There are 56 days left in 2018.

A few friends and I have been following along with Rachel Hollis's "Last 90 Days", where she has challenged people to make the last 90 days of the year count.

Well, I was successful in following her "Five to Thrive" for about 15 out of 31 days in October.

And now...that 90 days has dwindled down to 56 days.

So this weekend, I've taken some time to regroup and do some planning for the next two months.  

The girls and I did some deep-cleaning in our bedrooms and the rest of the house.

I planned out our meals for the next few weeks.

We set some goals for ourselves and made a commitment to make these last few months of the year meaningful.

If you're feeling like things have gotten out-of-control and you just want to gain some peace and calm in the near future, feel free to join me in building some habits in the next 56 days that will help us to enjoy the holiday season.

More info to come in the morning.  

​❤️🏡❤️

When I knew I was going to be leaving the classroom at the end of last school year, I discovered that there was lots of work to be done...starting with cleaning out 13 years of teaching supplies from my classroom.

I was moving from a room that housed myself, over twenty children at any given time, and years and years of classroom materials, personal belongings, and random items I had kept "just in case".

As I mentioned in my blog post on Monday...usually, "just in case" never came.

I started the process of getting my room emptied just as soon as school was out. 

I donated.
I trashed.
I boxed up.
And I even sold a few items.

By the end of June, all that was left was a pile of tubs in the middle of the room that needed to be moved down to my new office.

On the afternoon of June 29th, I started the process of transforming my new office into my own.

I started to think of my office in terms of the "zones" I would need to have.

I needed:

• somewhere to store books & other resources in binders.
  
• an "inbox" for people to drop things off for me.
  
• an "outbox" for items that needed to be delivered to various parts of the building.
• a flat workspace where I could spread out when I was working on a project.
• a place to hold my computer monitors and sound equipment.
• storage for office supplies and other miscellaneous items.
• seating for when I need to hold meetings.

With these goals in mind, I started the process of going through every single drawer and shelf in the office.

After I had been through every piece of paper and book in the office, I started to organize what was there.

Finally, I decided what items I would keep from my tubs and sent the rest home or to the donate pile.

When my systems were clear, I was ready to decorate.

Armed with my clearance finds from Hobby Lobby and Big Lots, the transformation was complete.

So without further ado...here's my farmhouse office.

The new position has been all I had dreamed of and more.  

I'm so thankful for God's providence and guidance over the last several years to bring me to the place I am right now.

Happy Sunday night from the farmhouse, friends.

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And just like that...the last school year of my teaching career is over.

You might remember a few months ago when I announced my new position as the director of special services in my current district.

At the time that I agreed to this position, back in late August of last year, it seemed like a lifetime away.

It seemed like there was so much more time left in my classroom.  I mean, nine months is a LONG time, right?

And yet, here we are...the last day of school.

I'd be lying if I said I was over-joyed as I left the school parking lot today.

Yes, I'm excited for my new journey, but I feel like every time a season in our lives comes to an end, there is some grieving that must take place.

I have known that public education was the career choice for me ever since I can remember.

There was never a time in my life that I thought of any other career choice.

I can remember being preschool age and "playing school" with my dolls and stuffed animals in my bedroom.  (I always tried to recruit my little brother, but it wasn't quite as enjoyable for him.)

My new role is exciting and refreshing and something I am looking forward to.

But in reality, there are things I am losing.  

Things I'm giving up.

Things I am having to let go of.

Building relationships with the same 20-30 kids day-in and day-out.

Being able to make an impact in the daily lives of the students in my classroom.

Creating lessons that are engaging and interesting for my kiddos.

Spending time with some of my dearest friends all day, every day...my hallway colleagues.

Yes, I know I'll still be making a difference.
I know I'll still be able to connect with children.
I know I'll still have an impact.
I know I'll be in the same building I've been in for the last eleven years.

But this afternoon, my students of nine months walked out of my room.

I waved goodbye to my students and headed straight to the cafeteria to set up for the celebration we have at the end of every year.

When the staff get-together was finished, I headed back to my room.

I walked down a mostly empty hallway to my mostly empty classroom.

And it was then that I had a few tears.

Okay, I had a lot of tears.

Even tonight, as I sit here typing this, I have a tear rolling down my cheek.

There are a lot of things to look forward to..

There's a lot to be excited about.

But there are also a lot of things to be sad about...and that's okay.

I think that sometimes we feel like there's something wrong with grief.

Like we shouldn't feel sad when we are moving into something that seems bigger and better.  Why would I be sad about this opportunity?  Why would I have a hard time moving into a position that seems so perfect for me? 

Well...because it's normal.

It's completely natural to grieve the seasons of our lives.

Change is necessary and important...but change can also be difficult and painful.

So as I sit here tonight on the farmhouse front porch, watching the fireflies blinking away in the field across the road...I will just have a good cry.  You might remember that I believe ugly-crying is a vitally important part of life.

I will cry for the thirteen years I spent in a classroom.

I will cry for the dear friends and colleagues...my teaching BFFs.

