by Kelsey Smythe | Feb 4, 2021 | Lifestyle, Personal Development
Happy February! January was incredibly good to us. Charles and I spent a lot of time at home, launched our 2021 health goals and routines, did a lot of updates around the home, and hosted quite a few friends. It’s tempting to see all the hard things going on in our nation right now and feel bad that life is so good for us. But I think that seeing hard things should make us more grateful for the good. My heart is filled with immense gratitude as I look back on the last month, and I’m filled with joyful expectation when looking forward. Can’t wait to share my February 2021 goals with you! But first, a quick look back.
Revisiting My January Goals
Buy birthday cards for the year
Update kitchen – I did everything but the tip-out tray as we reached the end of our budget. It feels SO good.
Update bathroom Get quotes for closet door installation – Hoping to get more use out of our closet by switching from a single door to french doors!
Set up my prayer journal
Design + order wedding album – I stayed up until midnight one night to finish and I’m so glad! I went with Artifact Uprising. Here’s a referral link in case you need to make an album too!
Publish a blog post weekly – Almost, but not quite!
4 Instagram posts a week
Fill out marriage journal with Charles weekly
Have a budget meeting with Charles weekly
Eat breakfast daily – definitely helped my energy!
Listen to Bible plan daily – We’re listening to The Bible Recap together and love it!
Get dressed and ready for the day in the AM – I feel so much better and get so much more done!
February Goals
Read a book about community or hospitality – I’m thinking this one or this one, but am open to suggestions!
Get office to 100% – Including organize drawers and closet, list chairs on Facebook Marketplace, hang art, and make a plan for a day bed
Schedule closet door installation
Create a moodboard or roadmap for the bedroom
Read The Simple Path to Wealth – a helpful book on investing!
Publish 4+ blog posts
Publish 16 Instagram posts
Sort 4+ months of photos in Flic
Do something Charles finds fun – Charles is great at doing things I love! I want to get better at doing things he loves that I’m not naturally drawn to.
Have a marriage journal + budget meeting each week
Fill out gratitude + confession journal daily – I’ve done this practice off and on. The practice of gratitude has been so helpful for finding more joy in life. The practice of confession keeps me humble (in a good way!), grounded, and reminds me to seek strength and help from God.
Get dressed and ready for the day in the AM
Write for 10 minutes
Complete the Kitchn Cooking School – I was looking for an online cooking course I assumed I would pay for and stumbled upon this one, which is absolutely free! I always love the Kitchn recipes I try so this felt like a great idea!
Drink at least 5 20-oz glasses of water a day
What are your goals for the next month?
Almost all of my goals are drawn from my overarching 2021 goals. This is the 3rd time I’ve used Powersheets and I feel like I get better at goal setting and get more out of the Powersheets each month!
by Kelsey Smythe | Jan 18, 2021 | Lifestyle, Personal Development
2021 is the third year (and second in a row) that I’m using PowerSheets to help me define and track my goals for the year. I love love love how they help you break down what’s most important to you and lay out realistic, achievable goals that are close to your heart. I definitely did not achieve all of my 2020 goals, but I know that my year was better for having them. I’m a few weeks late in sharing my goals for the year. I know that most people have already stopped thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, and that we’re already creeping up on the date when most resolutions fail entirely. But I’m still feeling so pumped and energized about my 2021 goals, so I thought I’d share them here.
My 2021 Goals
This year, instead of having specific, actionable goals for the entire year, I’m making them a little more broad and giving myself the opportunity to figure them out as I go. I think this will work better for me as I tend to rebel against too much structure–even if it’s self-imposed. This way I can be a little bit ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ but also have purpose and meaning in my year.
1. Make nourishing my body well a natural + enjoyable part of life.
Over the years, and last year in particular, I’ve come to realize that the way I nourish myself directly affects my mood, energy, and ability to pursue the things that matter to me. If I skip breakfast, I inevitably get hangry and irritable by mid-afternoon and have trouble working up the energy to cook dinner. I’ve never been a huge fan of spending a lot of time in the kitchen, but I’m realizing that my health and the health of my family will depend on just that. So rather than continue to avoid it as much as possible, I want to make cooking nourishing foods often enjoyable and natural. I don’t know how this will look all year, but I’m excited to find out! I’m also delighted to discover that this mindset shift has already helped make me less miserable in the kitchen!
