• Book Reviews,  Goals

    March 2021 Goals

    Hi friends! It’s a little late for March goals but I figured it’s better late than never right? 🤣 Let’s first recap February’s goals first though.


    February Goals Recap:

    • read two books I think I’m going to start adding in small recaps of books I’ve read to these posts.
    • find a better schedule for working on Etsy This has been life-changing!!
    • edit/organize a month of photos
    • plan our weeks
    • stick to social media boundaries Another thing that has been life-changing! I can stay so much more focused on things I want to get done throughout the day because I’m not distracted by social media.
    • blog once a week
    • work on new products for Etsy

    Books I’ve Read:

    A little check in from my 2021 book list for the year: So far the list has been really helpful when it comes to making sure I have books in the house that I want to read. It also has helped with realizing that I needed to prioritize room in our budget for books or time at the library to get the books. It has given me some motivation to choose to read too because I don’t want to fall too far behind with the list.

    So if you remember, I planned to read a fiction and a non-fiction book each month and what I am realizing is that one non-fiction book a month might be too much. When I do choose to sit down to read I’m wanting to sort of checkout and enjoy a story. I do really like reading for learning purposes as well though, I’m just realizing with the amount of time I have (with is not very much because of small children LOL) I will choose fiction more than non-fiction.

    Okay now onto the reviews. (I’ve included January’s books as well.)

    • The Tattooist of Auschwitz: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      This book was very eye opening and heartbreaking. It is an amazing love story amidst the heartbreaking reality of what went on during the Holocaust. I would recommend this one for sure.
    • The Last Anniversary: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      I looove Liane Moriarty. This book was a really great one but I felt it was a little lacking in the ending. I guess I just like to have the ending of books neatly tied up with a bow and this one didn’t quite do that for me. But all in all it was still a very good read if you like chick-lit.
    • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      I very much enjoyed this book and thought it was a great start to the conversation of facing racism. I would love to read more books to learn even more of what I can do to fight racism.
    • The Ickabog: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      This was a really cute book. I haven’t read anything by J.K. Rowling since I’ve finished the Harry Potter series so it was really fun to dive back into her writing. I definitely enjoyed this one and am glad she released it.
    • One by One: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      This is my third Ruth Ware book and I really enjoyed all of them including this one. I stayed up until 2 am one night because I just had to know how it ended. I looked up reviews after I finished it and was pretty shocked to see there were quite a few people who didn’t enjoy this one that much. I thought it was very suspenseful and would recommend it if you enjoy suspense novels.

    You can review my 2021 book list here if you’re interested.

    March Goals:

    • Read two books
    • Blog once a week
    • Plan our weeks
    • Stick to our new schedule
    • Create a cleaning schedule
    • Work on new Etsy shop
    • Edit one month of photos

    I’m excited to keep working on these goals and keep trying on the ones that haven’t quite happened yet.

    Affiliate links are used in this post.

  • Shane

    Shane’s 3rd Birthday

    I cannot believe we have a three year old!! Time just flies by way too fast for me. I seriously wish I could slow it down. It breaks my heart most days lol. But on the other side of it, it is so much fun to watch our babies grow and learn and experience new things.

    Today I wanted to recap Shane’s third birthday since I have written a post for both his first (here) and second (here)!

    We started the day (like last year) with donuts! Shane loves all things sweet so he was very excited as you can see ha!

    Next we did presents, which one of them was a sort of tease for an activity we were planning on doing later in the day: a trampoline!

    He also got that Gigantosaurus toy, a Paw Patrol gift, and a Spiderman book as well. We decided to put a little more money into the gifts this year because we didn’t do a bigger party with him because of the pandemic. Next year were hoping to go all out to celebrate!

    We also made cake together, which Shane just loved. He loves cake and he also loves to bake so his little heart was very happy!

    my sweet boy ❤️

    He took his usual afternoon nap and I got to snap this adorable picture of him before we woke him up to go to….

    a “trampoline house” as he was calling it all day. 🤣

    We decided this year that we are going to try to do a new experience with him on his birthday each year. Last year we went to the movies with him for the first time so this year we followed the theme and brought him to a trampoline park.

    It was a lot of fun! And Riley was with us too of course!

    Just napping away… 😍

    Later we came home and ate chicken soup (Shane’s favorite), sang Happy Birthday, and enjoyed some yummy birthday cake!

    It was a really special day celebrating our sweet boy! I can’t believe he’s three!!

  • Goals

    February Goals

    Hi friends! Today I wanted to share my February goals and review how January went. Let’s jump right in, shall we?


    January Goals Review:

    • blog once a week I’m struggling to find time to blog. I need to get into more of a routine of when to write.
    • read two books I actually managed to read 3! Staying off of social media really helped with this goal!
    • take the month off of social media This was a much needed break and it was a really good reset.
    • continue planning our weeks, including dinners We did this a bit but I want to be better in February.
    • continue using our budget worksheet to plan our finances Shared about that here. I still need to do an update to January’s.
    • celebrate Shane’s 3rd birthday! We went to a trampoline park and it was really fun!
    • celebrate my birthday!
    • celebrate Tommy’s birthday!
    • edit/organize one month of photos
    • work out 2-3 times this month (starting small!)
    • spend more one on one time with Shane and Riley I still want to be more intentional about this!

