Yearly Goals Update- January

Here is the progress I have made on my yearly goals this month.

1) Spiritual Growth

• Daily Morning Study/Devotional Time (I’m hoping to read through the Bible in a year with this study)- **Ongoing, I kept up with this pretty well, though I could do better.**
• Dig into and attend a weekly Bible Study, and attend it with my husband (Joe and I used to be great about this until our small group quit meeting and we never found another group to attend.)-**Ongoing, but we have joined a Bible study and attended it weekly for the last month.**
• Pray about and seek at least one way to give to someone around us each month. We accomplished this is January and are praying about February.

2) Marriage

• Have a date night at least once a month. We went on two dates last month.
• At least 3x a week: read through our current bible study excerpt in addition to the fiction books: Left Behind. We’ve read through 3 books since November, and our goal is to read 7 Left Behind books this year. We just started the 4th book of the series.
• Go through the 52 weeks program/study: Mentor Us from RefineUs.org We are working our way through this, but we are a tad bit behind.

3) Mothering

• Develop a consistent morning routine which includes reading bible stories, playing together, eating breakfast, crafts, and getting dressed each morning. (When you have nowhere to go- it’s easy to stay in PJ’s all day!) **Still working on this!**
• 2 fun outings or play dates each month. We made a few visits to each set of Grandparents, a trip to Kansas City, and a trip to the park this month.
• Reduce T.V. watching time- my goal is no T.V. after lunch, but we may not stick with this all of the time. (Even though she’s barely 2, my daughter already loves T.V. and watches way too much of it. I’m looking to fill this time with crafts, books, and outings instead.) **Still working on this!**

4) Home

• Stick with my morning cleaning routine, as well as clean the kitchen before bed each night- tweak the routines as necessary to make them more efficient. **Still working on this**
• Do a freezer-cooking session each month since having meals on hand drastically reduces the messiness and time spent in my kitchen throughout the week. I did two mini-sessions this month.
• Continue to use coupons to cut our grocery bill each week, and stick to a $150 grocery budget each month.

5) Self

• Focus on one habit per month using this 21 day guide (that I love!) each month. Read my recap of January’s habit here.
• Walk 520 cumulative miles **Ongoing. I walked 35 miles in January.**
• Read 12 books- more to come on which books I’ve chosen later. **I read one book in January, and am considering which one I’d like to read in February.**

6) Blogging

• Blog at least three times a week, or 156 posts throughout the year. (I plan to do a larger variety of posts as well, including some series, more crafts and “meaty” posts!)
• Focus on improving at least one aspect of my blog each month. (These things will mostly go unnoticed by my readers, but make a big difference to me.) **This month, I focused on some layout items.**
• Publish an e-book. (Eeek. I almost hesitated to make this a goal. I already have most of my book written, but it’s the publishing process that is going to be daunting. I have a year to tackle it, wish me luck!) **Still working on this, but I made some significant headway in finishing up the writing process and learning more about publishing.**

7) Financial

• Save cash for and update our Desktop and Laptop computers. We found a great deal on an All in One desktop at Best Buy and jumped on it. It had all the specs we were looking for, and it came in $200 under budget! We’re still saving and looking for a good deal for our laptop. But the extra $200 cushion should be a nice boost in the process.
• Participate in a craft fair. **Still making some items for this. I’m guessing the actual craft fair will happen in fall.
• Complete at least one mystery shop a month. I completed a bowling mystery shop with my husband. I’m going to bump this up to at least two next month because we could use the extra income, I just need to make it more of a priority.

My habit I’ve decided to focus on for February is incorporating a weight lifting/resistance routine into my regular workout routine. This will be good since I still feel like my exercising needs a little more work before it becomes a habit.

Have you kept up with your yearly goals so far? I’d love to hear how you’re doing!

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