How's it Going?

I was inspired to write this post by my friend Dana. She is reviewing her goals for the year each week and in a different way each month.

Now I didn't set goals, but I did talk about my theme for the year being simplifying, here on my blog. In that post I talked a bit about how I felt that theme might affect different parts of my life. I reckon it's time to play catch up and have a look at that list again.

• I believe I need to SIMPLIFY in terms of health.
  Hmmmm, this has not started well. I set up and began my 12 day gym membership and loved loved loved swimming, BUT got this stupid cold and missed out on the last 4 days of that memebership! I certainly haven't done any exercise walking since. Feeling a lot better today but getting back into the routine of it will be the hard part. Always is.
• I believe I need to SIMPLIFY in terms of my work.
  I sent one set of letters to all the schools in my town who had OCC assemblies off me and another set of letters to all the schools not in that list who are in the South part of town. From that I got one new booking. I have also applied for an admin job at my youngest son's school and am happy whichever way this goes. If I keep my existing job and I get break through then that is great and I WILL keep pushing and praying for that, but equally if it is time to walk away and into another job then I am fine with that too. God will do whichever is best and I will be OK.
• I believe I need to SIMPLIFY in terms of chores around the house.
  This WAS going really well, until I got ill. I need lists, I like lists, they work for me, breaking chores down into a long list of smaller steps might drive some people up the wall, but it really helps me to see that I am crossing things off, no matter how small! However, when I got this cold it all kind of fell apart a bit. The good thing though is that because i had been doing so well up until then it really doesn't look all that bad after just a week off. Feeling much better today and going to try and get back into it.
• Along with SIMPLIFYING the chores, I think I seriously need to de-clutter, SIMPLIFY what we have.
  Going really well. Last Saturday hubby took 15 carrier bags of books to the charity shop for me. WOW. And looking at the bookshelves now it is very hard to imagine how all those books fitted on there because they still look rather full! Will be coming back to each room at points throughout the year and am sure that things which have stayed this time will be going next time!
• I need to SIMPLIFY my spiritual life.
  Journaling has always been key for me and I don't know why i so often run away from it or just let it slip away. I have written over 80 pages in my journal since the beginning of the year and feel on so much more of an even keel spiritually through doing that. The only problem with writing so many pages of course is working out what on earth i will do with them all once they are written. I am trying to clear space on one of the bookshelves to be able to make it a shelf of previous journals. Only a handful on there now but if I keep writing at this rate it will grow fast.
• I need to maintain a SIMPLICITY to my trip to America.
  Well, I am still trying on this one and it seems to be working. I simply cannot see everyone and do everything, I hope people understand that. There are some people I really WANT to see who are just unable to travel and that makes me a little sad. Packing is simplified because the two friends who I am staying with have said not to worry about towels or toiletries, I can use what they have. I fly three weeks from today, I guess I ought to think about a packing list or something, but I do at least have a few things bought and both my main case and my new carry on case out, open and ready to pack.
  I picked up flight socks, one of those bead filled travel pillows (I HATE the inflatable ones even if they do take up less space), and some little goodies to take as gifts for my friends. Going to nip down to one of the local living history museums today to pick up some goodies for the daughters of the friends I am staying with.
• I can SIMPLIFY my online life and time.
  Not doing so well here. Often find myself sat in front of the computer for hours at a time, ooops! Am doing better at consistent blogging though, although the last week it has slipped off a bit because of not being well. Planning at least the subject of some of my blog posts, once a week has really helped too.
  
• Church fellowship?
  This makes me smile. A visiting speaker came at the weekend. He is a bit like a Father to our fellowship in many ways and really gave us a bit of a talking to, which was needed by the way. One of the things he said was that we need to stop spreading ourselves so thin and concentrate on fewer things. So he said "If you do A, B, C & D, then that's what matters and you really need to focus on those things and put all your energy into those things and do them well."

Did you write goals for the year? Or do you have a theme? How is that going?