2. Cultivate our local community
We’ve now officially lived in the DC area for two full years! 2020 was unexpected and tough to make new connections. We were so thankful for the friends we had already made here, as the year would have been so much harder and less joyful without them. This year my goal is to continue to pour into those relationships and cultivate even more new friendships in a safe + healthy way. I’m still not sure what that will look like in the midst of the pandemic, but that will make each month new and exciting, amiright?
3. Make our home functional, comfortable, and beautiful
Buying a condo in 2020 was incredibly unexpected, but we are sooo thankful for the gift it is! I love all things home and want to be a good steward by making it a place we (and others) love to be. Part of that will include focusing time and money on making it beautiful and comfortable. But I also want to make it functional. This will include things like getting closets organized, cleaning supplies in easy-to-reach places, and (hopefully) our closet door expanded to french doors. We’ve already started the year off strong by painting the bathroom and kitchen backsplash and adding some kitchen shelves to the bathroom + kitchen. It feels good! Excited to see what else my brain can come up with between now and December 2021!
4. Write
I’ve always loved words and writing, but have not been disciplined at making this happen. I’m pretty sure I make this a goal every single year, so why give up in 2021? Again, not sure exactly how this goal will play out throughout the whole year, but I definitely want to focus time in this arena.
5. Nourish our marriage
Apparently, sometimes I have really specific goals and sometimes I have broad goals that could mean a lot of different things. I don’t have anything specific mapped out for this goal yet. I just know I want it to be a priority. For the first month, that involves making sure we go through our marriage journal every week.
6. Prioritize memory keeping
This is a goal that I set last year and didn’t finish. It still is really close to my heart, so I’m rolling it over to 2021. Last year I bought and went through half of this course, which is fantastic. I want to finish culling and sorting all of my digital photos and then start printing photo albums.
7. Prioritize spiritual nourishment
Here’s another broad goal that I haven’t mapped out for the entire year yet. I have a few ideas, but overall I plan to play this by ear and set goals based on what I feel like is missing at the beginning of each month or quarter.
8. Foster our financial health
Last year I was terrible about making us go over our budget month after month. Apparently buying a new home can do that to you. This year I want to be more disciplined and intentional about our finances.
Annnd there you have it! My 2021 goals.
What are some goals you’re excited about for 2021?
by Kelsey Smythe | Jan 16, 2021 | Lifestyle
2020. What a year, huh? I don’t need to tell you how unexpected it was or break down the details of all the challenges. Sometimes I feel like that was ALL we talked about for 9.5 months. This post is a happy look back at last year, in which I focus on how many good things happened for Charles and me. It’s definitely not the full picture of what our country and world was going through–just a highlight reel of what happened in my own life. As I was going through photos to select which ones to share, I was filled with so much gratitude. There was a lot of good that happened in 2020, even in the midst of all the bad. I have much more to be grateful for than I could possibly share here.
Here we go!
January 2020
The year started out amazing, and then quickly spiraled. We adopted the most adorable kitten and named her Madeleine. She was sweet and playful and cuddly and everything we wanted in a kitten. Within a few short days, she developed a rash on her ears and belly. We took her to the vet and tried various ointments and medicines, but it just kept getting worse. We had to put a cone on her 24/7 because she was scratching her ears bloody and the poor thing was miserable. She felt terrible and started using our bed and couch as a litterbox.
It felt like the majority of January was filled with multiple loads of laundry a day, administering ointments and medicines to a sick kitten, and countless vet visits. Eventually, we made the decision to surrender her back to the rescue from which we adopted her, as they would have more resources to care for her. We only had Madeleine for a few weeks, but they were filled with so much stress and anxiety and grief. Even so, I’m still so sad we had to give her up. It hurts to look at those pictures.
