First Quarter of 2022 Check-In & Reflection

With the arrival of spring I am feeling my lighter and happier. As the days get longer and the sun shines more often, my spirts are lighter and happier and I hope yours are too.  Thanks for stopping in.

Welcome to the first Monday of May. First Monday of the month I always try to do a post that's related to my current life so you can get a glimpse into my family and day to day happenings.  The other Mondays are usually fashion focused posts.  

I am trying to sit with my goals quarterly to check in.  One of the reasons I am choosing to do it this way is not only to keep myself accountable to them but rather to reassess if the goals that I had set out are actually what I still want to invest time and energy into, asking myself, "Do these goals still serve me?"  Let's dive in!  

 

                                                     OPPORTUNITY

I needed this word when 2022 began and yet another trip was cancelled.  This word has come in handy so far and I have looked at various opportunities that life is providing.  Some opportunities that I have valued have been:

• First trip to the mountains was incredible!  Read all about it here and here.  I love a good hot holiday but I could see us doing thing more often.
• With the virus changing and all of us being boosted we took a chance and have a trip book to Italy for the end of June!

At the moment, I am not using the word as much in my day to day life because I feel like I am in a good place.  We will see if it shows up in other places as the year progresses.

1.  Relationship with my girls.  8/10 

Our trip to the mountains was great for reconnecting and doing something as a family that we all love.  I also enjoyed spending some time with Anya during her dance completions this year!  Being able to watch her with her peers and onstage was much missed, more so than I thought.  It was a really nice way to encourage her and tell her how proud I was of her.  In the same way, Halie is riding more often and I am usually the one that picks her up afterwards, and she is always in  a good mood and chats about school, friends, upcoming events, anything and everything.  I am really trying to tune into the small moments with the girls.  

Also, we have revisited NO CELL phones at the dinner table and that's going well.

2.  Read and write more.  7/10 

I've discovered that I DO NOT like non-fiction books as audio books.  I need to be able to sticky note or highlight.  However I've discovered I do enjoy listening to light reads while getting ready in the morning, meal prepping or driving.  I've also been reading a steady amount, but still have several non-fiction books to dive into on my nightstand.  I plan to do a book review post the first Monday of June, so June 6th.  As for journaling, I haven't done any at all, but I have gotten into a really steady blog groove so that's a win.

Just finished Four Winds by Kristin Hannah and it's a MUST read.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3.  Photography.  8/10

This is going pretty well.  As a side business and learning opportunity I am really exited to say that I've moved forward in a number of small ways.  I've had the opportunity to do two newborn baby shoots, get a in home studio set up (see Anya's dance photos above), had Easter mini-sessions and a couple of teen dance sessions.  Now that the weather is improving I am looking forward to getting outdoors for family and a couple of grad photoshoots.  Also, I have a new IG page for must my photography so please follow along!

4.  Fitness!  8/10 

I wasn't sure what I should rate myself as on this.  I am actually doing really well on the self-care and wellness front.  I have continued to use dry needling and stretching consistently and it seems to be helping my back, glutes and hip problems that were causing chronic discomfort and pain.  I am running and spinning 4x/week, along with some strength training once a week, and enjoying walks with my husbands and pup.  So I actually feel really good and balanced.  What I am not moving towards is doing a mini-triathlon.  I haven't returned to lane swimming and honestly it just doesn't seem to fit my current schedule, so I think I might be legging it go.  Sometimes we just need to reassess if something that's still important and I don't think it is for me.

5. Finances.   0/10

Not that I am not doing well, but I actually haven't done, reflected or changed anything in this area at all.  So I am giving myself a 0 because it's absolutely in the same place as I was at the beginning of the year.  I do think my husband and I need to sit down and see what our monthly spending looks like to get a good picture of how inflation all around is impacting our budgets, but we haven't.  So maybe next quarter.  LOL.

YOUR TURN!  How are you getting on with your word of the year or the goals you set out for yourself at the beginning of 2022?