This week marks six months since we packed up our car and moved 1,314 miles away, all the way from Edmond, Oklahoma to Arlington, VA. Moving to a new state was no. joke. All in all, it was a pretty smooth move and we didn’t spend a ton of money unnecessarily. Thinking back, there were definitely some things I’m glad we did and that I wish we would have done differently, so I compiled my best tips for moving to a new state.
Most of these tips are geared more toward people who are in a similar life circumstance as Charles and myself when we moved. We didn’t hire movers, didn’t have a ton of money, and since we’re newly married and don’t have kids yet, don’t have a ton of stuff. Although we did have a lot more than I realized.
First, a little bit about our move
We had to be out of our apartment in Oklahoma by December 31st but couldn’t move into our apartment in Arlington, VA until January 6. Charles had to be at orientation the next day and I had to work the day after that. This gave us a little bit too much time in-between apartments and not enough time unpacking, but thanks to our family we were able to make it work. We were able to stay with two different family members on our road trip out there and had a relaxing and fun time driving all 1,300 miles.
We knew that a lot of our furniture was going to be a bit too big for most apartments in the DC area. Since we bought all of it used anyways, we sold all of it before we left Oklahoma. Since we didn’t have any furniture, I figured we could get away with not renting a moving truck and paying tons of money for the rental and gas. Charles’ parents generously drove to Oklahoma to pick up a load of our stuff in their minivan and then drove all the way to DC with us. Whatever didn’t fit in their car had to fit in mine and Charles’. We got rid of a lot 😀
I think we only got away with that because it was just the two of us and our needs are still pretty small. For future moves, we’ll definitely need to get a moving truck.
Top Tips for Moving to a New State
Before the Move
If you have any furniture that you don’t absolutely love – sell it
Doing this is especially great if you’re going to a more highly populated area. Craigslist and Facebook Market offered a ton of affordable options for us furniture-wise In the D.C. area. I knew that whatever we sold we would be able to easily replace for the same amount of money or less. We were happy with all of our furniture, but none of it was anything that we couldn’t live without. Also, we were going from a two-bedroom 850 square foot apartment to a one-bedroom 600 square foot apartment. We had a bit too much furniture and much of it wasn’t the right size for our new spaces.
Try your best to evaluate what will function well in your new home. We ended up selling all of our furniture because we suspected that it wouldn’t fit very well and we also knew the market for used furniture was good here. This ended up being cost-effective for us because the price to replace all the items we sold ended up being less than the amount we made in selling furniture. However, it was certainly not time effective. Not only does it take some time to contact sellers and work out a deal, but then you also have to actually navigate the new city. Thanks to my husband and father-in-law going out to pick up key items the day we moved in, this worked out just fine for us. But it can definitely add some stress to the move.
We ditched our used 120+ year-old mattress in Oklahoma and ordered a new one for less than $300 off of Amazon and had it shipped to us for free! We’ve both been happy with it so far. It’s a HUGE improvement from our old mattress, but I realize that’s not saying much.
Our upside-down mattress in a box
Have an “Open First” box
This was seriously the most helpful advice I received before our move. Have one box that you have easy access to as soon as you open the door to your new home. This box should include everything that you’ll need or want right away. Ours had:
basic cleaning supplies
toilet paper
paper towels
coffee pot (a girl’s gotta have her priorities)
coffee
hand soap
dish soap
hand towels
You could also pack an “essentials” box for every room. The bedroom one could include bedding, your alarm clock, and a set of clothing. Since we had gotten rid of so much stuff, all of our essentials were fairly easy to find and we didn’t need an “essentials” box for every room. The Open First box was a lifesaver though.
Someone knows me well
Pre-order grocery delivery
This is one less thing that you’ll have to do when you’re furiously unpacking everything you own. Unpacking always sounds like a relatively easy if not dull chore, but it can require some serious brain power. It’s like playing Tetris trying to organize all of your belongings in a new home. Nothing fits the same way it did in the last home.
