My favorite season is here! August, September and the first part of October kept our family super busy with regular everyday life. I started going to the gym and have been trying to workout 3 days a week. It’s crazy how adding something small like that to your schedule can really take up a lot of time. It’s been nice moving my body and challenging myself. I’m thankful to have a gym with childcare so that I can take Brooklyn with me. Work and church have also kept us busy this month but it’s a good kind of busy. We’re really enjoying growing our community and our life here in KC. It’s time for another goal update and life recap!

Brooklyn turned 18 months old in August and we’re clearly watching her become a full blown toddler. She’s still the funniest little girl, she’s learning so many words and is starting to try out two word sentences. It’s just crazy that our tiny baby who needed so much from us those first few weeks is now running and trying her best to jump. She loves to read and enjoys watching Curious George. She’s a little mama too, she loves her baby dolls and baby friends.

On our anniversary weekend Josh and I enjoyed a staycation while Brooklyn spent the weekend with her grandparents. I wish I could tell you we did something interesting but we mainly just stayed home and slept. Doesn’t every parent need that?! We certainly did and our kid has slept through the night in her own room since she was 4 months old. I know some of you need a lot more sleep than us! But we did manage to get out on our special day and have our annual donut breakfast. We also took dinner to some of our new small group friends who had a new baby the week before. Then we went to Olive Garden for dinner!

The next weekend was Revival Weekend at our church. We got to worship and hear some great teaching at the Lee’s Summit campus, it was a really encouraging weekend. They also had a family fun day on Saturday which Brooklyn enjoyed, she was still a little bit too young for all the fun but she really just likes being outside. 70 people were baptized on Saturday, it is amazing to be part of a church that God is using to save those who are far from Him. 70 people have experienced life change through Jesus and are committed to following Him. That’s incredible! This campus also has a really fun lobby outside of the kids wing so she enjoyed playing there throughout the weekend.

Later that week our friends, Jess and Darren, came to visit us. We had a great time hanging out with them, Brooklyn and Levi had so much fun with each other.

On Labor Day, we met my mom at the Kansas City Zoo. Brooklyn loved the otters and penguins, it was her first time at the zoo and I can’t wait to take her again! She had a blast on the playground and went down the slide at least 10 times. We had lunch at the zoo and then went back to my parent’s house for a nap. After dinner we went with them to get ice cream at DQ just like the good old days when we lived with them!

At the end of September, Josh’s work put on their Oktoberfest event, Josh was super busy during that week and worked all 7 days. Brooklyn and I went to the event on Saturday evening with some friends to ride carnival rides and get some dinner with Josh. We had a great time but when we got home that night I ended up with a stomach bug. Brooklyn had been sick earlier in the week but I thought it was just something she ate, turns out it was some kind of virus because all the three of us ended up getting it.

October has brought some really nice weather so far. On the first Friday, I had a women’s event at church and Josh took Brooklyn to his high school’s homecoming football game. He said Brooklyn raised her arms for all of the touchdowns, she’s really enjoying watching football with us four times a week. Our Chiefs and my Jayhawks are having a pretty good season so far! Saturday we cleaned out our basement and we’re getting ready to start our renovation project!

I finally finished reading through the book of Daniel and I’ve started reading Genesis with our small group. This is the first year in a long time where I’ve been really consistent in reading my Bible. If you’re looking to see spiritual growth in your life and you want to know God more intimately I highly recommend making it a priority. His Word truly is living and active and it will change your life. If you need accountability let me know, I’d be happy to help encourage you!

Below are some updates to our 2022 goals, let us know how your goals are going!

Spiritual

• Become members at our church
• Find a small group
• Pick a Homeroom topic to study each month – We’ve decided to keep meeting on Sundays, just trying to be diligent.
• Read God’s Word daily –  so thankful that life has been slow and I’ve been able to focus on this!
• Keep a gratitude log – I’m still not great at remembering to do this. 
• Serve in youth ministry

Relational

• Host lunch monthly after church –  I need to get something planned for this fall.
• Invite Pitt friends to KC to visit – Darren and Jess came to visit us with Levi!
• Get to know our neighbors – I need to make a plan to do this, I have still only taken brownies and a card to one neighbor.
• Continue our weekly family meeting – We’re starting to get back in this rhythm!
• Go on a monthly date night – We had our wedding anniversary dates in August, our dating anniversary is at the end of October so we’ll have to plan something 🙂
• Plan Brooklyn’s First Birthday!!
• Reconnect with old friends in KC – need to get something on the calendar!
• Take two Mom & Dad only trips – Nashville plus our “stay-cation”!

Physical 

• Invite a new friend over each month (once we make some lol) – Need to get something on the calendar for this month!
• Develop a list of 20 meals to make meal planning easier – Make sure to check out my blog post about our list of 20 meals.
• Go on a weekly family walk – We’ve done these more regularly but need to get back to it before it gets cold!
• Get in shape – I’m still trying to eat well and have added in working out to my weekly healthy habits.
• Make our house a home – We started working on our basement project! And if you remember our house in Pittsburg, we vlogged our renovation and we’re planning to do that again in this house!

Intellectual 

• Check in on our goals once a month – We need to do this at the end of October!
• Open Etsy Shop!!!
• Read 5 books

Financial

• Make a profit with 27th & Monroe – Will be evaluating the shop at the end of the month.
• Max out our Roth IRA – working towards this
• Plan a trip to Glacier National Park – We’ve started talking about this more but need to pick the date for next year!
• Meet our Mortgage goals (we’re trying to pay our new house off ASAP) – we’ve paid off about 10% of our mortgage so far which is great!
• Review Budget together monthly – Need to do this at the end of October!
• Honor our budget – We need a renewed focus on this, we’ve been eating out a little too often!