2015 Goals

I think the thing I want to focus on this year is that goals are not stagnant. Writing them down does not really set them in stone. Life happens and things change. At the beginning of 2014 I had no idea I would get pregnant in January and have little to no energy or time for doing most of the things on my "101 Things to do in 2014" list. You will notice this list is still up even though I have added a page for my 2015 goals as well. That is because I want to incorporate some of the 2014 goals into the 2015 goals. The goals I have written for 2015 are just the beginning. I want to work to cross some off by mid year and then add more. And I am sure as the months pass I will change the goals to fit what I end up really having time to do. There is so much I want to accomplish this year. I want to be a better person, a better wife, a better mother, a better budgeter, better with my time, better at digging into God's word, better at getting and staying organized and I could probably go on for a while. I know that there is no way I will accomplish all this if I dive right in and try to start doing everything at once which I think was the flaw with 101 things to do list. You just see all this stuff and don't really know where to start and get overwhelmed and think I will never get most of this done anyway so why try? At least that was how it made me feel. My life kind of revolves around lists now though. What I need to do each night to prepare for work and prepare Logan for daycare, what I need to do each morning to get out the door on time, what we need at the store, and errand after errand after errand because for some reason when you become a mom, the to do list never ends.

There is a reason behind each of my goals and I am going to give you a little insight into each area I want to work on but I know these will change as the year goes on. And that is ok by me. I just want to bring more harmony to our family and our house and not feel like time is just slipping away. Which is kind of how 2014 felt. 

So here they are...
Health- I want to take baby steps to better health. It was always my goal to be in better health before we had kids but that didn't happen so much. Now that we actually have a little one, I want to be in better shape for him so that I can chase him and enjoy his growing up even more.

• Exercise once a week by July
• Try healthy recipe once a month
• Drink half my body weight in water

Work-Things at work are interesting for lack of a better word and this job isn't something I want to do forever so I want to take steps to find something that feels more long term.

• Update resume
• Put feelers out for new job

Spirit-Matt and I have been struggling with this area of our lives a lot lately. Mostly for lack of trying if I am completely honest. We let all the other areas of our lives drain us so that we don't have time for God and that isn't how it should be. We have struggled with finding a church home and finding time for God's word on our own. These goals may seem small but they would be huge accomplishments and bring me infinitely closer to God.

• Read one devotional
• Start going to church again

Marriage-Our marriage really took a blow when Logan was born. We struggled to connect because of time and emotional issues that both of us were dealing with. Even before Logan was born we were having some trouble and having a hard time just feeling like us. It continues to be a struggle but we are both working at it.

• Go on a date once a month
• Read 2 marriage books
• Get away for a weekend
• Start having financial meetings

Parenting-This whole being a mom thing is still really new to me and I want to be better at it. I had a hard time connecting with Logan in the beginning because as I would come to find out I was wading through postpartum depression (which I hope to elaborate on in a post at some point). It is still a struggle for me and I want to be better at spending quality time with him with no distractions. 

• Read to Logan 3 times a week
• Read 3 parenting books
• Spend 30 minutes everyday with Logan, no distractions
• Transition Logan to his crib

Talent-I really want to take time this year to learn new things and go back to what I used to love to do. I used to love editing pictures and playing with graphic editing programs I want to try to hone those skills maybe into something profitable. I am also making a concentrated effort to make a little extra money each month. I will be sharing how much side income I bring in each month.

• Explore side income opportunities
• Look into taking classes
• Get back into working with graphics

Friends-In all reality I feel I should have more goals in this area. Maintaining friendships becomes infinitely harder when kids enter in the picture. And it was hard even before that because of all the various schedules of my friends. But I feel like this goal is a good start.

• Make an effort to get together with a friend once a week

Financial-Once again I have some pretty lofty financial goals. I think these are pretty self explanatory. We did start using YNAB (You Need a Budget) in December and it has kind of been a game changer so I may delve into this more in the coming months as well.

• Pay off Meijer Credit Card
• Build emergency savings to certain amount
• Start saving for a down payment on a house
• Buy extra life insurance and start the process of creating a will
• Save money each month for Christmas
• Create more short term, targeted savings goals
• Attempt to lower regular, monthly bills

Misc-These are goals that didn't perfectly fit in any of the other categories that were on the 2015 resolutions printable I found. I want to get our house more in order so I am also using another printable for monthly organizing goals and posting that on the fridge.

• Write at least once a week (52 times between blog and regular journal)
• Read a total of 24 books
• Organize and purge an area of our home every month
• Establish daily, weekly and monthly routines

I am also using a monthly printable I found to write out my bite size goals towards the larger goals each month. So here are my bite size goals for January and my progress so far:

• Read one parenting book (currently trying to finish one I started in October)
• Find a healthy recipe to try
• Buy new exercise DVD
• Start devotional again that I started last year
• Go on a date with Matt
• Look into booking a room for Valentines Day
• Make some sort of side income (already accomplished this one :-))
• Accomplish monthly organizing goals
• Make extra deposit into emergency savings.

I realize that it is now the middle of January as I post this but I will try to do an update on how things are going at the beginning of February. I also hope to get up a 3 month update for our little guy :-). To sum it up, he is growing up too fast!