Happy March! We are in the final month of the first quarter of 2021, how it going for you? I know that it can be really easy to be discouraged when things haven’t gone the way we planned, but I want to remind you that progress is progress – no matter how small! So let’s get our powersheets out and look ahead to finish this first quarter of the year strong (Don’t know what Powersheets are? Start Here!)

My focus for this year is to worship the Lord in all things. I want to worship the Lord in how I spend my days, in my goals, and through every big and small victory!

My Tending List

This month my top priority is prayer. It can be SO easy to not pray, but that is our direct communication to the Lord! We should not only use it, but use it with joy and gladness! The Lord used this podcast episode to change my heart and stir me to make this a greater priority (listen to this episode “Taking Root: Have You Prayed About It” on Spotify or here is the link for Apple Podcasts) For this season of Lent, I am also getting into the habit of saying the Lord’s Prayer everyday and I made part of it – the part that has been drastically changing my heart – my encouraging words.

Monthly Goals:

• Cultivate a Life-Giving Platform: I am using a new wildcard I made and am testing out (leave a message in the comments if you think I should add it to the Grace + Goals Wildcard Library!) I believe God can use everything He puts in our hands, and that includes our phones and technology. My platform is the ministry He has called me to, and I want to make sure I steward it well.
• Finance Check In: This is a joint monthly goal as a couple; as we work to be good stewards over all God has given us, the most important part of that is how we manage our money. So we are making time for us to check in with one another every other week on all of our purchases and bills. When we respect one another in all things, we can love one another even better.
• Date Night: Jared and I also made a goal to “Love One Another Well” and one of the action steps from our mini goal was to get back into a date night routine.
• Celebrate the Good: I am a BIG believer that fighting to see the good is very worth the fight, and I track one victory every day with this quarterly wildcard (you can download this exact one I’m using here!)
• Refresh Goals: Yay! We are coming up on a goal refresh which we are promoted to do in our powersheets every 90 days. This will help us refocus and refresh for the next quarter of 2021!
• Garden Phase 1: It is finally time! The first set of seeds along with the ranunculus corms will be planted in week 12! Seed starting is easily on of my FAVORITE parts of the year!
• Crafting Project: Sam, one of the PSP Gals, and I have a goal to try a new craft/artistic project every quarter and we are going to make that happen. This craft will involve confetti and I am so excited!
• PSP Night: As always us PSP Gals get together once a month to close out the current month and make our tending lists for the upcoming month! Easily the best part of my month!
• Grow The PSP Gals: we are having the MOST fun cheering y’all on! If you haven’t seen our account yet, you definitely should check it out!

Weekly Goals:

• Love Jared Well: spend intentional time together without our phones.
• Mentorship Meetings: Mentoring is really important to me and I have two women who are not only dear friends, but mentors with so much experience in ministry and life. I want to make sure that I stay in touch as they help me process and pray though life and ministry.
• Sabbath: This is my top priority this month! This is a crossover goal for me, one of the BEST ways we can worship the Lord is by resting. A sabbath day isn’t about rules, it’s about trusting the Lord and leaving the hustle. We can rest because we know that taking a day off to worship Him and give our minds and bodies a break isn’t going to ruin us; the Lord calls us to rest for our benefit and for His witness.
• Weekly Worship Devotional: Worship is my word of the year, to help me embrace that I am using a special edition of the classic Write the Word Journal: Cultivate Worship from P31 ministries (which has a little under a years worth of weekly devotions on worship.) I will be using this WTW Journal weekly to reflect on how I am worshiping Him well.
• Send Happy Mail: Cultivate What Matters released gorgeous and very affordable happy mail collection in the shop! I want to get back into the habit of sending happy mail now that I have a whole host of new cards! Want to shop for some pep talk postcards or the encouraging card set? Check them out here!

Daily Goals: I use my daily goals more as a habit tracker than a strict goal and it gives me more freedom in seasons of uncertainty.

• No Spend: I want to be more responsible and not make rash purchases so this will help hold me accountable to our financial goals.
• Downtime: I’ve gotten lazy about utilizing the “downtime” option on my phone so I am going back to limiting my ability to get onto all forms of social media or other unproductive, time-sucking apps with Fridays and Saturdays off. To keep me accountable, I put the parental controls on it and had Jared put in the screen time passcode so if I want to extend my time I need to ask. This worked well for me in the past, and hope to see good things come from it moving forward. (I should note that Jared will also extend it whenever I ask, I am in full control, but he is also good about asking me if I “really want him to do that” and more often than not I say no and let the temptation go.)
• Water Pilea: I am continuing to water the pilea plant everyday and it has resurrected that plant and is now thriving!
• Little by Little: Rather than using a monthly wildcard page to highlight how God is moving in my life, I am using the Little by Little Journal (currently sold out) to do that.
• Prayer: I am going through a “box” a day and my bold prayers box every day (see what I mean by prayer box here) and then I also say the Lord’s Prayer. I want to make sure I am spending intentional time with the Lord in direct communication with Him.
• In the Word: I aim to be in the Word in some form everyday and am tracking it in my calendar!

My Calendar Spread

Each month, I use my calendar to help me stay on top of my appointments, meetings, and garden through a sticker code I have which makes my calendar less cluttered and more private. I also use my calendar to track my time in the Word. I keep track in my Daily Action Items on my Tending List, but go into a little bit more detail about how I chose to spend time in the Word by highlighting the box with the method I chose.

I also track my mood, this is something The PSP Gals and I are all doing and we are having a blast learning more about ourselves!

My Wildcard Choices

This month I am trying out a New Wildcard I am calling, “Cultivate a Life-Giving Platform” to help me steward the hearts of my followers well in effort to do by best and then let God do the rest. Let me know in the comments if you think I should add this wildcard to the Grace + Goals Resource Library!

I am also continuing to use my “Celebrate Every Tiny Victory” quarterly wildcard. You can download your own here!

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What is your top priority as you finish out the first 90 days of the year? I’d love to cheer you on 🎉

In case you didn’t know, here on Living the Chronic Illness Life you now have access to the Grace + Goals Resource Library which helps you tailor your goal setting and powersheets to seasons of uncertainty. You can find all the info here!

Don’t have a set of Powersheets yet? Don’t worry you can get a 6 month set now!

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Cassie Nolin is a married spoonie who lives the chronic illness life with EDS + Co. (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and it’s comorbid conditions.) She challenges others to choose grace over guilt while goal setting, and is in ministry part time serving the online community through Grace + Goals and The Spoonie Study. She loves planting, hand lettering, and sharing the hope she has found in Jesus. Her blog, Living the Chronic Illness Life, is in the top 100 chronic illness blogs and in 2019 she launched her podcast, Chronically Cultivating, where Cassie encourages women to live authentic and intentional lives through their diagnosis’ not in spite of them. You can learn more about her at www.livingthechronicillnesslife.com

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