Apart from that, January involved going into an actual office to work and lots of snuggles with our sweet Reggie. He loves having a feline playmate around and was super bummed that Mads couldn’t play.
February
February involved more working in an office and lots of runs on the National Mall during my lunch breaks. We even went to a fancy fundraiser and got to dress up (I think I would have stayed out longer if I knew what was coming). Our sweet Reggie was really lonely without another cat around, so I started looking for another kitten to adopt. I found the sweet and silly girl on the bottom left and brought her home that very day, which just so happened to be Valentine’s Day!
March
In March we acted like tourists and walked around all the monuments around the National Mall. We even went up the Washington Monument for the first time. That same weekend we had a Pi Day party with a few friends. And then the next day the world shut down. The rest of March was filled with lots of cat snuggles and relearning how to do basic things like grocery shop. But look how quickly sweet Violet became a part of the family!
April
April involved lots of neighborhood walks. We spent Easter at home. And Charles started taking Reggie to grad school classes with him, ha! It was a quiet month and we hardly ventured out at all.
May
May also involved a lot of neighborhood walks–most of which I was completed in awe of and delighted by all the beautiful flowers we came across. One Friday morning I woke up to a Zillow email about a new listing across the courtyard from us. I convinced Charles to “just take a look at it.” The following Tuesday our offer was accepted (the first one we ever made, all thanks to Darren Robertson!) and we had a closing date just a few weeks away! The next few weeks involved getting our current condo in tip-top shape so we could find a new tenant to take over our lease and then… packing! I had very good helpers while I packed.
We were incredibly grateful that our landlord let us out of our lease about a year and a half early. He didn’t have to, but he did!
June
We closed on our new home June 1st! And started moving in right away. We had a few great friends and family members who helped us move and then enjoyed pizza with us in the courtyard afterward. The rest of June involved lots of picnic dinners in our courtyard, working from home, and kitten snuggles (sometimes the last two happened simultaneously!).
July
In July we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! We also celebrated the 4th of July with friends hiking in the Shenandoah National Park, followed by a picnic at a winery. Later that month I flew to New Mexico to celebrate my Mom’s 60th birthday and spend time with my family.
August
In August we had more outdoor adventures, including a visit to the National Arboretum. When we weren’t having outdoor adventures–and you won’t be surprised by this at all–we spent a lot of time hanging out with our cats and going on neighborhood walks. I’ve never been more grateful for flowers and for pets as I was this year.
September
September was filled with–surprise!–more walks. But also birthday celebrations! Our birthday (and Christmas) gift to ourselves was this awesome new toy. We decided to have a Lord of the Rings watch party, complete with breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. We’re so grateful to have such a great community here.
October
In October we carved pumpkins with friends, went on lots of neighborhood walks, occasionally got outside the neighborhood for a walk, and hung out with our cats. In the bottom right picture, you can see that they thought I made them a nice dinner at the table.
November
In November we voted. I went to Mt. Vernon–George Washington’s historic estate–with Diana and George the dog. He was very confused about why everyone was talking about him all day. I started a new tradition in which I take my handsome vet out for breakfast on Veteran’s Day. And we had an outdoor Thanksgiving dinner with family in Springfield, Missouri.
December
In December, since Covid numbers were going up and up and up, we decided to cancel our trip to see my family and stayed home instead. It was so sad not to be able to see my side of the family for the holidays, but we were so grateful to have great friends to celebrate with here. We went to a Christmas Eve service with Alif and ate an amazing Christmas Eve dinner that Diana cooked for us. I made peanut butter fudge that Reggie stepped in (don’t worry, we didn’t eat that part). Violet really admired his work. I made a big brunch on Christmas day and we had some friends over who were also unable to be with their families for the holidays.
What are some of the things you’re grateful for in 2020?
by Kelsey Smythe | Apr 30, 2020 | Lifestyle
When every day feels like the day you had before, every little lifesaver feels like a much bigger deal. Most of us have our lives thrown completely upside down during this pandemic and are having to find new tricks to stay happy, healthy, and productive. Here are 7 things saving my life right now and making sheltering-at-home a little happier.