What I’m saying is that the less you have to think about when you’re trying to unpack, the better. While it sounds relatively simple to go to the grocery store or pick up some fast food, here are all of the decisions you’ll have to make:
You’re in a new city and have to look up the nearest food options
Your car is probably full of stuff you’re still trying to unpack
If you’re going to the store, you have to make a list of things you can eat before all your kitchen items are unpacked
You probably don’t have any utensils or dishes unpacked yet
While all of those are fairly easy things to overcome, your brain is already maxed out with your fun tetris game and whatever other fun things your move has surprised you with. Ordering a few things to be dropped off at your doorstep the day of the move will make your life so much easier and give you the much-needed sustenance to keep unpacking. It’s definitely well worth the average $10 delivery fee.
Here are a few things you might want to deliver:
plastic silverwear
paper plates
freezer meals you can microwave
coffee
easy breakfast food like cereal or bagels
sandwich fixings
cleaning supplies
toilet paper
quick snacks
bottled water (unless you unpacked your kitchen cups really fast)
Keep a massive joint to-do list
If you’re moving with another person, keep a massive joint to do list. I used a google sheet that was (possibly) overly detailed, but it was so helpful to keep Charles and me on the same page. I used conditional formatting to color-code it so that when a task was finished, it would cross things off and change the color to a satisfying green. This motivated Charles far more than I expected it to. This motivated me exactly as much as I expected it to, which is to say a lot. I’m a big fan of grown-up sticker charts.
Your list can be as complicated or as simple as you like, whether it’s a spreasheet or an app like Trello or Evernote. The main thing is that you both have access to it so you both remember what needs to happen. Being able to access it on your phone is even better. This keeps things from falling through the cracks and arguments differences of opinion that start with “I thought YOU already did that.” Bonus points if you can assign tasks to each person. Clarity in assignment makes everything much smoother and eases the tension in a stressful time.
Have a plan for what you’re going to do in your new home first
Start a list of things you need to do once you get there and prioritize them if possible. It’s overwhelming thinking about getting out of where you’re currently at, but the unknown future can be more overwhelming if you don’t have any idea what you’re stepping into. Having a plan can eliminate stress. If you’re moving to a new state, you might just have time to start writing a list when you’re riding in the car or if you have to stay somewhere overnight.
Here are a few things you might want to do before you start moving in boxes and furniture
Clean anything that looks like it might need it
Spray for bugs
Plan out what furniture will go where and label it
Locate the circuit breaker box and main water valve
This is another area where it’s helpful to divvy out tasks beforehand so each person knows what they’re responsible for. This makes it so you can jump into action and get settled as soon as possible. This was particularly helpful for Charles and me since we had such little time before we had to jump into work/school life. We got the most important things set up first and then slowly finished the rest as we had time and energy.
Don’t forget to take a picture before you leave
I know you’re probably sick of looking at or even thinking about the place right now, but someday you’ll be glad you got a picture with your family in front of your old place. I promise.
These are the faces of two exhausted,nervous, sad, excited people
After the Move
Unpack as quickly as possible
Moving is exhausting and it can be tempting to leave some unimportant boxes hidden in the closet or a spare room. Don’t do this. Those boxes will haunt you for the foreseeable future, and the longer you wait to unpack them the more you’ll dread discovering what’s inside.
Have a give-away box
Chances are, you did what you thought was a thorough purging of your belongings before you even moved. You will inevitably find more things that you should have gotten rid of, whether it’s because they got put in the wrong piles or they didn’t work for the space like you thought they would. Having a box set-up that you can quickly toss items in to give away can make this much easier. Lucky for you, there should be tons of boxes around.
Look up important locations before you arrive
Post Office
Grocery stores
Donation center
Make space for being sad about what you had to leave
With all of the busyness and stress involved in moving, it can be easy to try and push your emotions under the rug to get everything done. But all change is hard, even if it’s good change. Also, all change means that there’s some kind of loss. Let yourself feel that and give yourself some grace to acclimate to the new changes.
