2017 Goals

What am I going to accomplish this year?!?! I love lists! I love making goals. I always have 5-7 lists going on in my phone, home lists, weekend to do lists, grocery, blog post ideas, summer plans, seasonal bucket lists, work lists, etc... Lists are my love language. Sometimes, I will even add things to my list just so I can cross it off. Yep, I am one of those people. So what are some things I (our family) want to tackle in 2017. Here are a couple of items that are top of mind.

1. Purge, specifically, clean out my bathroom and closet. - These places aren't super messy but I feel like I keep accumulating stuff and it ends up here. Like hotel soaps, trial size this and that, lotions and sprays I never use. So at some point I want to do a big purge of all of my bathroom stuff. And my closet, well, I just have way too many clothes. I keep saying when I lose weight I will wear these things. Well, my friends 2016 was not kind to my waistline (also a goal for 2017, lose weight, but not an official goal). I have so many clothes it is hard to make decisions on what to wear. Over the Christmas break I read "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". What I learned was basically, I have way too much stuff. I already knew this, but it was a good reminder to get rid of items that don't bring me joy. We constantly try to do this with kid toys. If we are always picking up then that means, we have too many items. So we spent time over Christmas purging and organizing the toys. So far the girls have been able to keep the playroom fairly clean. I want to continue purging items that we don't use, but my main focus is my bathroom and closet. The kitchen is also a prime target.

2. Family Home Evenings- In our Sunday School class this year we discussed other denominations and religions and what we can learn from each one. I strongly believe that each religion has something that they do really well and try to incorporate the good parts in my life. Through blogs and YouTube I have been exposed a lot to the Mormon religion. I feel like they knock "family focus" out of the park. So much time is spent focusing on having a strong family unit. One of the ways they implement this is Family Home Evening. That is one evening a night they stay in as a family, have a devotional, learn a new bible song, play a game and do something special together. It is focused on studying the Bible together and having quality time with no outside interruptions. Lots of families do this differently, but here is what I am envisioning for our family. We have tried to do Wednesday night church but it is still too late for my girls. We do early bedtimes at our house. So my plan is for Wednesday to be our Family Home Evening. On this night chores will be minimal, if any. We will have a nice dinner together, read a bible story with a small lesson and play a game together. I would also like to incorporate some sort of treat or dessert. We have done this three times now. So far what I have realized is I need to be very simple with the Bible lesson. I need it to be just a few minutes and a simple concept that we can continue to discuss throughout the week. So far we have talked about diligence, self control, and helping others. I have been able to incorporate these lessons throughout the week with both kiddos. We have played Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land and UNO. The kids have absolutely loved it so far. They want to have a lesson and play a game every night. The games are great because we are teaching how to take turns and being a good sport. Last week I tried making donuts as a treat. They were a flop, but at least I tried. We never have homemade desserts at the house. I usually only bake around Christmas. So even if it is cookies that I freeze a bunch of dough and only take out a few at a time, I want to incorporate a little treat. I am trying to make the night special and make memories they will look back on fondly. Just a way to bond as a family and re-center on how God wants us to live our lives.

3. Fix all of the unfinished projects throughout the house- We (well Tim) have spent the past three summers doing very big projects on our house (kitchen, play house and pool house). During our anniversary trip last year we decided no more big projects. The girls are old enough to really enjoy the pool and the summer break and it is not fun for them or Tim for him to be completely busy with a huge project. So instead of a huge project, we have several little projects that we want to get cleaned up. Most of these are finishing touches from the big projects or from the original remodel when we moved in.

4. Clean up my potty mouth- This one is a bit embarrassing, but if I am being honest something I need to work on. Throughout the years my mouth has gotten a bit potty. Not around the kids, mostly at work. So I am making a real effort to clean it up and just be more positive in general. I think this also helps a lot with my mood. I have tried to listen to a worship playlist at least once a day to just refocus my mood, thoughts and attitude. I think it helps keep me calmer during stress and just cleans everything, if that makes any sense.

5. Plan- This is something I want to do every year, but never seem to accomplish it. I want to try to plan our trips for the year and any activities we really want to do. We are a pretty go go go family, which I love. But I want to make sure we do the things we really want to do this year. For example, we have decided we want to try to go on a yearly anniversary trip. So gotta get that booked! I want to look at the school breaks and plan something or intentionally don't plan something. I guess I just want to make sure we are being intentional with our time that Tim or I are not working and we are making the most out of our time together with the kids. We also are going back to a date a month. More than that is just not going to work in this time of our life and less than that gets us all out of sorts. We have committed to taking turns to plan the dates, so that's nice.

That sounds like enough. Of course, I won't tackle all of these, but I like that every new year I can take the time to take inventory and see what needs some updating or adjusting in my life.