Make {Joy-Filled} JULY Happen

Hoorah! It's my second favorite month of the year! (December takes the cake for many, many reasons...) To think that June was once here and now gone in the blink of an eye baffles me. I think I'm sensing a theme for this year. Looking back over the last month, I am so thankful for how it played out. The first two weeks were FULL of work details, finishing my time at Anthropologie and wrapping up my second children's show. With those two under my belt, my days became wide open, allowing plenty of time for rest and adventures with friends before the big move. The move which, by the way, is the day after tomorrow. Woah. Talk about starting July off with a bang!

Yesterday also marked the end of my #100happydays challenge. I blogged about Parts 1, 2, and 3 if you were following along, and you can expect a 4th and final recap later this week. The premise of the challenge was to find the good in your day and document it. Keeping up with it for 100 days was daunting at first but a breeze once things got rolling! When I finally typed that 1-0-0 and hit "share" I was grinning from ear to ear! And then I realized... it's over. Bummer.

But it's not over. Choosing joy each day is something I want to continue and cultivate as a deep heart-habit, not just as a once-loved trend. In an effort to continue choosing joy, I am declaring this to be a Joy-Filled July. Ann Voskamp encouraged me to begin a 1000 gifts journal, and the 100 Happy Days challenge sent me sharing on social media. How about we combine the two? During the month of July I will be sharing my joys with the hasthag #joyfilledjuly. Won't you join me?

Now for a recap of June's goals, and the reveal of my goals for July. June was a funny month, split half and half between work and unemployment, and then once I started packing to move quite a bit of my plans for productivity flew out the window. These are the days I am thankful for grace.

June Goals:

Make time with Jesus a priority. This should be at the top of my list every month, becoming so engrained in my heart and life that it no longer has to be listed. June was a sweet season of spending time with Jesus and I cannot wait to see where July brings us!
Commit to Peter Pan and finish strong. What a show! My students were simply wonderful. When everything came to an end, I was proud to call it my most successful show and so sad to leave my kiddos. We laughed, we cried, we said goodbye and they serenaded me with songs from the show. I melted.
Keep up with The Daniel Plan. This will reappear soon. June was... not the month to take this on.
Make progress on Project Life. I love this scrapbooking system more and more every time I work on it. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked in June, but once the packing started these goodies went into bags and boxes. I probably won't do much more until August, but I can't wait to share the progress!
Get rid of the excess. The last bag and box of my "to get rid of" pile goes to Goodwill today. I sold plenty of pretties to friends and roommates, which will make the move much easier. However... I still think my car is going to explode.
Change addresses as needed (home & e-mail). Oops. This needs to be done this afternoon!
Brainstorm the new dreams. Ah! It's on a brief pause but I get more and more excited when I think about it!

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! July appears to be another funny month, but let's see if we can't knock out a few things along the way, hm?

July Goals:

Move to Texas. Heyo! This happens in a few short days! I am headed home for the summer before going to OSU for grad school, and I am thrilled to be back in the Lone Star State. If you're around, hit me up!
Soak up time with family. I have missed my family so much, and this move has truly taught me the importance of home. I am excited about spending the next few weeks with my parents and siblings, and for trips to my grandparents' house just down the road. 
Follow She Reads Truth's Sermon on the Mount plan. My study pack came in two weeks ago and I've been itching to start. You can find the plan on their website, and their app should be releasing sometime this month! 
Organize my storage room. Yikes. Just before graduating from Baylor, I threw everything into boxes and loaded it into a storage building back home. It's been over a year since I've seen any of those things and I have some major cleaning/organizing to do before the move part II.
Spend a week with my bestie! I don't think you understand how excited I am for this! Claire is most likely driving up from Louisiana so we can spend some quality time together around my birthday. The distance this year has been far too far!
Turn 23. I don't think this needs too much explanation ;) Also, I fully expect Taylor Swift to write a song about this age within the next two weeks or I will be sorely disappointed.
Appointments, appointments, appointments. In my adventure year, I missed many a dentist, doctor, dermatologist, you-name-it appointment. It sounds boring but is definitely a necessity before school. 
Rest, Relax, Refresh. My weeks are wide open, something typically frightening to this plan-down-to-the-minute gal. But my schedule will return to its usual crazy state come August, so I hope to learn how to truly rest and enjoy this gift of a summer God has given me. 

What are your goals for this glorious month? Any favorite 4th of July traditions? Mine may or may not include scoping out the Christmas section at Hobby Lobby... Actually, it totally does ;)