Don’t go crazy buying furniture or storage devices right away.
It can be really helpful to get to know a space before you start buying organization products which later become unnecessary. Again, unpacking is like Tetris, and it often takes several tries to get it right. The things that I thought I needed but couldn’t make it to the store right away to pick up I ended up not needing after all. It just took me a few days (or sometimes a couple weeks) to learn our needs in our new home.
But DO buy a plant
A few weeks after we moved I bought a palm from IKEA. It’s crazy how much homier it made our little apartment feel, especially in the dead of winter. If you’re wanting to make your apartment feel a little brighter and a little more like home, try adding a plant or two. I’ve been eyeing this one and this one on Amazon.
Lots of people were talking about This is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick earlier this year. Since we had just moved and knew almost no one, I decided to read the book for ideas. It’s a great book to get you excited and give you some ideas for feeling more at home after a big move. Some of my favorite ideas:
Walk around the neighborhood
Try to shop local
Explore nature
Volunteer
Do fun stuff your town has to offer
Look for things that make you happy
Just as important as letting yourself be sad about what you moved away from is recognizing the gifts that come with your new location. Whether your move was a dream-come-true or feels more like a tragedy, counting the happy things will make it all the sweeter.
Take walks around the neighborhood to familiarize yourself
This is one of the quickest ways to familiarize yourself with your new surroundings. There’s a lot that you miss when you drive everywhere! Walking around your new city helps you acclimate SO much faster and is great exercise and stress-relief.
Have you moved recently? Leave a comment with tips for moving to a new state that you would add to my list!
Moving from Oklahoma to Arlington, VA was stressful and scary and exhausting, but we’re so glad we did it!
At the beginning of this year, I started reading through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. This book simultaneously intrigued me and repelled me. Ann is an esteemed writer and people rave about this book. But also, the thought of thanksgiving felt both juvenile and like a chore to me, even though I’ve heard over and over again how important it is. I finally gave it a try just so I could knock it off my TBR pile and was surprised and delighted by the raw depth on the very first pages. The biggest actionable takeaway is to start counting the gifts God gives you. And since the new prayer journal that was gifted to me also had an entire section for gratitude, I started writing down things that make me happy.
You guys. This has been so unexpectedly life-changing. It’s so easy to focus on the things we don’t like, but just taking two minutes each morning to write down things I’m happy about has me looking for happy things all day long. It makes me more aware of how many happy things are in my life and helps me have a more positive outlook in general. There’s lots to be happy about, and seeing that puts me in a better mood. Writing down happy things is the difference between trudging through your day and stopping to smell the flowers, sometimes literally. Counting the gifts that God gives to me helps me get so much more enjoyment out of life.
Some Things I’ve Learned About Gratitude
It’s hard
Counting the gifts is unexpectedly difficult. I try not to repeat anything on my list, and since I used coffee on my first day, that one’s out for the rest of the year. Some mornings, when it’s 6:30 am at the tail end of a long week, I can’t think of anything that was making me happy except coffee. On those days, I might not actually write anything down. Some days feel like gifts are overflowing and I write ten things down. Gratitude comes easier with time.
Remember the Giver
Instead of just enjoying the gift, I need to keep bringing to mind the Giver of said gift. One of my goals when I started keeping track of all these little things that make me happy was not to just feel better about my life. I wanted to see the happy things and recognize them as gifts from a good God who gives me good, good things. But that’s hard to do if I don’t recognize the gift and point my soul in the direction of the Giver, and oftentimes I don’t.
Count the unhappy gifts too
Another thing I’m learning about counting gifts is that it would be a lot better for my soul if I started recognizing the gifts that I don’t want but are still good gifts meant for my good. God doesn’t tell us to be grateful for only the things that make us happy but says to give thanks in all things (LINK?). I realize that I’m saying this in the same post where I’m about to list a bunch of things that make me happy. That doesn’t invalidate those things. It just means that I’m beginning to recognize what the next step of growth is for me: give thanks for things that don’t make me happy. I’m not sure how I’ll do this yet, but if it were impossible, our loving Father wouldn’t have asked us to do it.