I will cry for lesson planning and connecting with "that one kid" and lightbulb moments for struggling learners.

I will cry for read-aloud chapter books, scented chart markers, and my favorite bright pink fake leather rolling office chair that I bought on clearance for $15 a few years ago.

I will cry for my teaching partner who has become like an older brother to me over the last ten years.  I will cry for the comfort and the security and the partnership that will change drastically in the near future.

I will cry and I will smile.

I will look back fondly on the experiences and lessons and memories that have become so important to me inside the walls of my classroom.

I will clean out that classroom over the next few weeks and I will move (some of) my belongings down the hallway to my new office.

I can't promise that there won't be more tears. 

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Cherish the seasons, friends.  Each of our seasons is filled with important lessons and precious memories.

But grieve the seasons if you have to. 

Tears from the farmhouse tonight...and hope for tomorrow.

Much love,
"Mrs. Newkirk"

❤️🏡❤️

Back in January, I made the goal to read 30 books in 2018.

Well, it's mid-April and I am in the middle of books number SIX and SEVEN.

Book number six is The 7 Experiment (Jen Hatmaker).

And book number seven is The Principal: Three Keys to Maximizing Impact (Michael Fullan).

I will post a completed list at year-end, but for today, I would love to talk to you about the book I finished just last week, The 12-Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Get Done in 12 Months (Brian P. Moran & Michael Lennington).

I immediately downloaded it and started listening to it that night.

Wow.

The concepts in the book were so obvious and yet, I needed to hear them so badly.

How many of us wake up on January 1st every single year with so many hopes and dreams for the year?

We make goals (New Years' Resolutions, if you will), whether on paper or in our heads.

There are so many things we want to accomplish by December 31st, and yet by the time February hits, adequate progress towards most of our goals has not been made.

We don't have to work too hard in January and February because December is still SO...FAR...AWAY.

We push through March and April, making excuses as to why we are not moving towards our goals.

It's so cold.

When it warms up, I will get to work on those goals.  I promise!

When the school year ends, I'll have so much more time to focus on my plans.

There's still PLENTY of time to meet my goals before the end of the year!  We're not even halfway through the year!

May, June, and July come and go.

The summer is just so busy.  When school starts, I'll be able to focus more.

It's too hot!

Summer is for rest and relaxation.

By the time we hit August and September, we are ready to get the kids back into the routine of school and get to work on those "New Years' resolutions"!

But it's just crazy when everyone is trying to get back into the grind of school.

On October 1st, it hits us...we only have three more months to reach our goals.

We start to get a glimpse of the urgency that is needed if we're going to hit our goals before January 1st, but by this point...it feels like it's too late.

We'll try again next year.

With all of the changes coming in our life over the next six months, I knew that I needed to get it together.

I'll be starting a new job on August 1st and life will be different at the farmhouse at that time if we don't start to mark some things off of our giant to-do list.

The basic premise of the 12-week year is that we get rid of our "annualized" thinking when it comes to goal-setting and working towards making our vision for our life a reality.

We start to think of each 12-week section of time as a year.

Instead of putting off tasks until the end of the year when the urgency starts to take over, we keep that sense of urgency year-round, while setting realistic goals and focusing on the execution of daily tasks to help us reach our desired result.

"If you want to know what your future holds, look at your current daily actions. Those are the best predictor of your future.  Not your hopes and dreams and visions. Your daily action. Because daily action is what moves a person forward."

We can have the most well thought-out vision and the most wonderful plan in the world.

However, if we don't execute well...none of that matters.

So remember as you think about your vision, your goals, and your plan that we need to also think about the effectiveness of our execution.

We have to DO the hard work every stinking day.  Even when we don't feel like it.

We are in Week 2 of our first 12-week year and we are LOVING the results we are seeing.

I'm going to take you through the process of how Mr. Farmhouse and I ​set up our first 12 weeks.

This is, in no way, a substitution for you reading the actual book and following the plan. 

​But I'm hoping it can at least inspire you to get started!

1. Write out your personal vision for your life 10 or 15 years down the road.

Be specific!  Close your eyes and picture the life you've always dreamed about!  There's no goal too lofty.  Just write it all down!

2. Based on that vision, think about what parts of that vision you could work towards for the next three years.

We are zooming in at this point.  

We're taking that lifelong vision and breaking it into more measurable and attainable chunks.  ​

We went through our vision and wrote some attainable goals.

I'm not going to share every single part of our personal family vision because your vision should be your own.

However, on our long-term vision, we wrote that we want to be completely debt-free in ten years.

So for our three-year plan, we want to work towards having everything paid off except for the farmhouse and my student loans.

3. Based on your three-year goals, set goals for the next 12 weeks.

We are zooming in even farther at this point.

What can we do to move ourselves closer to meeting that long-term vision and that three-year goal in the next three months?

At this point, we broke down our 12-week plan into fourteen very specific, small, and attainable goals.

It includes blogging goals, a plan to get my classroom completely cleaned out before I move into an office next year, and a plan for our first garden here at the farmhouse.

