This year, inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s book, I’ve been doing a Happiness Project, focusing on one important aspect of my life every month. Last month was all about home, while June’s focus is friendship. The idea is that the months should build on one another and the habits formed in one month should continue into the next and so on. Each month I share my wins from the previous month, as well as goals that fit the theme of the current month.
{may wins}
Throughout the month of May I focused on my home: its care, maintenance, and decoration. These aren’t areas I’m naturally drawn to, for me it takes effort and intention. Luckily that’s my word of the year and by making my home my intention in May, I was able to make some improvements to the look and function of my home. Here are my home-related wins.
– Spent 10 minutes (almost) every day decluttering. I was more lax about this during busy weekends, but for the most part I took a little time every day to declutter. I’ve sifted through kitchen cabinets and drawers, our medicine cabinet, makeup, toiletries, and more. I’m far from done so I plan to continue this habit.
– Took our overflowing donation bin to Goodwill.
– Planned and printed out a cleaning routine that I (mostly) stuck with all month. The problem I’ve found with cleaning schedules is that they never quite fit my home, the cleanliness level I prefer, or the amount of time I have to devote to cleaning. This time I used other guides I’ve found as a reference, but I tailored it to fit my needs. I included daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly tasks. So far I’ve done well at keeping up with the daily and weekly items, and a few monthly, but I’m finding it challenging to figure out where to fit in the quarterly and yearly tasks.
– Ordered some prints to hang in our dining room. This room is badly in need of a makeover so I hope to get it painted soon. I found two prints to hang, and a frame for one of them. It may be slowly, but the room is coming along.
– Read Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. Based on the title, I thought this book would focus on ways to make your home more conducive to producing happiness. That isn’t what I got out of it at all; instead it felt like a Happiness Project, Part 2. I immensely enjoyed The Happiness Project and am basing my whole year’s worth of goals around it, but I could have lived without this follow-up. It was not what I was expecting or hoping for.
{non-home wins}
– Read 7 books. Abandoned 1. Life’s too short, right?
– Chose our summer trip destination: Dallas, TX. We are excited to go to a Rangers game and explore the city. If you have any recommendations for Dallas, Fort Worth, or Arlington, let me know!
– Had a “welcome summer” outing to get ice cream (of course). I like the idea of starting every summer with a fun ritual, and maybe doing something to close out the summer right before school starts as well.
– Survived Jona’s first visit to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party. Aaron stayed home with a napping Violet. I drew the short straw there…
– Celebrated Jona’s preschool graduation.
– Started using Instagram Stories. (Follow me @shealennon!) I don’t know what took me so long to figure out! Although I accidentally recorded a live video instead of just a regular story for my very first share… oh boy.
{june goals: friendship}
– Remember birthdays. I’m not on Facebook much anymore, so I no longer see those little notifications about whose birthday it is. Other than family birthdays that I usually remember, I struggle to keep up with friends’ birthdays. How do you keep track? I don’t want to buy gifts for every occasion, but a simple birthday text would be nice.
– Find ways to stay in touch. I am terrible about this and would like to be better about staying in touch with friends I don’t see often. I’d also like to be better about reaching out to make plans. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but maybe I need to schedule in reminders to check in on friends.
– Be generous. I’m a budget-conscious person with a tendency to be married to my schedule. I’d like to let go a little and be more generous with both my time and my money when it comes to my friends.
– Value people over tasks. Summer is typically a time when schedules are a little looser, so I’d like to be better about putting my to do list on hold more often. I’d like to take more advantage of opportunities to spend more time with friends.
– Read My Glory Was I Had Such Friends. I’ve heard great things about this memoir about friendship in the midst of a health crisis.
What are your goals for June? How do you make friendship a priority in your life?
Linking with Feel Good Dress Better.