7 Things That Make Me Happy Right Now
Our cats
Bringing two cats into our home has been such a joy. I knew we would love it, but I didn’t quite foresee just how life-giving it would be. I think we were really, really blessed with these two
These two are so cuddly.
French press coffee
I bought an electric kettle that heats your water to the exact temperature you need for french press coffee and I swear it actually tastes better. My one or two cups of coffee a day have been such a treat lately.
Farm-fresh fruit
It could be because we’re on Whole30 (one of my June goals!), but Charles and I have really been enjoying all the fresh fruit this summer. Watermelon. Strawberries. Apples. Cherries.
Weeknight baths
It feels extra luxurious to put the to-do list aside and spend some time on self-care before I go to bed, especially on the weekends.
Enid A. Haupt Garden
This little slice of paradise is a treasure hidden behind the Smithsonian Castle and very close to my office. It’s my favorite lunchtime walking spot by far. I try to go several times a week and it always makes me happy when I do.
Library books
When I created my summer reading list a couple weeks ago, I put almost all of the books on there on hold at my local library. Four have already been available for pickup and I’ve finished reading one! I often read ebooks just so that I don’t have to go anywhere, but it sure does feel nice to hold an actual book in my hand.
Clean floors
I have to admit, this is not something I was hugely grateful for before we got cats. Now that we have two playful little guys tracking litter on the reg, I enjoy the moments of clear floors even more.
I’m not a super high energy person. I don’t consider myself to be a naturally organized person either. What I’m saying is that, it’s HARD for me to get stuff done. A tidy home, structure, and routine don’t come naturally to me. And yet, oddly enough, I’ve had multiple people tell me that I seem really organized and on top of things. I’ve finally settled into a place where I (mostly) get the important things taken care of every single week. What’s my secret? These 5 easy routines. They’re the framework that seems to hold my life together, and even though I don’t always adhere to them strictly, I come back to them again and again, because these five easy routines keep my life running smoothly.
Morning Routine
This was BY FAR the hardest routine for me to set up since I am not a morning person. But I realized quite a while ago that there were some pretty key things that I really wanted to be part of my day every single day and they just weren’t happening. In order to make it work, I had to start getting up earlier. The bonus is that almost all of the things in my morning routine are things that I look forward to, which makes it that much easier to convince myself to get out of bed.
Here’s what my morning consists of:
Wake up and make tea
Read a book for a few minutes, usually a Christian non-fiction book
I’m still not always the best at sticking to this routine, but when I do, it makes a HUGE difference for how I start my day.
Pack lunch
Pick out clothes for the next day
Set out everything I need for my morning routine
Put water in kettle
Wash face + brush teeth
Eventually I’d like to add a couple things to my evening routine, like reading more and working through this journal. I’ll have to evaluate whether that will actually be helpful or if it’s just something I think that I should do. The key to success for me has been that all of these are easy routines. The minute they become too hard or burdensome is the minute I’ll quit doing them.
Friday meal planning
Since I go grocery shopping on Saturdays, I almost always plan the meals for the next week on Friday. At first this took me forrreeeever as I was trying to figure out which recipes were a good fit for both me and Charles and our schedules. Thankfully it’s gotten a lot quicker for me over time, especially since I don’t reinvent the wheel every week and scour Pinterest for more recipes to try.
One huge help in meal planning and grocery list creating has been the Paprika app. It took a while to set up with all our favorite recipes, but now that most of them are in there, I can quickly plan out meals for the week and then export a grocery list. It’s so nice not having to go through each recipe and list the ingredients I’ll need to shop for one by one. And when it comes to actually making the food, I don’t have to hunt down the recipe from wherever it’s hiding (usually in a pin board). Everything is in one place. A free but more glitchy app you can use is Pepper Plate. We used it for quite some time before I finally purchased the Paprika iOS app.
