2016 Goals

Even though it is now closer to February 1 than January 1 I wanted to make sure that I spent some time considering my goals for the year.  Though I often fall short of the goals I set for myself, I've found that it has been incredibly helpful for me to really examine where I've been and where I want to be. Many goals are the same as in the past years; some because I didn’t complete them and others because they ought to continually be on the list.

Spiritual Goals:

• Daily Bible Reading

• Focused/Planned Bible Study

• Focused Bible lessons for the kids. I have an idea to do some form of journaling with them, but we'll see how that works out.

• Start using the Scripture Memory System with the kids (and me!) again. This system has been a great tool to learning Scripture, but I've really fallen short with it recently. 

• Develop a deeper and more specific prayer life.

• Make an effort to be aware of others’ needs, as well as how to help those in need. Overcome my fears of reaching out to speak to people (the introvert in me really struggles with this . . .).

• Make an effort to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ.

• Always be ready and eager to share the gospel.

• Maintain and exhibit an attitude of joy that should be evident in my life because I am hidden with Christ (Col. 3:1-4).

House Goals:

• Clean out the garage . . . completely . . . in anticipation of possibly converting our garage to a master bedroom. We've already gotten a good start on this, but there is still a lot to do, including many more trips to Goodwill!
• Get the house organized, and purged of excess junk. This past year I read the book The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, and it really opened my eyes. I started working through some of the methods in the book before we left for Paraguay, but didn't finish before we left. And once we returned from Paraguay things just seemed so crazy I never finished. I look forward to completing the process.

• If/When we complete renovations on the house, clean out and organize thoroughly when we rearrange rooms.

• Teach (and enforce) good habits to the kids for keeping their areas picked up. The kids have really been doing well with this lately, and Luke has even been helping out a lot more as well.

• Keep up with Flylady’s daily assignments to help keep the house in a manageable state. 

• Handle papers (mail, or otherwise) when they come into the home, rather than just piling them up to handle later.

• Get one “house” project done each month (paint the front door, repair the floor, etc.)

• This isn’t technically a “house” goal, but it fits here best: Keep our cars clear of junk and trash.

Health Goals:

• Get back into a healthy eating routine. Prior to getting pregnant last year, I felt like I had finally figured out this healthy living thing (I'd lost weight, and even though I still needed to lose more, was really feeling great!). But between pregnancy and living in a foreign country for three months last year, my eating habits have somewhat fallen away. Time to get back on the wagon!
• Exercise at least three times a week. Make it a point to walk more (for instance, like to pick up Ella from school).

• Gain strength and endurance.

Family goals:

• Eat at home more often, and actually plan meals for the week (it is easier to eat at home when you've planned!).

• Cook dinner with the kids 1-2 times a month. I really want to involve them more in cooking, but I get stuck in this bad habit of not involving them because it is quicker/easier for me to do things myself (and dinner time always seems to be hectic around our house).

• Try out a new meal at least once a month.

• Cook a hot breakfast for the family at least once a week.

• Stick to our budget, and look for ways to save more.
• Evaluate/consider schooling for Ella and Troy next year. Ella was homeschooled for kindergarten, but has gone to public school this year for first grade. We've liked things about both situations and opportunities, but this isn't the post for that!
• Get outside more with the kids.
• Get down on the floor and play with the kids more.

Parenting goals:

• Emphasize the concepts of respect and authority with Ella, Troy, and Luke.

• Encourage Ella, Troy, and Luke to have the heart of a servant.

• Encourage Ella, Troy, and Luke to be thankful.
• Teach Ella and Troy to be aware of others around them, emphasizing humble hearts and teaching them that it isn't all about them.
• Encourage Ella and Troy to follow Matthew 7:12.

• Foster a good relationship between the kids (teaching them about sharing, patience, kindness, etc.).

• Give Ella and Troy more responsibilities around the house (chores, etc.)

