May Monthly Goals
As I write my May monthly goals, I should tell you what happened in April because these goals posts are when I talk about the behind the scenes here in my life.
April was a very busy month for me. I am still recovering from the load actually. I was very busy with my kids approaching the end of the year and exams season and then again I was concentrating on giving my children the much needed one on one time. I am happy to say most of my last months goals were accomplished but of course, a few were neglected. For example, we still don’t have menu plans for soups and salads!
My son scored an A in Arabic. This was a very big accomplishment for him. The tot has learnt to play on her own if I let her stay with me in the same room. We have had some fun adventures as a family too. We went looking for all the Horse Riding Schools here in Jeddah!! We also donated all the old stuff that I wanted to purge at this new place we discovered.
I have had a lot going on in the blog here so the original April goals were put on hold. As you can see we have a new logo and a new design. I’ve rebranded to include what we really do around here. I felt the old design was giving out the wrong message. This blog is about Parenting, Crafts and our expat lifestyle here. Somehow, crochet was taking centre stage. I’ve noticed my most popular posts are about Jeddah and my readers are mostly Jeddawis. Welcome to your page now!
April felt more successful because I learnt (finally) a few tricks that have saved me time and energy when it comes to blogging.
You know like batch cooking, I’ve applied the same trick to my blogging graphic designing. I had been stressing like crazy about the A-Z of Akhlaaq series being incomplete. I had done a series last Ramadan on teaching children the manners and morals in Islam. Although we completed the series at home but unfortunately writing it all up and putting it online complete with the picture editing and graphic designing was too much. I was short on time due to it being ramadan and fasting but more so I was so tired at the end of it all. Also, sometime during that time, all my photos were lost when my iPhone blew up. I lost all my pics. One reason after the other, the posts got delayed and the series did not make it online. When I did get time to sit down and work on it months later, I was completely taken over by the whole task of putting all those letters online. The posts were just a few lines long as I had written just what our idea had been and what we worked on. I needed to write in detail from the points and also I had to work on whatever remaining pictures I had. I also wasn’t sure where on my hard drive they were. I felt defeated. Until this month, when I sat down and actually decided that the pictures could wait. What I have written was enough to put all those ideas across to you. I am sure those posts can help you teach your children the manners and morals that our children so need to learn.
So finally, one day in April, it took me a little more than half an hour to make graphics for all the remaining letters! How? I made a template and then just edited the words. Same pic, different words. Why didn’t I think of this last year?!!
Note to self, if I were do another series again, this is how to prepare in advance!
The series will be online completely by the end of this month and as Ramadan is coming I will be doing this series with my children again. There will be a A-Z of Akhlaaq 2016 series. God Willing.
Planning my May Monthly Goals
In May, I am planning my vacation. It isn’t final and we are still working on it but I am hoping that after two years, I’ll get a real vacation. The goals however are vague because I already have so much on my plate still…
- I wanted a professional logo so instead of hiring someone to work on my logo, I signed up for a course that will teach me about branding and designing business logos. It is an online course and I have all the time in the world to do it but with summer starting and more time on my hands, hopefully I can study. 🙂
- Kids start vacations at the end of this week that means we have 100 days of holidays. Yay!! We need to work on a new schedule. I’ve sat with them yesterday and we’ve talked about it. Now to get it on paper, printed and stuck on a wall in poster size!
- Prepare for Ramadan. Enough said.
That is it. My May monthly goals. What are your plans?
Monthly goals are a great way to keep track of all the things you want to do in your very busy life. It helps me feel accountable and motivated too. Check out what my friends are doing…