Saturday chores
I quickly realized that after working 9 hour days, I just don’t have enough energy to get chores done in the evening. Especially in the winter when it’s dark before I get home. Since I like to knock them all out in one day, Saturday is IT.
grocery shopping
clean bathroom
sweep (and mop every other weekendish)
laundry
vacuum
any errands that need to be run
Church + Rest on Sundays
This year I’ve been trying to make a point of actually resting on Sundays. I believe that God had our good in mind when He told us to keep the Sabbath, so I’ve been trying to honor Him by doing that. It’s really hard, and I am by no means perfect. But even what little progress I have been able to make with rest on Sundays has felt so, so, so good for me. I plan on studying up on Sabbath and trying out different things, but for now here’s how I make it work.
work real hard on Saturdays so I have a clean come to rest in
don’t make a to-do list for the day
allow myself to only do things I “feel like” doing and not anything that I feel like I “should be” doing. This looks like reading a book in bed all afternoon instead of organizing our closets. Unless I feel like organizing closets, in which case I would do that.
Mondays always feel a LOT better after this restful day.
Charles and I officially moved five months ago, so now feels like a great time to share our favorite things about living in D.C. It feels like so much less time has gone by, but reaching this milestone has helped me to realize how much we’ve already settled into life and routines here. Technically, we don’t live in the district (locals don’t refer to D.C. as D.C. When talking of anything specifically within D.C., they just call it “the district,” which feels very Hunger Games to me. When speaking of the metropolitan area, they say “DMV” for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.)
So really, the post of this title should be “Our Favorite Things About Living in the DMV,” but I suspect that title would mean something VERY different to most readers 😉 We chose a condo in Arlington, Virginia, just on the other side of the Potomac. It has a slightly lower cost of living, is a bit less busy feeling, but very much still has an urban feel. We LOVE where we live. To get to work, I have a short walk to the Metro and no connections to make, which is amazing. Charles has a short 15-minute walk to a shuttle that takes him directly into school
The Secret to a Better Transition
Big changes can be really hard, even for a girl who loves change. Making the decision to move so far away from all our friends and family was definitely not easy. It would be really easy to wallow in that sadness, compare everything to our previous home in a negative way, and dream about how we could make things change back.While I think it’s important to rightfully grieve the things that are lost or finished, I also think that it’s important not to forget what you have right now and what a gift it is.
I grew up learning about thanksgiving and gratitude primarily for the November holiday. It felt like a seasonal tradition rather than a way of life. It also seemed more like something we were supposed to do, like we owed it to God and did it because we were “good people,” rather than having it be something that is immensely beneficial to us.Since we got here, I’ve been focusing on thinking about all the tiny things and all the big things that make me happy. As a result, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Here are just a few of the things that are making me (and Charles!) happy about living in D.C.
Our Favorite Things About Living in D.C. So Far
Seeing the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in D.C.! It was such a great date night!
1. Everything is so walkable
In the book This is Where You Belong, Melody Warnick talks about how walking frequently is one of the main ways you can fall more in love with your neighborhood. It’s certainly a plus when your neighborhood has a walk score of 92 like ours. We can walk to the post office, two different coffee shops, dozens of restaurants, the grocery store, or pretty much anywhere else we need to go. I enjoy this so much more than I anticipated.
2. But we can still drive to pick up groceries if we want to
Even though I could walk to the grocery store, I still drive. Anything much farther than a parking lot is challenging with more than a bag or two of groceries. Unless you have one of these fancy things. My theory is that it’s probably good for the car to be driven once a week anyways. Even so, I haven’t put gas in it in 48 days and we still have half a tank. This is a huge improvement from my previous twice-weekly top-offs.
3. Public Transportation
In Oklahoma City, I had about a 45 minute commute to and from work each day, most of which were highway miles. Driving that much grew old real fast even though I made it a habit to listen to podcasts or call family when I drove. I love taking the metro into D.C. to work every day. Sometimes it’s crowded and people have smelly breath, but in general it requires a lot less concentration from me, which is really nice. My commute is only about 30 minutes, which is just enough time to get some quick reading in or quality and intentional social media.
