Kitchen Floor Crafts: Monthly Goals: March 2015

Wow, February just flew by! Hard to even know where the month went. It definitely snuck up on me that the month was over and I was still working away on my February goals. But here we are, a few days into March.

Looking Back

January Goals: Declutter and Reorganize
These have become year long goals. Each week I'm constantly looking around at how I might remove more clutter from our daily lives. Slowly but surely I'm chipping away at getting extra things out of the house or back into their actual places. And the more I declutter, the easier it's getting to let things go.

February Goals: Pause and Prioritize
1. I tried a new decluttering strategy with a "bag a week," although it didn't amount to that much each week. Keeping a constant bag ready to fill did help however and I'll be keeping one near the basement stairs from here forwards as a steady reminder to keep decluttering.
2. A "To-Do" list for my transitions home are still evolving, but it was helping me prioritize each day. to at least get a few things written down. I also changed how I write my lesson plans each week which made the priorities more clear.
3. My "pause" moments were the best parts of my month. I tried each day to find a time, even if it was truly just a moment, to just take in what was happening and enjoy it. When a camera is nearby I've started trying to capture the moments. You can see them on Instagram. (And when a camera is not nearby, I don't run and grab one as that would ruin the effect of the moment too.)
4. Prioritizing was definitely a goal that was maybe a little too vague and a little too big for one month, still thinking this one through . . .

Looking Ahead

My March Goal: Connect

This is the time of year where winter really starts to drag on. The snow has piled up, the temperatures are still cold and the novelty of winter fun has completely worn off. It's at this time of year, that I feel like getting out of the house, but with lack of options we usually hole up even more than usual. It was this in mind I felt inspired to create goals around the word "connect" this month.

With how quickly February went, I'm also limiting my goals to just a few this month.

Home/Personal
1. Use "pause" moments each day to connect with my kiddos on their own. As any mom of more than one knows, sometimes it can be so hard to find individual moments with each child during the day. My pause moments are reminding me that sometimes that connection can just be a few moments, but if it's something at their interest level in can mean the world to them. My hope is to try and have a moment a day with each individual kiddo, either with an activity of their choice or an activity that matches their personality style and interests.

2. Connect with my husband. Between busy home, work, kiddo, daycare, and daily schedules it's hard to find times where we can connect. This month my goal is to find some simple ways for us to reconnect, and maybe even get out of the house for a real date!

School/Work
3. Look for ways to build re-world connections into my students' learning experiences, starting with math and reading this quarter.

Blogging
4. One of the best surprises to blogging in the last two years has been the social connections you can make with other bloggers. One of my goals for this month is to grow my blogging social connections by taking part in more link-ups, blogging challenges, and social sharing.

Other
5. Connect to current events. I have slipped woefully out of touch with current world and local news and events. My goal is to find some easy strategy to each day learn a little bit about what is happening in the world outside our daily routine bubble.

In what ways do you connect with your family each day? How do you find time to connect with partners, children, people in your community? I'd love to hear your ideas below.