Photography goals:

• Take more pictures! Pregnancy (particularly dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum, severe morning sickness, for my entire pregnancy) really does a number in my life, and photography is no exception. I often don't feel like doing much of anything, and picking up my camera was certainly not a priority when I didn't feel well.
• Learn Adobe Camera Raw (I've always used Adobe Lightroom, but have been recently reading that Adobe Camera Raw might actually be the way to go).
• Learn more about off-camera flash.

• Learn more about Adobe Photoshop.

• Learn more about graphic design.

Other goals:

• Become fluent in Spanish. I really, really thought that after spending the summer in Paraguay, a Spanish-speaking country, that I'd be much further along in this journey. But I'm not (since our time down there, we've heard many people tell us that it takes most people a year in an immersion environment to become fluent). I did learn quite a bit when I was in Paraguay (and through Rosetta Stone leading up to our trip), but I have a long way to go.
• Focus on having a optimistic response. I don't consider myself a pessimistic person (I don't have a negative outlook on life), but I do have a tendency for my first reaction to things to be very skeptical.
• Exhibit patience towards all, but especially with the kids at the end of the day :) .

• Work on time management, including getting up at a more consistent time in the morning, and going to bed earlier in the evening. This goal probably isn't going to really be feasible until Annie is sleeping at a little more predictable/regular schedule though.

• Finish reading Bringing Up Girls and Bringing Up Boys.

• Re-read Your Mama Don’t Dance.

• Continue reading A Well-Trained Mind.

• Read Home Education.

• Blog more! I've missed writing, and although no one may read it, I really enjoy it.

2015 Goals

For the past few years, I’ve made a point to write out specific goals at the start of the year. Although I often fall short of these goals, I find that it is very helpful to me personally to write these goals out. In particular, it helps me to be aware of ares in my life that I know I need improvement. Many goals are the same as in the past years; some because I didn’t complete them and others because they ought to continually be on the list.

Spiritual Goals:

• Daily Bible Reading
• Focused/Planned Bible Study
• Focused Bible lessons for the kids. We've been doing a lot of review over their Bible class material during our devotional time, but I want to incorporate more specific Bible lessons. (It would actually be good for me to write out some specific goals of what I'd like the kids to learn over the year. . .)
• Continue using the Scripture Memory System with the kids (and me!). We've been diligently working with this system since I started homeschooling Ella in September, and it has been a great blessing for us.
• Develop a deeper and more specific prayer life.
• Make an effort to be aware of others’ needs, as well as how to help those in need.
• Make an effort to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Always be ready and eager to share the gospel.
• Maintain and exhibit an attitude of joy that should be evident in my life because I am hidden with Christ (Col. 3:1-4).

House Goals:

• Get the house organized, and purged of excess junk at the beginning of the year. This feels like a never-ending goal, but it is good to get a big purge done at the beginning of the year, especially after filling the house back up with Christmas presents. : )
• Clean out, organize, and get the kids' rooms set up. We are in the process of moving Ella and Troy into one room (Luke and Troy had been sharing a room, but with sleeping schedules (especially that of a toddler), we've decided it will be better for Ella and Troy to share a room now)).
• Teach (and enforce) good habits to the kids for keeping their areas picked up. This was a goal that I had last year, and the kids definitely follow my lead on this (which means I need to LEAD). If I do a good job reminding them (as well as enforcing), they do a pretty good job at keeping things picked up, but it is easy to let things go.
• Keep up with Flylady’s daily assignments to help keep the house in a manageable state. 
• Handle papers (mail, or otherwise) when they come into the home, rather than just piling them up to handle later.
• Get one “house” project done each month (paint the front door, repair the floor, etc.)
• This isn’t technically a “house” goal, but it fits here best: Keep our cars clear of junk and trash.

