The Johnson Crew!

One two three four hi friends thanks for joining me today today I thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a life update like what's really been going on with us more on a personal note over the last several months um not just homeschool related and some goals that I have set for this month so grab a cup of coffee or a cup of water maybe a basket of clothes to fold and let's chat what's funny is that I actually grabbed a basket of clothes to fold while talking to you

But I am terrible at multitasking so for me to fold and talk about stuff to the camera I mean if I was hanging out with somebody that's different but I just can't think and do something else at the same time anyway so my laundry is sitting here just staring at me waiting for me to fold it as soon as I'm done with this but anyways so I think the last time that I gave y'all a life update was like back in the spring where I shared with you that I was closing the business that I had started last year if you haven't seen that video yet I'll leave a link to it in the description box below it would be good for you to

Like kind of catch up on that for more of this to make sense but anyways um I don't want to repeat it all in case you have already seen it so since then since deciding to close my business things have been so much better so much better I'm not really sure why I even tried to bite that off at the time like it was too much so I have been a lot happier a lot more content since then and have been able to do so much better in all my other pre-existing roles you know Mom wife homeschool Mom all those things

And so ah it's just been so much better and it's funny like going through that experience it gave me an appreciation for even some of the mundane things like laundry uh you can't see my basket but it's sitting over here which is just crazy because I used to hate doing laundry but once I decided to close the business and I had more time available I was like all right I'm going to just improve myself improve things I want to do better at all these areas where I've just been dropping the ball over the last year let's let's do a better job

And so I've found a better laundry system that worked well for me and it like revolutionized how I get that tour done and now I don't hate it and it's just great um and and there's been a lot of things like that so oh I'm I am thankful for that experience it's given me a new appreciation for doing a good job at what sometimes feels like mundane tasks but somebody's got to do it right and might as well do it well so that has been good I was spending a lot of time like looking up YouTube videos

And listening to podcasts on how to do that business it was a subscription box so like how to do a subscription box business and it was learning so much about that and pouring a lot of my time into that so since you know giving that up I still really love watching educational YouTube videos and podcasts but they've been about other things now I can listen to spiritual ones when ones that are like sermons basically and I really love Jordan Peterson stuff you know psychology type of stuff being productive I love

So many other homeschool channels here on YouTube like they've given me so much inspiration so many great ideas on how to do better in my home school and so I've really really enjoyed having more time to listen and watch those kinds of things so if I'm like folding clothes or running around the house doing other chores I'll put one airpod in and listen to a podcast or YouTube video and it just makes me feel like I'm using my time wisely and productively and I've learned

So much and gleaned so much from these things that have been really great the summer was so great um it's we used to do homeschooling year round like a couple years ago and then I realized how much I really Thrive off of having that long summer break you know sometimes in order to really get into a project and like do it really well and get it finished you need more time you need more than just a week sometimes like to really get in there so having a whole summer to tackle different projects

And just even wrap my head around what really needed to get done around our house and in our home school was really really great so I've got several videos up from the Summer where we like reorganized our garage and our bathroom closet which is our medicine cabinet area and we redid the Homeschool Room like reorganized a lot of it got rid of a lot of stuff and actually decorated now this is not like decorated to the nines by any means but we finally put some things on the walls

And it looks so great and I love it and I'll leave links to those videos below so if you want to check that stuff out afterwards you can but it was just a really good summer we had so much fun did a lot of fun things and just really soaked it up did some good relaxing by the pool as well it was just it was good and yeah having that time over the summer to really think about how our home school had gone over the last year

And then make changes for this year was so great and it's funny that like actually me making YouTube videos actually helps me to be a better homeschooler so like it it keeps me accountable and it makes me want to do better in our home school so that I can try things out and then be able to share with you what works really well like here are some great things that are working well for us and hopefully that's going to help you do even better in your home school

And improve your family so it is kind of funny that like making these videos helps me get even more motivated to do even better in our home school so I really appreciate y'all coming here watching these videos chatting with me in the comments like sharing your ideas and thoughts and feedback and encouragement like all of that is is so encouraging I love the community that we have here and it's really fun let's talk about travel for a minute we did some traveling this year was pretty fun we we love to travel it's something that we definitely make sure that we put in our budget that we are like trying to hit those goals