On this step, be specific. 
Be detailed. 
And be realistic.

4. Create a weekly plan including activity that needs to be completed every week to help you reach your goals.

We did this on the Sunday evening before we started into our first week.

These are very specific tasks that will move you toward your 12-week goals.

Here's an example of this from our 12-week year.

We want to finish the wall and closet for the fourth bedroom.

During week 1, we needed to measure the closet and wall space and make a materials list.  We needed to order the supplies from Sutherland's.  These are the only two tasks for that goal that we could realistically finish in Week 1.

But we finished those two tasks and moved farther along in the process than we have in the last six weeks.

We aren't putting that task it off any longer because now it seems manageable. 
It seems attainable.

We can do this!

5. Every single week, check your progress from the previous week and plan the next week.

This part is crucial to the success of the 12-week year.

What daily action did you carry out regarding each goal?
How much progress did you make towards your goals?
Were you diligent in doing the hard work every single day?

If not...OWN IT and vow to do better this week!

After checking your progress, make a new weekly plan!

In the book, Moran talks about three different blocks of time we need to religiously schedule each week.

Strategic Blocks - 3 hours of protected time early in the week where you knock out a lot of your weekly activity work  (1 time per week)
Buffer Blocks - 30 minutes to one hour blocks of time where you do those mundane yet necessary daily tasks like checking emails and social media (1-2 times per day)
Breakout Blocks - 3 hours of time later in the week where you BREAKOUT of the work cycle and focus on pouring back into yourself (1 time per week)

I tried this schedule this week and could not believe how much more I was able to accomplish during that first strategic block when I wasn't distracted by emails, my phone, or other daily (sometimes meaningless) tasks that I spend so much time on each week.

Week 13 in the 12-week year is for reflection and celebration!

Because you're not thinking about the annual goals that are looming over you, you are able to be more focused on a few attainable goals and the tasks that will get you to the end result you desire.

I would encourage you to grab the book or at the very least, try to plan your own 12-week year soon.

You won't be sorry.

Happy Windy Saturday from the farmhouse, friends.

Week 2...here we come!

❤️?❤️

Every single year, I take pictures of the girls and purchase Christmas cards in the beginning of December.

Every single year, I don't send them on time.

Like really...

Every. Single. Year.

In fact, when we moved out to the farmhouse, I literally kept three prints from the last several years' of cards and threw the rest away.  😫

And in mid-December, I mailed some!

I mailed a whole SIX cards, in fact!  

I also handed out some cards at church and even gave some to a few of our family members!

That is a definite improvement from years past.

However, come January 31st, the rest of them were still in a pile in my office...ready to be mailed out.

So I set a goal for myself to mail them by Valentine's Day.

And this morning, I am dropping them off to the post office.

I didn't order as many cards as I did in the past and didn't even get to some of the people on my Christmas card list...so I still wouldn't call it a success.

But it was an adequate effort.

Maybe 2018 will be the year that I get my Christmas card life together.

We'll see.

Merry Valentine's Day from the Farmhouse, friends.

'Tis the Season! 

❤️🎁🏡🎄❤️

Sigh.

New. 

It's such a great word.

So fresh.  So promising.  So full of hope.

Happy New Year, friends.

Here we are.  January 1st.

I used to set goals for the new year in several different categories.

• Faith
• Health
• Finances
• Career
• Marriage & Parenting
• Friendships
• Fun

I made these big elaborate lists and sometimes I stuck to one or two of my "resolutions".

A few years ago, however, I began trying to really focus in on one word or phrase each new year.  

One year it was "balance", another year it was "no".  

"Intentional."

​"Peace."

This year, I've had three words and/or phrases running through my mind over the last few weeks, so I think I'll use them all as my focus for 2018.

Be transformed.

Our minister has been preaching for the last several weeks on the transformation that should come from knowing Jesus.

I want to focus this year on being transformed because of Who Jesus is.  

I want people to be able to see Him in every aspect of my life.

I want to be transformed.

Unplug.

I read an article this week about the addictive nature of a cell phone for young kids.

I was convicted about the addictive nature of technology for myself.

I know that technology can be a good thing, but I think sometimes satan uses good things to distract us from our purpose.

The purpose of being a good wife.

...of raising Kingdom kids.

...of building deep relationships with people.

...of creating a home environment that is beautiful for our families.

...of taking care of ourselves so we can pour into others.

This year I will set limitations on social media usage and spend more time focusing on face-to-face interaction with those I love.

Do fewer things, better.

I am notorious for working hard to balance too many spinning plates.

I can usually multi-task without much problem. 

I say "yes" often to lighten the load for others.

I get a lot accomplished and a lot of times, those accomplishments are just "good enough". 

This year, I want to simplify.
To minimize.
To do fewer things and to do them better.

What are your goals for 2018? 
Do you set resolutions? 
If you could choose one word to take with you this year...what would it be?

Make it a great year, friends!

New Year's Love from the Farmhouse,
Hannah

​❤️🏡❤️