.  Classes start again later this month.  I'm ready to get back to class on a regular basis now that we aren't going to be trying to spend every non-rainy moment on the coop.

Goal #3: Lose the Baby Weight

Progress:  No gain or loss this month.  However, a tropical vacation may be in my future in September, so I need to kick the weightloss into gear!

Goal #4: Learn Italian

Progress: Duolingo says I'm still 9% fluent.....

Goal #5: Take a Cooking Class

Progress:  The fall schedule isn't posted yet, but I'm planning on writing to see when they expect to have it on their website.  I'm really hoping for something with wine...

Goal #6:  Make Time for Play

Progress:   We had some of the ladies from my book club and their families over for a cookout this month.  It was fun to see our kids play together.

I took the kids to the Children's Museum this past weekend all by myself.  I'm totally fine if you want to start calling me Supermom now. LOL!  Okay, it probably wasn't that big of a deal, but I was worried going into it.

And date night got cancelled this month due to my husband's job.  Some things came up and that jacked with his schedule.  Boo work!

Goal #7: Develop a Signature Style

Progress: I'm starting to gather resources about creating a capsule wardrobe.  I've found blog posts, books and worksheets.  I'm also going to be looking over some of my Pinterest Boards on style and taking note of pieces that I see repeated in the looks I love.  Obviously those are pieces that I probably need to incorporate into my own closet.

Goal #8:  Master the Top Knot

Progress:  DONE.

Goal #9: Continue Making our House Our Home

Progress: Last month I told you that we sold all of our dining room furniture so that my stepdad and I could make a table out of barn wood.  Well, the barn wood is pulled and I've bought my chairs.  I love these white chairs.  First of all, I love white in decor but worry about using it with small kids.  However, these white chairs will be easy to clean off after sticky fingers have touched them.

We also found an amazing church pew to replace the bench we used to use to sit on while putting on our shoes.  I'm so in love with it.  The blanket and "Live Simply" pillow is from Parris Chic Boutique.  The buffalo check pillow is from Amazon.

I also painted our front door a new color, started to turn a storage room into a craft room and office for myself and we finished the chicken coop!

 

Goal #10: Make Devotions & Bible Study Part of My Daily Life

Progress:  Like I said earlier,  my little man has changed nap schedules on me, but I think I'm finding a time that works again.  I know that I miss not spending time in the Word on days I don't fit it in.

 

I could easily get discouraged about the lack of progress in some areas, but that won't change the past.  All I can do is to take a deep breath, realize that at least some progress was made in almost goal on my list, and just keep trying.  I will never be able to simply check most of these goals off the list as "done."  They are goals about how I want to live, and hopefully, my life is far from done.

Disclaimer: The above post does contain referral and affiliate links which means if you use the link and decide to purchase an item, I receive a little money at no extra cost to you to help keep the blog going.  Thanks