Health Goals:

• Get back into a regular cardio routine even if it just means pushing the stroller around the block.
• Gain strength and endurance.
• Continue healthy eating. It took almost all of 2014 for me to get into a healthy eating habit, but I did pretty good for the last two months of 2014 (I actually weigh less now than I did at the beginning of November, which is a big deal to me when you consider all the eating that normally takes place in November and December!).

Family goals:

• Eat at home more often.
• Cook dinner with the kids 1-2 times a month. I really want to involve them more in cooking, but I get stuck in this bad habit of not involving them because it is quicker/easier for me to do things myself (and dinner time always seems to be hectic around our house).
• Try out a new meal at least once a month.
• Cook a hot breakfast for the family at least once a week.
• Stick to our budget, and look for ways to save more.
• Emphasize the concept of respect with Ella and Troy.
• Encourage Ella and Troy to have the heart of a servant.
• Encourage Ella and Troy to be thankful.
• Foster a good relationship between the kids (teaching them about sharing, patience, kindness, etc.)
• Give Ella and Troy more responsibilities around the house (chores, etc.) 
• Get outside more with the kids.
• Get down on the floor and play with the kids more.

Photography goals:

• Learn more about off-camera flash.
• Learn more about Adobe Photoshop.
• Learn more about graphic design.

Other goals:

• Become fluent in Spanish.
• Exhibit more patience towards everyone, but especially my husband and children.
• Work on time management, including getting up at a more consistent time in the morning, and going to bed earlier in the evening.
• Finish reading Bringing Up Girls and Bringing Up Boys.
• Re-read Your Mama Don’t Dance.
• Continue reading A Well-Trained Mind.
• Read Home Education.
• Continue working on Ella's homeschool (figuring out what to do next, considering what things have worked/not worked, etc.)

2014 Goals

For the past couple of years, I’ve made a point to write out specific goals at the start of the year. Though I fell short in many of my goals last year (for lots of reasons, some legitimate, some not so much), I find that writing these goals out really helps me to focus and reflect. Many goals are the same as in the past years; some because I didn’t complete them and others because they ought to continually be on the list.

Spiritual Goals:

• Daily Bible Reading
• Focused/Planned Bible Study
• Write Bible study lessons (and execute them) for the kids.
• Continue using the Scripture Memory System with the kids (and me!). We started this system last year, and I really loved it! However, I started slacking off though in completing this with the kids, and I want to get back on track with it. 
• Develop a deeper and more specific prayer life.
• Make an effort to be aware of others’ needs.
• Make an effort to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Always be ready and eager to share the gospel.

House Goals:

• Get the house organized, and purged of excess junk at the beginning of the year.  I feel like this is a never-ending project. I cleaned things out fairly well before having Luke, but I still need to clean out more!
• Clear out and organize the kids' rooms and playroom. 
• Teach (and enforce) good habits to the kids for keeping their areas picked up. This will be particularly important once Luke becomes mobile.
• Have a garage sale.
• Keep up with Flylady’s daily assignments to help keep the house in a manageable state.
• Handle papers (mail, or otherwise) when they come into the home, rather than just piling them up to handle later.
• Get one “house” project done each month (paint the front door, repair the floor, etc.)
• This isn’t technically a “house” goal, but it fits here best: Keep our cars clear of junk and trash.

Health Goals:

• Get back into a regular cardio routine even if it just means pushing the stroller around the block.
• Gain strength and endurance.
• Refocus on healthy eating. Between severe extended morning sickness and gestational diabetes, pregnancy always does a number on my eating habits, and last year’s pregnancy with Luke was no exception.

Family goals:

• Eat at home more often.
• Cook dinner with the kids 1-2 times a month. I really want to involve them more in cooking, but I get stuck in this bad habit of not involving them because it is quicker/easier for me to do things myself (and dinner time always seems to be hectic around our house).
• Try out a new meal at least once a month.
• Cook a hot breakfast for the family at least once a week.
• Stick to our budget, and look for ways to save more.
• Emphasize the concept of respect with Ella and Troy.
• Foster a good relationship between the kids (teaching them about sharing, patience, kindness, etc.)
• Give Ella and Troy more responsibilities around the house (chores, etc.) 
• Get outside more with the kids.
• Get down on the floor and play with the kids more.