Here are 7 Things Saving My Life Right Now
Roomba on a schedule
I bought this vacuum from Facebook Marketplace about six months ago but always forget to turn it on. A couple weeks ago I set it to run automatically every weekday at 4:30 (when I’m officially off the clock). There’s always inevitably cords and cat toys and shoes laying out for it to get stuck on, so the result is that I jump off the couch when work ends to pick up really quickly instead of just switching from my computer to Instagram scrolling. It makes the rest of our evening much more enjoyable and feels like an actual transition from work to home life. Win win win.
Our cats
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I’m pretty much obsessed with our cats. They’re so funny and sweet and entertaining. They’ve brought us so much joy since we bought them, but Charles and I have been extra grateful for their companionship since we’re at home all day.
Reading allll the books
I’m so grateful I managed to swing by the library a few days before everything shut down to grab the books I had waiting on hold. I’ve slowly been working through that stack of mostly non-fiction books. For fiction, I started a 30 day free trial of Scribd and have been loving listening to lighthearted audiobooks while I clean, work, and walk. I enjoyed listening to Landline and Attachments and have my eye on Tweet Cute, Things You Save in a Fire, and Louise Penny audiobooks (they’re seriously the best!). Fluffy, entertaining books are the name of the game right now when it can be so hard to keep your spirits up. Here’s a referral link for 60 days of free reading!
Decluttering
When you’re home almost 24/7, clutter seems to be a lot more suffocating! I’ve done some major decluttering since all this started and have been so much happier because of it! It can be kind of tough to declutter when everything is closed and you can’t drop off a bunch of stuff at Goodwill. We’ve been putting thrift store donations in the trunk of our car. Some other ideas for decluttering are Thredup cleanout kits, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace (taking some extra precautions to keep everyone safe, that is!). It feels soooo good to have less stuff!
This Bad Smells Fix
I first heard about these charcoal bags from Young House Love. I ordered some because a.) I have a really good sense of smell and b.) I’m paranoid about our apartment smelling like mildew and/or cat litter. They really work! Such an eco-friendly way to keep your house, car, refrigerator, or gym locker smelling good. If they stop absorbing smell, you just leave them out in the sun for about an hour and they’re good as new!
This smoothie blender
I bought this blender at the beginning of the year hoping that it would make it easier for me to make healthy smoothies for breakfast. It did the trick! I’ve been making smoothies a lot using this protein powder and this green powder. I love how easy it is to pull out the blender. Digging out our big, heavy one from the cabinet just wasn’t worth it for me on a daily basis, and we don’t have enough kitchen space to leave a big one in a easily accessible place. This one is easy to get out, clean, and put back away! It also works much better than our bulky blender. Magic.
Jotting down quick notes as I read the Bible
I’ve been having such a tough time concentrating when I’m trying to spend time in the Word and prayer lately. I finally started jotting down notes/thoughts/questions/themes in my journal as I was reading and it’s made A WORLD of difference. If you’ve having a tough time concentrating too, I would definitely recommend that. Also, leaving your phone in the other room helps too. Speaking from experience 😉
What’s saving your life right now?
I’d love to hear! Leave a comment or share with me on Instagram!
by Kelsey Smythe | Apr 4, 2020 | Lifestyle, Personal Development
Wow, what a month. It’s hard to know what to say about such a historical period that we’re currently experiencing. I think it’s safe to say that all of us are a little different than the people we were at the beginning of March 2020. There has been a lot of sad moments and a lot of uplifting moments over the last few weeks. And though March didn’t go like anyone expected it to, I’ve been so encouraged to see people rise to the occasion and overcome. Here’s a recap of my March Goals and my stay-at-home April 2020 goals!
March Goals – 13 out of 17 completely complete!
