Can you even believe that? We are pretty much halfway through this year. It has felt so much faster to me than 2016. Having a baby will do that to you, I guess. Also not having your entire year be a dumpster fire helps. Sometimes I look back at 2016, and though I have a lot of fun memories, I also sometimes wonder how we survived it. I love that though, because we made it through. I still sometimes walk through that year in my mind, remembering how crazy it was. How many weird things happened. How many mistakes we made. How many things crashed and burned and fell apart. It low key felt like some kind of omen for what my family could expect for ourselves, and I have been so so happy to find that isn’t the case.

2017 has been so good to us so far. We’ve had challenges and bumps, but they’ve been good ones – ones that didn’t threaten to bury us entirely. And I can say that every hard thing in 2017 has brought me closer to my family and closer to my Father in Heaven. That wasn’t always the case last year, but it’s much more effective now.

So how are you doing? You’re halfway through this year. It’s time to stop and look around. What have you accomplished? Where have you improved? What do you wish you could change? What would you have done differently?

It’s ok if you’re a little embarrassed by what you find. It’s ok if those resolutions or goals or ideas or words have been getting dusty on the shelf. You can still salvage 2017. You’ve got 6 months. A whole other half to this year. What do you want to do next? What do you want to make happen?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my word of 2017: Home. (And more resolutions here.)I’m not exactly sure what it’s supposed to look like, or what I want it to look like. It’s hard to know if I’m “doing” it. One thing I will say – I am getting wayyyyyyy more comfortable staying at home. I’m still a busybody and still out doing things a lot. But now I find myself searching for the days when I don’t have to do anything and can just dedicate the hours to staying home for an entire day.

I have found more joy in simple tasks around my home. I like when I have an entirely free afternoon to clean my kitchen. Which is WEIRD. I’ve been experimenting with different spaces in our home, spending more time in each one, dedicating different tasks and activities to different areas. I’ve been poring over interior design books and blogs, trying to determine what I like and what I hate, drafting out exactly what I want our future home to look like.

It hasn’t been quite as serene as I thought. I say no to more things, and speak up less to plan new activities, in an effort to stay home more. But it also feels like there’s enough mandatory or pleasant things to get out of the house for regularly, so the quiet life at home I pictured just really hasn’t been a reality. So that’s more of my goal moving forward.

My friend recommended a podcast to me, and I think it came at the exact right time in my life. I’m only 3 episodes in but it’s really what I’m needing right now. It’s called The Purposeful Home Podcast – run by two young moms with 4 young kids each. They talk about living life and motherhood on purpose. Effective living, mindfulness, God, and getting out of survival mode to enjoy life more. Their first episode was at the beginning of this year, and in episode two they address how to choose a word for your year, create a roadmap for what you want to do and how to tackle any task. It feels like New Years in June.

Two questions they ask that really help direct your focus are:

1. What do you want more of?
2. What do you want less of?

When I think about Home 2017 and what I’ve done so far, I’m really pretty pleased. I have turned my default to “no” instead of “let’s go!” That sounds so wet sandwich when I say it like that huh? But it really is good. I’ve spent much more conscious time here. I’ve come to love cooking and cleaning and organizing and resting. But I also have not curbed our eating out. My home is still pretty messy most of the time. I don’t feel I have a good “system” in place for cleaning/organizing/being home. I CRAVE the moments when I can just sit on the couch with my girls and a good book and a Diet Coke and like??? Why am I not doing that every day? THAT is what I want more of and it’s almost stupid how possible it is.

I hope you feel that way too. What you want is stupid possible. And you have half a year to get it. I encourage you to check out that podcast if you’re into podcasts, read Better than Before if you’re into reading, but at THE VERY LEAST I want you to do this:

Make a list of what you want more of in 2017 pt 2.

Make a list of what you want less of in 2017 pt 2.

Share it with family and friends, or don’t. But you go make that list. And you go take a long hard look at it. It doesn’t have to turn into S.M.A.R.T. goals. But I hope it does help you make more conscious choices about what you’re gonna do in this second half of 2017. Here’s mine:

MORE

• Chill time – Diet Coke on the couch with my girls and a book (NO PRESSING WORK)
• Outside time – we’ve been doing a lot, but it never fails to make me feel better than I was before
• Kid time – literally nothing makes me feel better than just “wasting time” with my girls
• Calm
• Girls Nights – they soothe my soul
• Cuddle
• Cooking
• Reading good books – I’ve read a lot of weird things this year and it’s had me in a bit of a slump. Right now I’m reading a book that is so good and inspiring and making me feel 100 emoji (One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly by Ashley Mae Hoiland – it’s worth a buy tbh) and I just want more of that.
• Knowing definitively what I like/want/need
• Compassion
• Painting my nails
• Gospel
• Clean spaces

LESS

• Racing – to do more, get more, be everywhere
• Clutter
• Forcing things to happen/work
• Worrying about other people
• Allowing opinions to control or scare me
• Compromise
• Anxiety
• Poking holes
• Work
• Conflict

In the next 6 months I am going to:

• Run a “Hot Mom” Challenge here on the blog
• Teach my first Gospel-centric planning class to RS/YW groups
• See Mamma Mia
• Start the first round of my online planning class
• Send Reese to preschool
• Vacation
• Turn 28
• Move into a brand new home
• Have a crawler
• Get back to pre-baby weight

It’s gonna be a reallllllll good 6 months, fam. I hope yours is real nice too.