The joy, hope, and excitement that the Cultivate What Matters products have brought me is hard for me to explain in words but I’m going to try really hard to bring you guys in on the loop.

In this post, I explained to you guys my change of heart and attitude, how I had a new perspective on life and how to live it — largely thanks to an opportunity I had to shoot some Cultivate What Matters products. I’ve been trying to seize every opportunity that’s presented to me because I feel that God has presented them to me for a specific reason. I had several reasons why my instinct was to say no to doing the Cultivate What Matters shoot — I’d been saving up my PTO at work for a vacation I was dreaming up, I didn’t want to drive to the Triangle (although, this didn’t make sense because I love going to the Triangle), etc, etc. In short, I was making up a list of insignificant reasons as to why I shouldn’t do it and so I took the jump and said YES! After all, it would be fun, right?

picture from Cultivate What Matters | Photo by: Gina Zeidler

I came out of the shoot with new friends, two colorful Write the Word journals, and really great memories. And then I went home and opened up my Write the Word journal and was delighted by the simplicity, the beauty (that gold foil, my heart sings with things like this), and the ease at which I was excited to jump into the Word. I could feel a tug in my heart, this journal was going to change my life.

The new summer collection Write the Word Journal: Cultivate Forgiveness

I wish I was being dramatic but truly, I had been struggling to jump into the Word, life was great and honestly, when life is amazing it seems like I drift from God. Truthfully, because I convince myself that I don’t need Him. That is so far from the truth, and I didn’t realize how thirsty I had been for the Word until I dove into the Write the Word Journals.  

picture from Cultivate What Matters | Photo by: Gina Zeidler

Write the Word was just the beginning.

I dove into Lara’s “Make It Happen” astonished by the trials and tribulations she endured in her life and inspired by how she knelt at the foot of the cross each time. She encouraged me to let go of perfection, to pursue progress, to live a life that is intentional, one that glorifies the Lord’s will in my life. And then I dove into the Powersheets, the prep work was brutal, it was the definition of testing my patience and delaying my gratification for that perfectly laid out Tending List. But, it was so worth it. I found desires in my heart I hadn’t know were there, I received clarity on my dreams, I was made aware of pain I didn’t know existed. It was so hard but so good. I started the Powersheets and had an amazing intentional month.

And so, I’m hooked. I’m ready to tackle May, it’s a BIG month for us. But I’m excited to be intentional about how I pursue my goals – to cultivate what matters.

May Goals 

I spent a few intentional hours going through my goals and coming up with my Tending list for May, here it is —

MONTHLY GOALS

• Run half marathon – this has been on my list for quite a while, at this point my goal is to just finish it, prayers are appreciated haha!!
• Read two books (development + finance) – I want to be well informed on how to use our money wisely and I am always looking for ways to improve my character so if you have book recommendations that fill these needs, please send them my way! 
• Letter of recommendation – I am getting ready to transition out of my current job and will need a letter of recommendation for my next season of job searching 
• Book anniversary shoot – I can hardly believe it but our one year anniversary is coming up, I want to start family yearbooks inspired by Nancy Ray  – and so I’ve decided to capture the memories that are important through professionals like our ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
• Get plane tickets/housing for Boston – Joe has been presented with an amazing opportunity to do research at Harvard this summer and so we are making the move to Boston! 
• Make Doctor’s appointment for BC update – I’m in the process of pursuing other birth control options if you’re interested you can shoot me a message.
• Eat out 4x (and no more!) – Joe and I looked at our budget and most of our money is used on eating out. And so we’re making a commitment to limiting that, we both agree that eating out is a waste of money if it’s something I can cook at home. 
• Editorial calendar / Pinterest revamp: I’m in the mindset of quality over quantity with the blog and so I’m putting some intentional time into my editorial calendar and amping up my social media presence. 
• Host two times: One of my greatest joys is having friends over, cooking them dinner, and spending quality time. I hope to host two friends before we make our move to Boston.
• Artifact Uprising Yearbook Project – I want to make our first yearbook from 2018 memories, so I’m going to start organizing pictures. 

WEEKLY GOALS

• no eating after 7 PM – I work very hard to stay active but I’m going to amp up my eating habits, I love to eat and so I frequently eat before going to sleep / after 9 PM and I know that is a horrible habit so I’m going to make the effort to stop doing that 
• Tithe – it’s as simple as prepping my checkbook in my purse the day before church 
• 2 blog posts/pitch (2) – I want to publish at least two blogs posts a week and pitch two brands.
• Listen to podcasts when cooking (How I Built This, Entreeleadership) – If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this post, on why I’m going to start listening to podcasts while I cook 
• Social Media Free Sunday – I’m on social media very frequently. I limited my time on it by limiting phone use after 9:30 PM in April and I’m going to take that a step further and try to take it out altogether on Sundays.
• Date night (planned!) – I’m a very spontaneous person but I adore a planned date night so we’re going to try to make that a weekly occurrence. 
• Batch (Sunday: Instagram | Monday: Post | Tuesday: Pitch | Wednesday: Pinterest | Thursday: Read) – To keep my productivity levels high, I’m focusing each day of the week on different aspects of my blog instead of trying to do all of them every day. 

(Side note: with keeping up with all of my goals, I also use them alongside my Lilly planner and my Write the Word Journal. I use my Lilly planner to roughly plan out my week based off of the goals I’ve come up with for that month. Then, I start each day with a daily planner that I sketch out in my WTW journal). 

I use my Lilly planner to roughly plan out the week

Then, I use the left portion of my WTW journal to plan out my day and keep myself intentional, it’s easier for me to carry around my WTW journal because it is compact enough.

DAILY GOALS