goals: fifth and sixth editions

I know what you all are thinking.  "Alison hasn't posted anything about her resolution since she was complaining about having too many goals in May... She must have given up like the rest of the world."  Wrong!  Guess again!  I've been just as diligent as ever (just less diligent about writing about my diligence).  Here we go!

May

As some of you may recall, my initial goal in May was to try doing all the goals from the previous months.  I wanted to make them more firm habits.  Well, I was over my head, what with school ending, so I decided my new goal for May was to finish the school year with grace.  Good news there!  Things were crazy and hard, and I didn't get much done outside of school, but everything I wanted to accomplish *in* school, I did, and I'm really happy with how it went.  Did I tell you about the ten kids who spontaneously showed up in my classroom to help me clean it an hour before my checkout appointment with the janitor?  They were wonderfully amazing, I love them, and Heavenly Father is merciful.  And thus ended Month 5.

June

I was out of town for almost the whole month spending time with my family, so my goal was a little different in June.  Habits I develop on vacation don't tend to stick around when the vacation ends - life is so different, the goals don't carry over very well.  I flew home and then drove with my family to my grandma's house to help her clean some stuff out and have the world's biggest garage sale. :)  

I had two goals for June:

1. Enjoy every minute with my family as much as possible (and not spend my mental energy missing Joel, who was a peach to let me be gone so long).

2. Strengthen my relationships with them, especially focusing on my younger sisters.  They were who I'd be spending the most time with + one was leaving on an 18-month mission soon + the other is starting college soon + they've always been who I've had to watch my tone around the most, so it made sense to try to make the most of our time together!

Basically, I wanted to avoid arguments, judging, and Facebook (ie, not being present), and be helpful.  :)

Man!  Focusing on thinking before speaking makes a difference!  There were many instances where thinking first came in extremely handy, and a couple where I was almost physically biting my tongue to keep negative comments inside.  It worked!  Peace and harmony abounded.  :)  It was an AWESOME trip, and I am extremely happy with how both of my goals turned out.  

Stay tuned for July!

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“He somehow could not find words to tell them what it meant to him,

to see them all ranged there, on his side.”

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix