I Think I'll Try This Goal Setting Stuff

I'm going to set a few goals for myself. There are tons of awesome books and internet articles on the topic. There are so many approaches to goal setting that sometimes finding the best fit can be overwhelming. But for this attempt I'm going to use Evernote to help remind me of my goals. According to Evernote Scott in his terrific Youtube video, looking at your goals every day helps improve your success rate. 

Scott's approach is very thorough and maybe just a tad bit too involved, so I culled several of his ideas that I think will be helpful to me right now. (I have finally gotten to a place in life where I feel free to take what I need from a resource without following every single suggestion.) The Daily Morning Ritual page is a must have. This check-list type page is a great step-by-step guide for the morning. I hope that the items on the list become habits so that I can someday remove the page. I liked that page so much I made an Daily Afternoon Ritual page for when I get home from work.  I kept the Journal page and the Vision Board page (although there isn't much there yet). His pages titled My Why's and My Motto are similar to a page I have called My Mission Statement and Core Values. I turned Daily Reminders into Weekly Goals. I added a Prayer page and a Quarterly Goal page. 

While I'm not going to share my specific goals here, I am going to say that I've broken my goals down into 5 main categories - spiritual, family, physical health, home, personal and social. These are areas that I've previously identified as important to me. I have a total of 10 goals for the next week. When it comes to writing goals I don't get super formal about the structure. I can easily spend so much time concocting goals following a specific formula that I don't have time to work on the actions required to achieve them. I'll check in next Monday and give an update on my success. 

Snapshot Sunday

This post shows a little slice of my day as seen through snapshots.

First up is a building under construction at my church. There is so much hope in this building. It will be used mostly for children and youth. I can't wait until May, when it's slated to be complete.

Next up are flowers from my daughter's wedding that were hung to dry back in November. There are a sweet reminder of that special day.

Bradford pear tree in the neighborhood are on the cusp of bursting out in blooms.

Here's one that got a head start.

There's beauty in the simple things.

Slow Saturday Choices

I love Saturdays that have minimal to no time slots committed. Today is such a day. It's like a freebie. I don't HAVE to do anything. Sure I have a To-Do list a mile long, but that's all weekday stuff (wink, wink). Today will be for sewing and Pinterest. The only question is...What to sew? Well, there is plenty to choose from in my plethora o'projects storage unit.

Let's see, there's a block of the month from 2011. It's a Marti Michell quilt in blue and yellow called Romance Continues.

I could also select this sweetie - Summer in the Park. It was begun a few years back when I was leading a scrap club at the quilt shop where I worked. The pattern is from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

That's no really grabbing me. What else is there to choose from? Cathedral Stars from a Bonnie Hunter workshop. I love this quilt. It's so bright and colorful. And has sooo many pieces. Ugh. No. Not today.

This one would be easy. It's almost done. I just need to sew the blocks together and add a border or two. It's a blue and white Disappearing Four-Patch. Another project from the scrap club. 

I could go on and on. But I think it's pretty clear that I've got more than enough choices. In fact, according to my Evernote notebook I have over 50 projects, in various stages, from which to make a selection. Sheesh! I think I'll just close my eyes and pick. As long as I move something along today I'll be a happy camper. 

Reading is Fun!

I had forgotten how much fun reading can be. So why did I stop? I suppose because it's slow. I'm a very impatient person. Why read an entire book (which takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for me) when I can read a bunch of blog posts or catch up on Facebook? That's been my philosophy for the last decade for so.

For some crazy reason, I made it a priority to read a book a month this year. This seemed "doable." I didn't want to overwhelm myself by setting too lofty a goal. It kind of sounds wimpy now that I see it written out like that. Oh well, I'm not going to judge myself too harshly on this. It's more than I was previously reading. Now that I've set my mind to reading it seems I'm never lacking books to peruse. That's just it - I have the opposite problem. I can't determine which book I want to read next. Instead of only reading an occasional book, now I want to read all..the..time, to the exclusion of sewing, cleaning, coloring, watching TV and just about anything else.
 

My current obsession is Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay. It's an engaging book about a young woman named Samantha Moore who suffered greatly as a child and turned to books to cope with her life. She uses the characters in the books she's read to help her process and articulate life, especially relationships. As an adult, she's discovering that she needs to find her own voice. All of this takes place as she sends letters to a generous benefactor in her life. It's clever, funny and touching. I'm totally engrossed in Samantha's life. I want her to succeed in her career, her friendships and in love. In my mind, this is how a good book works. A good book transports you out of your world and into the life of someone else. Since I'm in the middle of the book, I don't yet know how it ends. Dang!

I really must get some things done around the house. I think a terrific reward would be to finish reading Dear Mr. Knightly. Suddenly I'm motivated.

I think I see a trip to the library in my future.

A Page from My Coloring Book

I received a couple of coloring books as Christmas gifts. I have really enjoyed playing with my colored pencils and filling in the flowers of this page. I was actually rather engrossed in this project the day after Christmas. I was going to "undecorate", but when I woke up with a killer headache I just wanted to relax. So I was thankful when I found this delightful and time-consuming distraction. By time-consuming I mean hours. It took me probably 4-5 hours spread over 2 days to complete this page, but I love it. 

This page is from the book

Today is going to be a Great Day!

I may have a hard time getting back to my sewing machine. But then again, maybe not. I'm going to a quilting retreat this weekend. Yay!

Starting the Year with James

I'm thankful for the opportunity to study the
book of James with this book as my guide...

Our small group at church is going to be studying James. I just happen to have this book I got received last Christmas on the book of James, Growing in Wisdom & Faith, by one of my favorite bible study authors, Elizabeth George. She has a great way of breaking the passages down into bite size chunks and then posing thoughtful questions to help you see what the writer of the passage is trying to say. I need help in this department, because it's not always clear to me. By studying before our group meetings, I hope to be a better participant. Gotta go...it's time to study.

The Names of God

I'm going through a study created by Loving God Greatly about the names of God. I've always wanted to do a study like this. Just to focus on God, his character, his names and to really get to know Him better. This study came up as part of my church's womens ministry opportunities. It started before Thanksgiving and goes through Christmas. Perfect timing, right?

So far I have learned about Jehovah Jireh (the Lord who provides), Jehovah Rohi (the Lord is my Sheperd) and this week we're learning about Wonderful Counselor. I've been saturated in the bible daily. Meditating over these verses and trying to find obersvations, applications and finally prayers using the selected verses. In this process I'm being reminded so much about things I already knew about God. It is helping draw my mind to him more often. I've discovered that the things I so wanted to know, I already new. But now I'm seeing them in new ways. Isn't that how God works?

In the last few days I've had a song by Amy Grant running through my head. It's and oldie, for sure. The name of the song is Emmanuel. It's from one of her earlier records. What a great reminder of the names of God. I know we'll be talking about Emmanuel in an upcoming week. But this song is running through my brain now.

Last night at our small group bible study, we were discussing prayer. We defined prayer as communion with God. Once someone said that as the definition, no one else really wanted to say anything, because that summed up what everyone was thinking. Different words could be used instead of communion like talking, communication, or fellowship. But ultimately it is time with God. Where I was moved to think differenly after this discussion was in the area of adoring God as part of my prayer time. This isn't something I do nearly enough. I tend to have the Santa approach to prayer and focus on how he can meet my material and spiritual needs. I need to make a point to choose to focus on him. So this is my goal moving forward. To not allow myself or Satan to distract me from worshipping and praising and focusing on God in my prayer times.