    All in all I am happy with the progress I made in January. I’m also really happy to be tracking goals based off of my goals for the year so that I can adjust them each month to make them realistic.

    February Goals

    • read two books
    • find a better schedule for working on Etsy
    • edit/organize a month of photos
    • plan our weeks
    • stick to social media boundaries
    • blog once a week
    • work on new products for Etsy

    What I’ve realized recently is that when Etsy isn’t in a healthy schedule then the rest of our life feels out of control. The stress of feeling like Etsy always needs to be done causes me not to feel motivated to work on anything else even when I have the time. So the main goal is to get on top of Etsy work so that I can focus on other goals.


    What’s something you’re hoping to accomplish this month?

  • Goals

    January Goals

    As I shared in my 2021 goals post, I want to set more general goals this year and each month adjust the specifics. So if my general goal is to read more for the year, then in January I can set an amount of books I want to read. And then if I realize at the end of January that it was an unrealistic goal, I can change the number for February. I think this will keep me motivated to not give up my goals after just a few short weeks of trying.

    So today I want to set some specific goals for January. 🙂

    My January Goals:

    • blog once a week
    • read two books
    • take the month off of social media
    • continue planning our weeks, including dinners
    • continue using our budget worksheet to plan our finances
    • celebrate Shane’s 3rd birthday!
    • celebrate my birthday!
    • celebrate Tommy’s birthday!
    • edit/organize one month of photos
    • work out 2-3 times this month (starting small!)
    • spend more one on one time with Shane and Riley

    Okay, sounds like a lot but I feel that these are actually realistic for this month! We have a lot of birthdays to celebrate as 3/4 of our birthdays are in January 🤣.

    Also, I have a new series coming to the blog this month! I’m super excited to start sharing our budgets at the beginning of each month and then checking in at the end to see how we did. I was planning on sharing our January budget this week but because of current events (😩) haven’t gotten around to it, so I will be sharing that next week instead! Super excited!

    What are your goals for January?!

  • Life

    2021 Goals

    This year I wanted to keep my goals much more broad than I would normally make them. Then each month I am going to check in with them and see how I can best meet each goal that month.

    For example, with blogging I am going to start out with my goal of blogging at least once a week and then if I meet that goal in January, then I can increase it in February if I feel that makes sense. Or if in January I had a hard time meeting that goal, then in February, I can change it to blogging twice a month instead (or whatever I feel is a goal I can meet).

    I think this will be an important change to how I make goals because I think it will be more sustainable. What normally happens when I don’t meet a goal is I will give up. I want to be actively working towards a more intentional life, not caring exactly the number of times I do or don’t do a certain thing. So here are my goals I want to focus on this year:

    2021 Goals

    • Blog More
    • Read More
    • Organize Photos
    • Keep Track of Finances
    • Save for Vacation
    • Enjoy My Babies
    • Work Out More
    • Plan Our Weeks
    • Set Better Boundaries with Social Media

    Later in the week I’m going to share how I’m going to be focusing on these things in January with my January goals. I’d love to hear what your goals are for this year, if you made any!

  • Life

    Books to Read in 2021

    As I’ve been reflecting back on 2020 one thing that I’ve realized is that I haven’t read as much as I was hoping that I would. I also realized that a lot of the reason I’m not reading is because of lack of planning.

    So I decided to create myself a reading list and at least read the two books that I’ve listed here for each month. I think this will help me read more because I can plan and get the books in advance (whether that be buying used, borrowing from the library, or just purchasing it on my Kindle).

    Once I have the books, I’m more likely to choose to read over picking up my phone or watching TV. So here are the 24 books I’m going to try to focus on this year. Have you read any? Are there any books that I’m missing that I should read this year? I’d love to hear from you!

    January

    • The Tattooist of Auschwitz
    • 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

    February

    • Dear Edward
    • The Fringe Hours

    March

    • The Mother In Law
    • The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

    April

    • American Dirt
    • How to Raise a Wild Child

    May

    • The Flatshare
    • The Pumpkin Plan

    June

    • Sunset Beach
    • All Joy and No Fun

    July

    • Summer of 69
    • The Gospel Comes With a House Key

    August

    • The Southern Side of Paradise
    • The Celebration of Discipline

    September

    • The Things We Cannot Say
    • Grace Based Parenting

    October

    • The Great Alone
    • The Seasons of God

    November

    • Seven Days of Us
    • The Tech-Wise Family

    December

    • One Day In December
    • In His Image

    I’m super excited to read more this year! Tomorrow I’m going to be sharing my goals for the year, this is just one little part of it. 🙂