Well here we are! Halfway through 2019. In some ways January feels so very long ago and in others, it feels like yesterday we were thick in the bitterness of winter, still figuring out a groove with a then newborn Ev and nearly no sleep. I held off on sharing my July goals until tonight for a variety of reasons and those are:

I wanted to take time to look back on my overarching 2019 goals to see if they still reflect the direction I want to go this second half of the year and beyond. Some goals are absolutely still things I am working towards (like learning to love myself well, that’s still very much a project in progress!) but some goals have transformed and shifted, and that was both surprising and satisfying. I’m hoping to share more about these changes later this fall both out of respect for current clients and to get my thoughts together in an articulate and strategic way.

And July is the start of an eight week period of what I hope isn’t chaos in my business and life but could easily be so. This week we have a family road trip to Canada for my friend Ashley’s wedding, which we are thrilled to be attending as guests. But I am also doing her flowers so this requires a different approach to packing our car up and planning out our trip. From there it’s back home to prep for a very large floral event, another family road trip to North Carolina, and then two large back to back events before August 18th. Every little bit of my time that’s not been spent enjoying the hot summer sun with my boys has been used to prepare for this upcoming schedule.

So let’s review my June goals:

• Submit a special project outline to a trusted friend for feedback (done)
• Have a nice visit with my dad when he visits us mid-month (done)
• Take an entire week of off all social media and content channels (semi-done)
• Organize our Boys’ Bins and share a blog post about this project! (done!)
• Blog five intentional blog posts throughout the entire month (done)
• Send out an awesome summer newsletter (done!)
• Clean out under our bed finally and tackle the car glove box (blah!)
• Visit Oval Beach twice, bonus if both visits happen in June (semi-done!)
• Replace the broken frame from our Legacy Wall with a print of Ev (ordered!)
• Read: The Glass Castle, You Who, and Holding Up the Universe (1/3 done)
• Go on two kid-free midday lunch dates with my husband (semi-done)
• Find an iron-rich, vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe! (guys, help!)

Rescheduled Goals: 

• Blog my perspective behind my Keeping the Peace vision (I promise I will get around to this!)
• Finish organizing the garage so Andrew’s car can fit in there too (wedding season took us a few steps back).

And in an effort to hopefully cross off rescheduled goals on top of accomplishing ones set for July, below is what’s on the docket for the next four weeks. I am hoping to keep things overly simple in July by being over-prepared for my many commitments. I plan to do this with a ‘conquer and soar’ approach and if you read my summer newsletter you’ll know what that means! Instead of surviving, I want to finish out the next two months by thriving.

My July goals:

• Have a wonderful time designing flowers for Ash and celebrating her and Matt’s marriage
• Enjoy our first official wedding of the season with a new team and dynamic approach
• Rock out my presentation at The School of Styling and learn new things from others
• Over-deliver and beautiful execute our August 3rd private residence wedding
• Keep The Peace throughout the month, and finally blog what this means for me

And a couple weekly goals to help me make it happen in July:

• Eat clean with no dairy or gluten
• In bed by 11:00 pm or earlier
• Keep home clutter to a minimum
• Stay on top of my pumping schedule
• Be disciplined with my decisions

As always, feel free to join in the conversation below and link to your monthly goals! Xo

Last year I shared a tour of our yard.

While our outdoor space has been pretty complete since then, we have made a few recent updates, namely the addition of a 12 by 12 foot cement patio off our covered wood deck. If you look at the photos from last year’s post you’ll see that the grassy area at the bottom of our porch stairs was very mossy. There was also a sloppy looking gap between the bottom stair and the ground closest to our home foundation. As a result we rarely used that part of our yard and never felt inclined to find other ways to make it work; it felt like a dark, damp, and dirty part of our yard. We’re so happy we made the small investment to upgrade this space and already have made it worthwhile.

We also restained our badly weathered porch in a rich chocolate color, bought four new plastic (kid-friendly!) adirondack chairs in lieu of a more expensive outdoor dining set and umbrella, updated the rug and decor under the covered porch, and of course, planted some new annuals in the various pots and containers you’ll see below.

This summer in Michigan has been VERY wet and rainy so the covered porch has been one of our few ways to actually be outside and stay dry. Our neighbor is always yelling over to us how much she wishes her porch was covered too! And on the few days where we’ve been blessed with sunshine we have loved the cement patio for making s’mores in our firepit, sitting out while the kids play in the grass and plastic pool, or watching our children play with our new neighbors’ kids (who have a sandbox AND a trampoline so you can imagine where Lachlan asks to go every morning!). Our backyard isn’t the most ideal because of the busy road and massive soon-to-start construction project happening right behind us but we have been enjoying it in simple ways I always imagined.

Here are a few photos from our cozy updated space!

I’m so happy with our beautiful upgraded rug! The palette of blues instead of the white and black scheme we previously had outside, feels more ‘us’ and in like with the timeless style we hope to adapt. The rug is from Target (as was the older one) and unlike the white stripes on the older rug, shows less dirt and grime. Zoe approves!

One of these years we will get around to having an actual vegetable garden; a longstanding dream of mine!

In the meantime our two railing planters with basil, oregano, dill, and rosemary suffice. We also have three large pots at the side of our home with tomatoes and yellow wax beans! Lachlan is enjoying the days we go out to see the progress our veggies have been having, which with the rain is a lot.

Now if only I could have you all over for an iced coffee on the back patio!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour and a slice of our peaceful backyard space. I’d love to know what some of your favorite outdoor spaces include or what your backyard dreams are made of. Join me in the conversation below! And finally, thank you as always to Sam for her lovely photos. Everything is sourced below for you. Xoxo

Furniture, rug, watering can, throw pillows, multiple-wick citronella candle: Target / adirondack chairs: Menards / Plants and baskets: Flowerland and Countryside Greenhouse / white side table and ceramic garden stool: Homes Goods / shirt and green tie pants: J Crew / slingbacks: Lulus