The New Year

This post really is for me than for anyone else but this way hopefully I will feel more responsibility to do it.


My family had a tradition of setting New Year goals every year. The next year we would pull them out and see how we did.

I have always loved goal setting so here are a few this year that I will be working on.

1. Post on my blog at least once a week

2. Take a picture every day. (I stole this from my friend Lora and Malisa because they are such smart women) I love this idea because there have been times that I haven’t taken a picture in a month or more and I wonder, did I really do nothing that was important or fun enough that I wanted to document.

3. Get out of the house more / Plan more activities for my family.
Sacramento has been nice. The ward is very welcoming and the couples have been wonderful to include us. I, however, am still having a hard time adjusting to the new area. I have decided I need to try to get out a bit more.

4. Plan more activities for C
I usually like to be specific in my goals but with this one I am still trying to figure out the right amount for us. C really seems to like his home/free time but I know we need to be doing more than we are. So ideas I have are

a. Putting C into survival swimming (that is 2 times a week for 4-6 weeks)


b. Continue going to play group once a week


c. Plan a specific story/activity/craft time twice a week. This would include outings to places we have read about. I found this great site that plans out the whole year for you 5 days a week. It has themes for the week, an activity or craft every day, treats to go along with the theme and a scripture verse to focus on. I am hoping to get this going and use this plan for a few months until I am able to get some of my own planned.

5. cook dinner at least 3 times a week
I usually cook enough for 1 day of leftovers so that would allow us for 1 day a week to eat out. I am also hoping to get a freezer meal group going which will help with this goal.

6. Read Scriptures
I want to pre-read the Sunday school lessons, read the Book of Mormon beginning to end, and have couples reading at least twice a week.

7. Write in my Journal
Malisa also told me about this neat Journaling idea where you have a Journal with enough pages for one year, you then separate that page into three parts and you write in the journal for three years, something little everyday, this way as you write you will be able to see what you were doing on that same day a year or two later. I also want to do a journal entry one a week that is longer the church website has a neat tool that is a journal online but the real nice thing is that it will ask you specific questions that you can answer so you don’t get stuck with what to write. The website is www.LDSjournal.com

8. Read a Church/inspirational/help book for every three fun books I read.
The libraries here in Sacramento are awful. There are hardly any books in the library. Last time we went in there were 4 board books. More than half the children’s books section in empty. So I figured I would do a monthly order from Amazon as well as search the second hand stores for our collection of books. Any suggestions of books for C or I would be great.

9. Have a baby
Already 1/3 of the way there.

10. Decorate my house.
We lived in our last house for 3 years and I still didn’t have pictures up. I really want to decorate my home including babies and guest bedroom. Since we are just renting and the house doesn’t need any work I feel like now my time (and money) can be spent on more of the decorating but I really feel inadequate in decorating, I don’t feel like I have the eye for it so if you want to come visit me and help me decorate I would love you forever.

11. Take at least one community education class
There is an online Photoshop class that I really want to take. It is 2 times a week for 6 weeks and only costs 99$ not too bad.

So there they are, I know there are a lot but I feel like I am wandering these days which is a feeling I really really hate. I have always been very goal oriented so I know there are a lot of goals but I am hoping that these will help me get over this funk I am in.

I also realize these are all me goals and I really need to be doing some service. This is something that I feel weird about setting goal though as I want this to be more inspired than just something to check off my list. I am hoping that I will be given opportunities during the year through doing these goals.

I hope this New Year brings hope and joy to us all.