Photography:

• Learn more about off-camera flash.
• Learn more about Adobe Photoshop.
• Work on posing. I’ve come a long way in my posing over the past couple of years, but I feel like it will be something where I can always learn more. 
• Learn more about graphic design.

Other:

• Exhibit more patience towards everyone, but especially my husband and children.
• Work on time management, including getting up at a more consistent time in the morning, and going to bed earlier in the evening.
• Spend less time on the computer.
• Finish reading Bringing Up Girls and Bringing Up Boys.
• Re-read Your Mama Don’t Dance.
• Read A Well-Trained Mind and Home Education.
• Continue researching schooling choices for Ella, and make a decision with my husband about Ella’s schooling in the fall.

Ella’s Room

Over the summer I officially moved the kids into separate rooms and gave Ella’s new room a makeover. There are still a couple of finishing touches I’d like to do on it, but here it is!

 

 

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for my little boy who is turning into a toddler before my eyes.

 

 

I’m thankful that my husband has endured all the really bad meals I’ve cooked during our marriage. I’m also thankful that there are a lot less bad meals these days . . . I’ve learned a bit over the years!

 

 

And, I’m thankful for our house, and for all the hard work we put into making the house our own.

(kitchen before – excuse the facebook quality photos)

(kitchen after – well, close to after)

Trying to Do Better Everyday

I guess now isn’t the appropriate time to write a New Year’s Resolution post, considering we’re a week into February, but I guess the thoughts behind this post really are a resolution of sorts.

For a long time, I’ve made major goals that require serious lifestyle changes all at once. I’ve finally recognized that I don’t ever achieve those goals because they require too much change at one time.  I’ve come to realize that I need to take little baby steps everyday in progression to an ultimate goal. I’m thankful to the Flylady and her methods for pointing this out to me within the realm of taking care of my home. I still have a long way to go when it comes to taking care of my home, but I have come such a long way – by taking baby steps rather than a giant leap. Sure, I could spend a weekend crash cleaning my home, but without putting good habits into place, I’ll need to do that cleaning again because it will just go back to the way it was before.

There are lots of areas I want to improve upon in my life and one of the main purposes behind starting this blog was to keep myself accountable and to push myself in those areas. Along the way I’ve learned that my focus should be to do a little better than the day before, and I’ll be making good progress whether that be in keeping my house in order or eating healthier or going to bed earlier or doing a better job budgeting or having more patience with my kids or having a stronger prayer life. By doing a little better everyday, I’ll be hopefully changing my life in such a way as to embed good new habits that lead to the major lifestyle changes I really want to make.

---
On a completely unrelated note, my photo of Ella that won first place in the Paper Mama’s Photo Challenge is in a vote-off for the best photo of the month. I’d love a vote if you like my photo! :)

I've Got a New Good Habit

And I didn't even realize I had this new habit until I broke it.

I've mentioned several times that one thing I want to improve on in my life is how I take care of my house. I'm not striving for perfection in my house. I know that, at least for me, with my schedule, my personality, and my life with a toddler, newborn, and two dogs (not to mention me and my husband) a perfectly clean house just isn't going to happen. But, I do want a cleaner, more organized house than I currently have.

To help me in this journey, I've employed a lot of techniques I've found through the Flylady's website. The first step in her method is to shine your sink. I shined my sink, and it was a great step in the right direction for me. Since that time, I've been constantly encouraged by her daily emails to keep at it, and this weekend I finally realized something.

I consistently keep my dishes washed and my sink clear and clean now.