Grout and caulk our shower to prevent mold problems DONE! Our bathroom looks so much cleaner now!Paint our kitchen I crossed this off by electing not to do it at allPaint our bathroom Done! Follow this cleaning routine every day. I didn’t do it every day, but most days! Such a great way to maintain a clean home that we’ve been spending ALL our time in!Read Prayer by Tim Keller. Crossing it off because I’ve been steadily chipping away at it each morning. Still have half the book to get through, but it’s been such a blessing so far!Memorize a portion of Scripture. I sort of want to give this a half check. Last month I memorized one verse, so I’m counting it. I would like to have memorized more, but had a hard time figuring out my system. I finally realized that writing the verses on index cards and reviewing them as I brush my teeth or blowdry my hair works great!Call one person every day on my walk home from the metro. Well, the metro thing didn’t happen for the majority of the month, but I did make a lot of phone calls on my daily walks out of the house!Text/message at least one person every day to check-in. Who knew that a pandemic would be the perfect opportunity to check in on all your friends?Run the St. Patrick’s Day 4 Mile Race. Unfortunately, this was canceled 🙁 — I’m counting it a win though because I did run 4 miles! Woohoo! Run 3x a weekStart HIIT workouts 3x a week after the race. It’s been a surprise to see how much stronger I already feel! Schedule and go on a Spring Break adventure. We managed to squeeze an adventure in JUST in time! We walked around the national mall and went to the top of the Washington Monument the day before everything shut down!- Post on Instagram 20 times. I posted 16 times.
- Schedule writing sessions at the beginning of each week. Didn’t do this at all. Womp womp.
- Publish 9 posts this month. Published 4; it would have been more if I had done the above goal I think! 😉
Attend small group weekly. Done! We started meeting virtually once social distancing started! So thankful I was still able to meet with my group. - Attend at least one book club. Unfortunately the social distancing started before I could attend any book clubs. Such a bummer! I’m cooking up some ideas for a virtual one though!
Lessons learned
All in all, I’m surprised I was still able to tackle so many goals despite the fact that the month did not go at all like I anticipated. I could have easily given in to the circumstances and decided that my goals were impossible to reach in a time like this. But in reality, staying at home gave me MORE opportunities to work on most of my goals. I tried to keep all this in mind as I set my April 2020 goals!
April 2020 Goals
Since we’re now entering into the 2nd quarter, I did a Goals Refresh in my power sheets. Many of them stayed pretty much the same! Some of them were tweaked quite a bit though. One of my big focuses for the 1st quarter was to get our home organized and looking beautiful. I’m so thankful now that I poured all that energy into that! Of course, there’s still plenty more I could organize or beautify, but I think I’m mostly in a maintenance phase, which frees up a little time and energy to focus on some other things!
Here are my April 2020 goals:
- Read The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taub. Reading books like this always motivate me to make changes in my health.
- Write a blog mission statement. I’ve been having a hard time knowing what to focus on here and I think that’s making it tough for me to gain momentum in writing new blog posts. Hoping some clarity will help!
- Write 2 blog posts a week.
- Complete my journaling series on the blog.
- Go on a Friday Adventure. These will certainly look different than I expected at the beginning of the year. I’m hoping to find some walking/hiking trails that aren’t at all crowded. If all else fails, we can go for a drive and not get out of our car 🙂
- Purge 2016 Phone pics. This is part of my overarching 2020 goal of becoming a good memory keeper for our family.
- Schedule 5 Instagram posts a week. This is another micro-goal branching out from my memory-keeper goal.
- Try a new recipe every week. I’m specifically looking to add more veggies to our diet!
- Make a healthy breakfast every morning. Most days this will likely be a smoothie. Eating a good breakfast can change how my entire day goes so I’d really like to make this a habit.
- Do 3 HIIT workouts a week
- Go for 3 runs each week
- Journal every day. This is branching out from my goal to learn to love God with my whole heart. I tend to be a person that avoids emotions, and journaling helps me become more aware of my feelings. It’s hard to bring your whole heart to God when you’re not even sure what’s going on in said heart.
- Text a friend or family member every day
- Call a friend or family member every day
What are your stay-at-home goals?
