Mid-Year Focus Phrase Review

The first half of 2023 has flown by; it is hard to believe it is already July. There have been ups and downs in our lives so far this year, and I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on how things were going with our goals and what I might need to adjust to keep myself on track for the second half of the year.

My focus phrase for this year is “Making Space .” I wanted to make space in three main areas of our lives: homeschooling, family time, and my spiritual life. I have had some successes and areas I still need to work on.

Homeschool

In our homeschool, I think I did a good job of changing schedules to give my teens more time to pursue their passions, especially my daughter’s music. We were able to take some classes off of her plan that she would not need for graduation and make room for more music classes.

God also opened some doors for her to see the violin used in contemporary praise and worship, and then just a week or two later, she was given a chance to practice and worship with another group. She is doing several camps this summer to work on her music and is currently working with our worship pastor on incorporating her viola into our worship band. ( One day, I will write a whole post on how God worked this out because it was totally a God thing.)
My oldest son is enjoying the summer off coursework to focus on his business and hopefully get things set up for a better business/schoolwork balance in the fall. His is more complicated because he wants to take a full course load to help complete some college classes so that he can graduate in less time.

Family Time

Family time is an area where I am struggling. We added some activities that were super beneficial to the teens in their music and business endeavors, but I did not do a great job taking out other things to keep the balance.
We prioritized our morning time and family meals, but I feel like we are rushing from place to place and activity to activity, so I will sit down with my husband over the next couple of weeks to see what we can do to bring back that balance.

Spiritual Life

In addition to our family Bible time, I wanted to be more intentional about my personal Bible time. I have since started a Bible plan with several ladies from my church. We have been reading through the Bible in a year and keeping each other accountable through a texting thread.

Conclusions

Overall, I think we have done a great job making space in our homeschool, and I have made great strides in my personal spiritual life. However, as I look at the last six months, I know I need to do more to make space in our family life.

Your Turn

Reflecting on our progress is essential to continue making progress and course correcting as needed. I would love to know your goals for this year and how you are progressing. Do you regularly reflect on your progress?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always, I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!