This is such a huge thing for me. I'm the queen of procrastinating as well as the queen of waiting till everything piles up so I can clean everything at once. And, at least in one area of my life, I broke my bad habit in both areas. I don't procrastinate on getting my dishes done anymore. I don't wait until I don't have any clean dishes in the house to wash my dishes. I do them when they need to be done. I now have countertops clear of dirty dishes (I'm still working on getting rid of other piles of junk on the countertops, but at least there aren't dirty dishes piled up on them!). My sink is clear and clean, and if, for instance, we have to give Troy an emergency bath because his diaper overflowed, I don't have to worry about washing the dishes before I can give him a bath, and that is a great feeling!

This weekend was the first time I realized how much of a habit keeping the dishes washed and the sink clean had become for  me . . . because my dishes weren't washed and the sink wasn't clean. In fact, when I caught up on my dishes this weekend, it took my three loads to get everything washed. That used to be a regular occurrence in our house, but until this weekend, I couldn't tell you the last time I had to wash more than one load of dishes at once. It feels so good to realize my good habit!

Now onto my next good habit . . . laundry. As the Flylady says, "A load a day keeps the CHOAS (can't have anyone over syndrome) away!"

Anti-Procrastination Week

I'm still very much a work in progress, but I've been trying hard (well, harder some weeks than others) to follow Flylady's method for keeping my house out of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). I need a method like Flylady's to keep me on top of my game when it comes to keeping up with things around the house (and, no, I'm not aiming for a perfectly clean house all the time. I know that isn't realistic for our lifestyle, but I would like my house to be better kept than it is most of the time, and I know I can do that!). Flylady's method constantly encourages me (mostly through email reminders) to get up and get things done. Her method also reminds me that I can get things done even if I only have a little bit of time (a big part of her method involves spending only 15 minutes on a task).

I say all this to mention that this week is "Anti-Procrastination Week" on Flylady's website, and it is certainly a kick I need - I'm the queen of procrastinating! Procrastinating is one of the BIG reasons that things around my house aren't in the order I'd like them. I've been guilty on more than one occasion to simply "let things go" so that I can have a marathon cleaning session rather than taking the few minutes every day to keep things in order. Things would be so much less stressful if I'd spend a few minutes every day rather than letting things get backed up. One email encouragement from the Flylady this week issued this challenge: If a task is going to take 5 minutes or less to complete, do it right then! Don't put it off! Such a simple concept, but I'm guilty of putting off 5 minute tasks all the time. When you put off all your 5 minute tasks, 5 minutes turns into 30 minutes or an hour or 3 hours. I have been trying to make a conscious effort to do my 5 minute tasks the moment I realize they need to be done, rather than putting them off. I think it is a good start to getting rid of my procrastination habit!

Flylady's anti-procrastination week hasn't been just about keeping the house together, but also getting other things done that you might have been putting off, like running errands, making doctor's appointments, writing thank you notes, and even pampering yourself. She's been sending out "pampering missions" all week - one of which is to paint a fresh coat of polish on your toes. I'm SO bad at putting off painting my toenails. It is even worse now because painting your toenails when you are 8 months pregnant is an especially daunting task. But, I will paint them today! :)

Getting Back in the Groove of Things

A little over two weeks ago, I vented about my frustrations with not being able to keep my house in the condition that I wanted. At that time, I also mentioned Flylady . . . and her methods have really changed my way of thinking! When I started with shining my sink, I instantly felt better - like I was starting something that was really going to change how I kept up with my house, as well as my attitude about cleaning in general. The next week I spent time clearing out some hot spots, and doing general cleaning around the house. Then we got really busy, and by really busy, I mean really, really busy! We were so busy that I felt like I barely had time to breathe after I took care of Ella, worked, ate, and went to the workshop. I complained to my husband that while I was so thankful for why we were so busy that week, that I felt like I had lost my groove and my energy that I had been so excited about the week before.