The metro stations may be smelly and full of concrete, but they sure do have interesting angles.
4. The Spring flowers are out of this world
Everyone knows about the DC cherry blossoms, but what they don’t know is that there are flowers evvverrrywhere. There are a lot of magnolia trees with the most gorgeous blossoms too. It’s such a wonderful way to transition seasons. I shared tons of pictures of all the flowers on my Instagram.
5. People are incredibly friendly and helpful
Both at my work and Charles’ school, on the metro, at the grocery store… pretty much anywhere you name it. People have been amazingly kind and made us feel welcome here. One of the fun things about this area is that it’s very transient, so there are constantly new people moving in and out of the area. Chances are anyone you meet will remember what it feels like to be new here.
6. There are so many interesting things to do, and many of them are free!
We haven’t even scratched the surface with all the amazing things to do here. I have a looooong list of museums I want to visit and monuments I want to look at. It’s so fun to realize that I don’t have to hurry to get it all in.
7. Our neighborhood is surprisingly quiet
We hear ambulances and sirens every now and then, but in general there’s not as much noise as we anticipated. One of the things we worried about in moving here (perhaps naively?) is that there would be constant noise and motion and hustle all the time and our home wouldn’t feel restful as a result. I’m happy to report that that is not the case at all.
8. There are so many (too many) good restaurants to choose from
There’s some stiff competition in the restaurant world around here, which I think means that all of them are amazing. While the miser in me loves saving money by eating at home every day, I’m also loving supporting so many local businesses by letting them put food in my belly (in a non-creepy way of course).
9. There are dogs to look at and smile at and sometimes pet EVERYWHERE.
This is one of our favorite things about living in D.C., but is also kind of one of my least favorite things, because it feels a little bit like salt in my wounds. It’s no fun to look at something you can’t have all the time. But still… they’re all so pretty and happy. We love getting to see all the dogs around here.
10. It’s a health-conscious environment
It can be really challenging to change your habits for the better when it feels like you’re the only one doing it. I see people running, going to yoga, walking home with heavy bags full of vegetables, etc., all the time here. It helps keep me inspired and challenged to keep making healthy choices myself. Plus there are so many interesting things to see (like dogs) that it makes it easy(er) to convince yourself to get out and walk around.
Here we are finishing up a walk on Theodore Roosevelt Island. It was such a fun “escape” from the city. You could still hear traffic and airplanes and general city noise, but at least you were surrounded by trees while you were hearing it!
11. More Opportunities
I’m using the word ‘opportunities’ in the broadest sense. There are more opportunities for work, certainly. But there are more opportunities for things in general, whether that means more book clubs, seeing one of your favorite authors speak, or more opportunities to learn something new.
12. Proximity to other cool places
Something that we haven’t even thought about exploring yet is all of the awesome things outside Arlington and DC. There’s so much interesting history around here and so many more things within driving distance. Knowing that we’ll have lots nearby to explore for years to come is definitely one of our favorite things about living in D.C.
What are you loving right now?
Sharing all my favorites has been such a fun and helpful experience for me. I’d love to hear what you’re loving right now, whether you’ve lived in your current city for your whole life or for a week. Leave a comment and let me know some of your favorite things about the place you love!
If you’re following me onInstagram, you’ll notice that my feed has been looking a lot different lately. We moved! Really far. In December, Charles and I sold all the furniture we owned. On January 1st, we hopped in our car and started the trip from Oklahoma City to Washington, D.C. Talk about a fresh start to the year! Moving to D.C. was so much more stressful than I anticipated, but also incredibly rewarding.
I wish I had the systems in place to be able to focus on my blog writing goals in the midst of a big change like that, but you guys, I just didn’t have the energy. Perhaps it’s because I make writing a blog post into something bigger in my mind than it actually is in real life. Or perhaps it’s just that it’s a lot of work and I don’t have the habits and practice yet.