So that we can go on these trips and so this past may my husband and I went on a 15-year anniversary trip to Mexico it was ever it was epic we went to Playa del Carmen stayed at a resort there and it was like next level I was honestly first day there like just walking into the room and out onto the balcony and seeing the place I got to tears like just being so thankful you know we we have all these children and just like to be able to take the time away with just the two of us to be in this beautiful place in the middle of God's creation like just all of it it just it hit me

So wonderfully I was just all struck by it all and just so grateful and thankful and I just it's something that growing up I just didn't Envision for my life really like that this would be where we are now and I'm extremely grateful to God extremely grateful to my husband for all of his hard work like it's it was really really awesome that trip was so life-giving it was exactly what we needed for our marriage like it was it just breathed new life into our marriage it was

So fun for us you know just having some time away I mean being a parent is it's a lot right and so having that time where you don't have any kids interrupting your conversation where you can just be spontaneous kids yourselves and just be fun free just having a great time not having all the normal to Do's of normal day life like it was just so much fun so if you haven't been on a trip with your husband in a while even if you can only steal away for a night put it at the top of your list you know do what you got to do to save up for it

And you know get that you know get get a family member on board to take care of your kids I'm extremely grateful for my brother-in-law and my niece and nephew who are teenagers that my kids adore they came here to our house our kids could still be in their space and they watched our kids while we were gone and it was so great and my kids had a blast with them I mean they just they love them and so we felt really good and comfortable leaving for several days

And knowing that they were in good hands so that was highlight of the year like counting down to when we could do that again so so so excited okay so that was one trip and then uh my baby sister I have three sisters so my youngest sister she had her second child back in June so we went back home to visit them we live in Savannah Georgia and we're from Virginia so we went back home to visit them and that was so great to meet my new niece

And have some newborn snuggles and then in July we took our family vacation we went to the West Coast of Florida Indian Shores Florida if you've never been to the Gulf Coast of Florida the sun sets over there over like the white sand beaches oh my goodness they are breathtaking they're gorgeous actually made a whole travel Vlog about that trip so I'll leave a link to that below let me know if you like to see travel Vlogs because I will try to do that more often if that's something that y'all are interested in seeing I really enjoy making them just for us to like have as a family memory for us to watch together later

But let me know if that's something that you like to watch as well and again that's something that is really important to us to put into our budget every year because it's just a special time right where you can just check out of work for a couple of days or a week and really have some intentional quality time with the family and that was really really great for us to not have chores or the normal to-do list that we all have right I really really treasure those times

And even though the days are long and honestly like the years are long right now too I don't know people I say like the years are short but I I guess I'll get there eventually but um I do see that like we only have so many Summers with our kids right like that when you look at that number it's like oh wow that is kind of a small amount so I really really love our family vacation time I want to make those memories with our kids those special memories

So that is something that's like high on our priority list so speaking of family vacations uh one of our goals that we've had for for years now like I've been dying to go on this particular trip as a family um is to go see the Grand Canyon to go out west and do a big road trip out there so we are finally set on making that happen next year next September and I am so excited about it it's just it has been on my mind

And I am super excited about it the way we're gonna do it we're not gonna drive all the way out there we're going to fly there and then rent an RV and drive around for a week and then fly back home and last year we actually did a little RV trip in Florida and the kids loved it they loved the RV so I think they're just as excited to see the Grand Canyon as they are to get another RV trip vacation so they're super excited

So we have started planning that and looking up different sites that we want to go see really the hardest part is like narrowing down what we can actually accomplish in a week's time so there's just so much of God's creation out there that is stunning that I'm dying to see oh I cannot wait so one of my goals for this month is to narrow down what we're going to actually do each day and book our campsites for each night you know got to figure out what town we're going to be in each night in order to book those campgrounds it's kind of a big logistical project honestly um