Ah, but now I have no more excuses. That busy week is past, and it is time to get back into the swing of things. It is time to get that great energy back and get busy with Flylady's suggestions. While I have yet to read anything specific about laundry on Flylady's site (although I'm sure it is there, I just haven't gotten to it yet), I did spend the day doing LOADS of laundry. It sure did feel good to get through that laundry - it is amazing how much laundry can pile up in a week. And even though I still have quite the pile of laundry, I did make a BIG dent in it today!

So, speaking of Flylady's suggestions, I'm going to attempt to do one tomorrow that I have resisted for a long time (the idea in general anyway): getting dressed to the shoes. The idea is to get up and get ready (all the way to the shoes) before you do anything else. I have been known (cough . . .cough) to hang out in my pjs all day. After all, I'm working from home, so no one sees me right? Well, first off, my husband sees me, and I'm sure he'd appreciate it if I wasn't always just lounging around. Secondly, I think it is really a general attitude change I need to make. With all that said, I know for a fact I won't have my shoes on tomorrow during the day. BUT I do plan to be ready otherwise! :)

Is my sink still shiny?

Why, as a matter of fact, it is!  (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this post.) I will freely admit that my mother-in-law was in over the weekend (she wanted to see Ella walking!), and she helped out around the house (which was wonderful, especially consider how awful I felt from my morning sickness this weekend), but I have also kept up on my own for a few days. ALL the dishes are done in my house and I'm not usually great at keeping the dishes done, but it sure does feel good.

On top of my shiny sink, I've taken Flylady's advice and tackled some hot spots (areas where stuff gathers and becomes an endless mess) around my house, starting in the living room/kitchen area. We have WAY too many hot spots in our house, and I have needed to get these areas under control for a long time. In the past couple of days I've gotten rid of three major hot spots in our main living area. And, following Flylady's advice, it actually wasn't hard or too time-consuming to get the areas under control (and these were areas I was absolutely dreading cleaning). Here are pictures of the "after" of two of the hot spots. I should have taken "before" pictures, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time. If you've been to my house before, you might not even recognize the first one of the cabinet in my dining room. The main shelf and the very top were overtaken with clutter, but not anymore!

The ugly flash in those pictures leads me to a final thought . . . if you aren't using swagbucks yet you should be! 

Over a few months my husband and I have gathered enough swagbucks to redeem for a decent amount of Amazon giftcards. In fact, those Amazon giftcards helped in the purchase of my newest piece of photography equipment - a speedlite. I cannot wait for it to arrive!

A Company-Ready House

One of the things that stresses me out the most is the fact that I cannot keep my house in a state that I would deem as "company-ready." I'm not proud of this fact and it truly drives me crazy. There are many reasons for this issue.
I haven't properly unpacked/organized from when we moved in. I think the major reason for the lack of properly organizing/unpacking is that we did a ton of work on our house when we moved in and we were constantly shifting stuff from room to room depending on where we were working. Once we finished (well, we still aren't finished) I just never took the time I needed to take to put things away properly. Sad, I know.
Since things aren't organized properly, it really makes putting things away properly almost impossible because a lot of things don't have a real place to live.
Finally, I never feel like I have the time I need to truly clean/pick up like I should, and it just makes me frustrated . . . kind of like how I feel when I'm on a diet and I don't eat right one meal - it is hard to get into a good habit!

But, I'm determined to make a change for the good. I'm determined to have an organized house, and a house that is always (well, at least 90% of the time!) in company-ready condition. I've come across a few websites that have some great suggestions. The first one, I'm an Organizing Junkie, has some great organizational tips. The second one, Flylady, gives a method to do a little each day to keep things in order and clean.

The first day's activity on Flylady is to shine your sink. So I did. I only missed one step (due to the fact I just ran out of Comet), but my sink really does look nice now!

The sink before. I had to wash some dishes to get to the sink!

The sink after washing the dishes (at least the ones in the sink that would fit in the dishwasher!), but before the cleaning treatment.

The sink after the cleaning process! Now, to keep it shiny everyday!