For some of us, taking care of ourselves might mean we have little to no goals. For others, taking good care of yourself might mean you plan a lot of activities to keep you busy and active. I’d love to hear what you have planned for this stay-at-home month ahead of us!
by Kelsey Smythe | Mar 20, 2020 | Lifestyle, Personal Development
I absolutely love how Emily Freeman always shares some things she learned each season and gives others the opportunity to do the same. When I was writing my list, a lot of the things that came to mind felt trivial or elementary. I also questioned why on earth I should share with the general public. Would they get anything out of it? Would anyone want to read? It’s silly, because I love reading posts like this. And then I thought about how writing down a list of things I learned could be beneficial in the long term. Not only could others learn along with me, but I could look back at these lists as a reference for the things God taught me and the particular challenges of each season. My overthinking made me miss the party, but I’m sharing 7 things I learned this winter anyway.
7 Things I learned this Winter
I can change the narrative I have about myself.
This isn’t a new idea, but I was most struck by the possibility of changing our narratives about ourselves when reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. Each time we do an activity or complete a task, we’re either reinforcing an existing identity box or creating a new one. Which means we can change the way we see ourselves. For me, this meant giving up the identity of being lazy and out of shape and slowly building up the identity of being a runner. I’ve already been on 32 runs this year and have run further distances than I expected I could. How’s that for changing my self-identity?
Small progress really does add up
Not to keep tooting my own horn about running, but it shocked me how much progress I made just by consistently showing up. When I first started running a mile, anything further than 1.5 miles sounded impossible. I seriously didn’t think I’d ever get there. And while each run felt difficult, it didn’t feel like it was that much harder than the one before. But because I stayed so consistent with it, I worked myself up to running 4 miles. I know I could definitely keep building on that now. It was good to prove to myself that showing up really does count for something.
Action isn’t always exhausting as it sounds. Sometimes it’s energizing.
I’ve been wanting to paint our apartment for about a year but completely dreaded the task. It sounded like such a big job and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to work up the energy. One day I just made a plan. I assigned days to pick the color, buy the paint, and get started. It was exhausting. But I was also surprised to discover that freshening up our home is something that I really love. So it was also totally energizing. Next time I’ll be careful not to put too much weight on the cost of the energy I think it’ll take to do something, especially if it’s something I really want to do.
There can be just as much pride + sin in not buying the thing as there is in buying the thing
This year I decided to do Nancy Ray’s 3-month contentment challenge. The first step is to buy any necessary things you’ll need before you begin the challenge. This is when I realized that I had SO MANY THINGS I was planning on buying that I was putting off for a future time. I really struggled with buying those things. After much soul-searching, I realized that it was largely because I thought I was a better person for constantly saying no to myself.
But here’s the thing, while God has instructed us to be wise and generous with our money and to remember that it all belongs to Him, He never said that we should never buy the things we want but don’t strictly need. If that were the case, we could never support our dear friends and neighbors in their businesses and livelihoods! I’m learning to confess my pride in this area and find a healthier balance of spending and saving.
Your life isn’t as boring as you think
This is one of my favorite things I learned this weekend. As an Enneagram 5, I admittedly have a difficult time sharing personal things. My default belief is that people will find it at best uninteresting and at worst offensive and obnoxious. But this year I’ve made it a point to share more about our daily life on Instagram if for nothing else than to keep memories for ourselves. Here’s what I learned: People are more interested in your life than you realize. I’ve been surprised and delighted by the level of engagement I’ve received on posts about ordinary ol’ me.
All the research in the world doesn’t always yield to a desired outcome
This was a somewhat bitter lesson to learn, partially because I love to research and partially because it meant we had a tough outcome that we didn’t love. I carefully scoured the internet for the perfect kitten for us to adopt. We found her and for the first few days, everything was wonderful. She was EVERYTHING we wanted and it seemed like all my research had paid off. And then she became ill, resulting in several very stressful weeks followed by the heartbreaking decision of taking her back to the amazing rescue we adopted her from. Even my careful planning and research didn’t guarantee we’d get the perfect kitten. It’s impossible to 100% guarantee a desired outcome.
Now it’s your turn
I just shared my things I learned this winter. What are some things you’ve learned lately?
