New Year Goals
Last year I did a post about our New Year's resolutions. It was fun to look back on so I'm doing it again. This year is a bit different with a new baby coming and all the unknowns with foster care. I debated making no goals at all besides "survive " ha but I decided there are some small things we can do right now to improve. So here they are.
Spending Fast: I got this idea from @brookejanette on Instagram. Basically you only pay for needs throughout the month and don't buy anything else. For us this means we pay our mortgage, all other bills and gas. Then we try to only spend $100 a week on all groceries/diapers household items we need. We only do 1 shopping trip a week and if we forget something we just have to make do until the next week. We did plan for Adele's birthday at the end of the month and budget out an exact amount we will spend on it.
So far it has been hard but good for us. We (I) went a little crazy spending in December so it's nice to get back on track. We are just doing it for January and it is timely since we are trying to save up for a bigger car soon. Also it has helped me see where we tend to waste money (solo target runs ;) ) and how if you have to wait to buy something you might realize you don't really need it after all. Anyways I have broken it twice, once when I really needed a taco salad (blame pregnancy) and once when I really needed to buy the next book on the series I'm reading. The second one I regret and I should have just waited for it to come in at the library ha. Anyways it's good for us and we will probably try to do it again later in the year.
Some of my other goals are to finish the 2016 photo book. I make my blog into a photo book every year. It takes sooooo much time but I love getting them and it serves as baby books and family journals and everything. I'm a little behind but I'm hoping to finish before May.
Last year we had a goal to go to the temple more often and I think we did really well with that. This year with a new baby I know it will be harder to get there so my spiritual goal this year is to read every scripture about Jesus Christ like President Neilsen talked about in This talk. I just started but so far I have loved it and learned a lot.
I also have been trying to be more active. My goal is to do a walk with the girls, or by myself 3-5 times a week. Hopefully more as it gets warmer. I've heard walking leads to and easier labor and delivery so I'm hoping that's true ha. And I think this is a goal I could keep up with after the baby is born too.
For the girls I have a small goal picked for each of them too. For Adele I hope to help her love being outside. Usually she just wants to cling on to me unless it is perfect weather, even then it's hit or miss. As she gets older this year I'm going to try to teach her how fun being outside can be.
For Esther I am hoping to help her learn more letters and how to write her name. She has done really well since we started preschool at home in September. She is finally showing interest in letters so this shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.
If I asked Leland what his goals were he would probably say to lose weight. At least the spending fast it helping us with that since we aren't allowed to eat out. :)
I think 2018 will be a great year!
Spending Fast: I got this idea from @brookejanette on Instagram. Basically you only pay for needs throughout the month and don't buy anything else. For us this means we pay our mortgage, all other bills and gas. Then we try to only spend $100 a week on all groceries/diapers household items we need. We only do 1 shopping trip a week and if we forget something we just have to make do until the next week. We did plan for Adele's birthday at the end of the month and budget out an exact amount we will spend on it.
So far it has been hard but good for us. We (I) went a little crazy spending in December so it's nice to get back on track. We are just doing it for January and it is timely since we are trying to save up for a bigger car soon. Also it has helped me see where we tend to waste money (solo target runs ;) ) and how if you have to wait to buy something you might realize you don't really need it after all. Anyways I have broken it twice, once when I really needed a taco salad (blame pregnancy) and once when I really needed to buy the next book on the series I'm reading. The second one I regret and I should have just waited for it to come in at the library ha. Anyways it's good for us and we will probably try to do it again later in the year.
Some of my other goals are to finish the 2016 photo book. I make my blog into a photo book every year. It takes sooooo much time but I love getting them and it serves as baby books and family journals and everything. I'm a little behind but I'm hoping to finish before May.
Last year we had a goal to go to the temple more often and I think we did really well with that. This year with a new baby I know it will be harder to get there so my spiritual goal this year is to read every scripture about Jesus Christ like President Neilsen talked about in This talk. I just started but so far I have loved it and learned a lot.
I also have been trying to be more active. My goal is to do a walk with the girls, or by myself 3-5 times a week. Hopefully more as it gets warmer. I've heard walking leads to and easier labor and delivery so I'm hoping that's true ha. And I think this is a goal I could keep up with after the baby is born too.
For the girls I have a small goal picked for each of them too. For Adele I hope to help her love being outside. Usually she just wants to cling on to me unless it is perfect weather, even then it's hit or miss. As she gets older this year I'm going to try to teach her how fun being outside can be.
For Esther I am hoping to help her learn more letters and how to write her name. She has done really well since we started preschool at home in September. She is finally showing interest in letters so this shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.
If I asked Leland what his goals were he would probably say to lose weight. At least the spending fast it helping us with that since we aren't allowed to eat out. :)
I think 2018 will be a great year!
Do you use a website to help you transfer your blog to a book? I'd love to hear more about how that works for you as I am tempted to try it myself. :) You have awesome goals!
ReplyDeleteI am using Blurb for the first time this time and they do have a feature where you put in the url for each post and it will transfer the text and pictures separately to the book. It still takes a while to line up the pictures and text to make it right though. But it's much better than shutterfly which is what I used before and I had to copy and paste everything myself. There are a few sites that are blog to book but it seems like the picture quality is much lower so I've never tried them. I'm still looking for a great way to do it, but blurb is the best so far. It typically takes me 1 hour to put in 3 or 4 posts so it still takes forever but not quite as long ha.
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