The first day of Fall is September 22 this year. This means we are fast approaching the beginning of the last quarter of 2022.  I always think about evaluating my goals to see if I’m on track for the year. This year we moved to MO, so many of my goals for day-to day life had to be set aside to accomplish the BIG goal of moving back to the Midwest. Now that my house is in order, it’s time to look at my 2022 goals and see what I can accomplish in the last months of this year. Since Fall marks a new start for many families after the relaxing summer season, you might also want to take a few minutes to set some goals. Let’s ponder what setting Fall goals looks like.

Personal Story

I was a homeschool mom for more than a quarter of a century! Each Fall, I set goals for myself and each of my children. It didn’t matter if the child was school-aged or not, there were things I hoped to teach them or areas of growth in which I wanted to help them succeed. I created routines that made space in our busy lives to work on those goals.

Goals and Routines

Goals and routines were integral in organizing my family life. I set aside time to think about what was going on in our family. I asked myself many questions like these:

• Are we spending time every day with God? Besides the Bible, what resources will help with spiritual development- Bible stories when young and Bible devotionals or studies when the kids were older? Are we memorizing Scripture? Do we pray together?
• Are we building relationships with each other? Are we having quality time together eating together every day, enjoying fun family weekly nights, and having one-on-one dates from time to time?
• Are we having family worship times and participating in corporate worship with our church?
• Are we involved in ministry at the church and in our community? Are we serving others?
• Are we working together? Do we teach age-appropriate chores to each child and work together to keep the house organized and clean?
• Do we learn together? Will we home school and/or seek out other places of learning this year?
• How do we best handle discipline? Have we prayed about the best way to handle situations?

Then I, with input from my husband, created a few goals to concentrate on for the next school year, semester, month, week, or day. I tried to put these on a list where I would see them frequently and remember to work on them.

I created a routine that was more like blocks of time to accomplish tasks than a strict schedule to follow by the minute. This routine was posted on our refrigerator and had a column for half hour increments on the left and a column for me and each child, youngest to oldest. I planned my daily routine considering when the younger ones would need my attention and when the older ones needed my help with assignments or grading. This routine also laid out meals and cleaning chores for each. I blocked out times when we would be in worship, both as having individual quiet times and at church with other believers. Our routine included exercise, yardwork, finances, and projects. Friday nights were blocked out for Family Night and Saturday evenings were Date Nights. We were sure to have other families over to create friendships on the weekend. Time for our many goals were allotted for on our routine chart.

Action

As you can see, making goals and creating routines were an important part of our family life. They allowed us to accomplish our goals and value our relationships. I hope you will set aside some time to create some goals and a routine to help your Fall be the best it can be.

May God bless your healthful endeavors!

Joni

P.S. My Fall goal is to get the new business up and running. What’s yours?  

Please take a moment to reply to this email and let me know what your goal is.