Monthly Goals: April 2015

It's been a busy week, so my monthly goals are being posted a little later this month. We spent the weekend with family and enjoying some quiet time at home.  But after the busyness of the past week, it gave me some time to think through where my goals have taken me, and where I want to focus this month.

April Goals: Look for Growth and Progress

This is usually the time of year where I love seeing new growth, green grass, and the beginnings of flowers. Unfortunately winter is still not really over for us, and as the cold and snow drag on we're finding ways to create our own spring. Tulips have always been one of my favorite signs of spring, and while they are still a little way from growing in the yard, we can at least enjoy them inside.

They are also one of my favorite symbols for the idea of growth and progress of spring, two things I want to focus on this month.

Looking Back

January Goals: Declutter and Reorganize
These goals have become something that is a continuous project. I'm finding myself being more thoughtful not just about cleaning and decluttering, but also purchasing and collecting on a regular basis.

February Goals: Pause and Prioritize
While prioritizing is still hard, I am finding myself to continue to do well with my pause moments. I love looking for that one moment in my day to catch myself and pause. I still capture them when my phone is near, but I also leave the moment be if the phone is out of reach. You can see the ones I do capture on Instagram.

March: Connect
I'm still working through slowing down are busy days to connect individually with both kiddos and my husband, but by keeping it in my mind I am finding more moments.

At school I built real world connections by integrating a little more technology and finding connections for uses of math in the real world.

In the blogging world I worked more on sharing posts and linking up with other bloggers. A few of the places I link up can be found on our "Linky Love" page.

I also had a few opportunities this month to connect with others, including a girls' weekend with college friends. Sometimes we get so busy with our family routines we forget how important those moments are too. For me, time reconnecting with friends grounds me and I realized how although time away is hard from the kids it's worth it when it means doing something good for my own mental and emotional health.

My April Goals: Look for Growth and Progress

It may be the long wait for spring, or maybe just the time of year, but I've found myself the past few weeks thinking more about where things have not made enough progress, instead of where we've made growth. 

Just like we've been working to create our own spring moments, there are times when we need to purposefully create moments  to remind ourselves of the progress that has been made. This month I want to take more time to do just that.  

1. Personal/Home

Spend time celebrating all the work we've done both this year, and over the years, creating our home, instead of thinking and looking at all that we haven't gotten done yet. Take time to work on parts of our home that are easily manageable and quickly fixed, but can make a big difference. 

2. Kids

Although I'm constantly capturing photos and quick comments on facebook, sometimes I wonder if I'm doing enough to capture the kids' milestones and daily growth. I'm definitely going to be rethinking how to capture a few more things for memory sake. 

3. Blog

Be proud of what I am accomplishing and stop comparing myself to larger, bigger bloggers. Continue sharing posts, and feel proud of the work. 

4. School/Work

This has been one of the biggest traps for thinking about all the places where I have not done as much as I wanted to this year, but really it's one of the biggest places to celebrate. My team and I took on a whole new challenge of melding 3 grades together this year, and despite some bumps and dings, we've made some really great things happen. We just need to focus on those a little more now. 

How do you measure growth and celebrate progress? Do you journal? Keep a calendar? Plan specific moments to recognize it? I'd love to hear your ideas. 

And don't forget to check out these other bloggers and their monthly goals.

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This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties.