Intentional Summer: Grow

Well, well!  Long time no post. 😄  I can't believe I haven't written anything here since September!  It's so hard to find uninterrupted time at the computer..."uninterrupted" being the KEY word, of course!

Today is June 1st, and as I've been making some goals and plans for the summer, I thought it would be good to write about them here as a form of accountability and also so I could go back and remind myself of them.

To be honest, I've been feeling pretty scattered over the past few months as we navigate Covid-19 (oh how I hate that word!!!) stay-home orders and a feeling of uncertainty in our world.  My hope is in Jesus, but that doesn't mean that upheaval doesn't affect us or cause us some anxious moments...though I do believe He has a good plan for us through it all!  Now that we've finally reached the summer months and life is starting to feel a bit more normal, I realized it was time to begin again to focus on building good habits and getting into some better routines.  A podcast I listened to on Saturday confirmed this to me and gave me the idea of focusing on being intentional with my time this summer...so, here we go!

This morning in the shower I was thinking about my word of the year, and...would you believe it...I have NO idea what my word of the year even is/was.  I know I had picked one!  A good one!  But it completely escapes my brain at the moment.  I might be able to figure it out from some journaling back in January, or if my mom remembers...hi, Mom?  I think we talked about it?!  That just shows you how much I've NOT been thinking about goals or words of the year over the past few months, ha!  Anyhow.  The shower is a good place for thinking, and even though I couldn't remember my word of the year, I decided that for the summer I would focus on the word "GROW" and use it as an acrostic.  All of these are areas I desire growth in:

God
Relationships
Organization
Work

For the "God" area...this includes my daily quiet time: Bible reading and prayer, and some journaling.  Also hopefully reading a few books to help with my spiritual growth.  More on what I'm hoping to read, later.  For Bible reading I am once again following along with the Same Page Summer and reading through the New Testament.

Relationships includes my family and friends...I really want to enjoy my kids, spend time with my parents, carve out moments with just Jim, invite friends over for playdates and visits and meals, write notes and send texts to encourage others, etc.  Basically just investing in people, the best I can...I've been thinking about how much I want to be a better encourager, and I hope to do that over the next few months.

Organization is a constant struggle for me...and while I don't expect to get my entire life organized in three months, my goal is to tackle some particular areas of my life/home and try to get a handle on them.  One is meal planning.  I go through phases of doing so well with that, and other times I'm totally flying by the seat of my pants!  Meal prep goes so much smoother when I have a plan, so that's one area to organize.  I'd also like to organize all of my kitchen cabinets so they're more functional, and bedroom drawers and closets could use a good sort-out too.

Work...I think overall this is going to be more of a "working" summer and less of a "playing" summer, though I certainly hope to find periods of rest every week.  Jim is quite busy with carpentry, the kids and I planted a garden and more flowers,  we hope to make great strides on our house addition, we'll be helping my parents as we have time, fixing up the cottage next door, plus there is the daily work of the home, and my own need for physical working-out!  So, lots of work...but all good things!

Now...wouldn't it be funny if my word of the year was "grow?!" 😄