I found that the more time went on, the harder it was to actually come back to this happy little space. I was pretty focused on saying goodbye (at least for now) to the people we love and establishing ourselves in a very different environment. But now that we’re feeling more settled in, and I’ve had a chance to reevaluate what I want this space to look like and what my goals for it are, I’m coming back feeling refreshed and excited.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the move so I thought I’d answer the big ones here.
What on earth made you decide moving to D.C. would be a good idea?
Besides possible insanity? Grad school! And career options. Charles wants to work in the field of international relations and unfortunately there’s not a lot of international relating going on in Oklahoma. Washington D.C. is the best place for both grad school and any future jobs he would be interested in, so when he got into his top school we decided to make the move.
We’re SUPER bummed to be way farther way from all of our friends and family, who are primarily in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Missouri. Making the decision to leave wasn’t easy. But ultimately we knew that we’d have a lot more opportunities here and that it would be an enjoyable experience for us. But don’t worry. We applied for a travel credit card and have been working on accumulating some free miles.
Do you like it in D.C?
We LOVE it here. Seriously. We live in a great neighborhood in Arlington, VA, just across the river from D.C. Everyone we’ve met has been incredibly helpful and friendly. And there are beautiful dogs everywhere to smile at and occasionally pet.
What do you miss about Oklahoma?
Besides our family and friends? And the waaaayyyy lower cost of living? We miss our church a whole lot, and also incredibly convenient Chick-fil-a’s everywhere. There are some here, but there aren’t any close to our home and not as many drive-thrus.
What have you guys been up to since you got there?
The first month was a whirlwind of adjustment that involved getting parking permits, registering our car, finding a nearby grocery store, remembering which metro station to get off at for work, establishing healthy routines, and so on. I shared about a lot of it on my Instagram stories. Check out mystory highlights if you’d like to see more about what it’s like moving to D.C!
Let me know if you have any other questions about our move, living in the D.C. area, or anything else and I’d love to answer those in future posts!
The flowers this Spring have been so amazing. The desert girl inside me will never stop being awestruck by the fact that these things GROW out of the DIRT. Can you believe it? Amazing.
April Goals
I try to set goals every month to keep myself focused on the things that matter to me. I usually don’t quite get it right. Usually I err on the side of thinking I can do more than what’s realistic or feeling overwhelmed and not setting goals at all. But each time I DO set goals, I get a little bit better at it and feel like I’m taking steps to make my life feel more intentional.
Moving to D.C. definitely put a wrench in a lot of my goals, but I knew it was a season that I just needed to focus on getting us here and settled in. Now that we are (sort of) feeling that way, I can’t wait to dive back in to some of my goals.
It’s a fresh month, so let’s do some dreaming!
I love Natalie Bacon’s post on goal setting. I like to use her eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life.
This month I have one BIG goal (writing). As a result, I chose goals for the other categories that were slightly challenging but realistic with my big goal in mind. Here they are!
Environment
Hang the remaining pictures in the apartment
Career
Write 50,000 words of blog content
Health
Eat 5 servings of veggies a day
Relationships
Connect more online by actually commenting
Money
Stick to our food budget. Moving to D.C. has definitely changed our budget a lot!
Personal development
Finish at least 2 of the nonfiction books I’ve started and haven’t finished yet
Fun
Start Friday Adventures. More on this soon!
Service
Sign up to be pet foster parents
Big goals in your neck of the woods?
Reading what others’ goals are is one of the most fascinating and motivating exercises for me. Did you set any goals this month? I’d love to hear them! Share in the comments!
Do you feel totally lost when it comes to goal setting? I wrote a post with some of my best hard-earned experience here. There’s also a free workbook you can download to help you focus!
Hi, I’m Kelsey! I live in the DC area with my husband and two cats. I currently spend my days working from home, reading all the books, and enjoying home life in our new-to-us 1940s condo. Read more about me here.