But I do really enjoy planning trips so this has been really fun for me okay let's talk about business if you don't already know my husband and I run a wedding photography business here in Savannah now this is mostly his thing he's the photographer but I help with all the business administration type of things in the background and some of the marketing and I really enjoy that but something that we've been talking about a lot over the last several months is how awesome it would be for us to do a wedding day together because what happens is I communicate with the clients all the way through this booking process which sometimes is like a year or more

And we're emailing and chatting that way but I don't get get to meet them because I don't take photos so I'm not at the wedding day or the engagement shoot and it's such a bummer like I would love to meet them and a wedding day is so long like he shoots a full day when he does weddings and so he's gone for most of the day and I would love to go and join him on some of those that would be super fun for us to do that together we already have to hire a second shooter to go

And shoot weddings with my husband but what would be really awesome is if we could do that together and I could be his second shooter because as much as he could train up someone else to be his second shooter it's just not going to compare to the communication that you have between a husband and a wife you know we could give each other a look and know what the other person needs or means and we would just have so much better Synergy and be able to work together really

Well and we know several other couples who do this and they love it and I I really want to be able to do that with him now I don't have a creative eye and honestly like the nitty-gritty technical details of how to take a good photo like oh has been a bit much for me to try to learn so like my big overarching goal is to be able to be his second shooter but when making a monthly goal it needs to be something that can be accomplished in a month's time

So this month's goal is for me to assist him at a wedding and practice with the camera more so we already have a second shooter lined up for next weekend's wedding but I will be able to go and be an assistant and kind of learn on the job without the pressure of him actually needing to use those photos right because let's be honest they're not going to be good but it gives me opportunity to learn how he does things on a wedding day and for him to kind of show me some things

And then we also wanted to be able to get some behind the scenes footage of him doing his job to be able to use for marketing purposes so me being there as just like a backup person an assistant gives me an opportunity to take that footage for him so we're both really excited about that and then next uh my personal goal for this month I have really been slacking on working out since school started back up you know during the summer you have all this free time

And I got used to that schedule and working out was easier to fit in and now that we're doing school I've just had a harder time figuring out when to do it but I do want to get more consistent with that I mean you just feel so much better when you're working out I know that it is a good healthy thing to do for the longevity of my life so that's a big goal of mine so my goal for this month is to go for a 20 to 30 minute walk four days a week

And do like 20 to 25 minutes of weight training three days a week so that is this month's goal you gotta keep me accountable to it I really want to get back on track with that and I've been hearing so many great things about walking specifically for women and how it helps to balance our hormones which we all need and I actually really was seeing the benefits of that this summer when I started walking several days a week and now that I've like slacked off of that I've seen the opposite effects

And so I really do want to get back into that more consistently and then my spiritual goal for this month is to do a Bible study with this new friend that I have so a friend of a friend has moved down to South Carolina so she's about 45 minutes from me but she moved with her husband who's in the military and her little kids and they don't know anyone here yet so her friend reached out to me knowing that I'm not too far from her hoping that we could connect

And get to know each other and so then she is still kind of far for me it's not super easy for us to get together in person very often but I wanted to do a Bible study with her through the Bible app if you haven't done this before it's actually really cool the Bible app has like study plans that you can search through and find one and you can invite a friend to do it with you and that way at the end of each day it has a comment section that's private

And you can leave comments for each other and you can discuss what you learned that day and read that day and so it's just really encouraging it's a great way to keep in touch with that person every day and be encouraging them so I really want to do that with her this month and hopefully bring her some encouragement and a note will bring me encouragement and it definitely keeps me accountable to being in the word every day that I know that someone is waiting for me to discuss that Bible study with them

So I think that that will be really great so I think that's all the updates that I have for you right now I really appreciate you hanging out with me today if you have stuck around to the very end I think you you get an award I've definitely got real chatty in this one I feel like this went on longer than I intended to but thanks a lot for hanging out if you have some goals for this month that you want to share in the comments below I'd love to read them we can help keep each other accountable I really hope that today's video was encouraging to you

And I hope that I will see you in the next one y'all have a great day and happy schooling thank you