Happy 4th of July!! (and a goals update . . . )

First of all, Happy Fourth to my bloggy friends and family! I hope you all have a lovely weekend filled with parades, fireworks, picnics, or whatever . . . but most of all, appreciation for our great nation and the freedom we enjoy. May we never take it for granted! We will be celebrating up north with our own church family as well as the "sister" church there which is currently sharing their pastor with us. Looking forward to a fun day!

Now that June is behind us, and July stretching out ahead, I wanted to update a bit on how my goals for the year are going. I'm not even sure I can remember exactly all the goals I set without going back and looking at my blog post from January . . . but here goes. :)

• Spiritual: I still have my ups and downs with a daily quiet time and prayer. I usually do fine as long as I make sure to get up at least 30 minutes before the kiddos . . . the problem is, I never know when they are going to wake up. :) Over the past couple months I have been reading through the book Calm My Anxious Heart, by Linda Dillow, along with Bible reading. I really loved this book and highly recommend it for anyone who may be struggling with worry, discontentment, or discouragement. It's a book I'll definitely go back through over and over again.
• Physical: I have to admit to being a little discouraged in this area. I'm still working out on a pretty regular basis, but am not seeing much weight loss. Jim tells me I need to work on eating less. :) I'm sure he is right! I'm currently doing about 45-50 minutes a day on the elliptical, which equals about 2.5-2.7 miles on my machine. My goal is to work out 5 days a week, but lately I've been averaging about 3 because of a busy schedule. Gotta work on that!
• Mental: I'm happy to say that I've been keeping up with reading on a pretty regular basis. As I mentioned, last month I read Calm My Anxious Heart, and I also read a mystery: Airs Above the Ground, by Mary Stewart, which I enjoyed very much. This month I plan to read Desiring God, by John Piper (really looking forward to this one--I got it free from a blogger review program) and probably a fiction book as well--either another mystery or another review book from BookSneeze.
• Financial: I've totally flunked this goal for most of the year, but we're making a lot more progress in the saving/managing department now that Jim has a regular income. We're still not sticking to a written budget, something that is definitely a future goal, but I definitely see some improvement. Even a little bit helps. :)
• Relational: As I've mentioned in another post, having a church closer to home has provided more opportunities for fellowship, and we are thankful. We have also been able to have friends over quite often, either for dinner, or just a fun moms/kids gathering. I'm thankful for the more relaxed schedule that comes with summer, giving us more time for spur-of-the-moment hospitality and visits.
• Domestic: I still feel like I have so far to go in this area; I really need to work on some good routines. Every time I get something deep-cleaned it feels so good, but I hesitate to set very specific goals in this area because I always end up falling far short! And it seems like every time we get a room under good control and thoroughly cleaned (esp. the kids' room), it gets turned upside down within a few days and we're right back where we started. However, I have to remind myself that cleaning isn't the only domestic thing I do! Spending a day out of the house on Friday picking strawberries, which were then made into jam all day Saturday . . . that's domestic too. Making bread twice a week and taking care of the garden are part of my homemaking. As are keeping the children clean, clothed, happy, and healthy. So while some things (lots of things) don't get done, there are other things that do get done. But I just don't get it ALL done. I guess no one does. :)

So there you have it--a little update on my goals. How are the rest of you doing with your own goals, now that we are halfway through 2011?