I haven't done this before but I think it will be helpful if I do. Every year I try to write out my goals for the year and I usually start off the year doing pretty well and then July hits and I seem to have a cycle of relaxing on some of my goals. This year I'm doing a half way report to help myself continue strong as well as hold myself accountable in areas that I could be doing better in. With today being June 1st I figured it would be the perfect day to do it. Also I cannot believe that we are already halfway through the year. That seems nuts. We just barely started it! Anyway here's a link to my 2023 goals post but I'll also post the main thing again here.
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SPIRITUAL I found a really cool and simple app called Come Follow Me that has really helped me in this area. It gives me daily quotes, stories and a short two minute video to watch. They break down the weekly lesson into daily messages and it's been really cool to use. Since I serve in the nursery we don't use the Come Follow Me manual but now this way I'm still able to study what everyone else is studying and I'm able to do it in little chunks throughout the week which is great for my time and schedule. There's also a kid section on the app that also breaks the lesson down into days and it gives suggestions on how to teach and share the message with different age groups. I've been using it this year and I'm loving it because at night after we read scriptures I'm able to teach a two minute message to the kids and it's been very helpful for them because by the time Sunday comes around they know exactly what the teacher is teaching about for the week. It's been great for all of us. Basically this app is helping me with two areas in my spiritual goals. Because of it I'm able to get in some personal study and it's helped me immensely with including spiritual discussions with the kids throughout the week. As far as the Book of Mormon I was not consistent for the first three months or so. However, I have improved and found a groove and have made time for it these past couple of months. I'm only on 2nd Nephi Chapter 31 but I still do have the goal of finishing it by the end of the year.
SOCIAL I kind of made this goal on the simple side because I was nervous that I was going to fail in the spiritual and intellectual areas. The truth is that this ward is awesome. It might be my most favorite ward we've ever been a part of. The people here have become close friends and we get together all the time. We do playgroups, book clubs, volleyball and some times just desserts. So I do kind of feel like I was cheating a little bit. I will say though that saying yes is sometimes terrifying. Funny enough this morning a friend reached out and asked if I wanted to join her in a Zumba class tonight. She said she wanted to check it out but didn't want to go alone. I said yes. I'm a little nervous but also excited. It's only going to help me in my goals by saying yes, going, and getting a good sweat on. Even if I do look a little rusty from not doing it in almost four years.
INTELLECTUAL I added reading 15 books by the end of the year partly because of my new involvement with book club. A group of women in the ward tries to get together once a month and we do a book club. I figured because of this that would knock off at least 12 books and then I would be responsible for finding three more books to do on my own. I guess I kind of made this an easy goal as well but to be fair the last book I read was years ago. I haven't been much of a reader since becoming a mom. It turns out, reading isn't that bad. Danny is thrilled because he reads 35 books a year so he was just happy that I was finishing a book. As of today I have read ten books. Only three of those have been for the book club group. It turns out that we missed a month for book club and the other two months we just turned it into a girl's night so I guess I couldn't rely on it crossing off 12 books off my goals list. That actually makes me feel better about how well I'm doing in this area because even though I intended on piggy backing off of my friend's and their book recommendations I've actually gotten this far mostly on my own. Well that's not entirely true because Danny has become my biggest supporter in this area. He's constantly providing me with new books to try out and read, so really most of the thanks should go to him. He deserves the credit as much as I do.
I'm also doing well with practicing Portuguese. I started off the year by texting and calling Giovanna and only conversing in Portuguese but I wasn't very consistent with it. I then downloaded an app called Duolingo. It's a free language learning app and I'm currently on a 97 day streak of completing it. I have found this to be very helpful with relearning basic words and grammar that I have forgotten a lot of. I still try to talk to Giovanna in Portuguese though but this app helps me with the consistency of my goal.
PHYSICAL I have been a little discouraged in this area. I regularly exercise up to six times a week but I wasn't losing anything. I would love to lose ten pounds and that goal is still a very strong desire. Two weeks ago I messaged my good MTC mission friend Ariana and I told her that I was personally starting a ten week challenge. I told her I wanted to lose ten pounds in ten weeks. Which might be crazy because in five months I had lost zero. But by including an outside friend into this I would feel the pressure and she was going to hold me accountable as well. That was two weeks ago and I am down two pounds. So far I've been able to lose a pound a week which is incredible. Then just last night I got a call from my dad saying that he booked some flights to fly out here and be with the kids forcing Danny and I to take a kid free vacation. We have never done that before and he knew that was long overdue. It's a little gift for our ten year anniversary which is so generous and great of him. I was looking at my calendar this morning to make sure I had the date down and it turns out that the day they fly in is the final day of my ten week challenge. Who would have thought? Anyway now I'm even more extra motivated to reach my goal. I really hope I can see this one through.
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