So, remember that month when I wrote that thing and did pretty much none of that thing? Actually, I did some of the thing.

Running as a form of self-care fell by the wayside in the second half of the month, mainly because both Alan and I had two weeks of leave and running at 6:30 in the morning was just not one of my top priorities. It wasn't a bottom priority, either. Running in the cold was easy last winter, but this winter I find that my ears hurt (like almost my ear drums) and my throat and lungs get cold (this was also not an issue last winter, and I was running in 30-40 degree weather on a regular basis). Basically, I find myself inconvenienced but not motivated enough to figure out how to deal with the ear thing. The throat and lungs thing is less of an issue.

However, I did sleep in, read books for fun, and took time for myself in other ways, so I did succeed in keeping some form of a self-care regimen.

I didn't host a brunch, either. Everyone was right (I'll admit it)--graduating and planning for Christmas and spending time with my husband and the rest of my family kept me busy and I did not make time to plan a brunch.

However, it is on the schedule for this month. I even set a date.

And we didn't work through Advent Conspiracy, but we did apply the principles to our first Christmas traditions.

But, hey. There's grace. And I have God to thank for that.

So, January.

+ reading. I want to finish "The Best Yes" and dig further into "The Locust Effect." I also want to get back into the habit of starting my day with the Word. Right now, I'm reading Isaiah and Psalms.

+ blogging. I also want to blog at least once a week--primarily about my goals for the year (which will be posted tomorrow), but I want to inhabit this space more often.

+ brunch. For, real, this time. The date is set, so now I want to design invitations and mail/hand them out by Sunday.

goals with grace: december

I currently use a bullet journal to keep track of my daily goals and to-dos and finally-got-dones, but I like the idea of goals with grace, so I decided to link up!

My goals for December are:

+ practice self-care. The day before and the day of graduation are going to be extremely busy for almost the whole 48 hours, so if I don't take care of myself, I'm going to be very burned out and grumpy. And that's not how I want to remember earning my master's degree. Specifically, I plan to run a minimum of 35 miles this month (approximately 3.5 miles twice weekly). My bonus goal is to work back up to running at least 10k by the end of the month.

+ host a brunch. I really love the heart of the International Justice Mission and I'm currently reading The Locust Effect. I've been wanting to host a casual brunch for some ladies to talk about justice and raise money for IJM.

+ advent. Along with hosting a brunch, I want to introduce Advent Conspiracy to our home life group. Alan and I are talking about the sort of traditions we want to establish for ourselves and the sort of life we want to lead and I think the philosophy of Advent Conspiracy, which I discovered on another blog linked up with Goals with Grace, reflects that.